tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-365434952024-03-12T22:48:56.931-06:00johnlindquist.comthe bald man speakethjohnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-27939662331970229432011-10-06T14:01:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.290-07:00Adobe MAX and AIR: Disappointed and ConfusedDear Adobe,<br/><br/>You keep telling me that you can build an AIR app and deploy it to multiple devices. So when I sat down to watch the keynotes, I expected to see an app running across multiple devices. Instead, you showed me the following:<br/><ul><br/> <li>Touch apps that are running on a single Android tablet and “coming soon” for iPad</li><br/> <li>Angry Birds (and others) running on the desktop, but not on a tablet or a phone</li><br/></ul><br/>No matter how impressive your AIR app is, <strong>I <em>only </em>want to see your app if it’s running on multiple devices</strong>. You’re shooting yourself in the foot when you say “coming soon to other devices”. I guess next time I approach a client I’ll say, “Thanks to AIR, I can deliver this Android app and then also deliver an iPad app a few months later.”<br/><br/>Your Angry Birds and Unreal demos were impressive, but didn’t they belong in the “sneaks” section? Am I supposed to send my mom a link to the MAX keynote and say, “Look Mom! Angry Birds running in Flash!” She doesn’t want to watch a video of a mobile game in a browser and she doesn’t care what Flash is, she just wants to play Angry Birds on every device she has today.<br/><br/>I love the the vision of Flash (deploying high performance apps across multiple devices), but unfortunately the reality is very upsetting. You have no tooling for 3D, GPU is not working across desktop and mobile devices, and your “build once, deploy everywhere” message is falling flat on its face. If you would have shown me released tools for building games (physics, level editors, sprite management, etc) and Angry Birds running across desktop, Android, and iOS, that we could all take home and play, I would have given you a standing ovation. Unfortunately, MAX felt more like a message of, “Just hang on a little while longer, we’ll get there, we promise!”<br/><br/>All I want to see is mind-blowing demos of AIR running across multiple devices and the tools you used to make them, but instead I saw an awkward message of buying PhoneGap to support HTML apps and Flash become the new browser "console".<br/><br/>Fix your story. Clear your message. Deliver on your promises.<br/><br/>I'm still waiting...<br/><br/>Sincerely,<br/>John Lindquistjohnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-23865706111891856722011-09-16T02:08:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.191-07:00My Thoughts on Windows 8<h3>100+ Retweets</h3><br/>I tweeted this picture yesterday and it turned out to be popular enough to hit the front page of twitter (tweetdeck instantly erupted with that annoying retweet chirping noise).<br/><br/><a href="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/09.16.2011-02.13.061.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1263" title="windows-8-vs-ipad" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/09.16.2011-02.13.061.png" alt="" width="340" height="419" /></a><br/><br/>If you think hard enough, you can pretty much read whatever you want into the picture: “Win 8 does real work while an iPad belongs on the shelves of Toys R’ Us’“, “Win 8 is the most expensive iPad charger you can buy”, or “Win 8 runs iTunes better than an iPad”. The picture just begs for a caption contest. Also, many people thought I was showing how a Windows 8 tablet can charge an iPad (you really just get that same "not charging" message you get whenever you plug an iPad into anything).<br/><br/>I was simply thinking this:<br/><blockquote><em>A Windows 8 tablet is a full-blown portable PC. An iPad is a portable consumption device.</em></blockquote><br/>You can already picture the next “I’m a Mac” parody that compares an iPad against a Windows 8 tablet... It's like comparing apples and oranges (or Apple and Microsoft).<br/><h3>Metro vs. Classic</h3><br/>A Windows 8 tablet is a tablet with no restrictions. Sure, the Metro start screen has restrictive requirements to maximize the portable experience, but you can always switch to classic Windows and do anything you want.<br/><br/><a href="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/windows-8-tablet1.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1264" title="windows-8-tablet[1]" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/windows-8-tablet1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="300" /></a><br/><br/>Is switching between “metro” and “classic” a jarring experience? Yes. Is relaxing on the couch then sitting up to go to work a jarring experience? You betcha. I would love for Microsoft, Apple, Google, or whoever to show me a smooth transition between a finger-friendly portable experience and a tool-heavy business experience. Granted, Microsoft’s approach is far from perfect, but it feels good enough (for now).