Like the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears we’re seeking a way to get more of you involved in the Golden Lunch Bucket contests—trying to find the one that is just right. As noted in our original announcement (where you find the link to download the Dragon Factory) all you need to do is to add classes to the existing parent classes. A slight change in the contest makes it easier. Just set up the draggable elements so that you can create a single Design Pattern of your choosing. By clicking the Play button below, you will see a finished example that does exactly that:
As you can see in Figure 1, by dragging the different pieces you can create a Class Diagram of a design pattern.
Figure 1: Class diagram dragged into place
The little gray splotches are drag handles I added. Also, the fat lines are for the same reason—they’re easier to drag. Grab anything with an arrow by the arrowhead, and it’s easy to drag. Here are some tips:
Continue reading ‘Golden Lunch Bucket Contest #5 Update-Example’
A Closer Look
In a
recent post, I looked at using the undocumented
MovieClip.addFrameScript() method. It is a solution for accessing MovieClip objects with embedded tweens using external ActionScript 3.0. Not only is this important for controlling animations, but it is also a way to add code in classes that are part of a Design Pattern with ActionScript 3.0 files. In other words, you don’t have to use the Timeline or the Actions panel at all in taking advantage of the animation capabilities of Flash and at the same time have all of the advantages of using Design Patterns. In the initial use of the MovieClip.addFrameScript(), I didn’t take time to really look at what the method can do or even exactly how it works other than by example. This short post, tries to provide better documentation for this undocumented feature and an example of using it. Clicking the Play button provides an experience of the final product.(It just plays explosion flashes from the tweens in the movie clip in the library.)
Continue reading ‘A Closer Look: Using MovieClip.addFrameScript()’
Truckin' thru MVC
First off, let me say that Chandima is the go-to guy when it comes to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework, including PureMVC. So if you’re interested in MVCs, I’d suggest you start where I did—Chapter 12 in our book and any of Chandima’s posts on PureMVC. Further, if you have GoF’s original
Design Patterns you might want to look up the several references to the MVC there, especially the initial explanation of its purpose in Chapter 1. Finally, by way of introduction, last year about this time, I broached the query,
Is MVC Obsolete? based on a post by Brian Lesser. That kicked up very little dust either on our blog or Brian’s, but it helped to take a closer look at the MVC. You’ll be relieved to hear that I’m not going to trash MVCs in this series. Rather I want to explore the MVC as a compound pattern (or perhaps framework) to see some different things we might do with it.
MVC in a Nutshell: The Great Decoupler
To get started, GoF show the MVC to be three distinct components in what they call a a triad of classes. As such, they discuss its elements in terms of objects. The application object is defined by the Model, the screen presentation by the View and the way the way the user interface reacts to the user input by the Controller. Prior to MVC, the application, its appearance on the screen and the UI were grouped together in a single class. By decoupling the objects into separate units, the MVC loosens the relationship following a key good practice. (I used to cram them all together in a single class thinking that I was tightening up my code—how dumb was that?) As a first image of the MVC, then, think of it as a tool to loosen up code.
Continue reading ‘Truckin’ Through ActionScript 3.0 MVC: Part I—Structures and Materials’
In the fourth Golden Lunch Bucket Contest, Barbara Parkman entered for the first time and won the Grand Prize. This moves the US from last to second place in the World Cup.
Barbara Parkman, USA
Barbara’s entry added a Movement interface and implemented a movement class for each of the characters. In this way, each character had his/her own movement.
Contest #5: Our next contest (#5) is a good one for both Flash and Flex (FD) developers. Contestants first download the Dragon Factory files, and then create draggable objects that can be used to create class diagrams for any of the GoF class diagrams. That means you’ll need the proper set of relationship lines (e.g., ones for subclassing, aggregates, associations, etc.) and either input text fields for the different names of the design participants or make a huge number of graphic names. All elements must extend or implement the existing classes/interfaces in the ‘Dragon Factory’ files. All entries are due, October 20, 2009. This one is both fun and useful. (I’ll be putting up a sample of what the final product looks like to encourage entries.)
Click Here to see contest standings:
Continue reading ‘US Moves to Second Place in Golden Lunch Bucket World Cup—Contest #5 Announced!’
Here is another introductory video for artists and beginning OOPers. I was almost finished with it when the other one went up this morning. This one covers using other classes (besides ones in the Library) for making things happen. The Client class is often part of a Design Pattern, but you can do a lot with a Client class on its own, making requests from other classes. Click the download button to go to the download site.
Bill Sanders
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