I’ve heard some people talking about if CS5 supports Actionscript 2, and should they upgrade if they are used to AS2.

What would be the point? All the new features Adobe is adding to Flash are only for AS3, here, let me explain:
There are 3 languages at the moment used in flash – AS, AS2 and AS3.

AS and AS2 are not too different, and they run on AVM (Actionscript virtual machine). What does that mean? That means that the technique flash uses to show the movie when it’s played is the same Actionscript 1 & 2.

AS3 runs on AVM2 (sometimes AVM+) that uses a complete different way to show us the file, and also supports such features like bones, 3d rotation, physics (CS5) and more.

So, if you’re used to AS2 – don’t bother upgrading to CS5, unless you are going to learn Actionscript 3.

Am I right?

Nota: Este post es parte de una serie titulada Consejos para Enfrentar un Proyecto Web y viene después de Del Mockup al CSS

Una de las cosas más importantes y potencialmente peligrosas del mundo web actual es el uso de Javascript. La aparición de frameworks como jQuery, MooTools, Prototype, YUI, etc., le han dado nueva vida a este lenguaje que solía ser un gran dolor de cabeza, sobre todo para nóveles programadores, por la dificultad para comprender el DOM, lo tedioso que significaba hacer cosas realmente serias (más allá de hacer una ventana pop-up con un tamaño determinado y poco más) y los problemas que implicaba hacer un código crossbrowser.
A esto se le une AJAX, este conjunto de tecnologías que, al combinarlas, nos permiten manipular datos vía javascript de forma asíncrona y sin necesidad de refrescar toda la página. La aparición en nuestras vidas de Gmail (de honorable memoria) fue el fenómeno que realmente nos hizo pronunciar las palabras mágicas de todo buen geek: AJAX FTW!
Claro, no todo es dulzura en las intarwbz. La facilidad en la que se ha convertido el uso de javascript (sobre todo por librerías como jQuery) también ha sido motivo del abuso que se ha hecho de él. Evitar esos abusos será la misión de este post.

1. Dile No al javascript obstrusivo

   Uno de los grandes males que han hecho a la humanidad editores como Dreamweaver (y yo amo a DW) es la utilización de javascript dentro del HTML (lo que se conoce como javascript obstrusivo). Nunca será suficiente decir que combinar XHTML con CSS y Javascript en la misma página es una terrible idea. Afortunadamente, es una práctica que va desapareciendo, pero es común verla sobre todo en quienes comienzan. Entonces, para evitar eso, digásmoslo de una vez: El código javascript (todo el código) debe ir en su archivo correspondiente, jamás mezclado con el HTML. Luego podrás llamarlo desde tu página usando la etiqueta <script></script>.

2. Comenta tu código, no seas perezoso(a)

   Cuando escribimos código -confesémoslo- tenemos la costumbre de hacerlo todo de una vez (o al menos a una velocidad que nos permite rápidamente saber qué hacemos), sin embargo solemos pagar el precio de no haber hecho comentarios cuando tenemos que revisarlo después de un tiempo (que puede ser un mes o menos incluso) y no nos acordamos de qué fue lo que hicimos o, peor aún, cómo demonios hicimos que funcionara.
   Sí, es cierto, debemos mantener los archivos lo menos pesados que podamos, cada línea cuenta y cada byte también pero -y para ello está los dos puntos siguientes- nuestros archivos deben ser reusables (no tiene ninguna gracia tener que escribir el mismo código una y otra vez) y en ello hacer comentarios es invaluable. Esto es doblemente importante si estamos hablando de un plugin, por ejemplo, que puede luego ser utilizado por otros. No es nada agradable tener que adivinar cómo lograste curar el cáncer por medio de javascript.
   No es tampoco que tengas que escribir un tratado sobre tu código. Pequeños y precisos comentarios serán suficientes. Recuerda: keep it simple.