<br/><h3>Fast and Fluid</h3><br/><a href="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/windows-8-1-520x2821.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1265" title="windows-8-1-520x282[1]" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/windows-8-1-520x2821.jpg" alt="" width="520" height="282" /></a><br/><br/>The presenters used the terms “fast and fluid” quite a bit. They made a major point of how all metro apps will be hardware accelerated, heavily governed for battery usage, and work within their gesture paradigms. This is what a tablet experience has to be. Apple nailed “fast and fliud” with the iPad/Phone the first time around, but Microsoft being able to put a fast and fluid experience as a layer on top of a full blown OS feels like a significant achievement.<br/><br/><br/><br/><h3>Contracts and Charms</h3><br/>From a developer standpoint, this contracts and charms are darn cool. The general idea is this: You declare your app as a “share source”, so you pull up the “share charm” and Windows 8 will automatically share whatever your sharing (images, text, audio, etc) with any other app that declared “target share” interface (this should make any experienced developer a little warm and fuzzy on the inside). For example, if you build a photo app and you want to share photo on twitter, your photo app says, “I have a photo I want to share” then the user can pick twitter as the “target” and twitter does the rest of the work for you.<br/><br/>Taking the idea a step further, the “device” charms allows you to make a contract between your Windows 8 machine and any other piece of hardware (share charm = software contracts, device charm = hardware contracts). For example, if your app play audio, you pick the “device charm” and the device simply plays back the audio. The same connections work for any other output/input your apps would handle (printing, game controllers, htpc, etc).<br/><br/><a href="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/09.16.2011-02.34.131.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1266" title="09.16.2011-02.34.13[1]" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/09.16.2011-02.34.131.png" alt="" width="46" height="235" /></a><br/><br/>The major downside is that this puts a burden on the user to “connect the dots” by understanding charms. The major upside is the incredible amount of flexibility this would allow. While Apple’s best interests are looking everything in the Apple ecosystem, Microsoft has to support has many vendors as possible. The burden is now on the vendors to make hardware more desirable than Apple’s current systems to have any chance of winning people who chose Apple for their latest machines (Good luck with that!).<br/><h3>“All In” and Promises</h3><br/><br/><br/>The presenters at Build were obviously coached to try to reassure developers that Windows 8 will be a platform where developers can make money. I kept hearing, “I promise this”, and “we’re ‘all in’ on that” throughout the sessions. For example, Windows 8 is “all in” on DirectX. What “all in” really means is that Microsoft is providing the necessary APIs through the WinRT (Windows Runtime) to allow you to make the smoothest apps possible and in return helping with the user experience. Another example, Windows is “all in” with h.264/.mp4. Again, that Windows is providing the best apis for .mp4 and it’s up to you to use them to keep that experience pristine.<br/><br/><a href="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/poker_chips_all_in-1jpg_871.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1267" title="All in" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/poker_chips_all_in-1jpg_871.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="301" /></a><br/><br/>Personally, I’m perfectly happy to code against Microsoft’s standard apis and leverage all the performance boosts they can give me. Microsoft seems happy to do all the heavy lifting so I can focus on the buttery-smooth user experience.<br/><h3>Opportunity</h3><br/>Finally, Microsoft pitched the new Metro apps and the “Store” as an incredible developer opportunity. I have to agree with them.<br/><br/><a href="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/fortunecookie1.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1268" title="fortunecookie[1]" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/fortunecookie1.