One step at a time. And it isn't going to be pretty. What I am talking about is creating my first actual application. So far, none of the books has been overly helpful. Sure, they have good information in them, but for the most part, they just aren't helpful to me. So I have decided to try and grab what I need from examples and tutorials and cobble something together. If I can do that, perhaps I can then fine tune it into a project that is actually interesting. Sadly, for some reason, I am having a problem accessing Apple's Developer information. I don't understand what the issue is. They want me to a) sign up with a different ID than the one I am already using and b) to pay $99. A year. So, since they aren't playing nice, I am going to the non-Apple internet to find my answers. And so far, the answers are starting to show up. As I slog, I will make little updates on my progress. I am not guaranteeing anything, as this is a hit and miss sort of process. It took me 20 minutes to add icons to my file. And to make some basic changes in a file that demonstrates how to flip a graphic. Next up, trying to figure out how to flip a graphic. Wish me luck!
Found it on the internet! Exactly the code I was looking for: a piece of code that told me how to place an image where I wanted an image placed. Yippee! Next, trying to figure out how to make the graphic flip when I click on it, not when I click a button...Yay!
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Wow, what a bad book
Mr Jordan, if you read this, I am not saying you are a bad person - just that your book - iOS 5 Games Development is not written in a manner that appeals to me personally. That being said, eeeek!
I will work through the book just because I bought it. And then I will try to sell it as quickly as I can before it becomes obsolete.
First off - the very first chapter starts off well enough - baby steps in how to set up a project in xCode. Fine. Assume we know nothing. And then, instead of taking us through the code of how to write the game, the author says "copy these files into your project." Woo hoo! I copied! Now I can feed myself? Not really. I can copy. Heck, I have been a good copier ever since I learned how to copy off of other students back in 1st grade. And though many find mindless typing of text from a book into a file useless, I find it helps me a lot. If I type it all in, it gets into my brain a little. And I can also experiment if I see how things are put together. For instance, he creates buttons in his code - rather than having us use buttons from the library. Well, he lets us build two - the main, meaty buttons, nope - just drag the file in and "lookee what I done!" Sigh. I hope it gets better...Onward to chapter Two.
Not to mention typos galore!
In the current chapter (2), there is a screen shot show two .xib files with a caption saying - your project should look something like this - create groups (he just says that he likes to do it) and then move files around. Sigh. This is a book like Juliet was mentioning - a book where the guy is all inside his own head and does what he does without thinking about it - not realizing that others haven't done this a thousand times...
Wow. I just finished the second chapter. And it is even worse than the first chapter. The man points out things that are obvious and leaves other stuff completely out. For instance, we were supposed to change some files from the first project and incorporate them in the second project. Nowhere was this explicitly pointed out. And it is unclear, often, what code he wants us to write. Finally, he says, run the application and it all should work. Well, it doesn't, because we didn't hook it all up - unless I missed a sentence that said - then do this for all of the other views...
The one good thing about the lack of effort that the author has demonstrated, is that it makes me work hard to try to figure out why things aren't working the way that they ought. At least there are sample files with the finished products in them for me to compare against! Yay! Ok, I just can't be bothered to try and fix the stupid application. I can't find a sentence that sugguests we are supposed to hook up everything. Glarg. On to the next chapter!
Now I am reading chapter five. That is all there is to do with this book - read and look at the examples. The author has not created a hands-on book. Why not give us a sample and have us add something to make it function the way that we want it to? I guess what I am going to have to do is take the example files and play with them to see what changes I can make and where I can break it. And when I break it fix it again. Sigh.
Long and short - this is not a book for doers. If you like reading about code, this book is for you! Want to buy it? Cheap (ish)?
I will work through the book just because I bought it. And then I will try to sell it as quickly as I can before it becomes obsolete.