3. Descomprimido para desarrollo, comprimido para producción.

   En nuestra lucha de mantener nuestros archivos al mínimo, una gran herramienta es la posibilidad de comprimir nuestros archivos. Al hacer esto, eliminamos tanto los comentarios como los espacios en blanco innecesarios, reduciendo por suspuesto el tamaño del archivo.
   El inconveniente que tiene esto, sobre todo a la hora de volver a nuestro js para hacer cambios, adiciones y/o mejoras a nuestro código es que éste será -cuando menos- difícilmente comprensible por nosotros mismos, cuando no ilegible. Es por eso que prefiero mantener mis archivos originales intactos (con sus comentarios, saltos de línea y formato) y una versión comprimida que será la que irá al servidor de producción. De esta manera siempre puedo hacer los cambios que necesite sin comprometer mi (poca) salud mental ni mi maltratada vista.
   Para hacer esto hay cientos de herramientas: compresores online, scripts php (como el proyecto Minify) o add-ons de Firefox (como Page Speed). Excepto en el caso de Minify, que se encarga de hacer la compresión al vuelo haciendo innecesario crear archivos comprimidos aparte, puedes mantener tus archivos en una carpeta (en mi caso los pongo dentro de una carpeta llamada _development, dentro de la carpeta js) y subir sólo los archivos comprimidos, teniendo lo mejor de ambos mundos.
   Valga el comercial no pagado, si usas Firefox y no tienes Page Speed realmente te recomiendo que lo pruebes. Yo solía usar el add-on de Yahoo!, YSlow, pero Page Speed tiene varias mejoras respecto a éste que me hicieron cambiarme. Que se encargue de comprimir los js y css es una de ellas.

4. Mantén tu código en un sólo archivo

   Sobre todo cuando trabajamos con algún framework e incluímos uno o más plugins, tenemos el problema de tener varios archivos, cada uno para cada cosa. Como decía antes, esto es muy bueno para el desarrollo, pero con un costo innecesario en archivos por descargar en producción. Nuevamente en este caso, Minify se encarga de unir todos los archivos por nosotros, pero si por alguna razón no podemos o no queremos usar esta herramienta (personalmente he tenido ciertos problemas cuando no tengo tiempo de sentarme a resolverlos, pero sé de gente -seguramente más lista e inteligente- que lo usa sin inconveniente alguno). En caso de hacerlo a mano, bien podemos crear un nuevo archivo donde colocaremos todo nuestro código comprimido, siendo éste el que subiremos al servidor. Recuerda que nuestro objetivo final no es sólo hacer que nuestros archivos pesen lo menos posible sino reducir también las llamadas al servidor, mientras menos llamadas, mejor.

5. Javascript no es CSS, favor no confundir

   A medida que javascript se hace más sencillo de trabajar y en consecuencia más poderoso -entre otras cosas- para manipular el DOM, es muy fácil abusar de sus bondades sobre todo a la hora de manipular el contenido (por medio de AJAX, por ejemplo) o el aspecto visual (haciendo que javascript reemplace atributos CSS o usando algún método de reemplazo de fuentes, como Cufón).
   Volveré al viejo tema: Progressive Enhancement, añade no sustituyas, crea pensando en lo más básico y luego añade funcionalidad a medida que el browser cliente pueda aceptarla.
   Si la pereza o la emoción te hacen olvidar que es CSS y no a Javascript a quien le corresponde el aspecto visual le darás una pobre experiencia a los usuarios que por alguna razón no puedan activar javascript en sus browsers o simplemente estos no lo soporten.
   Si hablamos de contenido. Es claramente un error grave respecto a SEO y semántica. No olviden que los buscadores (y los exploradores para ciegos) no pueden leer javascript.
   ¿Cuál es la solución entonces? Lo que he dicho antes, trabaja en base a un buen CSS y luego utiliza javascript para mejorar la experiencia de usuario, tanto a nivel visual como de funcionalidad.
   Hay, sin embargo, una excepción a esto y es cuando por razones de seguridad deseas epecíficamente que ciertos elementos no se presenten si no está activado javascript, como por ejemplo, para permitir comentarios o mostrar una dirección de correo electrónico de la que no quieres que se enteren los bots de spam.

6. Carga el javascript al final de tu (X)HTML

   Si bien lo normal es cargar el CSS dentro de la etiqueta head, en el caso de los archivos javscript se recomienda que sean cargados al final del archivo. La razón principal para hacer esto es que te permite cargar todo el contenido y los estilos antes de la funcionalidad, evitando que el usuario deba esperar a que el código también se cargue para comenzar a ver algo de tu sitio. Recuerda, el internauta es un ser impaciente, apenas tienes unos 5 segundos para evitar que tus usuarios abandonen tu sitio para navegar por otras tierras que no le hagan esperar una eternidad…

7. No todo requiere un plugin

   Ya que estamos con el tema de los frameworks (aquí debo decir que yo sólo conozco jQuery, así que soy completamente ignorante respecto a otros frameworks de javascript) hay que hablar de otro vicio: el uso indiscriminado de plugins.
   Es cierto que son geniales y que te ahorran mucho trabajo (sobre todo cuando los tiempos no te dan para mucho), pero precisamente su generalidad en algunos casos resulta un problema porque aumentan innecesariamente el peso de nuestro javascript. En muchos casos resulta mejor (y a veces incluso más fácil) escribir tu propio código. Sé que al principio puede resultar complicado y arduo, pero ciertamente ganarás en ahorro de código y aprendizaje. En caso que no sea posible (o no tengas ganas de arrancar desde cero) puedes hacer el camino contrario, adaptándolo a tus necesidades y eliminando el código que no necesites.

