Getting Started with Arduino and Flex/AS3 Development (by: Sean Moore)

This presentation will explain what the Arduino is, how it’s used and why it’s used. The session will cover how and where to obtain the hardware and software needed for Arduino development with and without Flex and AS3. It will also demonstrate a basic LED blinking example, a temperature sensor example and a PIR motion sensor example. The session will also explain how to get as3glue and serproxy working on your system to enable Arduino circuit development with Flex and AS3.

Here’s the live recording (Connect session) of the preso

Here’s the PPT of the slides and a PDF of the slides

Here’s the schematic to build the PIR Motion Sensor circuit

Here’s also a Fritzing schematic for the PIR Motion Sensor circuit. You can get Fritzing here.

My presentation can be found here in the original listing on the FlexMania site for proof and/or historical purposes: http://www.flexmania.com.br/gravacoes.php

Oh, and a MASSIVE, MASSIVE shout to Igor Costa for inviting me to present at the conference and THANK YOU to everyone who attended!!!!

Happy Arduino’ing everyone!!!

name:

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

name:

when did you first get started with computers/programming? how? why?
I wasn’t interested in computers for YEARS, mainly because the only computer I was used to seeing was my dad’s golden rod computer that did nothing but print to it’s super sweet dot-matrix printer < sarcasm/>. So in High School when I got my hands onto a Micrografx “Simply 3D” CD (and a new computer) thanks to my dad things changed. I got right into making all sorts of crazy (and crappy) 3D designs. Then I went into a computer programming class my sophomore year and felt that turbo pascal was swell. After a year we moved to C++ and things got really cool. Then in college everything got boring again with C++ and I went on to 3D again with Maya. It was a few years before Php, Mysql, Html, and Flash would pull me back into the programming world.

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?
I’d started doing some simple RIAs with Flash 5 but really got into Flash with Flex 2. At the time I was doing a ton of Javascript with Dojo and Ruby on Rails. Immediately I could see that Flex was pretty cool and ran with it. That was when I started D-Flex and didn’t look back.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?
Usually yes. Right now, no. Mainly because right now I am creating proof of concepts. My client seriously said “don’t worry about TDD, we just need to get stuff done and quickly”. I’ve written many unit tests for this project, just maybe not upfront.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?
I’ve used many of the “main frameworks”, but my favorite is RobotLegs. Before RL I was using Cairngorm but ended up writing it very similar to RL. When I saw RL I was happy to see something that worked the way I thought. Others frameworks I’ve used: PureMVC, Mate, Parsley

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?
For the last year it seems like I’ve done nothing but Mobile development. It’s fun and not that hard, but there are MANY new concepts to learn. I do have a Max session about it and a book coming out in the spring all about things I’ve learned in Mobile Development with Flex.

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?
I use Eclipse and Flash Builder mainly. When making Ruby apps, I’ll use RadRails and Aptana, but for the most part I stick with Flash Builder.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?
Other than graphics programs, not many. Most of my application are done completely in code with a few visual helpers like photoshop and illustrator.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?
Esh. That is pretty difficult. I don’t follow any particular blogs but I do follow links and tweets from @jessefreedman, @quetwo, @antonioholguin, @feedgrids, @remotesynth, @jesterxl, @flash_platform, @flashcanon, @mlabriola, @rlux, @lizign… I could just keep going for a while.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?
I always go to 360Flex and Adobe Max – neither should be missed. I’ll also be at Big Android BBQ this year and will be trying to make it to RiaUnleashed.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?
I’m going to skip this question pushing my answer to the next one. But if you want to see an app I made that works on multiple screens, check out Queue Manager. A netflix queue management app that works on iOS, QNX, and Android systems.

are you involved with any open source projects you’d like to talk about?
I am involved with Spoon Project and so should you! Spoon has been a ton of fun already and a lot of work. We’ve been working hard setting everything up so we can have a great organization. That work isn’t done overnight or anything. Many of my good friends and people I trust are involved and I’m sure that this organization is going to raise the bar.