First off - the very first chapter starts off well enough - baby steps in how to set up a project in xCode. Fine. Assume we know nothing. And then, instead of taking us through the code of how to write the game, the author says "copy these files into your project." Woo hoo! I copied! Now I can feed myself? Not really. I can copy. Heck, I have been a good copier ever since I learned how to copy off of other students back in 1st grade. And though many find mindless typing of text from a book into a file useless, I find it helps me a lot. If I type it all in, it gets into my brain a little. And I can also experiment if I see how things are put together. For instance, he creates buttons in his code - rather than having us use buttons from the library. Well, he lets us build two - the main, meaty buttons, nope - just drag the file in and "lookee what I done!" Sigh. I hope it gets better...Onward to chapter Two.
Not to mention typos galore!
In the current chapter (2), there is a screen shot show two .xib files with a caption saying - your project should look something like this - create groups (he just says that he likes to do it) and then move files around. Sigh. This is a book like Juliet was mentioning - a book where the guy is all inside his own head and does what he does without thinking about it - not realizing that others haven't done this a thousand times...
Wow. I just finished the second chapter. And it is even worse than the first chapter. The man points out things that are obvious and leaves other stuff completely out. For instance, we were supposed to change some files from the first project and incorporate them in the second project. Nowhere was this explicitly pointed out. And it is unclear, often, what code he wants us to write. Finally, he says, run the application and it all should work. Well, it doesn't, because we didn't hook it all up - unless I missed a sentence that said - then do this for all of the other views...
The one good thing about the lack of effort that the author has demonstrated, is that it makes me work hard to try to figure out why things aren't working the way that they ought. At least there are sample files with the finished products in them for me to compare against! Yay! Ok, I just can't be bothered to try and fix the stupid application. I can't find a sentence that sugguests we are supposed to hook up everything. Glarg. On to the next chapter!
Now I am reading chapter five. That is all there is to do with this book - read and look at the examples. The author has not created a hands-on book. Why not give us a sample and have us add something to make it function the way that we want it to? I guess what I am going to have to do is take the example files and play with them to see what changes I can make and where I can break it. And when I break it fix it again. Sigh.
Long and short - this is not a book for doers. If you like reading about code, this book is for you! Want to buy it? Cheap (ish)?
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Something Satisfying
There is something satisfying about doing computer programming. At least for me. Clicking Run on an application that I have typed into the computer and have the application do what was expected is awesome. True, I am not doing much from scratch yet, but still. And I like adding little differences when I can - when I understand how to do so. And after a book and a half, I am beginning to understand how to do things on my own - and what the heck I am typing. Now, when the book says something like, let's implement a method that does such and so, I am already beginning to think of what I might type to make that happen. For instance, in the language I am using - I start a method with a hyphen! Go me!
Tracking down why things aren't working is also a lot of fun for me. Yes, it can also be very frustrating. But the debugger tools in the xCode SDK are very helpful (for the most part). Often the reason something isn't working is because I didn't read the text closely enough. One of my major lifetime issues - skimming and assuming (yo, Ming, where are you?).
So far, so good. I don't know that I will be ready to craft my first public application any time soon - I just ordered two books on game programming - but I can sense that I might just one day actually be able to do it. Of course, I am also programming myself for failure - gee, where is Mr. Positive Mental Attitude when I need him - thinking that I am going to a) not get the app up on the app store at all and b) if I do I am going to be sued by the beer people. Who knows. Life is short and I am doing the best I can...ok, maybe not the best, but doing ok...
Tracking down why things aren't working is also a lot of fun for me. Yes, it can also be very frustrating. But the debugger tools in the xCode SDK are very helpful (for the most part). Often the reason something isn't working is because I didn't read the text closely enough. One of my major lifetime issues - skimming and assuming (yo, Ming, where are you?).
So far, so good. I don't know that I will be ready to craft my first public application any time soon - I just ordered two books on game programming - but I can sense that I might just one day actually be able to do it. Of course, I am also programming myself for failure - gee, where is Mr. Positive Mental Attitude when I need him - thinking that I am going to a) not get the app up on the app store at all and b) if I do I am going to be sued by the beer people. Who knows. Life is short and I am doing the best I can...ok, maybe not the best, but doing ok...
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Am I crazy?
Am I crazy to want to try to teach myself how to program for the iPhone and iPad? Probably.