Y bueno, esto será todo esta vez. Si piensan que me dejé algo en el tintero (que seguro lo hice) o hay alguna cosa sobre la que quisieran que conversáramos, me encantaría leer sus comentarios.

proyecto web, javascript, progressive enhancement, desarrollo, front-end development

In my previous project i needed to find a easy solution for displaying icons in the alert message box.
So i extended the regular class and added the icons.

Check out the example code and screenshots:

Normal alert

Error alert

Information Alert

Warning Alert

AlertBox.mxml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx = "http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml"
                layout = "vertical"
                backgroundColor = "#FFFFFF">
    <mx:Script>
        <![CDATA[
            import com.winnemconsulting.uicomponents.alert.ExtendedAlert;
            import mx.controls.Alert;

            /** Event handler function imports the Alert control, which uses a static method to show
               a pop-up window with the title, message, and requested buttons.
             **/
            private function Alerted():void
            {
                Alert.show("You have been alerted !!", "Alert Box", Alert.OK);
            }

            private function IconAlert(type:String):void
            {
                switch (type)
                {
                    case ExtendedAlert.ICON_ERROR32:
                        ExtendedAlert.showExtended("This is the error icon", "Alert with icon", Alert.OK, null, null, ExtendedAlert.ICON_ERROR32);
                        break;
                    case ExtendedAlert.ICON_INFORMATION32:
                        ExtendedAlert.showExtended("This is the information icon", "Alert with icon", Alert.OK, null, null, ExtendedAlert.ICON_INFORMATION32);
                        break;
                    case ExtendedAlert.ICON_WARNING32:
                        ExtendedAlert.showExtended("This is the warning icon", "Alert with icon", Alert.OK, null, null, ExtendedAlert.ICON_WARNING32);
                        break;
                }
            }
        ]]>

    </mx:Script>

    <mx:Panel title = "Alert Panel">

        <mx:Button label = "Regular Alert"
                   width = "100%"
                   click = "Alerted();"/>
        <mx:Button label = "Extended Alert error"
                   width = "100%"
                   click = "IconAlert(ExtendedAlert.ICON_ERROR32);"/>
        <mx:Button label = "Extended Alert information"
                   width = "100%"
                   click = "IconAlert(ExtendedAlert.ICON_INFORMATION32);"/>
        <mx:Button label = "Extended Alert warning"
                   width = "100%"
                   click = "IconAlert(ExtendedAlert.ICON_WARNING32);"/>
    </mx:Panel>

</mx:Application>

ExtendedAlert.as

/**
 * Contributed by:
 * Geirr Winnem
 * Created: 10/21/2009
 * Website: www.winnem.com/winnem-consulting
 * Licence: All rights reserved 2009-, Winnem Consulting
 *
 **/
package com.winnemconsulting.uicomponents.alert
{
    import mx.resources.ResourceManager;
    import flash.display.Sprite;

    import mx.controls.Alert;

    /**
     * Extended the regular alert with predefined icons.
     * @author Geirr Winnem
     * @see mx.controls.Alert
     */
    public class ExtendedAlert extends Alert
    {

        [Embed(source="16X16/error.png")]
        public static const iconError16:Class;

        [Embed(source="32X32/error.png")]
        public static const iconError32:Class;

        [Embed(source="48X48/error.png")]
        public static const iconError48:Class;

        [Embed(source="16X16/information.png")]
        public static const iconInformation16:Class;

        [Embed(source="32X32/information.png")]
        public static const iconInformation32:Class;

        [Embed(source="48X48/information.png")]
        public static const iconInformation48:Class;

        [Embed(source="16X16/warning.png")]
        public static const iconWarning16:Class;

        [Embed(source="32X32/warning.png")]
        public static const iconWarning32:Class;

        [Embed(source="48X48/warning.png")]
        public static const iconWarning48:Class;

        /**
         * Error icon,size 16X16
         */
        public static const ICON_ERROR16:String = "errorIcon16X16";

        /**
         * Error icon,size 32X32
         */
        public static const ICON_ERROR32:String = "errorIcon32X32";

