In the late ninties / early zeros I considered Javascript as the root of all evil online. But over the last year as Google impressed the web development community with Gmail, a true web application using JS and the increased use of Firefox (a fast, secure browser that has a great implementation of the JS section of it’s DOM), my opinions on the language have dramatically changed.

I now consider JS an essential tool for any web application or web page developer worth their salt. As such I’m always on the lookout for links to cool JS programs.

One script that particularly caught my attention today was Simon Cozen’s Drag and Drop list. Simon’s a christian, but don’t hold that against him, this script is absolutely superb. His application for the script is a playlist, but there’s no limit to the uses such a great piece of code could be put to. Think online Blogfeeds, email contact lists and even the order in which you want articles to appear on a site, be they user defined or admin defined. Just drag, drop and when you’re happy with the setup click save, that’s the only talking to the server it’ll do. So it’s quick even if your connection is slow. You could even whack the settings into a cookie (though this would defeat the access-anywhere benefits of a web app)

It’s not without it’s drawbacks, though, as it’s apparently a bit sketchy in IE, but people seem to be molding it to work within IE’s broken JS implementation. Despite that temporary itch, I am impressed.