Well, 2011 is officially coming to a close. It was an interesting year, that’s for sure. I rounded up a few blog entries that I posted that I thought were aggregating into a quick post. They cover: presentations, tools, books and more. Some Flex, some HTML5 and some Arduino. Hope everyone has a safe and awesome holiday season and new year. Here’s looking to 2012!!

Personally most of my year was spent learning more about Custom Flex 4 Component dev, RobotLegs, TDD, Mocking, Architecture and Arduino. I’ve been doing a TON of research into the HTML5/JS space and also native Java development dev for Android specifically targeting the Kindle Fire and Nook. Expect to see some blog posts on that stuff in the near future.

In addition to my dev life I also create and produce music. I released three albums in 2011. You can check those out here:

Sean Moore – All I Wanted (EP)
http://soundcloud.com/seantheflexguy/sets/sean-moore-all-i-wanted-ep/

Sean Moore – Love Life
http://soundcloud.com/seantheflexguy/sets/sean-moore-love-life/

Sean Moore – Some Old Choonz I Made
http://soundcloud.com/seantheflexguy/sets/sean-moore-some-old-choonz-i/

I’d also like to thank Stray and Omar Gonzales for all of the guidance and help throughout the year. I’ve learned a TON from you guys. Thanks so much for your time and help. It’s dearly appreciated.

25+ Brand New HTML5 and JavaScript Books for Web, Mobile, iOS, Android and Game Development
http://bit.ly/qsmg6g

MVC, IoC and TDD for JavaScript Development
http://bit.ly/qL6M6P

seantheflexguy Interviews 25 Flash Platform Developers
http://bit.ly/qstMWU

Sean’s Arduino Experiments (Roundup)
http://bit.ly/n0tExX

My Getting Started with Arduino and Flex/AS3 Development Presentation at FlexMania Brazil 2011
http://bit.ly/pau02R

Airgile a lightweight, easy to use project/task/defect management and tracking tool
http://bit.ly/ogrVn7

mongoAS3 – An ActionScript 3.0 MongoDB Driver
http://bit.ly/ndBern

Android User Interface Development: Beginner’s Guide
http://bit.ly/siRS8O

New Android Development Books for Flex 4.5, AIR, AS3 and Flash!!!
http://bit.ly/uc3JrQ

Intro to TDD and TDD Kata Presentation – Recording and Slides
http://bit.ly/lMd7Zm

BabelFX for localization of Flex applications
http://bit.ly/tyMG5B

Using Brainwave Data to Control an LED using AS3, AIR, Mindset BCI and Arduino
http://bit.ly/t8oEKO

SourceMate plug-in for Flash Builder
http://bit.ly/snXJzV

name: Paul Robertson
age: 36
employer: Dedo Interactive, Inc.
location: Plano (north Dallas) Texas

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?
When I was a kid (9? 10?) my dad brought home a Commodore 64, and I started messing around with simple BASIC programs — just simple scripts and things copied out of books (that usually didn’t work). I took a couple of years of computer science classes in high school, one year of BASIC on Apple IIs (including an animated scene of santa’s sleigh landing on a roof — my first real graphics programming) and one year of Pascal.

In college I needed to work to pay for school. I applied for a job at the campus bookstore, and the computer sales positions paid a little better than the others so I went for that. After six months or so there was an opening for a clerical assistant in the “inside sales” office at the bookstore. Technically the job was supposed to be data entry in FileMaker Pro database forms, but with my natural inclination to try to make things easier, I learned scripting in FileMaker Pro so I could automate as much of my work as possible. I guess that was my return to programming.

Ironically I have two college degrees but neither one is in computer science. I worked as a programmer through all those years to pay for my school…then I ended up working as a developer after I graduated.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?
After the college bookstore I started working at the university’s “international center” doing general tech support, data entry, and eventually HTML and data-driven web pages. One day (in 1998) my coworker said “you’ve got to see this” and showed me a flash animation. I was blown away. I downloaded the Flash 3 trial and started learning Flash animation. Near the end of my one month free trial I put together an animated tutorial that sold my boss on buying me a license, so that’s how I got started with Flash.

I took a university course on Flash the next year. I was pretty far ahead of the others in the class so I would just adapt the project requirements to push myself to do more. I started using a lot of scripting (using the fill-in-the-blanks Flash 4 “actions”). I built some of the typical things, e.g. animated drop-down menus and navigation controls. Back then it was a breakthrough in code re-use to put actions on an empty frame and use tellTarget. How things have changed!

I remember one crazy project I did at work using Flash to print mailing labels. They had just come out with a dot release of Flash 4 that gave improved printing control, allowing you to print content that wasn’t actually visible on-screen. We wanted to be able to print mailing labels by pulling addresses from a database that was connected to our web site. I made a SWF whose visible content was nothing but a “print” button, but behind the scenes it loaded data (probably using FlashVars) then looped over the data (using an actual frame loop on the timeline) to generate and print pages of mailing labels. Wow, what a hack that was.

I found Fig Leaf’s Flashcoders mailing list during that time, and that was my eye-opening introduction to the amazing Flash developer community that eventually made me want to focus full time on Flash platform work.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?
Sometimes. I use it almost universally on personal projects, especially libraries. At work I use it occasionally when I’m building something that functions like a library (e.g. the service layer of an app) but not as much as I would like to.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?
I’ve attempted to use Cairngorm, Mate, and PureMVC. I use (and *love*) Robotlegs.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?
Yes. My employer is a consulting company focused on touch-based application development. Much of our work targets large form factors (e.g. tables with touch screen surfaces) but not surprisingly our clients have asked us to do tablet (and a little phone) work as well. Often these are “companion” apps where the tablet communicates with the table.

Most of our work is pure ActionScript 3. I built a couple of tablet apps with Flex-like functionality but they were targeting iPad back when Flex didn’t target iPad (only a year ago, how long it seems) so we just used a mix of open source and in-house controls. However, now that Flex is catching up it’s more of an option. At MAX I taught a lab on developing iPad apps with Flex.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?
I’m a code editor fanatic and I try just about every new editor I hear about — especially if they have a free trial/beta =)

For years I used FlashDevelop as my primary editor. I had come from Visual Studio and FlashDevelop was (and still is) the closest thing to Visual Studio in terms of code hinting and code completion. However, I switched to a Mac almost two years ago and FlashDevelop didn’t run well enough in a VM to use. At that point I switched to Flash Builder for daily work.

A year ago I tried IntelliJ during their free betas. I liked it but I also had a few concerns with their development process — how they choose what features to include and exclude — and it’s still missing a couple of features that are critical for me. So when it came time to actually pay, I couldn’t justify the cost to myself.

At the same time, Flash Builder 4.5 was in development and it has gone through huge improvements in terms of coding productivity (and they continue to make improvements). So I’m still using Flash Builder as my main editor — I’m just a lot happier about it now than I was 18 months ago. =)

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?
I use git at work and for personal projects, and I use a GUI called SmartGit to help with that. When I do SQLite work (which is fairly often) I use David Deraedt’s “Lita” for database creation/management and my own tool called “Run!” for authoring and testing SQL. When I am doing hairy RegEx work I use Grant Skinner’s RegExr. At my work we often use Flash Pro to create asset libraries. I regularly use Fireworks for creating graphics. I also spend a fair amount of time with pen, markers, and paper doing sketches and brainstorming.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?
Way too many to list. But I will anyway. This is my short list =)

For news I follow Flash Platform product managers and accounts like:
@thibault_imbert
@Flash_Platform
@air
@ashorten
@RobChristensen

A couple others who seem to always know about news first are:
@JosephLabrecque
@MatthewFabb

A few of my favorites for great tutorials are:
@cantrell
@devgirlFL
@jasonsj_adobe
@renaun

These are some of the people who I find most inspiring-yet-down-to-earth:
@jhooks
@JeffBNimble
@davidortinau
@stray_and_ruby
@destroytoday
@richard_lord
@joshtynjala
@kristopherjoseph
@robpenner

Finally, I try to follow people from web/UX/design industries, even people with “different” viewpoints (i.e. not Flash lovers) as long as they’re not obnoxious about it. Some of my favorite people from non-Adobe communities are:

@lukew
@mediumjon
@odannyboy
@cameronmoll
@boltron
@mixonline
@Coleran
@littlebigdetail
@thegodfounder
@theresaneil

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?
I attended and spoke at 360|Flex in April — my fifth 360|Flex as a speaker. It’s a great conference and I look forward to it every year. I also got to speak at MAX this year, which was exciting and a great learning experience.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?
are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?
I combined these questions since they’re really one and the same for me.

My favorite open-source project is Robotlegs. I’ve contributed a couple of small patches to the project. I’ve built a few examples, gave a couple of presentations on Robotlegs at 360|Flex, and I’ve been working on an extension. I also follow the discussion forum closely and try to answer questions regularly.

I also have a few open source libraries and projects of my own making. There’s a list here:
http://probertson.com/projects/

I worked for Adobe for four years, mostly with the AIR team, and I was heavily involved in the SQLite feature so a lot of my projects relate to that.

The one that’s gotten the most traction is my SQLRunner library that makes it easier to work with SQLite databases, especially in terms of not having to write so many events and optimizing performance.

As I mentioned above, I have written (and released) a tool called “Run!” that’s an authoring tool/editor/testing tool for SQL code for AIR/SQLite.

A few years ago I also contributed some bug fixes and a few minor features for David Deraedt’s “Lita” app. Now that he’s open-sourced it, I plan to someday implement some ideas I have for that app. Someday.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?
It’s kind of sad and disappointing, yet fairly typical, for a technology to succeed in becoming most popular even though it’s not the best tool. We who have been through ActionScript 1, and have moved on from there, know about the problems it faced. I’m sure many of them have been resolved in JavaScript, yet at the same time I don’t see the same great tools, frameworks, and patterns for JS as I do for AS3. It’s very possible that I’m simply not in that community…but I have a suspicion that it’s because, for as popular as JavaScript is, the tools and patterns *don’t exist yet*.

And yet, although there have been many times that I’ve felt like I ought to just chuck everything and re-learn JavaScript…somehow I never have time because I’m just too busy with this ActionScript stuff.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?
For the few times I use Flex, I’m doing mobile work so I target the latest (4.5+).

what other programming languages do you know/use?
Currently use: SQL, minimal HTML/CSS.
Previously used: C#, ASP.NET, PHP, HTML, JavaScript

what do you do when you’re not writing code?
Mostly I spend time with my family — I am married and have three kids so that takes up plenty of time. When I can I like to watch movies (at home–I don’t really like theaters). I enjoy photography and rock climbing but rarely get to do either one.