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?
I’m happy with the rebirth of HTML. My only issue is that right now it has the rebirth “afterglow” and many people believe it’s a golden gun. Its a tool – with it’s own flaws.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?
Right now I am specifically working with Flex 4.5. Everything I am doing is about mobile these days.

what other programming languages do you know/use?
Php (I’ve forgotten more than I know at this point)
Ruby
Ruby on Rails
Javascript
HTML
Mysql

what do you do when you’re not writing code?
I’m either working out, watching movies, or drinking with friends.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?
Checkout my blog or my tweets when you want to see what is on my mind.
unitedmindset.com/jonbcampos
@jonbcampos

any questions i should add to this interview?
I think it’s a good interview.

if you were trapped alone on an island forever and you could take one thing with… what would it be?
A towel. Never forget a towel.

what is your favorite animal?
Panthers. Probably explains why I have two black cats always running around here.

name:

when did you start flash/flex/AIR/AS dev?
That’s really good question I started to play around with Flash back in high school not sure what version it was but back them it was under Macromedia and it was all about creating little animations and experimenting no one really new what OOP was just gotoAndPlay.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?
I’m really not sure why I would ever want to do Test-driven development, I see the benefits in it but for my development style I think it would over complicate things. I think you should create cool things and worry about the rest later.

what application development frameworks have you used? what’s your favorite?
I have played around with a number frameworks but the ones that I used for real projects are PureMVC, RobotLegs and for games PushButton engine and Flixel. I really like RobotLegs and it seems to be the one that I’m using the most lately but I do think PureMVC has some advantages over RobotLegs.

have you done any mobile dev using flash/flex/AIR?
Yes I created my first app US.Gov.Index with Flash in the pre release program it was more of a demo app to learn but I just re did it from the ground up using the Flex Mobile I’m really happy with the outcome I also have my first client project which will be done using Flex Mobile. You can view info on the app on my site – http://www.almogdesign.net/portfolio/us-gov-index/

what code editor/IDE do you use? any plugins?
I use Flash Builder 4.5 for Flash and Flex the only plugin that I have is Flex Formatter, I’m currently working a lot in PHP, JS and HTML/CSS so using NetBeans which is amazing.

what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?
I use the Flash IDE to create assets .swc’s the standard CS5 collection Photoshop, Illustrator and Balsamiq Mockups for wireframing.

what blogs or people on twitter do you follow for flash platform info/news/etc.?
So I follow a lot of people on Twitter and every now and then check out a number of blogs Smashing Magazine is a big one but mostly check out links that are shared, I’m also very active on Google+ which I’m finding is much better then Twitter.

have you attended or are you attending any conferences this year? as a speaker or attendee only?
I spoke at Flash Israel 2011 not sure I can count that as I organized the event I also spoke at the annual GameIS event and Game Uncon event both in Israel I have had the opportunity to speak at smaller events from user groups to small tech events, which is great and why I’m very active in the community. I try to attend just about everything locally especially the games and stat up events.

do you have any personal projects that you’d like to share?
I’m currently working on a really cool project/start-up for game developers called Scoreoid its an advanced web platform for leaderboards and game management I’m in private beta and the feedback has been really great. You can check it out at www.scoreoid.net

what are your thoughts on the rebirth of JavaScript (and the HTML spec/family)?
The never ending question, the truth is that I started off as a JS/web developers that was my main focus in school and was my first job at waves.com, I got into Flash because JS, HTML and CSS was limited back then and when I say back then that’s not to long ago. For me code is just syntax its all about choosing the right tool for the right job I’m not a Flash developer but an interactive developer. Lately I have been working in PHP for Scoreoid which has been fun if tomorrow I need to code in JS that’s fine. I love Flash and don’t see myself not using it I also like the idea that somethings well not be done in Flash anymore while others will be.

what version of flex are your working with/targeting? 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5?
It really depends on the project old project are 3/3.5 while new ones are 4.5

what other programming languages do you know/use?
That’s a great question this last year I have been learning noting but languages instead of creating cool stuff I think at some point learning every new language is a waste of time find what you like and stick with it who cares what everyone is says I’m getting pretty tired with all the link baiting posts. I personally code in AS3, Flex, PHP and basic web stuff JS, HTML/CSS which I really don’t consider that complex but basic stuff every programmer should learn. I can code a little native C#, Java and Objective C but don’t consider myself as a developer for those languages even thought I ported US.Gov.Index to Windows Phone 7 native and yes Microsoft paid me to do it.