        /**
         * Error icon,size 48X48
         */
        public static const ICON_ERROR48:String = "errorIcon48X48";

        /**
         * Warning icon,size 16X16
         */
        public static const ICON_WARNING16:String = "warningIcon16X16";

        /**
         * Warning icon,size 32X32
         */
        public static const ICON_WARNING32:String = "warningIcon32X32";

        /**
         * Warning icon,size 48X48
         */
        public static const ICON_WARNING48:String = "warningIcon48X48";

        /**
         * Information icon,size 16X16
         */
        public static const ICON_INFORMATION16:String = "informationIcon16X16";

        /**
         * Information icon,size 32X32
         */
        public static const ICON_INFORMATION32:String = "informationIcon32X32";

        /**
         * Information icon,size 48X48
         */
        public static const ICON_INFORMATION48:String = "informationIcon48X48";

        /**
         * Constructor.
         */
        public function ExtendedAlert()
        {
            super();
        }

        /**
         * Extension of the original Show method.
         * @param text 			Text to display
         * @param title			Title for Alert
         * @param flags			Button flags.
         * @param parent		Parent object of control.
         * @param clickListener	Specifies listener function for click events from Alert buttons.
         * @param iconType		Specifies which icon type and size to display in alert.
         * @param defaultButton	Specifies the default button in alert.
         * @return Alert.
         * @see http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=controls_19.html
         */
        public static function showExtended(text:String, title:String = null, flags:uint = mx.controls.Alert.OK, parent:Sprite = null, clickListener:Function = null, iconType:String = ICON_INFORMATION48, defaultButton:uint = mx.controls.Alert.OK):Alert
        {
            var iconDisplay:Class;

            switch (iconType)
            {
                case ICON_ERROR16:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconError16;
                    break;
                }
                case ICON_ERROR32:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconError32;
                    break;
                }
                case ICON_ERROR48:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconError48;
                    break;
                }
                case ICON_WARNING16:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconWarning16;
                    break;
                }
                case ICON_WARNING32:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconWarning32;
                    break;
                }
                case ICON_WARNING48:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconWarning48;
                    break;
                }
                case ICON_INFORMATION16:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconInformation16;
                    break;
                }
                case ICON_INFORMATION32:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconInformation32;
                    break;
                }
                case ICON_INFORMATION48:
                {
                    iconDisplay = iconInformation48;
                    break;
                }
            }
            return show(text, title, flags, parent, clickListener, iconDisplay, defaultButton);
        }
    }
}

32X32 Icons

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

The Right to Information movement in India is in severe jeopardy because of award mania created by a private combine styled as ‘Public Cause Research Foundation’, hereinafter called the foundation, comprising three persons, Arvind Kejirwal, Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri. This combine has, in name of the nation, instituted awards in three segments in RTI implementation mechanism, such as (1) Information Commissioners, (2) Public Information officers and (3) citizens active in use of RTI Act.

When the Information Commissioner selected as “most outstanding” for having enabled access to correct and complete information to maximum appellants and enforced RTI Act in its true letter and spirit would be awarded with Rs.2 lakhs cash and citation as the best IC of the year, two Public Information Officers marked for providing complete and correct information in maximum number of RTI applications within the prescribed time limit and/or for having made special efforts in providing information to the applicants, would each receive a citation, a plaque and prize money of Rs. 2 Lakhs where as prizes of the same pattern would be awarded to two of the citizens who should have created maximum public impact by using RTI Act, the Foundation has declared.

The awards are “an effort to celebrate honesty and openness in public service”, claims the Foundation. This is saying in other words that the RTI implementation machinery is infested with dishonesty and clandestinity. From this perception the Foundation proceeds to find out if there is any exception.

It has floated a body with misleading title like the National RTI Awards Secretariat.

And, the so-called secretariat has hand picked preferred persons to act as “National RTI Awards Jury” as if it enjoys national approval with the power to select the “winner(s)”!

And, what they have done?

They have made a report of selection, which, according to Central Information Commissioner Prof. Dr. M.M. Ansari, “is so flawed that it is not worth even the paper on which it was written”.

Putting his reactions to the revealed ranking under the caption “Flawed Logic and Specious Conclusions”, Prof. Ansari has noted that the parameters adopted for valuation of Commissioners “can best be described as voodoo statistics and methods which will not stand scientific scrutiny even for a moment”.