I used to do a lot of performing (acting/singing/dancing) in musical plays. That mostly stopped when I got married and had kids, but I occasionally get the bug and wish I was back on stage. Maybe someday I’ll actually do it again.

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?
I’ve pretty much always had development as part of my job, although I’ve enjoyed also doing other things along with it. In previous jobs I’ve done design work, taught training workshops, written documentation and tutorials, and been a general tech helper. In my current job my work is split between Interaction Design and coding.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?
I have a blog, http://probertson.com/
Since the advent of twitter I mostly use it for posting projects and presentation slides/notes. Back in May/June I wrote several articles about some of the cool new features in Flash Builder 4.5.

any questions i should add to this interview?
Maybe favorite vacation spots? Or where we’d like to live if we could live anywhere?

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?
My family (yes I’m cheating and using a collective noun)

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?
I like to listen to dance or instrumental music while coding. I particularly like video game soundtracks.

My most recent “discovery” is Lennert Busch (@lennertbusch). He composed the score for “Split Screen: A Love Story” — a short film that was making the rounds on twitter a few months back because it was shot entirely on a phone camera. I liked the score so much that I asked him if I could get it, and he very kindly sent me the mp3. I wanted to help him make money for his work, so I suggested he put it up on bandcamp.com, and he did:
http://lennertbusch.bandcamp.com/

what is your favorite animal?
Human

name: Eric Fickes
age: 36
employer: Association Technology Solutions ( www.atsol.org )
location: Arvada, CO

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?
When I was in grade school I dabbled with drawing programs. Logo on the Apple 2E, and I forget the program I worked with on the TRS-80 Color, but I’ll never forget loading code from a tape recorder. After loading, I’d mess around without the source code to see how I could change it, break it, then fix it. This might have been the time I first got hooked on electronic sounds. Sometimes I’d unplug the cassette deck from the computer and listen to the screeches. Early modem punk I guess.

I ended up working with computers after running out of money in college. My bands weren’t making any money at the time so I rolled down to my local temp agency and went to work. Doing temp work was quite an experience. I worked in a toy factory, did grunt work in offices, and even helped finish opening a movie theater. While I was a temp I’d spend every lunch break at the office taking CBTs until I landed a job for UPS at their new data center.

I didn’t really take computers seriously until college. Both of my parents worked with computers so it felt natural that I also worked with them. It’s not something I wanted to do, but figured computers are everywhere so I couldn’t go wrong.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?
I learned the Flash timeline back in 1999, stop();. Back then I was just learning how to do screen animations so I wouldn’t have to use PowerPoint in meetings.

It wasn’t until 2002 that I really started to program Flash while working for an eCommerce firm. We had all the typical widgets you’d expect : shipping, coupon codes, banner ads, etc.

I got into Flex 2 professionally in 2007.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?
I’ve done TDD in the past and liked it. It was always nice having unit tests to get an idea of what broke with that last update. However, TDD hasn’t really lent itself to the type of customers I’ve had over the last few years. I’ve done a lot of backend systems for creative agencies, webmaster type duties for local government, as well as general application maintenance and enhancement. Firms that have never heard of, or have any interest in using TDD because of their crazy timelines or limited budgets.

I’m planning on getting back into TDD for .NET at my new job. We’re in the process of moving to Team Foundation Server and I’m hoping our new workflow will include as much TDD as possible.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

Fusebox ( coldfusion )

jQuery, scriptaculous ( javascript )

Microsoft .NET

Adobe Flex, Cairngorm

HYPE ( Flash )

My favorites are HYPE and Microsoft.NET.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?
For all Microsoft development I use Visual Studio Ultimate, Professional, or Team Foundation.
I’m not huge on plugins, but the few that I use with Visual Studio :
- JetBrains ReSharper
- Sonic File Finder

For Flex development I bounce between FlashBuilder and FDT. I’d use FDT full time if it had a design view ( yes I said design view ).

For Flash I use Flash Pro. In the past I used Sepiroth’s SEPY, and later FlashDevelop for windows.

For Coldfusion I bounce between Dreamweaver and CFBuilder.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?
I use TextPad along with all of the IDEs mentioned above. From RegEx searching, to macros, to snippets, to color coding, TextPad is the stuff. Network sniffers – Tamper data for FF, Charles, WireShark.

Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE9+ all have great Developer Tools ( Opera has ALWAYS had great tools ). These come in handy when troubleshooting backend communication issues.

Homegrown tools. This one depends on the project, but I always end up writing a utility or two if the project is of any size. Sometimes it’s an AIR app that does log parsing, or even reads the Flash Player log file. If I’m doing a lot of database development, I’ll always have a script or two that generate code classes from database tables, or html forms from tables, etc.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?
Joshua Davis – @JoshuaDavis
FLASH!, My computer hero, skateboard homie, and the reason I’m still a programmer

Grant Skinner – @gskinner
Big flash brain. Grant needs no introduction.

Branden Hall – @waxpraxis
Possibly the smartest person I know.

Erik Natzke – @Natzke
Crazy designer. His work blows my mind.

Paul Robertson – @probertson
I always get a schooling from Paul on AIR and Databases. Unsure if there is a nicer person in the Adobe community than Paul.

Adam Lehman – @adrocknaphobia
He’s into shoes, good woodwork for Adobe, and he can take a flogging better than any Adobe employee I’ve met. I’m just a grumpy server coder and Adam still listens.

Nick Kwiatkowski – @quetwo
Nick is just a smart mother hubbard. Good Coldfusion and Flash Platform resource.

Phillip Kerman – @phillip
Honestly don’t remember when and why I started following Phillip, but I’m assuming it’s because this dude is funny. Probably because of Flash, although this video about the Adobe Updater is enough reason for me to follow Phillip – http://www.youtube.com/phillipk#p/u/1/IBkKBeVX9js.

Scott Janousek – @scottjanousek
Scott is a creative, and I love following creatives because I wish I could design.

Jesse Freeman – @jessefreeman
If you only know the Twitter side of Jesse Freeman, do yourself a favor and meet him in person. Smart cookie, shit talker, and knows exactly where to take you for lunch in NYC. I first started following Jesse because he’d bitch about things I liked to bitch about. Plus he doesn’t keep himself in a single technology bucket, which I always admire.

Joel Hooks – @jhooks
Robot Legs, Coder man, Family man, Skateboard photographer, and recently caught the Colorado bug. Every time I hang out with Joel I learn something new.

Michelle Yaiser – @MichelleYaiser
Race car driver, works for Adobe With the exception of skateboarding, Michelle can do everything I can do, only better. The night I met Michelle I put my hand in a bowl of hummus. It was hella smooth.

Kevin Suttle – @kevinSuttle
Creative, developer, super nice guy. Another one of the few creatives I know in the Flex community. Besides having a mutual love for DJ.Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Kevin is a cool cat. Often times I’ve feel bad because the few times I find something creative to share on Twitter, Kevbo already tweeted about it that morning.

Bob Wohl – @bwohl
I’m still bummed that I didn’t skate the Venice Beach skatepark with Bob when we were at MAX in 2009. Luckily Bob and I are still connected and we will be skating in 2012 when my knee is working again. I don’t need any other reason besides skateboarding to like and follow Bob, but you should follow him even if you don’t skateboard. He runs his local Adobe community, as well as contributes to Twitter regularly.

Brandon Ellis – @brandon_ellis
Another skateboarder I’m happy to be connected to in the community. Besides our love for skateboarding, Brandon schools me on music pretty often. Brandon does Adobe, but I don’t recall exactly what.

Tom Ortega – @LordBron
Tom and I love bacon. Tom and I have worked together. I can’t say enough good things Tom Ortega, except he didn’t know that Jimmy Page was “the Led Zeppelin guitarist”.

Ben Stucki – @benstucki
Ben is a big brain, hat fan, musician, and all around funny guy if you get him to talk. Ben is always doing projects that I wish I was doing with sound and low level things like ByteArray.

Leif Wells – @leifwells
Leif “Hawk Attack” Wells. Former Atlanta homie, now resides in Boston. If you’re in the Adobe community you probably know Leif. If not, he’s the community guy everyone knows and loves. If you haven’t met him yet, just go shake his hand and tell him Fickes sent you.

Jesse Warden – @jesterxl
Atlanta homie. Jesse needs no introduction, but always deserves a high five for the work he puts into his blog, conference presentations, etc. If you’re new to Adobe, or thinking about going independent, Jesse is a great resource to follow.

Joseph Labrecque – @JosephLabrecque
Denver homie, talks about Adobe from the education space. Joseph “La BBQ” is a fellow musician and speaker at Ignite Denver.

John Wilker – @jwilker
Denver homie, 360 Conferences, Community master, and cool dude. When I first moved to Denver and started attending our local Adobe User Group ( www.rmaug.com ), I immediately loved John because he was the only one that caught my 80s TV references. Plus, he has a massive GI JOE sticker on his macbook. Knowing is half the battle.

Jun Heider – @coderjun
Denver homie, developer big brain ( not just Flex ), guitarist for The Compilers. Jun and I have a very similar past with music and computers. Jun works for local Flex gurus Real Eyes Media. You’ll hear him talking about heavy flex and video stuff, as well as good music. Jun rocks.

Scotty Sheridan – @realeyesScotty
Denver homie, drummer for The Compilers, developer and blogger for Real Eyes Media. You’ll hear Scotty talking about Flex video, and good music. Scotty and I were both born in Wisconsin, so we’re the cheese behind The Compilers.

John Crosby – @jccrosby
Denver homie, former chef, partner at Real Eyes Media. I like John because he’s got the Adobe chops, but he’s also interested in just about everything internet like myself.

David Hassoun – @hotkeys
Denver homie, partner at Real Eyes Media, video master. David is my go to guy when I’ve hit a wall in Flex, especially if it’s around video.

Tony Hillerson – @thillerson
Denver homie, musician, owns a 12 string bass guitar ( or something ridiculous like that ). I’ve had the honor of being mistaken for Tony Hillerson ( and RJ Owens ) at more than one conference.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?
I just got back from the NiUG Annual Discovery Conference 2011 as an attendee. I’m new to the iMIS community and hope to do some sort of technical presenting next year, but I have nothing planned yet.

In 2012 I hope to attend Geeky By Nature, and 360 Flex.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?
I just wrapped up a project with Automata Studios that I’m pretty proud of. It was the “JOIN THE CONVERSATION” section of www.glassislife.com. I handled the flash data services, and the social network engine behind the scenes. None of the pretty shiny bits, just the data behind the scenes.