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="359" /></a><br/><br/>Hundreds of millions of people have installed Windows 7. Any desktop, netbook, laptop, tablet, etc with Windows 7 can update to Windows 8. Many more sleek, sexy touch tablets will be coming out when Windows 8 launches. Regardless of whether or not they have touchscreens, they will have the “Store” installed on the homescreen when they first boot up and there’s a pretty decent chance that an user will click on app called “Store” and start browsing for a cheeky little app to spend their 99 cents on. I'll let you do the math...johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-31991212801034863712011-09-12T01:32:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.346-07:00Intro to the QuickJump pluginI'm proud to announce the release of my newest plugin: QuickJump! This should work with any JetBrains product (Intellij, WebStorm, PhpStorm, etc).<br/><br/><iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sgdHkcZFTOs?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>Hope you like it :)johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-68753665306935667392011-08-18T01:25:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.732-07:00Lua: Metatable TutorialThis tutorial is a video introduction on how to use metatables in Lua.<br/><br/><iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CYxMfVy5W00?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-34592113101999992952011-08-08T17:45:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.369-07:00Launch Corona Simulator from IntelliJWatch this video to learn how to launch that script from IntelliJ using a keyboard shortcut.<br/><iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EKY5J798_Wc?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/><strong>Windows:</strong><br/>Download this script and save it anywhere (I saved mine as "CoronaLauncher.vbs"). You'll reference it from the external tools in IntelliJ.<br/><script src="https://gist.github.com/1132950.js?file=CoronaLauncher.vbs"></script><br/><br/><br/><br/><strong>Mac: (If you get this working, please post in the comments if there's any tricks you need to do)</strong><br/>Link to the AppleScript code used in the TextMate bundle:<br/><a href="https://github.com/osadchuk/Corona-SDK.tmbundle/blob/master/Commands/Run%20Simulator.tmCommand">https://github.com/osadchuk/Corona-SDK.tmbundle/blob/master/Commands/Run%20Simulator.tmCommand</a><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Here's a screenshot of the External Tools setup:<br/><img src="http://content.screencast.com/users/johnlindquist/folders/Snagit/media/1df40297-db88-4623-9bcd-1c87ec993a7c/08.08.2011-17.42.11.png"></img>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-44754723720479662382011-06-03T19:16:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.539-07:00ActionScript Challenge #4What is the value of "s"?<br/><br/><script src="https://gist.github.com/1007430.js?file=ActionScriptChallenge4.as"></script>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-19072791299428224752011-05-18T11:28:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.156-07:00PatternCraft - Builder PatternThis PatternCraft tutorial explores the Builder Pattern in the context of building out maps in Starcraft:<br/><iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WrCbqlN4uXg?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-26055574124921121052011-05-17T10:31:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.243-07:00PatternCraft - Adapter PatternPatternCraft is a series of video tutorials which uses Starcraft references to teach Design Patterns. This tutorial covers the Adapter Pattern by showing how to add Mario and Sonic to Starcraft.<br/><br/><iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hvpXKZhNINc?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-67689807578399573662011-05-16T14:55:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.726-07:00PatternCraft - The Differences Between the Bridge, State, and Strategy
PatternsI've already covered the <a href="http://johnlindquist.com/2010/08/31/patterncraft-state-pattern/">state pattern</a> and the <a href="http://johnlindquist.com/2010/08/25/patterncraft-strategy-pattern/">strategy pattern</a>, but many people find it difficult to distinguish between the two. I put this tutorial together to help highlight the differences. I also included the bridge pattern because, although it's not a "behavioral pattern", it's usage is very similar and helps show how different these patterns really are.<br/><br/><iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/F_j4MJdKhe4?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-28849834225387913232011-05-05T15:40:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.320-07:00Using Flex Formatter with IntelliJ<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/flexformatter/">Flex Formatter</a> is one of my favorite plugins for FlashBuilder, unfortunately there's no plugin version for <a href="http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/">IntelliJ</a>.