I first became interested in computers when I was a tot. My brother put me behind a big cardboard box (a refrigerator box or two) that he had decorated with various doohickeys and lights and such. He then took old used computer cards (used for programming computers at one point) and would ask a question of the "computer" by writing on the card. He shoved the card in a slot - I wrote the answer on the card while making a lot of noises and shoved the card back out. Yay us!
There was a "computer" lab at the colleges here near where I lived. My best friend at the time, Chris Crenner, who I still love and miss, no he's not dead, he just lives in Kansas and we don't communicate much, used to go in and play with them a bit. It was awesome! Punch cards, punch tape. Lots of fun. I learned a teeny bit of fortran back then. I don't think I even managed to achieve "hello world" but it was cool.
Played with the computer at my high school a bit - but not too much because the truly nerdy/geeky kids really spent all of their time there. I worked on a BASIC game that was an aerial dogfight between two biplanes for a while. Never got very far.
Next up, I fell in love with the Macintosh computer. Ended up doing some system administration, some light scripting in various applications, played with Hypercard (what an awesome app that was), played with databases etc, at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for 5 years or so. After that, I worked at Macromedia during its heyday. First as a tech support person and lastly as a Sales Engineer (still one of my favorite jobs of all time). In the middle there, I played with scripting with Director and created a nifty little app that stripped all of the text out of a Director file - put it in a spreadsheet - after it was translated, the app put the now translated text back into the director file. Worked decently. I think that was probably my most ambitious programming effort to date. Sigh. Oh, forgot to mention playing with HTML since it was first created.
So, the long and the short of it - I understand programming concepts and am not afraid of coding. I am not looking at an impossible task, just an unlikely one. We shall see. The first project is going to be a beer related game. I was even thinking of asking Jessica Frech (though she is getting too well known already) to take part by singing for the project. It could happen.
I first became interested in computers when I was a tot. My brother put me behind a big cardboard box (a refrigerator box or two) that he had decorated with various doohickeys and lights and such. He then took old used computer cards (used for programming computers at one point) and would ask a question of the "computer" by writing on the card. He shoved the card in a slot - I wrote the answer on the card while making a lot of noises and shoved the card back out. Yay us!
There was a "computer" lab at the colleges here near where I lived. My best friend at the time, Chris Crenner, who I still love and miss, no he's not dead, he just lives in Kansas and we don't communicate much, used to go in and play with them a bit. It was awesome! Punch cards, punch tape. Lots of fun. I learned a teeny bit of fortran back then. I don't think I even managed to achieve "hello world" but it was cool.
Played with the computer at my high school a bit - but not too much because the truly nerdy/geeky kids really spent all of their time there. I worked on a BASIC game that was an aerial dogfight between two biplanes for a while. Never got very far.
Next up, I fell in love with the Macintosh computer. Ended up doing some system administration, some light scripting in various applications, played with Hypercard (what an awesome app that was), played with databases etc, at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory for 5 years or so. After that, I worked at Macromedia during its heyday. First as a tech support person and lastly as a Sales Engineer (still one of my favorite jobs of all time). In the middle there, I played with scripting with Director and created a nifty little app that stripped all of the text out of a Director file - put it in a spreadsheet - after it was translated, the app put the now translated text back into the director file. Worked decently. I think that was probably my most ambitious programming effort to date. Sigh. Oh, forgot to mention playing with HTML since it was first created.
So, the long and the short of it - I understand programming concepts and am not afraid of coding. I am not looking at an impossible task, just an unlikely one. We shall see. The first project is going to be a beer related game. I was even thinking of asking Jessica Frech (though she is getting too well known already) to take part by singing for the project. It could happen.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Defriended!
Yippee! One of the people I really wanted to defriend, defriended me! And I didn't even have to write to them. Ok, so only two people I have written to have defriended me rather than write me back. At least three have preemptively defriended me (the one above being one of them). Woo hoo! I am so excited.
Anyway, I am 1/4th of the way through the project. And there are still a few days - ok a week, left in January. That bodes well for finishing by April. Especially if more people defriend me before I have to write to them.
