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announcements progress logsThese are some of the goals we want to achieve with code52:
+ +The current organisers of code52 are Andrew Tobin, Brendan Forster and Paul Jenkins.
+Want to get involved?
+ +
-
+
+ announcements progress logsString Calculator from Corey Haines on Vimeo.
+ +Watch the stream of characters in the bottom-left corner of the screen as [Corey](http://twitter.com/coreyhaines) works his way through the kata. I am not familiar with the tool (perhaps someone in the audience knows it) but I fell in love with it's purpose immediately. While not practical for all scenarios, it is something that can be very useful for viewers to follow along with during a presentation. You could even filter it to only show keyboard shortcuts (like Keyboard Jedi). + +## Taking it to eleven + +The JabbR room were throwing around ideas last on Sunday around what other cool things you could do with this tool: + + * Is it possible to export shortcuts captured to a video editing program (rather than displaying them onscreen)? + * What about tracking statistics about the session - mistakes, navigating with keyboard, time spent using mouse, etc. What about over time? Is someone overusing specific shortcuts? + * Can we bundle keyboard shortcuts for typical apps you use? Can we detect shortcuts used by that user for that application and share them with the world? + * Can we bring back [Typing of the Dead](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead) already? + +## The technology underneath + +As we have a few contributors who are familiar with WPF, we will be using that to write it. Sorry Winforms developers. Hopefully we can show off some cool tricks along the way about visuals and animations work with WPF. + +## Follow the chatter + +What we're looking for this week is coders and testers. Its a very specific app, but could open up a number of possibilities for developers to work on stuff. We use [JabbR](http://jabbr.net/#/rooms/code52) heavily to discuss stuff in real-time - if you want to get involved, drop in on the action. If you can't keep up, don't worry - JabbR also supports browsing the conversation history of a room (just scroll up to go back in time), so you can catch up on the discussion easily. + +## How can I get involved? + +The initial project is up on [GitHub](http://github.com/Code52/carnac). The [Trello board](https://trello.com/board/carnac/4f38fe6ec2fe26391c4e7d34) will be updated over the course of today/tomorrow as we sketch out the UI and features to implement. And of course the [JabbR](http://jabbr.net/#/rooms/code52) room is worth checking out too! \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2012-02-19-designing-code52-part1.md b/_posts/2012-02-19-designing-code52-part1.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ae3968 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2012-02-19-designing-code52-part1.md @@ -0,0 +1,68 @@ +--- +layout: post +title: "Designing Code52: Part 1" +date: 2012-02-19 13:40:48 +11:00 +comments: true +--- + +Code52 is an interesting mix of technologies that will always require something most developers are lacking: design. There has recently been the rise of the "devigner" - a developer who can do design, or even the other way around (particularly with web tech), and there are always exceptions to the case where somebody is equally good at design as they are at developing. Unfortunately - at least in the .NET world we've been looking at so far - this isn't the norm *yet*. + +While this might sound like bragging (because some of our designs are nice), what we mean is "*design is hard when coming from the developer side*" hard work and practice - just like any new programming technique - is all it requires. + +Over the coming weeks we'll share what process we go through for design, as well as the inspirations and resources we draw on to improve our designs. + +Today, however, I wanted to share some of the tools - both digital and physical - that I use for designing Code52. + +##Physical Media +Yes, I go "old school" for just about every design. We still live in a world where its easier to quickly sketch something by hand, then spend more time making it more accurate digitally + +###Pens +The best investment for design sketching I've made is the set of [Sakura Pigma Micron](http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Pen-Archival), size 005 (0.20mm tip) pens I have. The tiny pen tip allows for very fine drawing, and the lovely ink doesn't smudge. + + + +While $3-5 a pen might seem