<br/><br/>But thanks to IntelliJ's "<a href="http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/external-tools.html">External Tools</a>", you're able to use any tool that can be run from the command line (think <a href="http://code.google.com/p/apparat/">apparat</a>, <a href="http://projectsprouts.org/">sprouts</a>, etc) and execute it with a keyboard shortcut within IntelliJ! The video below shows you how:<br/><br/><iframe width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZTOLiacc9a8?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/><br/>Running FlexFormatter from the Command Line:<br/><a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/flexformatter/index.php?title=FormatterCommandLine">http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/flexformatter/index.php?title=FormatterCommandLine</a><br/><br/>Download the files below:<br/><br/>FlexFormatterJars:<br/><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/flexformatter/files/flexformatter/0.8.4/FlexPrettyPrintCommand_0.8.4.zip/download">http://sourceforge.net/projects/flexformatter/files/flexformatter/0.8.4/FlexPrettyPrintCommand_0.8.4.zip/download</a><br/><br/>CommandLineSupportJars: <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/flexformatter/files/flexformatter/CommandLineSupportJars/commandLineSupportJars.zip/download">http://sourceforge.net/projects/flexformatter/files/flexformatter/CommandLineSupportJars/commandLineSupportJars.zip/download</a><br/><br/>Sample Formatter.properties file:<br/><a href="https://github.com/as3/as3-utils/raw/master/res/flex-formatter.properties">https://github.com/as3/as3-utils/raw/master/res/flex-formatter.properties</a>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-49768351132407848242011-03-29T13:21:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.578-07:00Flixel on the iPad<a href="http://flixel.org">Flixel</a> is a popular library for creating Flash games (personally, I love it). So I was curious to see just how well it would run on an iPad with the new AIR 2.6 packager.<br/><br/>So I grabbed the source of <a href="https://github.com/AdamAtomic/Mode">Mode</a>, threw it into my AIR for iOS tool (more info on that <a href="http://johnlindquist.com/air4air/">here</a>), and grabbed the camcorder.<br/><br/>Honestly, I'm blown away by how well it ran. I didn't make any changes other than bumping up the resolution of the game to 1024x768 and changing the keyboard handlers to mouse handlers.<br/><br/>Watch below to judge for yourself:<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="570" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HNNJ96NPT6A?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-70939529066154361802011-03-21T16:21:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.743-07:00Top 10 AIR 2.6 for iOS Questions<h3>1. It takes forever to compile, am I doing something wrong?</h3> <p>Probably not. The compiler/packager/converter (whatever you want to call it) has to package up the entire Flash Player VM into your .ipa. So even if you're only compiling a single class, it’s still going to take a minute or two.</p> <h3>2. Why is my screen white?</h3> <p>That means you had a runtime error. Double check you’re not using RSLs or including an unsupported class (like ServerSocket).</p> <h3>3. Why can’t I install my .ipa on my device?</h3> <p>You’ve probably made a mistake with provisioning and setting up your cert to support your device. Follow the steps on the apple developer center carefully and make sure you’re using the correct target type (there are different builds for debugging, group testing, and app store).<p>(If your iDevice is jailbroken, you can get around most of the certification issues and transfer your .ipa wirelessly instead of using iTunes, but that's a discussion for another day) </p> <h3>4. Can I use p2p?</h3> <p>Yes!</p> <h3>5. Can I use ServerSocket?</h3> <p>No, but you can use Sockets.</p> <h3>6. What happened to “pfi” (packer for iPhone)?</h3> <p>It’s now built in to adt. So you now use adt to compile for everything: desktop, TV, Android, Apple devices, etc.</p> <h3>7. Can I use ANT to launch ADT?</h3> <p>Yes, make sure to build out your .swf first and then your packaging task will look something like this:</p><script src="https://gist.github.com/880348.js?file=gistfile1.xml"></script> <h3>8. Is 2.6 really that much faster than 2.5?</h3> <p>Yes, it’s noticeably faster. You’ll still want to avoid complex filters and other intensive graphics though. Make sure to build a proof of concept before committing to anything.</p> <h3>9. What about the Amazon Market problems?