As for personal non paying work, I have two projects worth sharing : AirCloud and The Compilers.

AirCloud is an Adobe AIR powered web browser and track downloader for Soundcloud.com. Besides being a convenience tool, I wanted to see how easily I could parse JSON using only RegExp to extract my data. While it works great, I’m looking forward to writing the next version of AirCloud using native JSON support, as well as tapping into more of soundcloud’s api.

The Compilers is a musical project I started with Jun Heider ( @coderjun ) and Scott Sheridan ( @realeyesScotty ) back in 2009. Starting out as a cover band in a back room, we jokingly suggested we should be the house band for our local Adobe User Group ( www.rmaug.com ). Two weeks later we landed a gig opening up for Kevin Hoyt on his Adobe Next Generation tour which was promoting Flex 4 and Coldfusion 9.

At first we were a bit hesitant since we weren’t officially a band at the moment. However, it was this tech show that sparked our initial concept for the band. Being our first band in the internet era, we wanted to use technology to add crowd interactivity to our show, as well as make a fatter sound than just three dudes.

The first year doing the tech fusion thing was a lot of fun. Some of the fun applications :
- Sound visualizers
- Live tweeting via twitter and text to speech.
- Crowd interaction with mobile phone gateways
- Rovio robots on stage

All three of us still like the idea, but ultimately the software side of things burned us out. That’s when we decided to go on hiatus. As a musical unit we had the chemistry, but it really felt like the tank was just empty so we took a break. It’s very exciting to be practicing again, and we hope to start gigging in 2012.

Here are a few blog posts I did during our tech fusion period in case anybody is interested.

- http://ericfickes.com/2009/10/from-joke-to-adobemax-in-6-months/

- http://ericfickes.com/2010/06/its-official-the-flash-platform-rocks/

- Photo set from our concert / presentation at RMAUG
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.453094845897.237612.110943240897&l=b5860e1188

- Follow The Compilers on Twitter
http://twitter.com/thecompilers

Definitely check out Jun’s blog as well. He did a handful of kickass blog posts showing the work he did with Flex, Merapi, midi, and connecting to his guitar.

http://www.iheartair.com/?s=the+compilers

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?
I’ve done my time in the DHTML trenches and it wasn’t fun. The possibility of having HTML as a viable platform is pretty exciting, but I just see that happening anytime soon. I’m happy HTML is being worked on again, but I’m more interested in being a backend developer right now. For the most part I could care less what client I’m speaking to, the server just has to send data.

We’re in an interesting time for sure. Development on the web used to be totally centered around the browser, but these days it’s becoming more and more about the rendering engine.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?
My last big Flex project was 3.5 and being ported to 4.

The last job I was at we were on 4, but I was the Coldfusion guy there so I didn’t get my Flex on.

Right now I’m not doing any Flex work.

what other programming languages do you know/use?
C#, SQL, Coldfusion, Javascript

what do you do when you’re not writing code?
Skateboard – Colorado has over 100 public skateparks. Play bass guitar in The Compilers. Hang with my wife and kids.

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?
Temp Worker
Help Desk
Remedy Consultant

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?
I really appreciate all the love you’ve shown to me and the community through your blog, conferences, and social networking. You’ve got passion and fire that every community needs.
There aren’t many people in the Adobe the community that I’ve talked nerd with, skateboarded with, and played a concert with.

I’m stoked to have the ‘I know Sean’ badge.

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?
Favorite bands at the moment : Evol Intent, Bro Safari, Flash Bang Grenada, Pretty Lights, Mastodon, Skindred

Right now I’m listening to Spotify when I code. If I’m not in the mood for anything specific I’ll play my starred tracks, and eventually I’ll land on something specific.

what is your favorite animal?
Animal, the drummer for Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem

name: Mykola Bilokonsky
age: 28
employer: Self Employed Independent Consultant
location: Columbus, OH

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?
My earliest memories all have computers in them – my dad and my uncle were both early adopters and into technology from way back. I remember being very young and using a mouse for the first time on a Macintosh computer that my uncle brought over, and I distinctly remember feeling (in my 3? 4? year old head) that it was too hard to use and would never catch on and that keyboards just made more sense.

Programming just kind of came naturally the way it will to a kid who has computers around his whole life – one day you realize that someone must have made that game you’re playing, and you want to know how that happened. So I remember going to the local library and getting this big hard-cover introduction to BASIC when I was maybe 7 or 8 and learning about how basic computer logic worked, and I thought it was really neat – and then I kind of stopped pursuing it after that, for years. I’m not sure why.

But in my early teens I got the bug again with the advent of the web, and I was viewing sources on all my favorite sites and figuring out how to assemble these things. I took the single programming class (C++!) my high school had to offer and I remember that my teacher didn’t really understand what “classes” were, and told us so, and explained that we weren’t going to be learning them. So it was a semester of basic logic and problem solving, then nothing.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?
One day there I was in my mid-twenties having just completed my undergraduate education in English and Japanese. I was working a job at the university (it was my student job, just formalized into a salaried position) when I decided I wanted to try something new. At first I started to get back into HTML/CSS front end development that I remembered from my teenage years (and from an internship I had in Japan in college, where I worked on the company’s website), but I started messing around with Flash for work because they needed a video player. I realized that it just ran the same in every browser and knew right then I was never going to sign up to write CSS again.

I played with it more and more in the spare time I had until I felt comfortable, then I went out and found some work contracting for a local agency. It paid way, way more money than I was making at the university, and I realized that I was pretty good at it and liked it. So suddenly I was a professional flash developer.

I worked as a salaried developer at two local shops before realizing that it made more sense economically to go independent, and I’ve never had trouble finding work since.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?
I had one false start with TDD – I started doing it and found that the estimate I had given was simply never going to work with the added time of learning TDD, so I had to stop in order to meet deadlines. My next project will be TDD with time built in to accomodate it.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?
Most of my early work was in advertising, lots of simple projects with quick turnarounds – and so for the longest time I didn’t use any frameworks. I got good at creating micro-micro-frameworks for each project individually, and to this day will do that for anything small.

I realized at some point, though, that I’d have to learn at least a few major frameworks to be able to build large projects and expand my client base, so I learned how Cairngorm and PureMVC worked before finally discovering RobotLegs.

RL is hands down my favorite, it manages to strike the right balance of opinionated framework / non-constrictive environment. It cuts down on a lot of boilerplate but still provides you with structure.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?
Nope. But I have a few project ideas backlogged…

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?
My go-to editor when I need to get something done is Flash Builder, but for the past few months I’ve been working for a client who uses IntelliJ IDEA and provided me with a license for internal team consistency. I have to say I really like some elements of IntelliJ IDEA, though I’m not sure if I’d kick Flash Builder out for it. It’s so quick and so clean – but lack of baked-in proprietary functionality leaves a bit to be desired.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?
Project I’m on right now is using Bugzilla + Maven + Pivotal Tracker. I’m not sold on Maven – I get what it brings to the table, but I’m not convinced that it does more good than harm at the end of the day. It takes so long to get it working correctly, and then if you need to upgrade or something you have to essentially crawl through lots of ambiguous documentation – much easier just to drop the damn .swc in the libs folder and be done, in my opinion.

I got into the habit of building little tools in AIR for any tedious action. Drag and drop data parsing, etc. Incredibly useful.

I use Fireworks to view creative assets and bring them in, of the various graphics programs it makes the most sense to me because the whole thing feels like it was built for developers, which is great.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?
Oh, the usual. Various Adobe team members, community “thought leaders”, etc. I also make it a point to follow HTML/JS community people as well, just so I can keep up with what’s going on in that world.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?
Not this year. I’d like to speak at some conferences next year, maybe on some AIR/Arduino workflow stuff?

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?
I build arduino stuff as a hobby, it’s cool to be able to make things in the real world and wire them up to the internet. Something about that just feels like magic to me. I’m still sort of an advanced beginner, but I’m learning!

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about? what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?
Well, right tool for right job, right? HTML isn’t going anywhere, and JavaScript just won’t die, so we might as well get used to them. I don’t lose too much sleep over the whole “debate” because I feel like it’s not really a debate.

I will say that I do not like JavaScript – lack of type safety, little nested anonymous closures everywhere, the tutorials all look like what I would normally think of as “bad code”. But the people writing them are apparently really smart, and they’re building awesome stuff, and so who am I to say their code is bad? It doesn’t really jive with my sense of how programming should look, but I’m incredibly biased from working exclusively on the Flash Platform.

Plus, more and more languages “compile” down into JS these days – so saying that you don’t like JS is sort of like saying you don’t like .swf byte code. The easy answer is, then don’t work with it directly. And I think we’re going to see more and more options open up that enable that sort of approach.

What I’d really like to see is a server-side Flash runtime that streams the display list to the browser via highly optimized javascript. We’re already seeing tools like Wallaby coming out that can render timeline animation to JS – seems like if you abstract out just the display list then you could eventually do that for any flash application, right? Someone go make that happen and we can stop arguing about HTML/JS/Flash entirely.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?
4.5. I’m relatively new to Flex, I hated it for a long time and then finally forced myself to use it. Now I kind of dig it.

what other programming languages do you know/use?
I’m primarily a Flash dude, but I have been known to sling some PHP or MySQL as needed. I’ve also been messing around with Python lately, primarily to help me with Arduino projects but also because once you look at Django you’ll never want to write PHP again.

Also, for all my bluster above about hating JS I have to say node.js is the fastest way I’ve seen to tie an Arduino to a custom codebase.

Also, I guess I do some C since that’s what the Arduino uses. And I’ve poked around in Java and ObjC.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?
I read, play video games, watch TV with my fiance (we still love you, Netflix, no matter what anyone says!), play with my cats. I recently got involved with a pretty cool space in the Columbus area called the “Columbus Idea Foundry” (http://www.columbusideafoundry.com/). It’s an art space / business incubator type place – lots of craftsmen and artists who work with advanced tools (there’s a blacksmith, they have a rocket scientist who hangs out there, they’ve got 3D printers, someone is building an electric car, etc) just hang out there making cool stuff all day. I’m a total noob there but I’m so impressed with the people and projects they have and I’m hoping to get more involved in the coming months.

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?
I was a media producer – I used to record events taking place at the university and put them online. The place I worked used RealMedia for everything for the longest time, and I first got into Flash when I pushed them to adopt it so that users could simply view videos in their browser (like that cool new YOUTUBE site!).

