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- November 23, 2005
Getting OOP to Speed with AS2
November 23, 2005Read more“How to explain things to those new to Flash who are still putting code on buttons” is one of the framing statements in Ben Jackson’s article on Teaching OOP that really nails where new coders are coming from. Putting actions on buttons is kind of like learning how to draw a frog: a new ActionScripter learns how to make things happen right away, but creating a larger program requires the ability to compose and coordinate many things together, as allowed by the available programming tools…
- November 22, 2005
How To Draw a Frog
November 22, 2005Read more
M. sent me this link on How To Draw a Frog. It’s a 12-step process, illustrated with clear photos. You’ll be drawing frogs in no time! Check out mine!
As I was following the directions, I was struck by how something so simple could be so satisfying. Once you have the basic Frog algorithm mastered, it’s easy to expand into fat frogs, skinny frogs, tall frogs, large frogs, frogs in trees, frogs dancing, frogs sleeping, and so forth. The possibilities are mind-boggling! Frogs wearing hats! Frogs driving cars! Frogs baking cakes and having birthday parties!
For about an hour I felt like a little kid again, aglow with the joy of being creative just for the sake of it. Not once did I stress about scowling clients, or fret over the expressive quality of my lines, or worry about not capturing the “essence of Frogginess” with masterful strokes of color. Instead: Frogs running the Boston Marathon! Frogs hanging upside down from church steeples! Hee hee!
Thanks M. for the link…you rock! :-)
P.S. The rest of the eHow site is pretty cool too…it’s a community wiki filled with all kinds of step-by-step how-to articles.
- November 22, 2005
Explaining Actionscript 2.0 Classes without OOP
November 22, 2005Read moreA friend of mine, just getting into more advanced programming topics in Macromedia Flash, asked me what classes were.
“That’s an excellent question!” I beamed, pleased at the opportunity to share some hard-won knowledge. “They’re useful for constructing object hierarchies–“
“What are objects? And why are there hierarchies of them?”
“Well, you can model a problem as a series of interconnected objects…”
“Huh? Why? Where do you put them? Are they files?”
Uh oh.
- November 20, 2005
Menu of the Day
November 20, 2005Read moreI’m having one of those days where I’m feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of cool project ideas floating around in my head, and the mental thrashing is causing a drop in productivity. I could haul out the old Pickle Jar, but that’s a device more useful for long-term idea storage, not projects that I would like to do in the next couple of weeks.
I started to unstick myself by borrowing a ritual from Iron Chef Rokusaburo Michiba.
- November 18, 2005
Optimizing and Procrastination
November 18, 2005Read moreThis has been a great week. It kicked off with surprise tickets to a real basketball game in Boston (Celtics versus Sonics), which was super fun and enlightening. Watching a game at court-level is a completely different experience from TV; you really get a sense of the speed, precision and adaptability of the players. A little of that energy rubbed off on me for the rest of the week, as I humped it through project work, had great client meetings, and fulfilled some long-standing personal engagements. I got an extra boost on Tuesday, when I got my every-six-week haircut at what is now my favorite place in Danvers; afterwards I went to the mall and got great service from the female store staffers. I realized that they were admiring my haircut as I followed their eyes. And if that wasn’t enough, I lost five pounds this week without even thinking about it. It’s been a very productive week on many levels.
Today, however, I realized that there’s possibly another level of productivity I could attain, after talking with a friend about personal identity.
