Mozilla Hacks

Ask MDN: Our experts are ready to answer your questions

By Robin Hawkes

Posted on July 22, 2011 in Ask MDN, Event, HTML, JavaScript, and MDN

[Update] The panel of experts and time of the first event have been added below.

Something amazing is starting next week. No, not pay day. It’s more important than that. Got it yet? No? It’s Ask MDN, silly! Still no idea what that is? Don’t worry, it’s new and I’m here to tell you all about it.

Introducing Ask MDN

Ask MDN is a new initiative from MDN and the Developer Engagement team here at Mozilla.

For one hour a week on Twitter we will get a panel of experts together to answer your questions about a specific topic related to Web development.

Every week we choose a different topic, which will be announced in advance so you have plenty of opportunity to send in a question for our experts (who also change each week).

After each week we will archive the questions and answers so you can search through them and continue learning long into the future. We see this as being just as valuable a resource for learning as the documentation is on MDN.

Engaging with the developer community on Twitter

We’re starting Ask MDN because we believe that there isn’t much help for developers on Twitter outside of questions and answers between friends.

With Ask MDN we want to bring together the developer community and our long-standing relationship with experts. We want to make it super easy to get a trusted and valued opinion on something that’s been bugging you, no matter how simple.

Announcing the first topic: HTML5 gaming and creative JavaScript

The first Ask MDN hour on Twitter is next week and it will be focussing on HTML5 gaming and creative JavaScript (animations, graphics, etc).

We’ve already got a great panel of experts lined up ready to answer your questions. They include game developers, authors, JavaScript ninjas, and Flash heavy-weights (there is a still a lot that we can learn from the Flash guys).

We’ll announce the next topic after the HTML5 gaming hour is over.

When and where?

The live HTML5 gaming and creative JavaScript Q&A will take place on Friday the 29th of July at 6pm in the UK (BST), and will be moderated through the @AskMDN Twitter account. Make sure to follow that account to keep up-to-date with what’s happening.

We chose 6pm in the UK because it’s a time that the majority of the world will be able to access; it’s morning in the US, and evening in Europe. We appreciate that this isn’t perfect for everyone, but we haven’t gotten around to building a time machine just yet.

The first event will occur at the following times around the world:

  • 10am in San Francisco (PDT)
  • 1pm in New York (EDT)
  • 7pm in Paris, Berlin and Madrid (CEST)

Find the time where you live to make sure you don’t miss out.

Who are the experts?

We’re really proud to bring you an astounding panel of experts, each carefully chosen to give a fascinating insight into the tech surrounding HTML5 gaming and creative JavaScript.

You don’t get a chance like this often, so make sure you submit a question to the panel.

Seb Lee-Delisle

Seb (@seb_ly) is an internationally recognised creative coder best known for his award-winning Flash work. He has recently been teaching developers the delights of creative JavaScript through his workshops in the UK and US.

Seb was recently interviewed as one of our People of HTML5.

Rob Evans

Rob (@IsogenicEngine) is the developer behind Isogenic Engine, one of the most promising HTML5 gaming engines out there today.

Dominic Szablewski

Dominic (@phoboslab) is the developer behind the Impact HTML5 gaming engine, one of the most popular publicly-accessible engines out there right now.

Andreas Røsdal

Andreas (@andreasrosdal) is the developer behind Freeciv.net, which is a HTML5 version of the strategy game Freeciv.

Tom Schuster

Tom (@evilpies) is a core contributor to Mozilla’s SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine. His knowledge with JavaScript performance and optimisation will be invaluable.

Michal Budzynski

Michal (@michalbe) is the developer behind onGameStart, the first large-scale HTML5 gaming conference in the world.

Benoit Jacob

Benoit (@BenoitJacob) is a Software Developer here at Mozilla who works on graphics and WebGL. As a result of this he has in-depth knowledge about hardware acceleration in these kinds of environments.

Rob Hawkes

Rob (@robhawkes) is me. I am a Technical Evangelist at Mozilla with experience developing games and creative experiments with HTML5 and JavaScript. I will be on the panel, but my main role will be moderating the discussion and keeping things running smoothly.

Getting involved

It’s going to be a great experience so I encourage you to get involved by following @AskMDN on Twitter.

Submit your questions about HTML5 gaming and creative JavaScript in an @ reply to our account. Nearer the hour itself we’ll announce a hash-tag that can also be used to submit questions.

Got a topic that you want us to cover in a future Ask MDN hour? Send it as an @ reply on Twitter, or reply in the comments below.

Taking things forward

This is just the beginning. We have big plans for Ask MDN, but we won’t be able to do any of it without you.

Get involved today and help us make the Web a better place.

About Robin Hawkes

Robin thrives on solving problems through code. He's a Digital Tinkerer, Head of Developer Relations at Pusher, former Evangelist at Mozilla, book author, and a Brit.

More articles by Robin Hawkes…

8 comments

  1. Ya Knygar

    Hello!
    Thanks for the nice initiative,

    but – maybe, with a respect to FLOSS,
    AskMDN could be on identi.ca?
    at least on Mozilla’ s instance?

    really, among developers there are many who prefer identi.ca

    July 22nd, 2011 at 08:39

    1. Rob Hawkes

      Right now we’re particularly interested in engaging with the large developer community on Twitter, but Identi.ca would indeed by a nice option to explore in the future.

      Thanks for the comment!

      July 25th, 2011 at 11:02

  2. Edmond

    This is a great addition, i cant tell you how many problems you can have with every new version upgrade of FF and newer things like HTML5 and CSS3 in demand from your clients.

    July 22nd, 2011 at 16:09

  3. walter clough

    I have been using Thunderbird for some time now for e-mail. I was notified this week of an update which I installed. Now when I open it and delete a mail it seems to lock and says “not responding”. It ask whether I want to compact. Is this an improvement?

    July 23rd, 2011 at 05:44

    1. louisremi

      Hi Walter,
      As indicated in this article, the Ask MDN initiative is here to answer questions about a Web developer related topic.
      Generally, blog comments are not a way to ask for support. Thunderbird related forums (such as http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/ ) are the places where you are more likely to find useful help.

      July 25th, 2011 at 00:54

  4. brandon

    How to make a dice game for two player in javascript and html using just two dice?

    1. Each player throws both dice once per turn. You only score if you throw doubles (that is, both dice have the same number of spots on their top face).

    2. Players score five points for double ones, twos, fours or fives. A double six scores twenty five points, but if you throw a double three your score goes back to zero.
    3. Add your score as you play. The first player to get fifty points wins the game. (An adult or older child may need to help score, but you can use this game to teach younger children to count by fives.)

    December 9th, 2011 at 13:54

    1. Rob Hawkes

      Hi Brandon, thanks for your question. Helping you write a game is beyond the scope for this blog post but if you haven’t already found the answer I would suggest asking for some help in the #bbg channel on irc.freenode.net

      December 18th, 2011 at 05:23

  5. brandon

    I am trying to make a double dice game for two player and I made some of it but I don’t know how to write a code for the players and how to add the points fro them.

    December 10th, 2011 at 13:26

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