expensive, these suckers *last*. [Miguel Endara](http://vimeo.com/miguelendara) drew a piece of art composed of 3.5 million dots (a technique known as [stippling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stippling))... with just one of these pens. + + + +I don't *only* use Sakura pens - I also have a [Staedtler Mars Micro](http://www.staedtler.com.au/Mars_micro_au) mechanical pencil (which is "ok") and a [LAMY Logo fountain pen](http://www.lamy.com/eng/b2c/logo/006) with EF nib (which is awesome). Most people would just write with a fountain pen (which it *excels* at), but the broader tip (than the Sakura pens) and particular type of ink produce fantastic results. + + + +###Paper +I use a mix of paper - three different notepads and a draughtsman table with some random A3 paper I've found. At the moment my wife and I are house sitting for friends, and we haven't moved the table so I can't grab a photo of that, but here are the three notepads. + + + +From left to right, a hardback [Whitelines](http://whitelines.se/) A5 notebook (grid ruled), a [Rhodia](http://rhodiapads.com) "#15" (same as the #16, but 300 pages instead of 90) A5 (grid ruled) and an unruled A5 notebook I was gifted - it doesn't have a clear brand on it, so I can't provide more details. + + + +I have also been considering a more "pocketable" A6 notepad to take everywhere with me - if you've got any suggestions, leave a comment below. + + +##Digital Media +###Hardware +While I'd love a Wacom Cintiq (if any philanthropists are listening!), I "make do" with the Wacom Bamboo I have - it's a few years old now and bottom of the range, but still a very nifty tool. + + + +The tablet came in particular handy for [Samurai](http://code52.org/samurai-review.html)'s design, as we wanted to maintain a "hand drawn" look. + +###Software +Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop - when it comes to vector and bitmap manipulation, there isn't much better. In Photoshop CS5, proper "painting" brushes were introduced which puts Corel's Painter to shame. + + +**Icons** +For icon generation, we had some unpleasant results using Paint.NETs export, so we've moved to using Telegraphics (free!) [Photoshop ico exporter plugin](http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/product/ICOFormat) and combining with their (still free) [IcoBundle](http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/info/icobundle.html). This allows very fine tuning of resizing and what format. + +Why is this needed? Well, Windows XP will crash and burn when you run any app with a "PNG ICO", requiring the much uglier (and larger) "BMP ICO". + +The "work flow" for this: + +* Resize each "size/layer" in Photoshop using *"Bicubic Sharper (best for reduction)"* +* Manually tweak a few pixels here and there the smaller it gets for legibility (Optional) +* Save as `imagesize.ico` (ie, `256.ico`, `64.ico`) - make sure its a square image - and select "Standard ICO" as the output format. +* Once all the sizes are exported, from a command line `icobundl.exe -o projectname.ico 256.ico 128.ico 64.ico`. + +This gives ~200-500kB icons compared to PNG's that would be 20-60kB, but this is the only way to maintain compatibility (and good scaling) on Windows XP up. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/_posts/2012-02-20-carnac-review.md b/_posts/2012-02-20-carnac-review.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f14513 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2012-02-20-carnac-review.md @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +--- +layout: post +permalink: /carnac-review.html +date: 2012-02-20 23:00 +title: "carnac review" +author: "@aeoth, @shiftkey and @tobin" +comments: true +--- + +What started out as an excuse to watch [Youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m_dT0wsrGI) clips and make jokes about turbans quickly turned into a neat little tool called Carnac, for those people who want to display their keyboard activities on screen. + +
- code52 started with a simple idea:
- -We want to build fun stuff in our spare time, give back to projects which need support, and create a community which is inclusive and engaging.
- -Particular goals we want to achieve:
- -We're still nailing down the details at the moment, but in particular:
- -You can nominate and vote for projects on our Uservoice site.
- -Discussions, ideas and suggestions can be posted on our TenderApp site.
- -And we're on Twitter!
- -
- Our first run out of the gate is a project that a few people have taken a stab at in the past, and will help us blog easier.
