name: Joel Hooks
age: 37
employer: Universal Mind
location: FORT WORTH TEXAS YEEHAW

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?
At the earliest was LOGO on a TRS-80 when I was about 8 or so. After that I would hack a little BASIC on my buddy’s C-64. I took the PASCAL prerequisite in high school, but generally stopped messing around with code around the same time. I fancied myself an artist and chose to go that direction around my sophomore year of high school. Computers were part of that, just not at the code level.

It was several years after that when I started to get back into hacking around with code. The modern internet came into life and I was making web pages and doing that sort of thing. I tried to get into Flash pretty early, but it just frustrated me with the timeline. I was a 3d artist professionally for 13 years, and towards the end of that I got really into writing MaxScript and event a little DOTNET to extend 3dsMax.

When I decided I was going to “be a programmer” I was working as a graphic artist. My “programmer” infuriated me on a regular basis. I’d pressure him to come up with programmatic solutions to ease boring repetitive tasks and he would tell me “you are a designer, just draw the picture I tell you to draw” – I’m a pretty stubborn guy. This flipped the “go fuck yourself” switch in my brain and I spent the next year learning how to code so that I could solve a particular problem. So, you might say I started programming as a result of a grudge.

This was at the time that AS3 and Flex 2 were coming onto the scene. I would wait for the next chapter of Essential ActionScript 3 to be added to the rough cut. I remember reading the events chapter over and over with a big flashing WTF over my head. That book was an incredible eye opener for me. I remember clearly reading the chapter describing classes and finally having that audible *CLICK* in my head and ”getting it”. Still trying to get it, but once I was over that hump it all sort of started coming together.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?
The gig where I acquired the aforementioned grudge was a Flash project. I fell in love with Flex 2 in beta and started messing with Apollo (Air) as soon as I could get my hands on it. I quit that job and went back to 3d graphics with a small company that I had worked for in the past. I convinced the owner that I could build him a kickass task/project management too with Air, and he let me. It is still running like a champ to this day. That code is so embarrassing to look at, but it runs relatively error free and still provides a ton of value to that company. I approached it as “building helper robots” to make mundane tasks easier for all the people that worked there. I love that concept to this day and my favorite programming is when I get to alleviate some sort of day to day crap from somebody’s job so they can focus on stuff that matters.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?
Sometimes. I wish I was in a situation that would afford strict TDD, but it is a challenge to even get appropriate unit testing in play, much less driving development with them. It is a goal that I am working towards.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?
I basically learned how to code using PureMVC. Still love it and is the reason I love Robotlegs as well. Robotlegs is an evolution of PureMVC.

I’ve used Cairngorm, Swiz, and Parsley too. They all have their bright shining points of kick ass. I’ve found that, as a consultant, teams can dig themselves deep dark holes with any of the frameworks available. I don’t mind any of them, to be honest. What I like is clear and consistent development.

I think PureMVC and Robotlegs provide a solid roadmap for developing applications via the documentation and best practices. This sort of prescription can be a solid advantage to a team.

Swiz and Parsley are both amazing pieces of kit, but they don’t provide much in the way of guidance as to how to build an app. This is killer if you have the team in place to design an architecture, but I’ve seen it go horribly wrong too. The Cairngorm 3 guidelines are a great place to build a foundation from. There is good advice in those pages irrespective of your chosen framework.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?
I’m a fan of native in this space. I enjoy Objective-C quite a lot. I think Adobe is doing some great things though, and look forward to seeing how it plays out.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?
IntelliJ ftw.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?
I enjoyed 360Flex this year. I gave a talk on Parsley.

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?
I’ve been heavily involved with the Robotlegs project. I just finished a book on the subject with Stray (@stray_and_ruby) called Actionscript Developers Guide to Robotlegs: http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920021216

Recently I’ve joined the Spoon project as President of the foundation. I’m extremely excited about the goals of Spoon and look forward to seeing how the community can manage to help steer Flex as a true open-source project with Adobe.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?
I don’t think DHTML ever went anywhere. Browsers have certainly improved and I am a huge fan of some of the innovative kit that is being birthed. Node.js and CoffeeScript are particularly exciting.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?
4.5 today. There is still a lot of 3.5 code out there.

what other programming languages do you know/use?
I dig Python a lot.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?
I read.
I try to raise my 4 home educated kids.
I like competitive cooking shows. Masterchef Australia is awesome (the American version is a shitty pale shade of gray in comparison). It is my sports.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?
twitter: http://twitter.com/jhooks
spoon project: http://www.spoon.as
Did I mention the book? http://oreilly.com/catalog/0636920021216

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

Solar Powered Kindle

what is your favorite animal?
Wombat