what do you do when you’re not writing code?
Lately been working out I also scuba dive and go spear finishing. I attend pretty much every community event, meetup or conference I can get to and there are a lot in Israel especially the start up events which are always amazing.

anything else you’d like to mention? blogs, sites, people, tools?
I have a blog which is not very active hope to fix that soon – http://www.almogdesign.net/blog/
And you can find me on Twitter @almogdesign or Google+ http://bit.ly/oEGHlD

name:

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

I began using Flash here and there in 1999/2000 with Macromedia Flash 4. Previous to that, I was mainly doing straight HTML and a bunch of design work; Photoshop, Illustrator, 35mm photography, and photo compositing. What drew me to Flash was that I could take pieces from all of those areas and use them together in a meaningful way. I think everyone coming to Flash from that angle remembers the first simple animation they created and how outstanding the feeling of publishing your first swf was. It was magical for me.

I actually didn’t get involved in Flex until Flex 2 and ActionScript 3.0. I was doing a lot of work with AS2 before this using Flash Professional, and AS3 was made available in Flex Builder before Flash because it was built into the SDK. I tried out Flex but it didn’t click for me- so I used the Flex SDK to write AS3 using FlashDevelop for a time. This is how I learned AS3. By the time AS3 was available in Flash Pro… I was already set

What eventually “forced” me into Flash Builder and Flex was the ability to write AIR applications and the tooling built into Flex Builder 3. I was using the Apollo alphas and had a few projects at the university where I was pushing the technology. The first AIR project we deployed was actually an Apollo project a day before – so we were really on the bleeding edge! Anyhow- using Flex for AIR apps got me to appreciate the framework for use in other projects… saw the obvious benefits of using Flex Builder over Flash Pro for writing code… Flex framework makes a lot of layout and structural underpinnings so simple – so I stuck with it. I do go to Flash Pro for certain things now and again, but Flash Builder and Flex are primary for me now.

are you practicing TDD? why/why not?

No… I’m not. I understand the benefits and have made numerous attempts to integrate the practice into my workflow, but as it stands now I’m just a total failure with TDD! With most things though, I find that my initial set of attempts are often crash-and-burn exercises. At some point, it will all come into place and I just have to work toward that moment. The problem right now is that much of what I do is systems maintenance and planning – so am not as actively involved in any solid development starters at the moment.

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

The Adobe Flex Framework

Well… I’ve definitely looked at other frameworks and micro-architectures. A lot of people seem to like RobotLegs and I’ve done some beginner exercises with that to get concepts down – but have not attempted anything in a real project yet.

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

Yes. Mostly experiments for projects like my “Flash Development for Android Cookbook”, but have also written some applications for Android that are available in the Market. These include; Sketch-N-Save, AXNA Feed Reader, My Shit-List!, Transient Recorder, and others. I’m in the middle of writing a mobile Flex application for the university right now which should (eventually) be available across multiple platforms. It taps into the university media management system to provide users with direct access to video, image, and audio materials along with associated metadata records for their mobile devices. It’s in beta for Android, and once we get that solid will look at publishing for iOS and perhaps event BlackBerry Tablet OS. We’ll see what use may dictate.

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

Primarily Flash Builder – no plugins. I also launch Flash Professional from time to time to work on legacy projects and perform specific functionality that is better suited to that environment. I have used FDT and FlashDevelop on occasion… and as mentioned before, actually learned AS3 on FlashDevelop.
what other tools do you use for flash/flex/AIR dev?

I use the entire Adobe Creative Suite for my work. Well, almost the entire suite. Also tools like Lightroom for my photography. Lightroom is awesome.

With Flex projects, I’ll often use a graphics package like Photoshop or whatnot to create any image assets needed, sometimes will design skinning elements in that or Illustrator/Fireworks depending upon my mood. I do my FXG work within Flash Catalyst and copy/paste into Flash Builder. XML, HTML, and such usually gets edited in Dreamweaver. Audition for audio assets, video stuff is covered by Premier Pro/After Effects… really try and use the full suite if the project allows it.