Suggesting that the Foundation’s exercise is obviously an act of award-fixing, Prof. Ansari has cited some instances. Such as, he says,

“Mr.V.V. Bhorge (Information Commissioner, Maharastra) has disposed of 4593 second-appeals, out of which in 989 cases, he had issued affirmative orders in favour of the appellants. He had imposed 126 penalties on errant public officials. Mr.Bhorge has been ranked as one of the five worst Commissioners.

Now contrast this with the indulgence with which the authors have treated Mr.D.N. Padhi of Orissa. Mr.Padhi has decided 423 cases, out of which in 361 cases, he has decided the appeal in favour of the appellant. He has imposed 40 penalties. Mr.Padhi has been ranked as one of the best five Commissioners.

Now contrast Mr.Padhi’s performance with the performance of Mr.Bhorge and you will find how lopsided and erratic have been the self-appointed evaluators of the performance of the Commissioners. Mr.Bhorge has decided a much larger number of cases than Mr.Padhi. He has imposed a far larger number of penalties than Mr.Padhi and the number of cases in which he has decided in favour of the appellants are about as many as Mr.Padhi’s own. And yet in the estimation of the authors, Mr.Padhi is one of the five best Commissioners and Mr.Bhorge is one of the five worst under Pro-disclosure category and Overall Public Satisfaction category”.

The award-fixing was so certain that the so-called Secretariat of the Foundation had congratulated Padhi for having been adjudged “best” amongst CICs. As Prof. Ansari’s analysis hit the internet and RTI activists started censoring the report of the jury, the so-called Secretariat of the Foundation has issued a Press Statement to say that it had not congratulated a CIC on being adjudged “best” in ranking.

The statement begins thus: “National RTI Awards Secretariat denies it has “congratulated” some information commissioners for being “best” or “topping the rankings” of information commissions

… and clarifies that rankings, released by the Secretariat to the media on October 21, 2009, are interim rankings, subject to change in the coming days; final rankings will be decided by the Jury on November 27, 2009”.

This quoted portion of the statement being the Foundation’s official version, one is at loss to understand as to why certain words are suppressed under dots in the second paragraph. Read with a State Commission tampering with its own website as exposed in these pages under our caption “Orissa CIC embarrasses the State by suspected self-glorification” on November 10, 2009, these undefined dots in the preceding paragraph generate fear that a few RTI activists, hand-in-glove with fellows suffering obviously from recognition crisis amongst the implementation executives , have taken the nation for granted and have used the fine art of manipulation in the award fixing business, all in the name of democracy.

Whether or not the so-called Jury changes its earlier decision on November 27, the RTI movement has already been injured under the award mania.

It would be proper for Government of India to instantly ban any award of cash prize and / or citation for any Information Commissioner by any individual or outfit. It would also be proper to ban acceptance of any such cash prize or honor by any in the RTI implementation machinery. But it would be more appropriate for Information Commissioners to stay away from receiving any such award from any private or official entity as sanctity of RTI movement needs to be protected in the greatest interest of democracy.

During researching for the OSGI framework convertion from java to actionscript i found one article that saved my day.
The article originates from the Farata blogs Farata Blog
For those of you who dont know who these guy’s are i recommend that you check out their opensource projects at sourceforge.
One of the plugins i like the most is Log4Fx which is a logging tool.
It really saves my day everytime i debug applications developed with the pureMvc framework.
And its really easy to use since its a plugin for eclipse. Also it has built in shortkeys for creating boiler plate code and inserting it into the code window,
so the actual coding you need todo is minimal.

[update: this post has been in the limbo for way too long, I wanted a way to embed the flash videos from Adobe.tv here, but it looks like there is none. I am publishing this post today, in hopes that the reader may find it interesting enough to actually try the links... BTW this here might relate to the silverlight 4 thingy as well! ]

I am yet to sift through all the Adobe MAX 2009 videos.

I find it really generous of Adobe to put all of these up. Even if most of it is marketing, they still share a few gems of information. Really worthwhile for guys like me, who end up being so busy there’s little hope of attending an actual MAX event unless planned at least six months ahead of time.

I chanced upon the Adobe AIR 2.0 preview video:  http://tv.adobe.com/watch/max-2009-develop/whats-coming-in-adobe-air-2-/

(I wish there was a way to embed flash videos from Adobe.tv into WordPress…)

To me the most important ones are the support for USB (mass storage devices) and native apps (so you can now open a word document from within AIR). I am still a bit skep about the performance, but, I am sure this is going to improve over the new version too…

Check these videos out. Kinda nice. Kinda exciting.

Cheers.

S.