</h3> <p>Read this: <a href="http://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/archives/2011/03/air-2-6-applications-and-the-amazon-appstore-for-android.html">http://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/archives/2011/03/air-2-6-applications-and-the-amazon-appstore-for-android.html</a></p> <h3>10. Anything else you want to tell me?</h3> <p>Yes, I recommend getting VERY familiar with “app-descriptors”. They’ll define everything from screen rotation to keyboards and from icons to app permissions. It’s all that “other” stuff you’re probably not used to worrying about.</p>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-13433731318979517722011-03-18T16:52:00.001-06:002012-02-01T01:09:37.124-07:00PatternCraft - Abstract Factory Pattern - Part 1PatternCraft is a series of video tutorials that use StarCraft references to teach Design Patterns.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/N8_wwa90tzM?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-27104577416933613442011-03-03T12:31:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.279-07:00Non-Coding Development Tools<p>If you’ve met me, you know I talk a lot about IDEs (I currently rave about <a href="http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/whatsnew/index.html?fromIndex">IntelliJ</a> to everyone I know). But while I have my IDE open all day, there’s a completely different set of trusty tools* I rely on to take care of the “other stuff”. If you think I’m missing something or that I’m raving lunatic, please call me out on it in the comments. (I use Windows 7 as my primary OS, so I’m sure I’ve missed great mac/*nix tools out there)</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.charlesproxy.com/"><img style="margin: 0px 50px 0px 0px; display: inline" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1166" title="charles" alt="" align="left" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/charles-150x150.png" width="150" height="150" /></a></p> <h4>Charles ($50 or less)</h4> <p><a href="http://www.charlesproxy.com/">Charles</a> is the savior of service inspection. If your app loads any data, then you need Charles to give you all the info you could ever want about what’s going on behind the magic curtain.</p> <p>The feature set never ceases to amaze me: saving out all the load files, comparing two different services responses, redirecting requests to a different domain, etc, etc, etc. It’s really worth every penny.</p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.sos.powerflasher.com/"><img style="margin: 0px 50px 0px 0px; display: inline" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1162" title="sosmax" alt="" align="left" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/sosmax-150x150.png" width="150" height="150" /></a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <h4>SOS Max (Free)</h4> <p>Debugging and profiling are extremely important to any development process. But logging is the best way to find out what’s really “going on” in your app. FlashBuilder, FDT, Intellij, etc all have a “console” that can display traces if you’re already debugging, but <a href="http://www.sos.powerflasher.com/">SOS Max</a> let’s you have all your logs display in a separate open window even if you’re not debugging. It even allows you to log Flash, Java, and PHP all in the same window and filter the logs based on regex.</p> <h4> </h4> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/default.asp"><img style="margin: 0px 50px 0px 0px; display: inline" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1165" title="snagit" alt="" align="left" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/snagit-150x110.png" width="150" height="110" /></a></p> <p></p> <h4>Snagit ($50 or less)</h4> <p><a href="http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/default.asp">Snagit</a> makes the process of sending someone a screenshot awesome. If someone is asking me about a visual issue, I just hit “print screen”, select the screen/area/page I want to capture, use the Snagit editor to crop/add arrows/add notes, and then send as an email/ftp/whatever all in the fastest, easiest, and most powerful way I can imagine. I love tools that do their specific job well and I honestly think Snagit takes care of the screenshot process perfectly.</p> <h4> </h4> <p><a href="http://getfirebug.com/"><img style="margin: 0px 50px 0px 0px; display: inline" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1167" title="firebug" alt="" align="left" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/firebug-150x150.png" width="150" height="150" /></a></p> <h4>Firebug (Free)</h4> <p>Everyone already uses <a href="http://getfirebug.com/">firebug</a> already, right? Right.