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

I generally don’t follow specific blogs but rely on Twitter for most of my information and news. Too many people to mention, but you can have a look at who I follow and interact with for a good idea! As a general rule, if you are an AEL, ACP, or Adobian who follows me… I will follow you back! Also – if you are doing other interesting non-Adobe-specific stuff (Unity, experimental HTML/CSS/JS, other crazy stuff), that is cool and will probably peak my interest!

I just beg everyone on Twitter to please make it apparent who you are and where your interests lie – makes it much easier to follow back that way. I try my best not to be a Twitter-snob so the best way to get my attention is to ENGAGE

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

Yes… *deep breath*.

A lot of conference activity this year… too much! I started off the year doing three different Adobe User Group presentations on BlackBerry PlayBook development (Columbus Digital, LA Flash, and KCDevCore).

In March I took a break from technical presentations and did a spark session for Ignite Denver 8 on personal branding. In case you are unfamiliar with Ignite – many cities around the world host these events. Speakers have 5 minutes and 20 slides to talk about any subject they choose… and the slides auto-advance on a timer It’s a really interesting way to present and Ignite Denver pulls around 400 people, so you get a pretty big crowd.

I attended 360|Flex in Denver this year and wasn’t going to do any presentations myself, but the local Adobe User Group, RMAUG, had a slot open and I threw together an hour long session on “Getting Down n’ Dirty with Mobile Flex 4.5 Projects” which went really well for being a last minute gig. Since Adobe released Flash Builder 4.5 that morning, the topic was timely and I’d been working on the prerelease versions of the tooling for months (not to mention materials for my book which was still in tech-review at this point). It was a good session. Jun Heider was moderating a panel in the evening one night called “Open Screen Project: Views from the Trenches” and I also contributed to that. They tried to record the panel but I’m not quite sure if the recording was ever released.

In June, I did another Ignite session for Ignite Denver 9 called “Zombies, Vampires, and Babies: What You NEED to Know!”. It basically revolved around comparisons of babies with the undead and was really well received. I enjoy doing the Ignite stuff but will probably have to skip out on Ignite Denver 10 in September because of other obligations. Next year!

In July, I was very fortunate to have been accepted to speak at Dee Sadler’s excellent D2W (Designer/Developer/Workflow) conference in Kansas City. My session “Adapting Expectations to Fit a Mobile Workflow” revolved around mobile once again but with an emphasis on workflow and the considerations that go along with that. The amount of killer speakers at this conference is astounding – all great sessions.

A few weeks later, I attended the Adobe Education Leader Institute at Adobe HQ in San Jose for the 3rd year. This is a week-long conference for AELs and is always a blast. We get to interface with product managers, engineers, and executives… all sorts of interesting people- including other AELs from around the world. During the event; I moderated a panel on Adobe Edge, did a 5-minute presentation on custom context menus in AS3, and presented a hands-on session which covered the basics of developing a mobile AIR application using Flash Builder and mobile Flex. One of the cool things this year is that Adobe opened up many of the sessions to the outside world over Connect – so we were able to have an expanded audience.

The last set of sessions for the Summer were done for the COLTT conference in Boulder, Colorado. I presented a full session called “Mobile computing in a ‘Post-PC’ era… right?” in which the current state of mobile computing in education was discussed, and that evening spoke at the Café Pédagogique event on the necessity (or not) of institutional mobile applications.

Upcoming speaking engagements will all be during the Adobe MAX event in Los Angeles. I’ll be presenting a scheduled MAX session called “From Desktop to Mobile: Application Functionality for Small Screens” on Tuesday at 4:00pm and will be doing a condensed, modified version of this same talk for the Adobe Education pre-conference day. I’m also scheduled to speak on mobile UX during the FITC unconference and have scheduled a session on BlazeDS, Flex, and Java/Spring for the 360|MAX unconference. A full schedule for sure!

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

Sure! I’ll be writing about this further down the question stack though.