[update:

1. there's a lot more videos on AIR2 in the complete video list, but I did like this one by Kevin Lynch as well: http://tv.adobe.com/watch/max-2009-develop/kevin-lynch-demos-adobe-air-2-features/

2. I prefer the adobe media player for working out all of it. nicer neater faster AIR based video playing...]

Custom Overlay and map scale

I needed to create a map with a movable circle on it, and then be able to hit a button and get a list of locations within that circle.

This presented a couple of problems – firstly how to draw a circle over the top of the map, and secondly, how big to make it.   Looking at the map API, there’s not an easy way to figure out what the scale of the map is.  In other words, you have to find out how many pixels wide the circle needs to be to represent a given radius in kilometres on the map, taking into account the current zoom level.

Here’s how I did it….

private function calculateMapScale():Number
{
    var topLeft:LatLng;
    var bottomLeft:LatLng;
    var scale:Number;
    var distance:Number;

    topLeft = _mapPane.fromPaneCoordsToLatLng(new Point(0,0));
    bottomLeft = _mapPane.fromPaneCoordsToLatLng(new Point(0, _map.height));
    distance = topLeft.distanceFrom(bottomLeft) / 1000 ;
    scale = _map.height / distance;

    return scale;
}

All the code above does is get the top and bottom of the map as lat/longs and then find the distance between the two points. Then I have the number of pixels and the distance they represent.

And the caveats are:

• This relies on the use of one of the later versions of the API library – you need to set applyProjection to true on the GroundOverlayOptions otherwise you’ll get an oval instead of a circle.
• I just get the vertical scale, and assume that the horizontal scale is the same.

Click on the image to get to my prototype app. The app includes a slider with a range of 0 to 10000 to set the radius in kilometres of the circle. The circle itself just moves automatically to the centre of the map.

I am just loving the Tweening platform v11 by Jack Doyle. You keep on exploring the engine, it will keep on surprising you with its control, ease of use and flexibility. I used to be a big fan of Tweener before, but now its all TweenMax in my projects for the last 6-7 months or so. There a loads of features I can talk about right now which I absolutely love but may be I would explain them sometime later.

For now, I just want to say that I have now become a Shockingly Green Club GreenSock member and I would certainly encourage other developers to donate for all the effort Jack has been putting into making this platform so wonderful.

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Should we report or not? The question pricked the Press as the Speaker today pronounced a “ruling” that nothing beyond the business under the agenda and allowed in the Orissa Legislative Assembly could be reported.

Shocked severely by the ruling, journalists in the Press gallery were to decide to stop reporting in protest against abrupt obliteration of their working environment that the OLA was the first House in the country to have granted them under a specific law such as The Orissa Legislative Assembly Proceedings (Protection of Publication) Act, 1960.

The Government, aware of collective protests of Orissa journalists against police atrocities perpetrated on a number of members of their fraternity, sensed how the Speaker’s ruling would further embitter the Press and tried to make amendment through the Minister of Parliamentary affairs, Raghunath Mohanty.

As the House adjourned over unrelenting Opposition demand for obituary honor to farmers reassembled at 12 in the noon, Mohanty instantly stood up to request the Speaker to recall his ruling restricting reporting. “In the question hour today, Sir, you have issued a ruling. I request you to please review that ruling and to please allow the Press to report the Assembly proceedings as unrestricted as before”, he repeatedly said, while appealing simultaneously to the Press to cooperate with the House in publication of its proceedings.

The Speaker, in response, said that he had no intention to gag the Press. “I accept the request of the Parliamentary Affairs Minister. Let the friends in the Press Gallery kindly cooperate”.

Okay, i promised u all that i’m going to post you the code, well i found a new code which i think is better than mine.  I’m not going to post the complete code but just a fraction of it, meaning, only the function. Why i said function , not a method? Coz this code is not written in Object Oriented fashion but it still works. So here you go :

function findImages():Boolean{

var startMarker:ByteArray = new ByteArray();

var x:int = 0;

var start:int = 0;

var end:int = 0;

var image:ByteArray;

if(imageBuffer.length > 1){

// look for the start of an image!

for(x ; x < imageBuffer.length-1 ; x=x+1){

// get the first two bytes.

imageBuffer.position = x;

imageBuffer.readBytes(startMarker, 0, 2);

// are the the start of a jpeg?

if(startMarker[0] == 255 && startMarker[1] == 216){

start = x;

//trace(“found start of image at: ” + x);

break;

}

}

// look for the end of an image!

for(x ; x < imageBuffer.length-17 ; x++){

// get the first 18 bytes.

imageBuffer.position = x;

imageBuffer.readBytes(startMarker, 0, 18);

// are these the end of a jpeg?

if(startMarker[0] == 255 && startMarker[1] == 217){

end = x;

//trace(“found end of image at: ” + x);

break;

}

}

// if we have the start and end of an image, grab the image and show it

if(start && end){

// grab the image

image = new ByteArray();

imageBuffer.position = start;

imageBuffer.readBytes(image, 0, end-start);

imageArray.push(image);

var newImageBuffer:ByteArray = new ByteArray();

imageBuffer.position = end;

imageBuffer.readBytes(newImageBuffer, 0);

imageBuffer = newImageBuffer;

return true;

}

}

return false;

}

I hope this will help you .

