visualcondition blog - flash & ruby on rails

So you’re getting into Ruby on Rails and decide to stay hip by using it with Subversion, but you’re not quite sure how to go about it. What do you do? Read on of course!

I was asking the same question a few days ago setting up my (mt) Media Temple DV 3 server, and besides that process being worse than giving yourself a paper-cut in your eye while trying to keeping them open staring into the sun, I figured it out and thought I’d share. This is very general, so it should apply to most deployment platforms.

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I just got the new 3rd gen iPod nano, and it’s brilliant. It looks like the short fat kid when you look at pictures, but the new nano is truly great. The scroll wheel is a bit skinny though, like that fat kid wearing a shirt about a size too small for ‘em, but it’s fine. The display is great, and the new ui is, as stated before, brilliant.

So, I also got a new little toy called a Macbook Pro. This 15 incher is a real beauty. You all know how amazing it is already, so case closed. I just can’t wait for Leopard.

I’m, also upgrading to the new wordpress today, so let’s see how that goes.

This is the first (and only so far) XML image gallery I’ve ever made. It’s nice and tidy, and in 3 classes, unlike messy flas that you have to hack through. I made this almost exactly a year ago, and never really shared it for some reason, until now. It’s no use to me at all, and is not up to my OOP standards these days, but I’m sure many will find it useful in learning.

Given the fact it was my first and that it was such a long time ago, I really don’t remember the ins and outs of it. I just figured I’d put it out there since I wasn’t too happy with the quality of beginner XML gallery examples scattered across the ‘net.

So here’s a few features:

• Almost entirely XML based
• Class based, not FLA timeline
• Image preloading
• Fully customizable
• Tagging support in XML
• Visual tag filtering
• Thumbnail and expanded views with descriptions and titles
• Tag caching
• Image hyperlinking through XML
• And more little things

View Example

Pixgal and Example Included is the latest Fuse Kit which is needed. Also, this is made with Flash 8 and AS2, so I don’t know if it’ll work in MX2004.

My good friend Moses (of Fuse Kit fame), is working on a nice little framework he calls Go. I’ve had a sneak peak in the private pre alpha beta gamma theta, and while very much in its infant stages, it looks promising and very OOP.

Technically right now it’s not very useful, but that’s kind of the point. It’s made as a framework to be built off of for tweening etc yourself (or others), not a full blown kit a la Fuse. With an almost cult-like following of Fuse, I don’t think Moses will have a single problem getting this little framework heavily adopted, but, we’ll have to see.

Whew, Twease 1.1 is hot off the desktop of yours truly. Been working on this one off and on for a few weeks, and it’s a nice little upgrade.

Twease Homepage

We’ve got new Array tweening features, Penner Easing Equations are now included, some bug fixes and optimizations, and a new beta Extend class. This Extend class is still an infant, and only really provides a getTweens function for now. We’re also under 200 lines of code for the core Twease class now, and still only 2k, even with new features!

Expect color and bezier in 1.2 as well as polishing off the Extend class and squashing any bugs that come up in this release. 1.3 I’m thinking will be the filter tweening release. After that, it’s pretty much done.

I know I know, AS3 AS3. I haven’t even touched it yet, I’ve been a bit busy ya know?

For an upcoming non-Flash project, that’s akin to classifieds/ebay flavor, I’ve decided to give Ruby on Rails a shot - instead of reaching for PHP, which I’m quasi-comfertable with. I’m not a php guru by any means, and what I do know ties in with AS2 fairly well, so I can do what I need to do in php with very little fuss. After all, I did make the Desuade site in php just a few months ago, and I was fairly comfortable working with it. And since php is so popular, if I had a question, just give’er a Google and thar she be: instant answers.

This project is a fairly involved project, and under a tight deadline, so one would think using something I know and am comfortable with, would allow me to get right in and get it done fast. Maybe. But what if there’s something I could use to get it done even faster? Pre-made scripts and templates for php are a dime a dozen, I could just pay a few bucks and download something and go from there, but you all know me better than to cheat like that. Escaping from the back of my mind, a voice, very passionate and excited, was yelling to me to take a gamble with RoR. This voice was yelling, almost screaming to give it a try, but it was subdued to a whisper over the course of months due to the amount on my plate.

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