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

Not really. I do plan on open sourcing the codebase for my DropFolders application this Summer. This is an application that I built to both showcase the native process functionality in AIR 2.0, and as an application for use by less technically inclined members of the university community who wanted to encode video with no real fuss.
The app is basically a GUI for the HandBrake CLI and includes the ability to set up sets of monitored directories and outputs with custom encoding parameters. Almost no one at the university is using it, but it has gained a pretty large user base in the wider world. Unfortunately, my time is limited and as such cannot continue to support the application… hence my desire to open up the source code for others to build off of.

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

It’s good to see HTML finally evolving to more closely match the needs of modern browser-based projects. JavaScript, unfortunately hasn’t really changed much apart for some new APIs that come along with the HTML5 spec and an increased number of frameworks (like jQuery) to make JS development a little less painful. I was really hoping that JavaScript would adopt the ECMAScript 4 proposal put forth about 5 years ago (the same spec that AS3 was originally based off of) but sadly it never did. So we are stuck with the same old JS that I used when I started doing web development over a decade ago! Unbelievable.

I have to say something about HTML/CSS/JS and Flash here. This is the same thing I’ve been saying for years but it is worth repeating. HTML and Flash have worked hand-in-hand for their entire history and there is no reason that this will change with an evolved HTML spec. No reason at all. The fact that some basic animation can now be done using HTML/CSS/JS in no way renders Flash obsolete as the platform has such reach now that simple animation on the web is not really a concern for really any of the Flash devs I talk to on a regular basis. If you need some simple animation on a website- by all means use HTML/CSS/JS to accomplish that if it is appropriate to do so.

Two things that have really irked me about this whole debate has been the public condemnation of Flash by Apple (this sort of corporate assault is unheard of) and the renewed antagonism toward Flash developers by people using other technologies (though mostly from the JS side of things). Apple has taken an anti-Flash stance and has made it official company policy. There is nothing we can do about that but hope they eventually reverse the policy. Individual developers, however, are a different story entirely. Isn’t the web about freedom? We have a variety of choices when deciding which technologies to employ atop the basic HTML/CSS/JS web stack. The HTML5 spec has the embed tag for a reason – to expand upon this basic set of technologies with other platforms. There is nothing wrong with that. Unity, Flash, Java, Silverlight, Shockwave… whatever is an appropriate use of technology should be accepted. Yes, if you choose to use something outside the “standard” set of browser-based tech, you may not be able to access that content on all devices in the world. This is nothing new. People need to realize this, gain some perspective, and get over their narrow-minded view of the web. It’s big enough for everyone to play

In short; be nice to one another and accepting of other technologies and platforms. And if you disagree with a particular technology… please refrain from being a total smarmy douche about it.

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

Aside from legacy projects, I always target the latest version of Flex. We generally don’t have any restrictions at the university level when it comes to this so it is rarely a problem… though we do evaluate such things on a project-to-project basis.

what other programming languages do you know/use?

Flash/Flex/AS3 is my core but I have rarely met a Flash dev who only works within the confines of the platform. This is probably due to the history of Flash Player in the web browser- which necessitates that a developer knows at least some HTML, JavaScript, and ideally a few backend server technologies. As for myself, this includes ColdFusion, PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, Zinc, JavaScript, FMS, a little JSP, a bit of ASP, BlazeDS, and a smattering of other languages as the need arises.

Flash is a gateway drug. Once you have a grasp on a few of these things and a willingness to read the docs, nothing is really all that hard to pick up. I really want to pick up C# but haven’t come across a project that necessitates it yet. I may have to just come up with a personal project sometime over the next year or so to experiment. Finding the time to do this while staying abreast of changes and additions to my core toolset is tough- but can be done.

With all of that said though… I absolutely prefer to work in Flash. It’s solid, proven technology that can do just about anything you need. It is an absolute joy to work with where other tech can be a painful experience!

