WikidLabs

Anatomy of a Syntax Highlighting Engine – Part 1


by DL July 10th, 2009

This is the first of a series of posts where I’m going to discuss some of the, um… fun that we’ve had while writing Wikid Editor, the text editor that we built for our flagship product Haven (which is still being developed). In this post I’m going to focus solely on the choice in technology.

Here are a few high level requirements for Wikid Editor.

  1. It had to run inside the browser and it needed to work in all browsers or at least the main ones, Firefox, IE, Safari and Chrome.
  2. It needed to be able to color text any way we wanted.
  3. It should be able to color the background of rows.
  4. It needed to be able to communicate with our servers without reloading the page and preferably be able to receive pushed data from our servers.
  5. It needed to perform well.

Continued…

Technofunk Mind Maps


by DL July 10th, 2009

Greg and I had talked a little about building a Flex app that would help you to visualize your mind map and get it out of your head faster than drawing it on say a white board. So naturally I went looking for one that already existed. I found several but one stood out as the most horrible 1 minute of my life. Beware that as soon as the video starts you’re gonna get irritated.

I hate telling folks that there software must suck but I’d guess, based on the blatant overuse of techno music, fast movements and quick dramatic sales speech, that the http://www.imindmap.com/ software needs a lot of selling to get anyone to try it. If you need all that hype you probably spent too much money on the development of the software and it probably sucks from over-engineering.

Remember simple, fast, easy, no frills software is the stuff that gets people excited. Needless to say I’m not even going to try iMindMap, it reminds me too much of an Office application. It does so much that you can’t do anything useful with it.

Why Startups Fail


by DL June 8th, 2009

Joel Splosky quoting Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator in How Hard Could It Be?: Start-up Static when talking about why startups fail.

“That would be boring,” she told me. “They all fail for the same reason: People just stop working on their business.” Um, yeah, well, sure, and most people die because their heart stops beating. But somehow dying in different ways is still interesting enough to support 40 hours a week of prime-time programming.

I couldn’t agree with this statement more. I believe that most startups don’t realize that they’ve “made it” untill they’ve been making it for a while and it’s obvious to everyone except the person hard at work worried sick that tomorrow he’ll run out of money and have to fire someone. If success happens that slowly why would anyone think that failure happens any faster?

What’s Your Point?


by DL June 8th, 2009

When I was younger my dad was constantly interrupting, although I’m sure that he’d say he was interjecting into, our conversations and asking me “What’s your point?” I have to admit that at the time it didn’t sit well with me since it was usually asked just as I was intently describing something that I thought was as relevant to the topic as toilet paper is to a bathroom. I wouldn’t recognize the lesson that was taught by this seemingly innocuous question until years later, last year to be specific.

The lesson was to not spend time or energy on those things, even if they are words, that did not have a valid point to the topic at hand. All too often we spend time on tasks that do nothing to get us where we are trying to go, or to the point of our actions. We get distracted and spend time focusing on the wrong things. This usually happens because the point is not well defined, not good enough or it’s just flat out wrong.

The right point will not only keep you focused, it will drive you. It’ll get you up early and keep you up late. It won’t leave you alone and best of all, it will be simple.

You’ll find that the clarity of a good point brings a sense of purpose to your actions. A sense of purpose brings drive and determination both of which bear success. Do you want to be successful in your endeavors? Have a good, clean and simple point.

What’s your point? Is it the right one for you, your company or you client?

Jason Fried Rocks it 37Signals Style


by DL June 8th, 2009

In this interview that Tim O’Brien did with Jason Fried of 37Signals, Jason discusses his take on various aspects of the business that he and David have built. I would attempt to outline my favorite parts of the interview but I quickly discovered that they’re all my favorite. At only 36 minutes in length this interview is a must watch for all entrepreneurs.