The project is proving rewarding in several ways. One, my letter writing skills are being honed. They have always been decent, but they are getting better and better. Yippee! Two, I am reaching out to people and they are responding - it is about a 67 percent response rate. Without that much prodding. (I will do some prodding eventually.) Three, the defriending mentioned above. That makes me so happy! Four, I get a sense of accomplishment for every letter I write. One of my FB/DC friends wrote and said that she hoped my writing wasn't all about getting responses. Of course it isn't. I do want people to know how I am and what is up in my life and that is the primary reason for writing these letters. Then again, why have friends if they aren't interested in my life, or interested enough in our relationship to respond and let me know what is going on in their lives? Hmm?
Anyway, I am 1/4th of the way through the project. And there are still a few days - ok a week, left in January. That bodes well for finishing by April. Especially if more people defriend me before I have to write to them.
The project is proving rewarding in several ways. One, my letter writing skills are being honed. They have always been decent, but they are getting better and better. Yippee! Two, I am reaching out to people and they are responding - it is about a 67 percent response rate. Without that much prodding. (I will do some prodding eventually.) Three, the defriending mentioned above. That makes me so happy! Four, I get a sense of accomplishment for every letter I write. One of my FB/DC friends wrote and said that she hoped my writing wasn't all about getting responses. Of course it isn't. I do want people to know how I am and what is up in my life and that is the primary reason for writing these letters. Then again, why have friends if they aren't interested in my life, or interested enough in our relationship to respond and let me know what is going on in their lives? Hmm?
Saturday, January 14, 2012
20% with a 50% return rate
Not too shoddy! Here it is, January 14, 2011 and I have written 20% of my Facebook friends individually crafted notes. It is taking a long time, but it is fun and interesting for me. I get to figure out how I know the person, what they may or may not know about me, when we last communicated, how much I can share, what sorts of things to share, etc. I am not doing as much cutting and pasting as I thought I would. Sure, lots of stuff is repeated, because there is only one of me and I don't change much between compositions. And I get to write a lot! Practice, practice, practice! :)
And a 50% return rate isn't too bad. Not great, but not bad. Some people I thought would never respond, responded quickly and pithily (I still owe one respondent a return response). Others who I thought would at least respond have yet to do so. I will bug them eventually. Right now, I can't be bothered. And still others have defriended me. So far, two people have opted to not have me be their FB friends. I am crushed. Ok, not really. One was a bartender who put on a good front of valuing me as a human being, but I guess she was good at faking it. So, good riddance. Another is the daughter of a friend - she had asked me to be her friend, so I don't know what her defriending me is about. Again, not heartbroken. She is a college kid and she and her life are not really all that interesting to me. Not that I don't like to hear about and from her, but not a huge loss.
My friend Adam suggested a useful utility called Social Fixer - it is a browser add-on that makes some interesting and helpful tweaks to Facebook. One of the main reasons I got it was because of a "friend tracker" option. It shows changes in friendship statuses. It was from that I learned about the defriending. And also that a couple of people have disappeared. Apparently that happens now and again. One of them has reappeared - maybe the other will as well, one day.
So, if I were to post some of the projects I have lying around and their percentage of completion, would I get any feedback on which one I ought to pursue to closure?
And a 50% return rate isn't too bad. Not great, but not bad. Some people I thought would never respond, responded quickly and pithily (I still owe one respondent a return response). Others who I thought would at least respond have yet to do so. I will bug them eventually. Right now, I can't be bothered. And still others have defriended me. So far, two people have opted to not have me be their FB friends. I am crushed. Ok, not really. One was a bartender who put on a good front of valuing me as a human being, but I guess she was good at faking it. So, good riddance. Another is the daughter of a friend - she had asked me to be her friend, so I don't know what her defriending me is about. Again, not heartbroken. She is a college kid and she and her life are not really all that interesting to me. Not that I don't like to hear about and from her, but not a huge loss.
My friend Adam suggested a useful utility called Social Fixer - it is a browser add-on that makes some interesting and helpful tweaks to Facebook. One of the main reasons I got it was because of a "friend tracker" option. It shows changes in friendship statuses. It was from that I learned about the defriending. And also that a couple of people have disappeared. Apparently that happens now and again. One of them has reappeared - maybe the other will as well, one day.