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?
I just want to say that I feel like I’m living the dream, learning cool stuff every day and doing what I love, and that wouldn’t be possible without the community floating around out there. All you fine folks on Twitter, G+ etc – you’re great, and I think it’s so cool that we live in a world where interesting people doing interesting things can easily talk about their passions in a single eternally digressing conversation. The Flash Community has been the most important tool I’ve had to get where I am, and I’m so thankful it’s out there!

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?
How can anyone plan for “forever”? I mean, it would have to be a self-charging laptop with a satellite internet connection, right? Let’s at least be civilized.

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?
My favorite artist is probably Nick Cave. His bands (both The Bad Seeds and Grinderman) put out stuff that manages to be rewarding on every listen. Lately I’ve also been enjoying the Fleet Foxes, and I’ve been getting into the Beatles a bit. I know that sounds weird, but I never really listened to much music growing up and so they’re kind of alien to me. I dig the hell out of the Flaming Lips record “Soft Bulletin”, but have a hard time with much of their more recent stuff.

what is your favorite animal?
The platypus, because it defies simple categorization.

State of Flash Developer Meeting on 11/09/2011 Quick Recap

Last night a bunch of Flash Platform developers gathered in a meeting room I set up on tinychat to discuss the events that happened on Nov 8th and 9th. The reason I started the chat was to get everyone into an open forum that was really by the developers for the developers. Liz Frederick posted to twitter that she would be available on IM yesterday afternoon to chat with people about their growing concerns and questions. I noticed she was on for a while but I personally didn’t have a chance to get in touch. That gave me the idea to start an open, mostly unmoderated chat with the developer community last night.

This chat/discussion wasn’t a meeting proposed by, sponsored by, managed by or run by Adobe . My intention simply to just get people together to discuss, yell, praise, whatever about the rumors and news from the last two days. I posted to twitter about the chat/discussion and no one replied or anything at all so I almost didn’t even do it. After seeing continued rumors throughout the afternoon and evening, one being that the Flash Authoring team was part of the layoffs I decided to start the chat up anyway. It turns out that despite no feedback on twitter a lot of people were more than willing to participate and join the chat. I just used tinychat because it allows anyone to talk by either using the chatroom, their webcam and/or mic. This approach had it’s strengths and weaknesses. One being the room kept getting interrupted by spammers. Tinychat was the only service I could think of that really offers the flexibility to let anyone talk. I didn’t want this discussion to be heavily moderated because in my opinion everyone should be given a chance to express their thoughts and concerns.

The discussion was NOT recorded. There is no transcript. I didn’t want there to be either. This discussion is a chance for developers to really start asking questions that they want and many NEED answered. Unfortunately there was SO much covered during the discussion that attempting to even really provide a transcript from memory isn’t an option.

A few things to note though are that Lee Brimelow and Thibault Imbert (from Adobe) were kind enough to join the discussion and help provide clarification in regards to some of the announcements (and rumors) going on over the last couple of days. They weren’t asked by me and I don’t believe they were asked by Adobe to join the discussion. They did it out of passion and to help provide information to the growing amount of concerned developers.

I do ask anyone, everyone that joined last night to provide any additional information about what was discussed. The main take away for me was that we need to at least clearly identify a concise list of concerns and questions. Then have another discussion like the one we had last night, maybe a little more organized and planned and then maybe either record that one or have someone take a consolidated list of notes for anyone that can’t attend to review later.

The bottom line is that there ARE a lot of people with a lot of valid concerns. I don’t think everyone has answers to these questions yet. I urge you to please try to post your questions in the comments of this blog entry. The key word here is concise. Think bullet points. Then we can gather these questions and go through them. I’m planning on hosting another discussion like we had last night this Friday afternoon. I may do it on Tinychat but I’m not sure yet. Just keep an eye on this blog post and my twitter account for details as they become available.

Thank you SO much to everyone that attended the discussion last night, voiced your opinion, asked questions, provided information, etc. I really had no idea so many people would join the discussion. There were close to 150 people in the chat at one point!!!

Here it is! The result of a ton of hard work, blood, sweat, emotion and tears. My full length album is ready for download! Thirteen songs, over fifty minutes of electronic, dubstep, jungle, downtempo music for your listening pleasure. The album is pretty light on vocal content so it’s great to throw on while you’re working, be it designing or programming.

Most of the tracks are what I guess could be called Dubstep. Some are Downtempo and others are Ragga Jungle. Some are all of that combined. It’s basically West Coast influenced, bass heavy, chopped up drums, breaks and vocals, hip hop’ish Dubstep laced with Ragga Jungle. To make things even more interesting some of the tracks are Dubstep and/or Downtempo remixes of Metalcore songs.

You can download a bundle containing the cover artwork and mp3 files here. The album is also available on soundcloud here.

Here’s the tracklist for the album:

Sean Moore – Love Life

1. It’s All Around Us
2. The Way The Cookie Crumbles
3. Take a Walk In My Vans
4. Move It Or Lose It
5. Make It, Break It, Take It Back
6. It’s Time For Something
7. Mouth Diamonds
8. DJ’s Don’t Need Skills, Nobody Cares (feat. Rachael Depp)
9. Los Abandoned – Heavy (Dubstep Remix)
10. Katy Perry – Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) (Dubstep Remix)
11. Eyes Set To Kill – World Outside (Dubstep Remix)
12. Eyes Set To Kill – Come Home (Downtempo Remix)
13. Everything But The Girl – Single (Dubstep Remix)

To show my dedication and belief in my album and music I got a tatt for the album release

Special thanks to Rachael for the vocal samples for track eight. Props to my brother for his help and collaboration on track seven. Thanks to everyone who’s shown support over the years in my musical aspirations and endeavors. Hope everyone enjoys the album!! Comments appreciated!!

FITC is VERY excited to be involved with RIA Unleashed! Guests and speakers from New England and throughout North America will be coming to the 5th Annual RIA Unleashed event this October. This popular, low-cost event is accessible to every budget, and last year’s event was a super success. Grab your ticket early to ensure your place within the thought leaders in RIA development. RIA Unleashed has some of the most unique and engaging presenters from the Rich Internet Application industry.

One full day of workshops, and one full day of presentations. Come for one or both! Over 20 presentations and 10 workshops!

More information can be found here: http://www.fitc.ca/events/about/?event=121

Here’s a whole gaggle of fresh and new books for mobile, game and web application development. This reading list is focused on HTML5/HTML, CSS3 and JavaScript. A number of these titles aren’t even published yet, so update you Wish Lists!! Also this list is killer for Christmas shopping. If your significant other is in the field of web, game or mobile development then look no further, there’s sure to be something here they’ll love!!

HTML5 Solutions: Essential Techniques for HTML5 Developers

Author: Marco Casario, Peter Elst, Charles Brown, Nathalie Wormser, Cyril Hanquez

HTML5 brings the biggest changes that HTML has seen in years. Web designers and developers now have a whole host of new techniques up their sleeves, from displaying video and audio natively in HTML, to creating realtime graphics directly on a web page without the need for a plugin. But all of these new technologies bring more tags to learn and more avenues for things to go wrong. HTML5 Solutions provides a collection of solutions to all of the most common HTML5 problems. Every solution contains sample code that is production-ready and can be applied to any project.

What you’ll learn

• Real-world solutions for everyday HTML development, saving hours of frustration. Problems covered include:
• Sending multi-bitrate videos to different devices
• Creating custom video components
• Programming a custom video controller
• Designing a canvas with custom gradients
• Capturing and drawing images
• Storing data offline using the Web SQL Databases
• Dragging data from the desktop into the browser
• Creating HTML5 WebSockets
• Who this book is for
• Web developers and designers seeking practical advice on making HTML5 sites work.

Table of Contents

1. HTML5 Page Structures
2. HTML5 Markup
3. Structural and Semantic Elements
4. HTML5 Forms
5. HTML5 Media Elements: Audio and Video
6. HTML5 Drawing APIs
7. HTML5 Canvas
8. HTML5 Communication APIs
9. HTML5 WebSockets
10. HTML5 Geolocation API
11. HTML5 Local Storage
12. HTML5 Accessibility

Creating HTML5 Animations with Flash and Wallaby

Author: Ian L. McLean

Publisher: O’Reilly Media (September 14, 2011)

Creating standards-compliant animations for the Web just got a lot easier. With this concise guide, you’ll learn how to convert Flash animations into HTML5, using Wallaby—the experimental tool from Adobe. Wallaby makes Flash content available for devices that don’t support Flash runtimes, including the iPhone and iPad. Developing HTML5 animations is time-consuming with all the coding required. This book shows you how to create compelling content for HTML5 environments with relative ease, whether you know Flash or not. After a quick introduction to simple animation building with Flash, you’ll learn how Wallaby helps you convert those animations into HTML5 code.

• Learn how to create a simple Flash animation, using Flash Professional CS5
• Become familiar with the Flash Library, Stage drawing canvas, and animation Timeline
• Take the right approach to building a complex Flash animation for HTML5
• Get performance tips to optimize animations for desktops and mobile devices
• Use simple JavaScript and CSS code to place the Wallaby animation in a web page
• Add interactivity to your HTML5 animation with jQuery

Author: Andrew Lunny

Publisher: Packt Publishing (September 23, 2011)

This is a step-by-step guide written in an informal, friendly style, for beginners to learn building cross-platform mobile applications with PhoneGap. You will find plenty of fully explained code and ample screenshots in the book to ease and speed up your understanding. This book is for developers, ideally with web development experience, who are interested in developing for the emerging mobile market, but do not want to learn a new SDK for every phone on the shelf. Readers should be comfortable with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, and interested in learning the new advances in those technologies that allow for rich, native-style experiences.

Beginning PhoneGap: Mobile Web Framework for JavaScript and HTML5

Author: Rohit Ghatol

Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (November 14, 2011)

PhoneGap is a growing and leading open-source mobile web apps development framework that lets developers build JavaScript and HTML5-based web applications with native wrappers for more than six mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, and BlackBerry. This framework lets you build HTML- and JavaScript-based apps and still take advantage of native mobile device capabilities like camera, localStorage, geolocation, storage and much more, irrespective of the mobile platform you target. It also lets you use more specialized JavaScript frameworks like jQuery Mobile and more. Beginning PhoneGap is a definitive, one-of-a-kind book that teaches the fundamentals and strategies behind cross-platform mobile application development. Instead of learning languages like Objective-C, focus on building apps from day one for Android, iOS, Blackberry, WebOS and Symbian—without the complexities of these platforms. This book shows how to build apps like the ones on Facebook and Twitter, and add cool features—like uploading photos straight onto Facebook or syncing contacts. Store Facebook wallpaper and Twitter tweets for online access. Furthermore, you’ll learn how to extend PhoneGap’s functionality by using PhoneGap plugins to write apps like Dropbox (syncing files in the background outside HTML/JavaScript code and in native code). By the time you finish Beginning PhoneGap, you’ll know PhoneGap inside and out, and, consequently, be able to develop mobile web apps faster and more efficiently than ever before. Make more money in less time! This book offers an examples-based approach on how to build PhoneGap-based HTML and JavaScript that integrates device features like geolocation, camera, storage, and more.

