About Programming: Ruby ObjectSpace, OpenJDK, Verbal Expressions

From Scott Orgera, your About Programming Editor

This week's newsletter dispels the myth that element and tag are interchangeable terms in HTML, describes how to exploit the garbage collector in Ruby, explains how to host your databases in the cloud at no cost, and much more...

Ruby: Exploiting the Garbage Collector

ObjectSpace is a way to access all of the objects currently alive in a Ruby program. Now this sounds a bit odd, but seeing how Ruby is so dynamic and actually tracks where all the objects are in memory, this is possible and occasionally useful. This would be completely impossible in a language like C++, where memory is meaningless without the context of the code meant to interpret it, but with Ruby, quite possible.

Search Related Topics: objectspace advanced ruby domain specific language

CSS Positioning: Precision Placement of HTML Elements

While straight HTML will allow you some control of the position of elements through tables and using the non-breaking space, you can't position things very precisely. With Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) you can place an item on a page at exact x and y coordinates. The two attributes you will use the most with the position tag are relative and absolute.

Search Related Topics: css layout css positioning

Running a Free SQL Server Database in the Cloud

Looking for a free or very low-cost way to host your SQL Server databases in the cloud? If Microsoft's SQL Azure service is too expensive for your needs, you may wish to consider hosting your database in Amazon Web Services. This platform leverages the massive technology infrastructure of Amazon.com to provide you with an extremely low-cost, resilient and scalable way to host your databases in the cloud.

Search Related Topics: sql server cloud computing

Differences Between HTML Tag and HTML Element

When you are starting to learn HTML, you will discover that there are a lot of jargon terms you should understand in order to be effective. Two of the most common terms you will see are "tag" and "element." And, while they are similar in meaning, they are not really synonyms.

Search Related Topics: html tags beginning html html elements

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