It’s finally finished, and released.

My first game ever, developed with Flash CS4 Professional and ActionScript 3.0 (language used in Flash), for a course in Animation and Interactivity at the University of Hedmark. Have fun!

Release date: Released! (18/11/2009) Click here to play.
Genre: Side-scrolling platformer.
Plot: In a world of hard rocks, crumbled papers, and sharp scissors – you’re the hand. Struck your opponents down with great vengeance!
Gameplay: Defeat enemies by transforming into either a rock, a paper, or scissors – depending on the enemy you meet. Rock is weak to Paper, Paper is weak to Scissors, Scissors is weak to Rock.

Characters

Main Character:

Rock:

Paper:

Scissor:

While on a project just recently, I was in need of calculating a percentage of a certain value which is in a specified range and then to convert back this percentage to equivalent value of another range.

For example, if I have a range of integers from 0 to 50 and I need to find an equivalent percentage of the value of 25 within this range, the resulting percentage would be 50%. And now if I take this 50% and find an equivalent value within another range of 50 to 100, the resulting value would be 75.

Tried to find a utility class for this type of basic percentage-to-value conversion over the internet but couldn’t find so I wrote my own. Here it is:

package com.tahirahmed.utils
{

/**
* Number Utilities
*
* …
* @author Tahir Ahmed – lukin4ward@hotmail.com
* @version 1.0
*/
public class NumUtils
{

public function NumUtils ( )
{
}

/**
* Determines an equivalent percentage of a value within a given range
*
*
* @param value the value to which the equivalent percentage needs to be calculated
* @param min the lower value of the range
* @param max the upper value of the range
* @return percentage the resulting percentage of the given value within the specified range
* @example
*
* NumUtils.getPercentage ( 5, 0, 10 ); // returns 50
*
*/
public static function getPercentage ( value:Number, min:Number, max:Number ):Number
{
var percentage :Number = ((( value – min ) / ( max – min )) * 100 );

return percentage;
}

/**
* Determines an equivalent value of a percentage within a given range
*
*
* @param percentage the percentage to which the equivalent value needs to be calculated
* @param min the lower value of the range
* @param max the upper value of the range
* @return value the resulting value of the given percentage within the specified range
* @example
*
* NumUtils.getValue ( 50, 0, 10 ); // returns 5
*
*/
public static function getValue ( percentage:Number, min:Number, max:Number ):Number
{
var value :Number = ((( max – min ) / 100 ) * percentage ) + min;

return value;
}
}
}

I stumpled over the source code to a opensource project at adobe which looks like it is a project where they plan todo a eclipse plugin for flex PMD.
I hope they will finnish it and release it soon, because the tool is excellent but i really hate running it and then uploading the result to the violation viewer.
I could have done this automatically using ant , maven together with CI software like hudson, but since im working in a small company its abit overhead to
setup a CI system.

Screendump of output

Example bat file i use to generate output

java -Xmx256m -jar c:\flex-pmd\flex-pmd-command-line-1.0.RC3.jar -s ./src/ -o ./pmd/ -r C:\flex-pmd\pmd.xml
pause

Links:

• Flex PMD homepage
• Code repository
• Ruleset creator
• Finding worst practices in your code
• Adobe forum about FlexPMD
• FlexPMD with ANT

About Advanced Flash Tactics

Advanced Flash Tactics or AFTs are techniques that come from deep within the Flash Art Of War, the oldest Flash military treatise in the world.
Each AFT is designed to be quickly digested, usually only taking a few minutes to get up and running, and contains valuable information you can directly apply to your next Flash campaign.
Read more about: Dynamically Creating Classes From XML.

I was looking for a way to detect when the user is closing the web browser before placing an order or cancel one for a ecomerce site im developing.
After some research i found a library called jsinterface on google code.