• To understand mobile web applications development using the PhoneGap framework
• How to build simple apps for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, WebOS and Symbian
• The differences in capabilities across various mobile devices
• How to integrate other popular mobile JavaScript frameworks to build user interfaces in PhoneGap
• All the major features in PhoneGap, like geolocation, camera, media, storage, and more.
• How to build apps like those you find on Facebook and Twitter, using PhoneGap
• How to extend PhoneGap using the PhoneGap plugin development framework
• How to publish your PhoneGap apps in various app stores and markets

Learning jQuery, Third Edition

Author: Jonathan Chaffer, Karl Swedberg

Publisher: Packt Publishing; 3rd New edition edition (September 23, 2011) Step through each of the core concepts of the jQuery library, building an overall picture of its capabilities. Once you have thoroughly covered the basics, the book returns to each concept to cover more advanced examples and techniques. This book is for web designers who want to create interactive elements for their designs, and for developers who want to create the best user interface for their web applications. Basic JavaScript programming and knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. No knowledge of jQuery is assumed, nor is experience with any other JavaScript libraries.

Head First jQuery

Author: Ryan Benedetti, Ronan Cranley

Publisher: O’Reilly Media; Original edition (September 29, 2011)

Want to add more interactivity and polish to your websites? Discover how jQuery can help you build complex scripting functionality in just a few lines of code. With Head First jQuery, you’ll quickly get up to speed on this amazing JavaScript library by learning how to navigate HTML documents while handling events, effects, callbacks, and animations. By the time you’ve completed the book, you’ll be incorporating Ajax apps, working seamlessly with HTML and CSS, and handling data with PHP, MySQL and JSON. If you want to learn—and understand—how to create interactive web pages, unobtrusive script, and cool animations that don’t kill your browser, this book is for you.

• Use jQuery with DOM to overcome the limitations of HTML and CSS
• Learn how jQuery selectors and actions work together
• Write functions and wire them to interface elements
• Use jQuery effects to create actions on the page
• Make your pages come alive with animation
• Build interactive web pages with jQuery and Ajax
• Build forms in web applications

Head First HTML5 Programming: Building Web Apps with JavaScript

Author: Eric T Freeman, Elisabeth Robson

Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 18, 2011)

HTML has been on a wild ride. Sure, HTML started as a mere markup language, but more recently HTML’s put on some major muscle. Now we’ve got a language tuned for building web applications with Web storage, 2D drawing, offline support, sockets and threads, and more. And to speak this language you’ve got to go beyond HTML5 markup and into the world of the DOM, events, and JavaScript APIs. Now you probably already know all about HTML markup (otherwise known as structure) and you know all aboutCSS style (presentation), but what you’ve been missing is JavaScript (behavior). If all you know about are structure and presentation, you can create some great looking pages, but they’re still just pages. When you add behavior with JavaScript, you can create an interactive experience; even better, you can create full blown web applications. Head First HTML5 Programming is your ultimate tour guide to creating web applications with HTML5 and JavaScript, and we give you everything you need to know to build them, including: how to add interactivity to your pages, how to communicate with the world of Web services, and how to use the great new APIs being developed for HTML5. Here are just some of the things you’ll learn in Head First HTML5 Programing:

• Learn how to make your pages truly interactive by using the power of the DOM.
• Finally understand how JavaScript works and take yourself from novice to well-informed in just a few chapters.
• Learn how JavaScript APIs fit into the HTML5 ecosystem, and how to use any API in your web pages.
• Use the Geolocation API to know where your users are.
• Bring out your inner artist with Canvas, HTML5’s new 2D drawing surface.
• Go beyond just plugging a video into your pages, and create custom video experiences.
• Learn the secret to grabbing five megabytes of storage in every user’s browser.
• Improve your page’s responsiveness and performance with Web workers.
• And much more.

Foundation HTML5 Animation with JavaScript

Author: Billy Lamberta (Author), Keith Peters

Publisher: friendsofED; 1 edition (October 24, 2011)

Foundation HTML5 Animation with JavaScript covers everything that you need to know to create dynamic scripted animation using the HTML5 canvas. It provides information on all the relevant math you’ll need, before moving on to physics concepts like acceleration, velocity, easing, springs, collision detection, conservation of momentum, 3D, and forward and inverse kinematics. Foundation HTML5 Animation with JavaScript is a fantastic resource for all web developers working in HTML5 or switching over from Flash to create standards-compliant games, applications, and animations that will work across all modern browsers and most mobile devices, including iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. You will learn how to utilize the amazing animation and physics-based code originally created by author Keith Peters in his hugely successful Foundation ActionScript Animation in all of your HTML5 applications. In no time at all, you’ll understand the concepts behind scripted animation and also have the ability to create all manner of exciting animations and games.

• All the JavaScript and HTML5 code (including math and trigonometry functions) you’ll need to start animating with code
• Basic motion principles like velocity, acceleration, friction, easing, and bouncing
• How to handle user interactions via the keyboard, mouse, and touchscreen
• Advanced motion techniques like springs, coordinate rotation conservation of momentum, and forward and inverse kinematics
• All the basic 3D concepts you’ll need for 3D in HTML5 (without WebGL)—from simple perspective to full 3D solids, complete with backface culling and dynamic lighting

Pro iOS Web Design and Development: HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript with Safari

Author: Andrea Picchi

Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (November 14, 2011)

With Pro iOS Web Design and Development, you’ll design websites and develop web applications for iPhone and iPad using web standards deployed with Apple’s Safari browser. Utilizing the very latest web and mobile technologies and releases, this book shows every web professional how to use HTML5 to do the heavy lifting, CSS3 to create the look and feel, and JavaScript to add program logic to their mobile sites and Web applications. In addition, you’ll learn how to address the specific features made available through Apple’s iPhone OS, especially with regard to designing Web-based touch-screen interfaces. Pro iOS Web Design and Development will help you deliver rich mobile user experiences without compromise by optimizing your sites for WebKit and Safari, the de facto standard for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

• Design an optimal website for the iPhone, iPad, and/or iPod touch
• Use web standards to develop professional sites on Apple’s key platforms
• Use HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript
• Take advantage of Apple’s multi-touch screen technology in your Web apps
• Usability testing for mobile websites and Web apps
• Maximize Web standards for Apple’s Mobile Safari and why this is important for Web developers and designers

Node: Up and Running: Scalable Server-Side Code with JavaScript

Author: Tom Hughes-Croucher

Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 1 edition (November 30, 2011)

This book introduces you to Node, the new web development framework written in JavaScript. You’ll learn hands-on how Node makes life easier for experienced JavaScript developers: not only can you work on the front end and back end in the same language, you’ll also have more flexibility in choosing how to divide application logic between client and server. Written by a core contributor to the framework, Node: Up and Running shows you how Node scales up to support large numbers of simultaneous connections across multiple servers, and scales down to let you create quick one-off applications with minimal infrastructure. Built on the V8 JavaScript engine that runs Google Chrome, Node is already winning the hearts and minds of many companies, including Google and Yahoo! This book shows you why.

• Understand Node’s event-loop architecture, non-blocking I/O, and event-driven programming
• Discover how Node supports a variety of database and data storage tools
• Learn best practices for writing easy-to-maintain code for Node
• Get concrete examples of how to use the various Node APIs in practice
• Take advantage of the book’s complete API reference

Programming HTML5 Applications: Building Powerful Cross-Platform Environments in Javascript

Author: Zachary Kessin

Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 1 edition (November 30, 2011)

Move beyond simple site creation and build web applications with HTML5 that can compete with desktop apps and run on mobile devices. This practical guide shows you how HTML5′s JavaScript APIs give you the power to take web development into many fields that used to require platform-specific development—particularly mobile deployment. You’ll not only discover how to take advantage of local storage, geolocation, multithreaded processing, and flexible network connectivity with HTML5, you’ll also learn many ways to make application development with JavaScript more powerful.

• Learn how HTML5 will bring about a radical change in web browser applications
• Get details about powerful toolkits that will help you program in JavaScript more efficiently
• Discover powerful aspects of JavaScript that you may not be aware of, such as closures, lambda, and functional programming
• Learn how HTML5 lets your applications store data in the browser so that you’re not bound to the server
• Take your app offline, and explore how an offline application cache can speed up page loading when the app is online
• Use HTML5 Web Workers to create multithreaded applications with JavaScript
• Make your application mobile through geolocation and other HTML5 elements
• Learn a new way to communicate between the browser and a server with web sockets

HTML5 Cookbook

Author: Christopher Schmitt, Kyle Simpson

Publisher: O’Reilly Media (November 30, 2011)

Dive deep into the latest HTML5 features that really make the language shine—everything from markup semantics to Canvas, web forms, application protocols, and the latest JavaScript APIs. With more than 100 practical tips and techniques that you can use in your projects right away, the HTML Cookbook helps you experience HTML5′s versatility firsthand. Each informative recipe includes a code solution, along with a detailed discussion into why and how it works. And each chapter has an example design to showcase the topics presented. This handy book is perfect for intermediate to advanced web and mobile web developers ready to take advantage of HTML5 immediately, with recipes on the following topics:

• Basic web syntax
• Progressive HTML5 markup techniques
• Geolocation
• Web forms
• Canvas
• Audio and video
• Microdata
• Advanced JavaScript APIs

HTML5 Graphics with SVG & CSS3

Author: Kurt Cagle

Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 1 edition (December 22, 2011) Want to create exciting HTML5 graphics without spending eternity in JavaScript? You can! This provides a basic overview of the two declarative languages bound to HTML5 – CSS 3.0 and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). The decision to incorporate both has to do with the fairly tight relationship that SVG has with CSS and with HTML and the desire to focus on a book that provides only moderate JavaScript code usage. SVG is now supported in all contemporary browsers with the release of SVG support in Internet Explorer 9.0, meaning that it has now reached a point where web developers can make use of its power. This piece provides a jumping off point for developers who want to use SVG in HTML5.