- -The Downmarker project is an editor for Markdown a widely used syntax for formatting plain text to convert to blogs, comments, and in other places like on Stack Overflow.
- -Our aim is to create a useably, stylish new version of the project utilising Microsoft's WPF technology to provide a fresh UI for creating files that we can use to create blog posts for this, and other blogs using Markdown.
- -We will be discussing this on our TenderApp discussions but you can also ping us on Twitter to volunteer or have a word with us on Jabbr if we're around.
- -As will be our usual scenario - we'll be dedicating this week to kickstarting this project, which may of course go on for more than a week, but our aim is to try to get what we can sorted and organised, and hopefully coded this week to start momentum on this as a full tool in the future.
- -Many hands make light work we hope you'll put your hand up to participate on the above methods, we're more than happy for you to do as much as you're willing to do to help us.
- -One of our key goals is to give back to the community and all the source will be under an open source license and available at our Github repository.
- -We'll review our progress in next week's post.
- -You can also submit or vote on what the next project will be at our UserVoice site - we're happy to take any ideas for apps, tools, plugins or anything else that you think would be helpful and would like to crowdsource as an Open Source project :)
- --- Code52 team
- -
- Our first run out of the gate is a project that a few people have taken a stab at in the past, and will help us blog easier.
- -The Downmarker project is an editor for Markdown a widely used syntax for formatting plain text to convert to blogs, comments, and in other places like on Stack Overflow.
- -Our aim is to create a useably, stylish new version of the project utilising Microsoft's WPF technology to provide a fresh UI for creating files that we can use to create blog posts for this, and other blogs using Markdown.
- -We will be discussing this on our TenderApp discussions but you can also ping us on Twitter to volunteer or have a word with us on Jabbr if we're around.
- -As will be our usual scenario - we'll be dedicating this week to kickstarting this project, which may of course go on for more than a week, but our aim is to try to get what we can sorted and organised, and hopefully coded this week to start momentum on this as a full tool in the future.
- -Many hands make light work we hope you'll put your hand up to participate on the above methods, we're more than happy for you to do as much as you're willing to do to help us.
- -One of our key goals is to give back to the community and all the source will be under an open source license and available at our Github repository.
- -We'll review our progress in next week's post.
- -You can also submit or vote on what the next project will be at our UserVoice site - we're happy to take any ideas for apps, tools, plugins or anything else that you think would be helpful and would like to crowdsource as an Open Source project :)
- --- Code52 team
- -This all started with a simple premise:
- -Madness! I was hooked and gobsmacked at the same time. I had so many questions, and as we discussed it we started to come to something resembling an agreement. We want to:
- -Of course, that doesn't get away from the original question I had.
- -A week isn't a long time - or it may be, depending on your perspective. This is still a somewhat contentious point within the group, but a week suits me because:
- -But there are some things we need to address first:
- -We want to build fun stuff, give back to the projects which have been useful to us, and potentially create a community around this crazy idea. So whatever your background - if you want to get involved and work with others in the developer community, we'd love to hear from you.
- -Do you have an project which suits this idea? Vote on it
- -Want to discuss your ideas and suggestions? Share it
- -Want to get in touch? Follow us on Twitter!
- - - Comments - -
- This all started with a simple premise:
- -Madness! I was hooked and gobsmacked at the same time. I had so many questions, and as we discussed it we started to come to something resembling an agreement. We want to:
- -Of course, that doesn't get away from the original question I had.
- -A week isn't a long time - or it may be, depending on your perspective. This is still a somewhat contentious point within the group, but a week suits me because:
- -But there are some things we need to address first:
- -We want to build fun stuff, give back to the projects which have been useful to us, and potentially create a community around this crazy idea. So whatever your background - if you want to get involved and work with others in the developer community, we'd love to hear from you.
- -Do you have an project which suits this idea? Vote on it
- -Want to discuss your ideas and suggestions? Share it
- -Want to get in touch? Follow us on Twitter!
- -