</p> <h4> </h4> <h4> </h4> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.cthing.com/Meazure.asp"><img style="margin: 0px 50px 0px 0px; display: inline" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1160" title="MeazureFull" alt="" align="left" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/MeazureFull-150x150.gif" width="150" height="160" /></a></p> <h4>Meazure (Free/Windows only)</h4> <p><a href="http://www.cthing.com/Meazure.asp">Meazure</a> is one of those old-school powerhouse tools that look like crap, but does exactly what it claims. This tiny tool will give you a complete overload of measuring information for anything on screen (which is a good thing) and also allows you to fine-tune your selection with zoom levels, rulers, grids, and the kitchen sink.</p> <p>(I think meazure and Snagit should get married and give birth to a screenshot/measuring/visual info titan.)</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.voidtools.com/"><img style="margin: 0px 50px 0px 0px; display: inline" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1168" title="everything" alt="" align="left" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/everything-150x150.png" width="150" height="150" /></a></p> <h4>Everything (Free/Windows only)</h4> <p></p> <p></p> <p>“<a href="http://www.voidtools.com/">Everything</a>” is the ultimate windows search tool. It will instantly find any file on your hard drive and even let you use wildcards in your searches. I simply don’t use the regular Windows search anymore because this is so much better.</p> <h4> </h4> <h4> </h4> <p><a href="http://www.ntwind.com/software/vistaswitcher.html"><img style="margin: 0px 50px 0px 0px; display: inline" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-1169" title="vistaswitcher" alt="" align="left" src="http://johnlindquist.com/wp-content/uploads/vistaswitcher-150x150.png" width="150" height="150" /></a></p> <p></p> <p></p> <h4>Vista Switcher (Free/Windows only)</h4> <p><a href="http://www.ntwind.com/software/vistaswitcher.html">Vista Switcher</a> is just alt-tab, but waaaaaaaaaay better. (Ignore the “vista” part in the title, because it works perfectly on Win7 too)</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <h4>Others</h4> <p>There are plenty of other awesome tools out there that I use, but only occasionally (I use the list above pretty much daily):  Notepad++, Cygwin, putty, AutoHotkey, winscp, Camtasia, and some others that I can’t think of right now ;)</p> <p>*Intellij actually has great ftp/version control/etc and other plugins related to the “coding workflow”, so I don’t mention any of the alternatives here because I just don’t use them.</p>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-48234010440142820172011-02-28T12:35:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.558-07:00Quickstart for Molehill and Away3D*NOTE* - this is a TEMPORARY patch to get you up and running as quick as possible. To stay up-to-date with the latest Flex SDK and Away3D releases, please follow their announcements.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/GrZjDqpJkIU?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>1. Install the flash player 11 "incubator" runtime: <a href="http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplatformruntimes_incubator.html">http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplatformruntimes_incubator.html</a><br/><br/>2. Download the following files:<br/>Flex SDK 4.5.0.19786 (this is a link to a new page where you have to agree to terms, then download): <a href="http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/download?build=4.5.0.19786&pkgtype=1">http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/download?build=4.5.0.19786&pkgtype=1</a><br/>flashplayer_inc_playerglobal_022711.swc: <a href="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplatformruntimes/incubator/flashplayer_inc_playerglobal_022711.swc">http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplatformruntimes/incubator/flashplayer_inc_playerglobal_022711.swc</a><br/>molehill_away3d_patch.zip: <a href="http://j0hn.org/molehill/molehill_away3d_patch.zip">http://j0hn.org/molehill/molehill_away3d_patch.zip</a><br/><br/>3. Extract the flex sdk<br/>4. Copy/paste the flashplayer_inc_playerglobal_022711.swc into your sdk's framework/libs directory<br/>5. Copy/paste the files from molehill_away3d_patch.zip into the sdk to overwrite the necessary files.<br/><br/>What is the patch doing?<br/>The patch includes an away3d.swc, an updated flex-config.xml to always set -swf-version=13, and an updated index.html.template to always set wmode="direct"<br/><br/>Why should I patch the sdk?