Beginning Android Web Apps Development: Develop for Android using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and More Web Standards

Author: Jon Westfall, Rocco Augusto

Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (November 30, 2011)

With Beginning Android Web Apps Development, you’ll learn how to apply HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Ajax and other Web standards for use on the Android mobile platform, by building a variety of fun and visually stimulating games and other web applications! If you’ve done some basic web development, and you want to build your skills to create exceptional web apps, you’ll find everything you seek in the discussions and examples in this book. Each application you’ll build in Beginning Android Web Application Development will show you solutions that you can apply to many of your own projects. Each example shares techniques and coding solutions that will inspire your own work. You’ll learn how to tie your Android apps into Twitter through two apps that you’ll build: Who’s that Tweet?!, a quiz game based on celebrity accounts, and I Love Ham, a coding investigation into search phrases and rhyming. Your Android web app development skills will then proceed in another direction, as you discover the power of HTML5 in two game apps: Scavenger Hunt, which introduces you to the HTML5 GPS location API, and Spies!, a location-based application that shows you how to use CSS3, Ajax, and HTML5 within multi-player environments. You’ll also create an Android web application which checks the arrival time of buses and light-rails through the use of Portland, Oregon’s open Tri-Met data API! This app is a great template for other apps you may want to build in the future, and showcases the important techniques for incorporating cloud-based apps into web games. After reading Beginning Android Web Apps Development, you will have built real apps and developed along the way the skills you’ll need to create highly interactive, professional web applications… and, your journey will be engaging and enjoyable!

• Coding solutions that you can use time and again in your own Android web apps
• Key methods and techniques for contemporary Android web app development
• How to take full advantage of CSS3 in the mobile environment and how to handle a multitude of screen resolutions
• How to build feature-rich user interfaces with navigation, colors, and professional styling
• How to add audio and video for highly interactive sites
• How to optimize Ajax within your site
• How to access and use the HTML location API
• How to integrate JavaScript and JavaScript frameworks into your site

Core HTML5: Volume 1: Canvas

Author: David Geary

Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1 edition (January 9, 2012)

Core HTML5, Volume I: Canvas, takes a code-fueled, no-nonsense, deep dive into one of HTML5′s most exciting APIs by showing you how to:

• Draw and paint
• Apply shadows, patterns, and gradients
• Manipulate images
• Create smooth animations
• Implement video games
• Develop custom controls
• Process video in real time
• Use off-screen buffers
• Monitor and increase performance
• Do lots of other cool graphics stuff

Clearly and succinctly written, with real world examples containing code that you can use in your own applications, this guide to Canvas will take you rapidly up the Canvas learning curve, and open a whole new world of possibilities in your browser. The book also comes with a companion website, http://corehtml5canvas.com, which provides access to the book’s source code, videos about HTML5 Canvas, and live demonstrations from the book.

Beginning Web Applications: With HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript

Author: Robert Diana

Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (January 16, 2012)

Beginning Web Applications With HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript shows how to use the new web standards to create rich applications that go beyond what previous technologies allowed. By following the examples in the book, you will learn how to use these new standards in real-world applications, instead of just reading a dry reference manual. These real-life uses of the new HTML tags, WebSockets, and Canvas give you the foundation you’ll need to build larger applications of your own. Learning how to apply the new standards will prepare you for the future of web development, regardless of what platform your users are on—desktop, tablet, or even smartphone. Follow examples using the new semantic structure, form validation, WebSockets, and client-side storage. Learn how to make your applications shine with CSS3 and new multi-column and flexbox layouts. Add interactivity to your applications using the Drag-and-Drop, Editing, and Canvas APIs.

• How to use new HTML5 structure tags like sections and navigation menus
• How to make use of more client-side data with application caching and WebStorage
• How to talk to a server application asynchronously with WebSockets
• How to design the structure of a page using the new CSS3 multi-column and flexbox layouts
• How to add interactivity to applications more easily with the Drag and Drop and Editing APIs
• How to create graphics using Canvas and SVG

Beginning iOS Application Development with HTML and JavaScript

Author: Richard Wagner

Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (January 18, 2012)

Web developers with HTML/JS skills will quickly learn to apply them to the iPhone/iPad platform Beginning to intermediate web developers who want to apply their existing HTML/CSS/JS/Ajax skills to the wildly popular iPhone/iPad OS will love this book. In the highly successful Wrox Beginning format, it enables developers who know these core technologies to use what they already know and get up to speed quickly. It introduces iOS development with web technologies, explains how to enable and optimize web sites for the iPhone and iPad, explores user interface design, then moves into animation, special effects, building with web frameworks, and much more.

• Teaches you to apply your knowledge of HMTL, JavaScript, and related web technologies to the iOS platform and create apps for the iPad and iPhone
• Explains how to enable and optimize web sites for the mobile screen, design an effective iPad and iPhone UI, and apply CSS
• Covers building in interactivity, animation, and special effects, programming the canvas, offline, apps, bandwidth performance and optimization, and web frameworks
• Shows you how to package your app inside a native iOS wrapper (no programming required) so you can submit your apps to the App Store

Developers who already know HTML and JavaScript can get up to speed on iOS app development more quickly with the help of this Wrox guide.

Professional jQuery

Author: Cesar Otero

Publisher: Wrox; 1 edition (January 24, 2012)

A complete, in-depth look at jQuery If you’re looking for a single resource that completely encompasses jQuery and related technologies, then look no further. This authoritative guide dives right into exploring jQuery, the leading framework used for standards-based, client-side web development. You’ll discover how jQuery is structured so that it can be used to accomplish a wide range of tasks and you’ll learn how to integrate jQuery into your web pages. The authors provide helpful lessons and valuable examples so that you can get a firm grasp on how best to maximize the capabilities of jQuery.

• Begins with a look at where to access the latest version of jQuery and reviews a number of useful tools to help get started with this popular framework
• Describes how to manipulate DOM elements, work with HTML forms, and create visual effects
• Covers working with AJAX and JSON
• Explains techniques for using and developing jQuery plugins
• Details developing jQuery for mobile devices

You’ll quickly see for yourself why jQuery is rapidly growing in popularity as developers are looking to build sites that are fully functional today and can handle the technologies of tomorrow.

HTML5 Games – Creating Fun with HTML5, CSS3 and WebGL

Author: Jacob Seidelin

Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 24, 2012)

Discover new opportunities for building 2D and 3D games with HTML5 The newest iteration of HTML, HTML5 can be used with JavaScript, CSS3, and WebGL to create beautiful, unique, engaging games that can be played on the web or mobile devices like the iPad or Android phones. Gone are the days where games were only possible with plugin technologies such as Flash and this cutting-edge book shows you how to utilize the latest open web technologies to create a game from scratch using Canvas, HTML5 Audio, WebGL, and WebSockets. You’ll discover how to build a framework on which you will create your HTML5 game. Then each successive chapter covers a new aspect of the game, including user input, sound, multiplayer functionality, 2D and 3D graphics, and more.

• Aims directly at a new way to develop games for the web through the use of HTML5
• Demonstrates how to make iOS and Android web apps
• Explains how to capture player input; create 3D graphics; and incorporate textures, lighting, and sound
• Guides you through the process of creating a game from scratch using Canvas, HTML5 Audio, WebGL, and WebSockets

By the end of this invaluable book, you will have created a fully functional game that can be played in any compatible browser or on any mobile device that supports HTML5.

Modern JavaScript: Develop and Design

Author: Larry Ullman

Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (January 26, 2012)

No description available at this time.

jQuery Mobile: Up and Running

Author: Maximiliano Firtman

Publisher: O’Reilly Media; 1 edition (January 31, 2012)

Build websites and apps for touch devices such as iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry with the recently developed jQuery Mobile library. This introductory tutorial shows you how. Learn the best way to apply this library’s many interface components through a series of hands-on exercises. By the end of the book, you’ll have built a complete working mobile application for multiple handset and tablet platforms using just semantic HTML5 code. jQuery Mobile: Up and Running teaches you how to create responsive, Ajax-based interfaces that work on tablets as well as smartphones, so you don’t have to rebuild everything for different platforms. You don’t need programming skills or previous experience with jQuery or HTML5 to get started. This book shows you exactly what you need to know.

• Understand how jQuery Mobile, HTML5, and CSS3 work on smartphones and tablets
• Build a single project for a variety of platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Firefox, webOS, and Internet Explorer
• Convert web content built with jQuery Mobile into apps ready for sale and distribution in every application store
• Learn how to create HTML5 semantic code prepared for mobile and tablet devices
• Work with jQuery Mobile components, form elements, list views, and themes

Pro jQuery

Author: Adam Freeman

Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (February 15, 2012)

jQuery is one of the most popular and powerful JavaScript libraries available today. It’s widely used to create rich user experiences and to simplify website and application development. It is the tool of choice for web developers everywhere and sets the standard for simplicity, flexibility and extensibility. In Pro jQuery, seasoned author Adam Freeman explains how to get the most from jQuery by focusing on the features you need for your project. He starts with the nuts and bolts and shows you everything through to advanced features, going in depth to give you the knowledge you need. Getting the most from jQuery is essential to truly mastering web development.

• Understand the capabilities of jQuery and why it is special
• Use the core of jQuery to enrich HTML, including tables, forms and data displays
• Use jQuery UI to create rich and fluid user experiences
• Use rich interactions such as drag and drop, sortable data and touch sensitivity
• Use jQuery Mobile to create touch-enabled interfaces for mobile devices and tablets
• Extend jQuery by creating custom plugins and widgets

Each topic is covered clearly and concisely, and is packed with the details you’ll need to learn to be truly effective with jQuery. The most important features are given a no-nonsense, in-depth treatment, and chapters contain examples that demonstrate both the power and the subtlety of jQuery. This book is for working developers who want to learn about jQuery in detail. Quick refreshers of HTML and CSS are given to help you get up to speed, but a good working knowledge of the basics is assumed.

