DDWebsite.modules.utilities = function (T) { 
    
    var public = T.utilities = {} ; 
    var _ = private = T.utilities_private = {} ; 
    
    public.init = function() {
        // must be implemented in all modules 
        // console.log("init in utilities") ; 
    } ; 
    
    public.trim = function(s) {
    	return s.toString().replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "") ;
    };
    
    public.is_float = function(s) {
    	var n = this.trim(s);
    	return n.length>0 && !(/[^0-9.]/).test(n) && (/\.\d/).test(n) ;
    };
    
    public.is_number = function(s) {
    	var n = this.trim(s);
    	return n.length>0 && +n == n ;
    } ; 
    
    public.leading_zero = function(x) {
       y = (x >9) ? x : '0' + x ;
       return y ;
    } ; 
    
    public.dump = function(obj) {
        var out = '';
        for (var i in obj) {
            out += i + ": " + obj[i] + "\n";
        }
        return out ; 
    }; 
};