If there’s anything that there’s a lot of these days, it’s Javascript.

Seriously, take a look around. It’s everywhere. We’re not talking about the dumb marquee scripts and other “toys” that constituted the Dark Age of Javascript, either– it’s been the Rennaissance of Javascript for a while now– with Web 2.0, smart people are putting spectacular things together with Javascript every day.

Those of you who know me well know that I’m a fan of languages. You could say this is one of my defining characteristics– right next to my addiction to caffeinated beverages

Provided a language meets a small set of criteria (cross platform, free) and has some unique characteristic(s) that catch my attention, I’ll give it a look. To do otherwise would just be narrow-minded (which is the same thing as being self-destructive, as a developer).

Recently I needed to add hotkeys to our application for quick navigation. The result of this work is the Hotkey plugin, which I’m releasing today.

The Hotkey plugin consists of a Javascript file and three helpers that use it. You can add a hotkey using Javascript directly using the Hotkey.add() function in your application.js, or you can use the helpers in your templates. Here’s a few examples of helper usage:

Calling an action remotely:

<%= hotkey_to_remote :d, :url => {:controller=>'some_controller'} %>

Changing browser location:

Recently I accepted an invitation to be a speaker at The Rails Edge, a series of unique Rails-related conferences brought to you by the folks at The Pragmatic Studio. It’s an honor to be included alongside some of the smartest Rubyists/Railers out there.