Learn HTML5 and JavaScript for iOS: Web Standards-based Apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Author: Scott Preston

Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (February 15, 2012)

You have a great idea for a simple mobile web app. Or, you have a great idea for a complicated mobile web app. Either way, Learn HTML5 and JavaScript for iOS will help you build, fine-tune, and publish your app for iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Scott Preston will walk you through building a mobile web app from scratch using real-world examples. You’ll learn about design considerations, mobile web frameworks, and HTML5 features like animation and graphics using Canvas. You’ll also learn how to customize your app for a variety of platforms, and you’ll explore testing and performance tips for your app. Get an overview of HTML5, JavaScript, and mobile web frameworks Discover tips for iOS usability as well as performance Dig into features like images, animation, and even geolocation

• HTML5 features
• JavaScript and JavaScript frameworks overview
• How to design for usability
• How to work with Canvas
• How to customize your iOS app depending on device and operating system
• How to integrate with services like voice and messaging
• How to test and optimize your app

Quick & Easy HTML5 and CSS3

Author: Rob Crowther

Publisher: Manning Publications (February 28, 2012)

HTML and CSS are the foundation of the web, and HTML5 and CSS3 are the latest standards. Anyone who builds web pages, mobile apps, or does any type of development at all, must master these languages. Quick & Easy HTML5 and CSS3 is written for the web designer or developer who wants a fast, example-oriented introduction to the new HTML and CSS features. After a quick review of the basics, the book moves quickly into building real pages in HTML5. Learn how to seamlessly integrate audio and video with HTML5, then add some style with new CSS3 features such as drop shadows, borders, colors, gradients and backgrounds. Discover how to target specific devices with media queries, and do all of it with less code. Finally, walk through several large examples that demonstrate how HTML5 and CSS3 working together can produce responsive and lightweight applications.

Mobile HTML5

Author: Estelle Weyl, Maximiliano Firtman

Publisher: O’Reilly Media (February 29, 2012)

If you’re a web developer looking to move into the mobile space, or a mobile developer seeking ways to build apps that work on several mobile platforms, this book shows you how HTML5 can provide the solution you need. With Mobile HTML5, you’ll quickly become familiar with HTML5′s many new APIs, and understand how they work in the mobile environment. Though it seems counterintuitive, HTML5 is easier to use in mobile development than it is for desktop browsers. Learn how to use audio, video, and graphics within the bandwidth and screen constraints of mobile devices, and discover how HTML5 interacts with JavaScript and CSS3. Whether you’re building mobile apps or developing sites that target mobile browsers, HTML5 helps you take full advantage of this rapidly expanding environment. This book shows you how.

Programming Node.js

Author: Travis Swicegood

Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf (March 6, 2012) Node.js opens up the world of building scalable servers to the average programmer. While it used to take intimate knowledge of the kernel, a firm understanding of the various I/O libraries, and an awareness of the physical hardware your code was going to run on, now all that’s needed is Node.js, an understanding of JavaScript, and this book. Programming Node.js is the developer’s premier guide to Node.js, teaching you how to use the toolkit provided and introducing you to the Node.js landscape. This book starts off with a survey of the concepts of Node.js before diving into the deep end and building a real application to solve a real problem. Over the course of this book you’ll learn how to take a Node application from its inception all the way through releasing a project. From building simple command line tools, to custom HTTP servers, to dealing with databases, Programming Node.js teaches you not only Node’s APIs, but how to think in Node.

Pro Android Web Game Apps: Using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript

Author: Juriy Bura, Paul Coates

Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (March 18, 2012)

Pro Android Web Game Apps is a hands-on guide to building browser games for Android devices. The book covers both the theory and the practice of browser game development, from the very first steps to a complete multiplayer game with a rich graphical engine, complex logic and a powerful server. Oriented to Android devices, the book shows you how to use the full potential of this promising platform in your own projects. No other books are necessary to write your own commercial-grade games. The only languages that the reader must know are HTML and basic JavaScript—everything else is explained in detail and illustrated by examples. You don’t need any other platforms knowledge; even your server-side programming is done with JavaScript. Start with a blank HTML page and create a massive, multiplayer online game at the end of the book!

• Focus on Android—utilize the full power of the world’s fastest-growing mobile platform
• Hands-on approach
• Build five exciting projects while learning web game apps development for or on Android
• Use cutting-edge technologies to make a real 3D engine in your browser, connect to a server, and make your game social and viral
• How to set up your development environment, run applications, debug and profile code
• How to work with graphics and animations in browser
• How to handle events and user input, and understand the portable device input models
• How 3D engines work
• How to develop or work with servers for online game apps
• How to work with the algorithms behind game apps development for the web

Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja

Author: John Resig, Bear Bibeault

Publisher: Manning Publications; Original edition (March 28, 2012)

In Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja, JavaScript expert John Resig reveals the inside know-how of the elite JavaScript programmers. Written to be accessible to JavaScript developers with intermediate-level skills. This book takes readers on a journey towards mastering modern JavaScript development in three phases: design, construction, and maintenance. It first establishes a base of strong, advanced JavaScript knowledge. The book then teaches readers how to construct a JavaScript library. It examines all the numerous tasks JavaScript libraries have to tackle and provides practical solutions and development strategies. It then presents the various maintenance techniques required to keep their code running well into the future. With Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja readers will gain the knowledge and Ninja-like skills to build their own JavaScript libraries, or to understand how to use any modern JavaScript library available. What’s inside:

1. Introduction
2. Testing and debugging
3. Functions
4. Closures
5. Function prototypes
6. Timers
7. Regular expressions
8. With statements
9. Code evaluation
10. Strategies for cross-browser code
11. CSS Selector Engine
12. DOM modification
13. Attributes and CSS
14. Events
15. Ajax
16. Animation
17. Performance

Learning jQuery: A Hands-on Guide to Building Rich Interactive Web Frontends

Author: Ralph Steyer

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (May 11, 2012)

jQuery is the easiest way for web developers to add advanced JavaScript interactions and effects to their sites. That’s why it’s become the world’s #1 JavaScript library. And it’s why more than 30% of the world’s top 1,000 websites now use jQuery – including leading sites like Google, Amazon, Twitter, Bank of America, BBC, ESPN, CBS News, Digg, Reuters, IBM, Netflix, Dell, and Oracle. Learning jQuery is the quickest, most efficient way for web developers to master jQuery. Unlike competing books, this code-rich tutorial can serve every working web developer, not just experts. Ralph Steyer clearly explains the basics, and walks readers step-by-step through applying jQuery in many everyday web development tasks. Through practical examples, he covers all this, and much more: * Adding CSS effects and creating animations * Designing multimedia slideshows and lightboxes * Understanding and using jQuery plugins * Creating sortable lists, drag and droppable elements, and resizable images * Building interactive forms with Ajax * Using and creating jQuery plugins * Building mobile front-ends with jQuery Mobile Practical, hands-on, and easy to understand, Learning jQuery will help readers quickly use what they’ve learned. Steyer integrates coverage of the latest jQuery features and add-ons into every chapter, helping developers get even more out of jQuery by leveraging the community’s most innovative new resources.

name: Phillip Kerman

age: 1965

employer: self

location: Portland, Oregon

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?

When I attended Rochester Institute of Technology I took several courses outside the Photography school. The College of Applied Sciences and Technologies had a small “multi-slide” production department which occupied “energy house” (which was some kind of showcase home). Anyway, this department was run by some passionate folks who exposed us students to such engineering marvels as manual cut/splice reel-to-reel audio and special-effect slides (doing things like glows using layers of acetate). The mid-80s seems so long ago now. Anyway, at the time AVL was a company that produced the state-of-the-art computer controls for slide projectors. Basically, they controlled when to advance the slide and how fast to fade in or fade out the lamp. I produced one show (using two projectors—though it was common to set up banks of many more projectors pointing to the same, nearly seamless, screen)… but you recorded the slide-change points onto a track of the audio that would keep synched. I guess that wasn’t 100% computer programming—but we had slightly behind state-of-the-art tools. I did do an internship in the summer of 1987 for a slide show production company in Portland “Creative Media Development”. They had an MS-DOS-based AVL computer set up so I got to (really) “program” that. At the time I was more interested in being a camera operator (mechanical and computer controlled cameras for advanced special-effect slides). At the time, generating slides 100% on computer was beginning to compete with mechanical means. You’d do your Photoshop effects like glow or blur by moving a precision camera, doing multiple exposures, etc. The computer generate slides were almost always mail ordered because writing the slide required super expensive equipment. You could use software to create slides, but it was a better value to have a service produce the actual slides. Wait a second, maybe I misunderstood the question. Did you want to know how old I was?

The first “real” programming I did was when I hooked up with a company called “The Human Element” in Cincinnati. They were into a software called Authorware (later acquired by Macromedia) which used a flow-chart metaphor to let you build your application. The Human Element produced very high quality computer based training with rich graphics and video/animation. They also sold the idea that our clients could be taught to maintain the programs we built. So, we taught them Authorware. It’s worth noting that a lot of tools have the promise to make non-programmers into programmers ‘without any code’ but I can personally attest to the fact Authorware could be taught to a certain kind of learner… and if they could map out their ideas they could “program” using visual icons. I’m talking about sophisticated stuff. Anyway, I became an expert in Authorware (version 1.7) and returned to Oregon to work on my own—at first doing ONLY Authorware and then expanding into Director (at version 4) and finally into Flash. Now I guess I get to do JavaScript though, really, there are tons of emerging opportunities.

Finally, it might be interesting to note that in college I had one programming course in Pascal. My main accomplishment in that course was that I got one program to compile! It didn’t work, mind you—but it compiled!

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

I watched Flash 2 and 3 grow up via my strong involvement with Macromedia. But it wasn’t until version 3 that I started to really use it because I had a course teaching it! (Note: a great way to learn something is to try to teach it.) When Flash 4 came along I helped an agency “Paris France” by programming the 1999 M3 snowboard site. That site got a lot of (good) mileage and exhibited what looked like video inside Flash. Anyway, it wasn’t until Flash 5 that it really gave me more work than Director. I wrote a book about Flash 5 (another good way to learn) and then when Flash 6 added video you could see that the Director ship had set sail. Not terribly different than how Flash is changing today.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

Not as much as I should I suppose. I sort of do it without knowing—like writing scripts to proof my code and such. But, I also don’t do too many huge projects. I suspect once I really get into it it’ll change the way I work but, no, I’ve only done it on two projects—both of which were pretty big (like a year on the calendar) and both involved more than one programmer.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

I’ve played with a few, but in Flash I’ve used none of them. I suppose there are some custom foundation frameworks I’ve had to use when a client needed—like when developing games for MSN Messenger, you live inside their framework.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

Yes. First, “mobile web” is simple: fallback to Flash. If you’re a super human or want to require modern browsers, then I guess doing ANY Flash is questionable. But, my recent experiences have been that you just do it in Flash… and then you re-do it in JS/CSS for Mobile Safari. Flex—never used it. AIR for mobile: yeah, I did some performance testing and exploration making a few little apps for Android. Obviously mobile is the future but I’m beginning to wonder if all this mobile work is sort of like sex in high school (that is, many people talk about doing it but few are). I just do what my clients ask for so maybe I just don’t hang with the right folks.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

I use FDT.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

I’ve only had to figure out GIT recently—but I still like SVN… I’ve touched ANT and figure for multi-platform builds I’d have to get that working better. I also write my own tools quite often to automate part of a project (sometimes in Director just because of my familiarity). Other than that, I use a paper and pencil and comfortable chair away from the computer to map out my programming. It’s a good approach for me.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

You can easily join my online community via twitter or google+ and you’ll see the usual suspects. I do have a lot of admiration for the work of Brandon Hall, Grant Skinner, Joshua Davis, and Keith Peters—MANY OTHERS of course too. What’s really interesting is that I’m constantly made aware of folks who do crazy-good work but never really get out in the community. The point being that if you’re hanging out at a conference thinking “now THESE folks know their shit” it’s not like they don’t—but there are likely many others who are just as knowledgeable but just don’t get out much… or hang in the same circles.

