JavaScript does not have associative arrays. (This will be old news to many.)
Confusion arises from the fact that array syntax in JavaScript is very similar to array syntax in PHP, a language that does have associative arrays. Additionally, any object in JavaScript can be treated as an associative array. This means that if one creates a JavaScript Array object and proceeds to use PHP's associative array syntax in an attempt to add items to it, one will succeed in assigning it attribute–value pairs. The object in question need not be an Array for this to work, though, so for the sake of clarity using a vanilla Object is advisable.
To gain a more detailed understanding of why JavaScript appears to have associative arrays, read JavaScript "Associative Arrays" Considered Harmful.
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SyntaxHighlighter is a fully functional self-contained code syntax highlighter developed in JavaScript (as stated on its wiki). One of its deficiencies is that it retrieves all its brushes each time a page is loaded, despite the fact that in many cases only one or two (or none) are required.
Currently, Prototype is my JavaScript framework of choice (although I'm really looking forward to trying jQuery). I have used Prototype to create a brush loader for SyntaxHighlighter, which retrieves brushes on demand to reduce page loading times (in certain circumstances).
27 June 2009. I have completely rewritten the code so that it no longer requires empty functions inside the brush files to act as indicators of readiness. Instead, the required brushes are retrieved in a daisy chain. This is both more elegant and more reliable. Additionally, style sheets are now also retrieved on demand.
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Recently I've been on a drive to eliminate dependencies from my code and other areas, such as blog posts. For those who create content for the Web, a reasonably common task is to provide links to files that can be downloaded. It is considered good practice to include an indication of a file's size; for example: favicon.ico (3 KB).
As I was about to hard-code a file's size into a blog post recently, I thought to myself: Will I remember to update this if the file's size changes? More importantly, should I be required to remember such things? The answer, of course, is no. I set about writing a function that would allow the file's size to be displayed dynamically.
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