Hi again
Programming — mGee @ 4:08 pm
Design stuff
It’s been a while since I posted something here. So I thought I’d write a little about what I’ve been up to since February. No rant this time. Just some thoughts about the projects I’ve been working on and the technologies I’ve been learning about.
Well, first off, let me say that on the design side of things… I’ve been keeping busy with CD designs for Slamjamz. Three more projects have been completed and another two will be in the works, beginning next month. You can read more about it at nvzion.com.
Code, code everywhere I see code!
On the side, I’ve also been keeping myself occupied with a couple things. One is considering recoding nvzion from the ground up using a framework. Although whenever I attempt to use one the new PHP frameworks, there’s just so much to learn, that it’s more of a slow down than it is a way of speeding up development. Also, many of the frameworks have interesting features, but each of them lack at least a couple things that would make them truly useful. I’ve tried out Zend, Code Igniter, CakePHP, Symfony and countless others, but none of them have everything that I’m looking for. I came VERY close to settling with code igniter and even began to code a new version of nvzion with it. Though when it came to creating custom ‘helper’ classes. Weird bugs started to creep in and some files had access to them, while others couldn’t access them. I eventually threw in the towel.
It’s gotten so that I’m actually succumbing to the hype surrounding Ruby on Rails and learning a bit about it. So far, it’s quite amazing what can be done with Rails. The ActiveRecord features alone, make me drool. There’s a bit of relearning needed for it’s strange syntax and I’m not completely in love with Ruby’s lack of {brackets} usage. Though overall, Ruby on Rails is looking very promising. It also has a large devoted community which is actively adding third-party libraries to increase Rails’ functionality. The only other thing that kept me from delving into Raildom, were the lack of decent hosts. Though now, Dreamhost has a sweet deal and it supports PHP4, PHP5 and Ruby on Rails. When ready, I’ll be utilizing them for all my hosting needs.
Next up, I’ve been learning to program compiled applications with the intention of eventually developing some very useful apps for OSX. I have four ideas to start with, which I won’t elaborate on until I have something to show. I wouldn’t want to jinx them ;)
I began my OSX programming education at the most immediately obvious place, after searching the web as a guide on where to begin. That place was Objective-C. Although I was very comfortable with object-oriented programming with PHP, I found I wasn’t quite ready for Objective-C and the MVC (Model-View-Controller) paradigm. I first stepped back to learn C++ in hopes that it would help me understand Objective-C better. I got a couple books to learn that and they helped clarify things, but never really made me comfortable with the language. So then after reading in the C++ books that it would be helpful to get a firm grasp of C, I began to do just that. Of course, not all books are created equal and not everyone learns the same. I went through a few different C books before finally finding one that opened me up and really helped me to finally understand some key concepts such as binary operations and pointers. So far, so good. Things are looking up and I believe that I’m about ready to go back to Objective-C. I’ve reviewed the MVC pattern all the while and even played around with it while experimenting the PHP frameworks which all utilize some form of MVC. I finally ‘get it’!
These various projects and studies have all fed each other and thanks to sticking with everything, all the pieces are falling into place.
So keep an eye here or here, and maybe in late 2007 you’ll find an app you’ve been waiting for all your life… or perhaps one that you didn’t know you were waiting for.