<br/>This is only for molehill prerelease dev work to make the setup process a little easier. Adobe will eventually release an updated sdk and tools that will make this patch irrelevant.johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-64438526570155693012011-02-10T23:15:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.711-07:00PatternCraft - Null Object Pattern - Part 1PatternCraft is a series of video tutorials that use StarCraft references to teach Design Patterns.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cCzVGK3fkos?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-86848155539949766932011-02-09T01:35:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.844-07:00PatternCraft - Chain of Responsibility - Part 3PatternCraft is a series of video tutorials that use StarCraft references to teach Design Patterns.<br/><br/><a href="http://github.com/johnlindquist/johnlindquist.com/tree/master/ChainOfResponsibilityDemo">Source</a><br/><a href="http://j0hn.org/swf/ChainOfResposibilityDemo.swf">ChainOfResponsibilityDemo.swf</a><br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EtR2dVXdVGo?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-26836511050558199172011-02-05T07:47:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.268-07:00ActionScript Challenge #3What is the value of pew?<br/><br/><script src="https://gist.github.com/812492.js?file=gistfile1.as"></script>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-6416070341446842872011-02-04T17:14:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.706-07:00ActionScript Challenge #2What's the value of foo?<br/><br/><script src="https://gist.github.com/812051.js?file=gistfile1.as"></script>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-74324079166984556742011-02-04T16:18:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.775-07:00PatternCraft - Chain of Responsibility - Part 2PatternCraft is a series of video tutorials that use StarCraft references to teach Design Patterns.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8aESixq2FWA?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-13920499236064089922011-02-03T21:25:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.132-07:00ActionScript Challenge #1What is the value of get?<br/><br/><script src="https://gist.github.com/810734.js?file=gistfile1.as"></script>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-55995031099695143922011-02-02T21:50:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.628-07:00How it Works - Robotlegs - Part 4The "How it Works" video series explains how the inner details of popular libraries work so that you can use the same solutions in your own projects.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JHmSuv-PlD0?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-72404097259037918052011-02-02T17:28:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.754-07:00How it Works - Robotlegs - Part 3The “How it Works” video series explains how the inner details of popular libraries work so that you can use the same solutions in your own projects.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uwO7XAaSDzw?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-45859272743565809492011-02-01T13:05:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.547-07:00Quick updateThe "How it Works" series will focus on exploring the code in libraries you already know and love and breaking it down into tasty bite-size pieces. I'm tackling Robotlegs first (I've recently renamed the "Deep Dive" videos to "How it Works" videos, I'll probably save "Deep Dive" for more advanced uses of libraries) and then I'll move on from there.<br/><br/>Also, of note, this year I will be expanding my breadth of my tutorials beyond Flash to cover other web technologies as well. They will usually be based on what I'm currently working on at the time.<br/><br/>Lastly, you've probably noticed the last few videos are much shorter now. I've decided to break videos into more parts so that I can release them more often and focus on smaller pieces rather trying to push out 20+ minute videos out that you probably don't have time to watch.johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36543495.post-27978396534744126812011-02-01T12:34:00.001-07:002012-02-01T01:09:37.298-07:00PatternCraft - Chain of Responsibility - Part 1PatternCraft is a series of video tutorials that use StarCraft references to teach Design Patterns.<br/><br/><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="960" height="750" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O28YpB4fo18?hd=1" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe><br/><br/>Source available here: <a href="https://github.com/johnlindquist/johnlindquist.com/tree/master/ChainOfResponsibility-ATM">https://github.com/johnlindquist/johnlindquist.com/tree/master/ChainOfResponsibility-ATM</a>johnlindquisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11109256250219992848noreply@blogger.com3