Developer Scratch Pad

This morning I fixed the problem with the router

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 13:21:55 -0400

I replaced it. I had the old one laying around, so I switch the new modem/router for a modem and a router setup. I was able to reach the nginx server. That makes me pretty happy.

Ideas for the rogue server

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 23:27:39 -0400

* Mostly static content

* an interactive fiction fanzine

Updates on tonight's goal

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 23:24:13 -0400

So, I can’t host a webserver because the internet mode/router sent from my isp won’t let me log in. I gave up on getting support after 17 minutes went by after told by the queuing service that I had an expected three minute wait. Yes, windstream, you suck.

I did created an octopress site and went through the basic installation and configuration. The set up to github pages doesn’t seem to have worked. Also, in the local machine, it seems that there is no template set up.

Time for me to go to bed.

I should also run that rogue web server

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:59:01 -0400

Okay, let's learn how to use octopress tonight

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 18:55:25 -0400

Getting control over a blob in canvas

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:31:06 -0500

So today I pondered on what I wanted to do. And although I could keep working on it without any graphics, I decided that it would probably be very cool if I could get a rectangle moving around. And since I had to learn how to do this, why not learn how to do it in canvas? year ago I had moved around an image using the dom, but canvas seems to be the better tool for this kind of work.

I found a tutorial, I copy and adjusted the right things, and now I have a rectangle that I can move around. That makes me very happy :)

Working on next game

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:15:44 -0500

So I finished the development on the other game. These were the things that I learned:

1. I love the minimalistic UI. You can get stuff done more quickly

2. The art part is my greatest weakness. It will derail the project

For February I am being more ambitious. I am going to try to create a simple RPG-style game with 2-dimensional movement. In fact, I got the movement programmed right now, and so the basic talk mechanism. I am also going to work on it with a minimalistic page UI

Day 6, making artwork

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 07:35:36 -0500

so I am at the point of making artwork. This is the hardest to me since I spent many years as a teenager drawing. I haven’t drawn in years, so I am not that good at it anymore, yet my expectations are greater. So on day 6 I was working on the hands. These are hard in 8-bit.

Day 5, one game a month

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:40:45 -0500

No programming today. I spent the day working on artwork. The game right now has the first opponent, the boss opponent, a buggy mechanism to cycle through each opponent, and ending conditions. I am at the point where I can transition to making the game graphical.

I drew the main character and then I created a series of opponents, which in reality are the same character with different cloths and hair color. I need to create the boss, the background, and the hands with rock paper scissors and the scoreboard.

On other news, thanks to this project I have been getting ideas about other games.

The next I will attempt to make a rhythm game where you can actually use a musical instrument to play the coming chords notes. It may be too ambitious. We will see.

Day 4 on a game a month

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 23:05:31 -0500

I added another opponent. The boss, actually: the random strategy for Rock-Paper-Scissors. I learned that if one starts with double the amount of money, the chances that the player will win by consistently playing the game are pretty high.

Third day of RPS

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 01:03:25 -0500

I added the mechanism to advance to another level and for this to display on the screen.

Second day on rock paper scissors

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 18:40:57 -0500

Today I have spent more than 30 minutes because I had a little of time, and it was fun.

So now I have reorganized the game to fit in a table, I added the storyline, and I added a game winning condition. I also have refactored the procedural program first into functions and then into an object. I am in the process of getting the basic functionality back. I have to troubleshoot the outcome. I may be getting to the end of today’s session.

After I am done bringing back the basic functionality I believe I will begin using bdd to keep moving forward.

I am doing the game in a month challenge

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:06:30 -0500

Yet I don’t have time at all. Not only do I not have time, but I am in semi-burn out mode. So how will I handle it?

Easy: make a lame game. Because it is more important to participate and try a little than shoot for the stars and hit nothing.

I even decided on a name for my endeavor: Lame Games Studios. The first game that I will work on is Rock Paper Scissors. Actually, I already finished it. I can play the game. From this point until the end of the month I will be improving it, 30 minutes a day.

I should share how over the top lame version -0.21 is. I should put it in github to share its lame glory.

How to start minecraft in windows on a lan with unique name

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 10:40:08 -0500

java -Xms512m -Xmx1024m -cp “%APPDATA%\minecraft\bin*” -Djava.library. “%APPDATA.minecraft\bin\natives” net.minecraft.client.Minecraft “dopey

The workflow

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:20:45 -0500

Here are two simple practices that I want to start.