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

I’ve been writing a lot of articles and books lately. My “Flash Development for Android Cookbook” has been out for around six weeks now and is beginning to get some really good reviews. I’m also in the middle of writing some short eBooks for O’Reilly which should be out in October and am in the planning stages of another print book with my primary publisher, Packt, for publication in 2012. There’s also a short, 48-page book that I wrote to accompany the set of mobile Flash development DVDs that I recorded with Peter Elst and video2brain a few months back for Adobe Press and Peachpit. This collection should be available something this month. A smaller workshop of new Flash Builder and Flex stuff with video2brain was actually just published and is available now.

I’m almost always involved in teaching a variety of courses for the University of Denver as adjunct faculty. These courses range from beginning Flash and AS3 to web graphic design with Fireworks and PHP development. A real variety in materials… I actually did a special topics workshop this Summer on mobile Flash and Flex which just concluded. That was interesting! The students built a lot of interesting apps and I received really good feedback about the course.

Apart from my work at the university, I also run a small technical consultancy and production company from my home called Fractured Vision Media, LLC. We do a variety of projects for clients both local to Denver and as far away as Seattle – mostly Flash and AIR work but it varies. With the amount of writing I’ve gotten myself into lately, I’ve been trying to cut down on the amount of active clients we take on. It’s a rough balance.

FVM is also a small record label which I leverage when publishing audio recordings as my experimental darkambient alter-ego – “An Early Morning Letter, Displaced”. I’ve been working in music production through this project for over a decade and have released five different albums of music (2 lp, 3 ep) during that time. FVM has also released a free collection of music collected from the developer community called “Emergent Collective One” which contains a stellar set of varied material. I keep meaning to organize a second volume but time has not been kind to me this year.

I have a wife and two small daughters as well… so always need to find time for them. It’s difficult with all of these other things going on and I may have to cut back on some of this work in 2012 in order to retain some level of sanity.

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

I’ll list some resources and sites that I’ve mentioned above here, but want to note a few things first; primarily, thanks for giving me the opportunity to do this interview! I love this series of developer interviews- so informative to read others perspectives on these things. Second, I’m writing this on a long airplane session… stuck in a seat for hours… with no one to hear my screams… so to be able to just work through these questions has been quite welcome! This probably accounts for the length of my answers as well – if anyone is able to get through reading the entire interview- good on you!

Links:
- JosephLabrecque.com
http://josephlabrecque.com
- Twitter Profile
http://twitter.com/JosephLabrecque
- In Flagrante Delicto!
http://inflagrantedelicto.memoryspiral.com
- Flash Development for Android Cookbook
https://www.packtpub.com/flash-development-for-android-cookbook/book
- Mobile Development with Flash Professional CS5.5 and Flash Builder 4.5: Learn by Video
http://www.adobepress.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321788109
- Adobe Flash Builder and Flex 4.5: New Features Workshop
http://www.video2brain.com/en/products-161.htm
- Fractured Vision Media, LLC
http://fracturedvisionmedia.com/
- Emergent Collective One
http://fracturedvisionmedia.com/FVM005/

what’s your favorite animal?
Dragon. I am a dragon.

I’d like to send a huge thanks to Doug Reynolds for inviting me to present at the user group. I’d also like to send a huge thanks to everyone that attended the presentation both at the user group and remotely via Connect. A big shout out to Stray for the help reviewing the presentation content and also providing a quote for the slideshow!!

Lastly, a HUGE thanks to Roy Osherove for the inspiration and fantastic content both in his book The Art of Unit Testing and his videos.

I hope my presentation helps people get started with TDD and TDD Kata. If you have any questions about TDD please don’t hesitate to post a comment or hit me up on twitter.

This presentation introduces you to the benefits of Test Driven Development and teaches the fundamentals of TDD practice through a TDD Kata. A Kata is an idea borrowed from martial arts – an exercise done regularly in order to hone the practitioner’s skills – in this case the test-error-code-fail-code-pass cycle. Clearly testing offers reduction of defects and increased code confidence, but this presentation will illustrate how truly Test *Driven* Development brings much deeper benefits. You’ll leave the presentation with a TDD Kata that you can practice to increase your TDD skills and speed over time, and an understanding of why taking time to build TDD in to your workflow pays dividends.

Here’s a link to more info about the presentation and how to attend:

http://bniria.groups.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=post.display&postid=36277

See you there