It was easy and straight forward to implement the solution i needed , and below is a code example on how todo it:

            import aw.external.JSInterface;
            import aw.external.jsinterface.JSFunction;
            import aw.external.jsinterface.JSDynamic;

            static public const NOT_SAVED_ALERT:String = '\\\\n Data is not saved.\\\\nPlease save before closing window.';

            /**
             * Called on applicationComplete event.
             * @param event Event
             * @private
             */
            private function onApplicationComplete(event:Event = null):void
            {
                if (this.parameters.username != null && this.parameters.username != "")
                {
                    Alert.show(this.parameters.username);
                }
            }

            /**
             * Initializing JSInterface.
             * @param event Event
             * @private
             */
            private function preinitializeHandler(event:Event = null):void
            {
                //Adding functionality to catch when user redirect to new webpage or closes browser window.
                JSInterface.initialize(this.systemManager.stage);
                if (JSInterface.navigator.appName.toLowerCase().indexOf('fox') > 0)
                {
                    // For FireFox
                    JSInterface.window.onbeforeunload = this.isDataSaved;
                }
                else
                {
                    // For Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari or other
                    JSInterface.window.onbeforeunload = JSFunction.create("var text; if(!window.isFlexDataSaved){text='" + NOT_SAVED_ALERT + "';}; return text;");
                }
                JSInterface.window.isFlexDataSaved = true;
            }

            /**
             * Checking if we can close/redirect browser without notifying end user.
             * @param event JSDynamic
             */
            protected function isDataSaved(event:JSDynamic = null):String
            {
                if (JSInterface.window.isFlexDataSaved)
                    return "";
                if (event)
                {
                    event.returnValue = NOT_SAVED_ALERT;
                }
                return NOT_SAVED_ALERT;
            }

On the link below you can find coding conventions for Flex and ActionScript 3.0. Just quick browse through the conventions will give you some idea about what you should and shouldn’t do the next time you are spitting out Flex and AS3 code. Found it by following Flex on Twitter

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Coding+Conventions

I’ve been building a few apps recently and have found that a linear response over a range of numbers has been a poor solution. I needed to be able to apply different response curves to user interface components (knobs, sliders, touchpads) as well as on screen display objects, characters, etc.

I needed a good name for the class, but instead came up with the pretty poor moniker ‘RangedNumbers’. I’ll change it when I come up with a better one.

So the idea is, a ‘ranged number’ is instantiated, initialised for the required range then a simple call with a value in that range will result with a percentage that can be applied to the intended recipient accordingly. I realised that an inverted curve would be handy too, so have added that functionality.

I have included exponential and powered curves as well as linear.

So to use the ranged number system:

I have put together two demos to show the RangedNumber class in action:

Firstly using a Slider component. Grab the slider and watch how the markers are represented on all the displayed response curves.

A demonstration of how to implement non-linear response curves

Now here is the same demo but this time using a TouchPad. Click on the touchpad to engage. In this demo horizontal movement controls the standard curves and vertical the inverted.

How to implement non-linear response curves with a touchpad

The source for these demos and the Ranged Number class can be found here: Ranged Number ZIP

One of my favorite FIVe3D examples is this AS3 banner by Bartek Drozdz.

I downloaded the source code graciously provided by the author but when I tried to compile in Flex Builder 3 w/ SDK 3.4, I kept getting errors that told me Flex can’t find classes found in the “fl.motion.*” package. Since that particular package only works in the Flash IDE, I had to make some small adjustments to the FIVe3D banner code to get it to compile as a Flex Builder Actionscript application. Basically, I had to substitute all “fl.motion” package classes with their equivalents from the TweenLite library. For example, when an easing function, such as “import fl.motion.Elastic” was required by line 6 of Screenplay.as, it was quick and easy to change that to “import gs.easing.Elastic,” while making sure the relevant “gs” packages are actually at the location you’re telling the application they’re located.

In Sprite3D.as and Shape3D.as I commented out these lines and most of the banner example’s functionality remained unaffected:

/* ... */
import fl.motion.Color;
/* ... */
var color:Color = new Color();
color.brightness = brightness;
color.alphaMultiplier = alpha;
transform.colorTransform = color;
/* ... */

I was googling to see if there was a Adobe Livedocs plugin for eclipse today, and i found this cool tool.

You can find the original tool here Actionscript toolbox

var filtered:XMLList = data.item;
var fields:Array = [{name: "source", value: "Amazon"}, {name: "price", value: "599.99"}];

var fieldCount:int = fields.length;
for(var i:int = 0; i {
var fieldName:String = fields[i].name;
var fieldValue:String = fields[i].value;
filtered = filtered.(child(fieldName) == fieldValue);
}