I do think the Flash community is great and I get a lot of value out of it—but there are worlds of other folks out there too.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

AdobeMAX. It’s a great conference. It’s amusing how many people discount the conference—often those who didn’t attend. Anyway, I spoke at the FITC unconference—but that’s it for MAX. That’s probably the last conference this year. Earlier I spoke at FITC Toronto and Flash and the City. There’s a great Portland conference which is expanding next year called WebVisions (webvisionsevent.com).

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

Not really—I have some old stuff but it’s too embarrassing. This is also part of the reason I don’t usually release code. I mean, I’ll give you pretty much any code you want—but I’m too lazy to clean it up etc. Oh, well, I do have something. A few years back I started making these anti-technology satire videos (youtube.com/phillipk). It was a great creative outlet. Then, I got into this street performance and prop-making thing: Handbills Delivered. Just the suitcase and props I made for that act took a TON of attention, time, and money. But it was basically an exercise in sculpture. There’s also the public performance side of it—something that I’m much less bad at now. Anyway, I just retired the act (as far as doing it unsolicited) the day before AdobeMAX and you can see the highlight video at tinyurl.com/handbill-tour. Anyway, my new creative exploration will be illustration. It’s sort of vague but only because I don’t have much of anything to show yet. Now that I have my third extra-curricular activity in mind I figured out a pattern—namely: every year I plan to have a 1-year long project that serves as a distraction from all the other stuff that’s going on. Sort of a 1-year residency as some artist… but I just do it at home any time I want to unplug.

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?

Nothing against them, but not involved in any.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

I gave up trying to fight JavaScript (as a language) and realize it’s pretty cool. I could care less what clients want/need—if it was clear that punch cards were necessary, I’d be okay with that. JavaScript is a good story the way the browsers make it sing now. I LOVE it when I hear people say HTML5 when they really just mean “not Flash” or they mean JS/CSS. You wouldn’t believe how many people introduce themselves as JQuery programmers (or are JQuery programmers and call themselves HTML5 programmers). I think the dude who made JQuery is brilliant (and since he graduated from my alma mater it makes him cool). But what’s doubly impressive is that he has basically created jobs.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

That question just makes me laugh. Having just returned from AdobeMax I have to say I’m impressed with some examples I saw of Flex running in AIR/mobile. I’m still not interested in having the overhead of a billion extra bits of code—but, wow, it might not be as bloated as I’ve always thought.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

I’m no expert in Java but know I could get a project working right given the appropriate time resources—after all, before there were ActionScript 3 books there were Java books (which is how I learned AS3).

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

I’m into crafts of all kinds. Plus, see the note above about my creative outlets. I have a small family and pets and I walk a lot. I like cooking and have recently gotten more into raw, vegan, and vegetarian food.

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?

Out of school I hooked up with Sinar Bron. They imported super premiere photography equipment. I was a technical representative (demonstrating the cameras around the country) then the Manhattan sales territory landed in my lap. I sold this equipment (Sinar cameras and Broncolor lights) to dealers and photographers in New York. It was pretty fun visiting famous photographers… but I can say my commissions had no correlation to the success or fame of the photographer. After the company realized I wasn’t the best sales person of all time (I was okay—but they could make more money in NYC than I was doing) I got sent out to a territory consisting of Ohio, Kentucky, Pittsburgh and just to say I had it West Virginia. That was a lot more driving but I began to hate it and just researched the whole “multimedia/CDROM” thing that was emerging in the early 90s. I just contacted people mentioned in magazines such as “New Media” and “Morph’s Outpost on the Digital Frontier”. It’s so much easier now connecting with people. Anyway, that’s how I hooked up with “The Human Element” (mentioned above).

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?

Water bottle

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?

I like GirlTalk and tUnE-yArDs When coding I generally just want something that’s familiar to me. I don’t want to be REALLY listening (like if it’s new) because it can be distracting.

what is your favorite animal?

I guess a dog.

name: David Arno
age: 44
employer: Enigma Data Solutions
location: Lewes (Small town near Brighton in England)

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?

When I was 13, our school bought a Commodore Pet that sat in a fume cupboard in one of the chemistry labs. Pupils were allowed supervised access to it at lunchtimes. A year later Sinclair released the ZX81 and I saved up the £70 to buy one and started learning BASIC. I became hooked, gave up my aspirations to become a zoologist (my love throughout school was biology) and never looked back.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?

Around four years ago. Initially it was in order to create an AS2-based front end for existing industrial monitoring and control equipment. Then I changed jobs and started using AS3.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

That’s not an easy question to answer. I write unit tests and I use those tests to validate code as I write it. I do not follow strict TDD principles though. Having said that, I’ve recently come across the “TDD like you mean it” approach of writing the production code inside the test class then refactoring it out into proper classes when done. I find this enables my to produce tests as almost a by-product of writing the code and it’s a technique I really like.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?

Well I’m stuck using PureMVC a lot of the time, which I dislike intensely. I favour lightweight frameworks that have focused purposes and shy away from big frameworks that try to cover everything.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?

I’ve experimented with it, but not released anything to any app stores. Adobe Native Extensions have piqued my interest though, so I might do some more.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?

I use Eclipse with the FlashBuilder 4.5 and SourceMate plugins when doing AS3 or Java work. The IDE I love is Microsoft’s VisualStudio and I flee back to that whenever I get a chance to write C++ or C# code. I’ve often considered trying out Amethyst (which is an AS3 development extension for Visual Studio) but it doesn’t fit with what I’m employed to do and I can’t justify the cost for personal use.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

Ant and Bamboo for continuous integration. CVS (yes really! and Git for source control. Twitter for asking questions of people who know more than me. Balsamiq mockups for (the name gives it way) mockups. VMWare for testing on different environments. Charles for delving into HTPP/AMF data flow between server and client. And Spotify for listening to music to keep me (semi) sane.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?

I don’t tend to follow blogs. I rely on folk tweeting about blog posts. On twitter I steer clear of most of the Flash “big names” as many have run off to JavaScript these days anyway. If you say interesting stuff (especially if you challenge convention), engage with your “followers” rather than just preaching at them and attract my attention, I’ll likely get around to following you.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?

Just the one: Stray’s try { harder } conference. There were just 16 of us, all had to do a presentation and it was seriously good.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?

I have a whole bunch of (semi inter-related) projects that are all low-level geeky stuff that stem from the incredible AS3Commons bytecode library that Roland Zwaga has written. They centre around command line tools (probably using Red Tamarin) for testing, processing and validating SWFs. The area I’ve made most progress with is with AS3Introspection, which is a replacement for describeType that can reveal all the gory details of the innards of classes, not just the small subset that the latter exposes. It’s biggest problem at the moment is speed (or lack of it) and finding ways to pre-process a SWF and add pre-cached reflection data to it is what I’m working on at the moment.

Much of this work came about through a desire to create a mocking framework – called WiseMocks – that can mock final classes, static methods, built-in classes and the like. I have got completely sidetracked away from that though and so it only exists as a concept at the moment.

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?

There might be plans for me to get involved with Robotlegs 2 to create a validation tool. Can’t really say more than that at the moment as I really don’t know much more

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?

HTML was conceived as a simply a way of delivering hyperlinked text. It’s then been hacked and bodged to try and turn it into an application and multimedia delivery solution. Add to the mix the fact that every browser half-heartedly implements various bits of a non-ratified standard. To then top it all off and kick you in the bollocks whilst you are down, we are then asked to take a hideously “designed” toy scripting language seriously and use that to code the web. The result is about as appealing as being served a dog turd with raspberry jus in rundown dirt café with pretensions of being a fine-dining restaurant. Apart from that, I’ve no problems with it.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?

A mixture of 3.5 (when Flash Player 9 must be supported) and 4.5 (when not.)

what other programming languages do you know/use?

I’ve used (and in many cased forgotten how to use) many languages in the past: BASIC, FORTRAN, RTL-2, Forth, Ada, Prolog, Perl, VBScript, JavaScript and a couple of assemblers and probably others. I also written a couple of compilers using lex and yacc that handled custom languages. Most of my working life I’ve used C and C++. These days, it’s mainly AS3, with some Java, C# and C++.

I’m trying to find the time to learn Scala and Ruby, but never seem to find the time.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?

Reading about or writing about code! More seriously, I have a wife and two young children, so I try to spend time with them as much as possible. Also I enjoy photography and watching rugby (I gave up playing after breaking my arm tackling someone many years ago.) I’m partial to the occasional game of poker too.

Oh and I belong to one of Lewes’ bonfire societies. Every 5th November, I dress up in costume with my eldest daughter along with thousands of others. We march through the streets of Lewes carrying flaming torches, before moving on to the bonfire where effigies of unpopular politicians and famous people are burned and fireworks are set off. The evening used to be rounded off by a bonfire being built outside the police station, but the police station has moved. As far as I know, this behaviour makes no sense whatsoever to those that don’t live in Lewes. But I love it.

what career/jobs did you have before getting into dev?

None. I left college and went straight into development (or “software engineering” as it was called then)

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?

I have a blog at davidarno.org. I post various opinionated rants (and sometimes useful stuff) there when I can. I’m on twitter as @davidarno.

any questions i should add to this interview?

Don’t think so.

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?

A fully charged satellite phone with built-in GPS. I wouldn’t plan on staying long.

what are a few of your favorite bands at the moment? what do you listen to while coding?

Depends on my mood. Nirvana, Ministry, Senser, Pixies, Bauhaus and Green Day are my loud favourites. Tricky, Damien Rice, Bjork, Moby and Massive Attack for when I want more chilled stuff.

what is your favorite animal?

Can I have more than one? I think flat worms have the coolest group name: Platyhelminthes. Tardigrades (also known as water bears or moss piglets) have awesome super-power abilities. And if I had to choose a pet it would be jellyfish or reptiles.