The first one is to work off a virtual machine locally for every project that I have. This should make it easier to share work, and should keep the speed of development up. Ideally I would learn about puppet or chef, but having an imperfect virtual machine beats nothing.

The second one is to use cucumber more aggressively. Even if the tests won’t be that good when compared with unit tests, just having a guiding test is better than nothing. It helps to focus. Ideally I will set up some web testing workflow, but, again, starting with anything is better than nothing.

Fun task for today: learning how to use require.js

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 14:40:40 -0500

When I scanned quickly on the toolset for JavaScript, I found that require.js was mentioned often. Having lived through a project that had JavaScript library hell, require.js seems attractive. I started setting up my personal project using require.js, but it was already late, so I had to stop. I am going to attempt to get a basic version going tonight.

JavaScript: underscore.js

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 15:20:43 -0500

I remember going to a conference where a person told me about underscore.js . He told me it was this handy library that had a bunch of missing properties from JavaScript. He also claimed that it made JavaScript more functional in practical use.

I finally got to use it yesterday. He was right.

JavaScript: using null as a placeholder in object properties

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 14:40:40 -0500

I ran into this use for null while BDDing a personal project.

I wanted to create a placeholder property, test that it wasn’t assigned correctly, and then give it the right initial assignment. But when I ran the test, it said that the property didn’t exist.

Well, after a few tries, I attempted to set the property to null. And then it worked. Now, I don’t know exactly how this is working, since I didn’t find this issue in the standards, or how it is implemented, but in practical terms if one fails to give a property a value, it will not be created.

So the easy work around is to set the property to null. Then the property will be created and available for use.

Below is code that shows the difference between not assigning a value and assigning null;

    function Storm(){
      this.type;
      this.name = null;   
    }

    function metaphysicalCheck(name, theObject){
        var message, doesOrDoesNot = '';

       if (!(name in theObject)){
           doesOrDoesNot = "doesn't";
        }
        message = "'" + name + "' "+ doesOrDoesNot + " exists in tropicalStorm";

        alert(message);   
    }


    var tropicalStorm = new Storm();
    metaphysicalCheck("type", tropicalStorm);
    metaphysicalCheck("name", tropicalStorm);

JavaScript: hoisted functions

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 15:20:33 -0500

I learned this one last night reading “OOP in JS”

So, when you declare a function in JavaScript using the function keyword, all of those functions will get hoisted to the top of the scope. What the hell does that last sentences means?

What it means in practical terms is that you can use a function within an object in Javascript before you declared it.

 var funkyMarshmallow = new Marshmallow("funky");
 var tummy = eat(funkyMarshmallow);

 function eat(junkFood) {
    if (funkyMarshmallow  
}

Javascript: The value and uses of null

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:40:47 -0500

In C# and other related languages null mean a variable that hasn’t been assigned yet. Not so in JavaScript. When a variable hasn’t been set yet it has the value undefined. Undefined is different from null. So what is null? And what is it used for?

It has to do with scope. A variable set to null is known in the scope. Undefined means that the scope doesn’t know of the existence of the variable.

When is it used?

For climbing the prototype chain Prototype can either be set to an object or to null. Once you reach the null value, JavaScript will stop looking for a variable or method through the prototypes of the object.
To keep placeholder properties in an object. When creating properties with this, if you don’t set it to null, it will not be available.
Assigning a property to null will keep the property in JSON. If the property is undefined, it is erased from the object. Related to the previous one.
One source claims that the setting a variable to null will tell the garbage collector to pick it up. This doesn’t appear in ECMA document, so it may be implementation specific.
Semantic difference. One source says that the difference between null and undefined is semantic: values set to null are values that the programmer intentionally set to nothing. Anything else is set to undefined

Funky facts * Converting null to Number returns +0 !! * typeof null returns “object”

I wish that there is some source that gets the inventor of the language explaining why he decided to add undefined and null.

References: http://saladwithsteve.com/2008/02/javascript-undefined-vs-null.html

http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/Ecma-262.pdf

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/801032/null-object-in-javascript

http://www.gibdon.com/2006/05/javascript-difference-between-null-and.html