Strange Aeons

Deploying & Packaging Javascript

I have been doing a fair bit of web oriented coding recently, finally getting to grips with Javascript and newer web technologies. The upshot is that I nearly have a new tool for visualising argumentation structures ready to push to my github account. In getting ready to do this I started finding out about things like minification and packaging for Javascript files to make the downloads as efficient as possible. The general consensus seems to be that you minify and package everything up into a single Javascript file which gives you the best trade-off of minimising the number of HTTP connections and minimising the amount actually transferred but without the computational overhead of unpacking.

One thing I was unsure about was how to handle versioning at deploy time, especially as I move towards continuous deployment of various projects. Turns out that one way of doing this is to name the Javascript file with the hash of the file instead of just calling it all.js or adding a query string. This gives a unique name for your src file without subjecting you to the vagaries of any cloud deployment infrastructure that may be operating on eventually consistent principles. This is nicely explained, with diagrams in this post over at Ben Kamen's blog. In the comment thread from that post, one commenter suggests also that using an Amazon S3 bucket to hold Javascript files and ensuring to deploy the new Javascript file there before any code that accesses it is made available to users is a good approach also.

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Jobs in Argumentation Research

To give you more of an idea of the kinds of ways that argumentation is being used, and one of the potential career paths available to computing students with an awareness of computational argumentation, the following job on the IMPACT (Integrated Method for Policy making using Argument modelling and Computer assisted Text analysis ) Project has recently been advertised at the University of Leeds working with Professor Ann Macintosh:

Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications The Centre for Digital Citizenship, Institute of Communications Studies (ICS)

Integrated Method for Policy making using Argument modelling and Computer assisted Text analysis

(Full-time, fixed term to December 2012, subject to Ethical Review approval and the annual review procedure of the European Commission)

This position is now available to develop advanced models of policy discourse and associated argument visualisation tools. You will work under the direction of Professor Ann Macintosh, and will be expected to have a good first degree in a relevant area, a PhD in Computer Science or related area and a sound grounding in hypermedia, computer supported argument visualisation, or a closely related discipline, and to have associated software development skills.

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Informal Logic Overview

I just found this interesting post introducing the subject of informal logic, a more formal way of describing what we call argumentation theory, or "the stuff what we do in this module". It is a useful but very light overview of how everyday argumentation relates to formal logical reasoning. What is interesting though is that the company whose blog this post is on develops argumentation visualisation software for use in online opinion research and public consultation. It is not as advanced as Araucaria, and delib appears to be taking a different approach to ours in the development of MAgtALO. Nevertheless it looks nice, and that is usually half the battle when getting user uptake, engagement and participation. An example of the kind of argumentation visualisation that the amap software provides:

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Deploying & Packaging Javascript

Jobs in Argumentation Research

Informal Logic Overview