So, if I were to post some of the projects I have lying around and their percentage of completion, would I get any feedback on which one I ought to pursue to closure?
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Spreadsheets and Databases
You may ask, what the heck do spreadsheets and databases have to do with writing? Well, for me, they can be an integral and fun part of a writing project.
I love technology. Always have. When I was a tot, my mom taught (ooh, those are very close to homophones) a science fiction/literature class at Eisenhower College. I don't think that was a frequent occurrence on college campus up until that time. Anyway, she had a whole shelf of those books - and by shelf, I mean shelves - probably 160 books or so - which I proceeded to work my way through. Classic stuff it is called now - Asimov, Heinlein, Dune (Herbert) CS Lewis, Bradbury, etc. Loved it! I am still a Science Fiction and Fantasy Fan - though I don't read except in spurts just now. Moving on, I just loved the possibilities that science and science fiction provided and provides. If I weren't in the humanities, I would be in the sciences. So, I love computers - being one manifestation of technology.
And on computers you have spreadsheets and databases! I just think the power of these two applications are awesome! I believe that it was Lotus 1-2-3 that really helped make the computer a useful item and not just a geeks plaything. That first Spreadsheet paved the way or Excel and all other spreadsheets - and despite all the fancy bells and whistles that have been added since, most spreadsheets still owe their basic functionality to Lotus. As for databases, they are just way too cool for school. But more on those when I am actually using one for a project.
Right now, for the FB friend letter project, I am using two applications - Pages (a word processing program) into which I paste each of the letters that I write. And Numbers - a spreadsheet application wherein I track who I wrote, when. I actually have 11 columns: Number, Name, Where written (because I plan to do my Daily Challenge Peeps too - and maybe others who I just have email addresses for - like Diane and Peter and Daniel...) Date Written, Date Responded (lots of blank spaces here, sadly), Where do they live, how known, met in person (this is either blank or "not met"), Percentage Done, Total Number of Friends, and Response Percentage. Percentage Done and Response Percentage are calculated fields - I like seeing calculated fields. Yippee!
Ok, back to the letter writing campaign!
I love technology. Always have. When I was a tot, my mom taught (ooh, those are very close to homophones) a science fiction/literature class at Eisenhower College. I don't think that was a frequent occurrence on college campus up until that time. Anyway, she had a whole shelf of those books - and by shelf, I mean shelves - probably 160 books or so - which I proceeded to work my way through. Classic stuff it is called now - Asimov, Heinlein, Dune (Herbert) CS Lewis, Bradbury, etc. Loved it! I am still a Science Fiction and Fantasy Fan - though I don't read except in spurts just now. Moving on, I just loved the possibilities that science and science fiction provided and provides. If I weren't in the humanities, I would be in the sciences. So, I love computers - being one manifestation of technology.
And on computers you have spreadsheets and databases! I just think the power of these two applications are awesome! I believe that it was Lotus 1-2-3 that really helped make the computer a useful item and not just a geeks plaything. That first Spreadsheet paved the way or Excel and all other spreadsheets - and despite all the fancy bells and whistles that have been added since, most spreadsheets still owe their basic functionality to Lotus. As for databases, they are just way too cool for school. But more on those when I am actually using one for a project.
Right now, for the FB friend letter project, I am using two applications - Pages (a word processing program) into which I paste each of the letters that I write. And Numbers - a spreadsheet application wherein I track who I wrote, when. I actually have 11 columns: Number, Name, Where written (because I plan to do my Daily Challenge Peeps too - and maybe others who I just have email addresses for - like Diane and Peter and Daniel...) Date Written, Date Responded (lots of blank spaces here, sadly), Where do they live, how known, met in person (this is either blank or "not met"), Percentage Done, Total Number of Friends, and Response Percentage. Percentage Done and Response Percentage are calculated fields - I like seeing calculated fields. Yippee!
Ok, back to the letter writing campaign!
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