siancu.net

Review: Cocos2d for iPhone 1 Game Development Cookbook by Alex

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:49:38 +0100

[shared via Google Reader from Under The Bridge » Blog]

So, now that we’re all up on the latest in cocos2d web events, let’s take a look as promised at the latest in cocos2d publishing events:

Cocos2d for iPhone 1 Game Development Cookbook

SHORT REVIEW:

Buy it now. No, seriously. Buy it now.

SOMEWHAT LONGER REVIEW:

We absolutely guarantee that just about anyone will find the book worth way more than its price in time saved. To see for yourself, head over to the book’s website

http://bit.ly/xl6Wnz

and check out the Explore The Book section for videos and explanations of the recipes in each … and download the demo apps. Yep, the demo apps, there’s free demo apps up on the store for you to check out the recipes in action:

Cocos2d Cookbook Ch1-3

Cocos2d Cookbook Ch4-6

Cocos2d Cookbook Ch7-8

Now that’s how you go about supporting a book!

Also check out the book’s thread on the cocos2d-iphone forums for some subtle understated commentary like

“This book looks like it is going to be a requirement in every developer’s library!”
“Ok, I have read a handful of recipes and I am completely sold. This is an awesome book.”
“…every developer needs to have this book.”
“this book is an absolute must for anyone developing cocos2d apps.”
“Great book, instant buy!”

Gee, gushing much? But it actually does deserve all that and more. Let us take the very first recipe, “Drawing sprites”. Oh for crying out loud, you think, how does that merit a recipe? Is this thing going to be full of fluff I already know? Well, no actually, that simple sounding recipe goes over drawing from files, images, textures, and frames; explains mipmapping and batch nodes; and tops it off with colorizing rectangles. Well, that is pretty good for a first recipe, isn’t it now.

The first graphics chapter goes on to cover not only common drawing and animating but movie playing, particle effects, simple 3D effects, texture animation, palette swapping, screenshots, parallax, and lighting. Pretty much a worthwhile purchase already, and we’re barely started!

Second chapter covers user input of varying types, including virtual joysticks, d-pads, and accelerometer; nothing too novel here, but useful time savers here if you’re newish to cocos2d.

Third chapter covers data management; reading and saving plist/JSON/XML … and even SQLite and Core Data. Probably not much completely new to you here either, but the details of working with sprites and the like are handy.

Fourth chapter is on physics and is a particularly valuable one for those of us weak on the background there; focusing on Box2D, takes you from basic setup through impulses and forces to joints, bullets, ropes, and ending up with a 2.5D isometric game engine! That’s a pretty standout one there.

Fifth chapter, ‘Scenes and Menus’, is mostly pretty straightforward but still handy code. The sliding menu grid and minimap are particularly nice.

Sixth chapter, “Audio” is another notably useful one, nice explanations of sound manipulating, positioning, metering, recording, iPod library usage, and finishing up with creating a MIDI synthesizer with MobileSynth and then speech recognition/synthesis.

Seventh chapter, “AI and Logic” is well-nigh invaluable for those without a background in it; basic waypoints, targeting, line of sight, flocking, pathfinding (the “in a Box2D world” getting special mention, good luck figuring that one out without some help!) and finishing off with discussion of Lua integration.

We figured the last chapter “Tips, Tools, and Ports” was a bit weaker; the tools picked here mostly aren’t up to the currently regarded best of breed mentioned in yesterday’s roundup, and the cocos2d-x and cocos3d intros were too short to really be of much use. But hey, still worth a read.

Closest thing we have to a real complaint is that you have to email the author to get the extra chapter which was omitted from the print versions; really, how hard would it be to put it as an addenda in the electronic versions most of us are going to be buying anyways? But hey, if mild inconvenience is the worst whine we can come up with, that’s pretty solid.

So, yeah. We pretty much can’t imagine anyone developing with cocos2d who won’t find something in here well worth the price; for those just starting out it might be a bit over your head, but it would make a perfect second step after one of the introductory books or our starting recommendation The iPhone Game Kit. So buy it now!

}}

Use ATrack to Track Your Favorite Authors by Jon Westfall

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 23:22:28 +0100

[shared via Google Reader from Windows Phone Thoughts.com]

http://bit.ly/zVU3Gg

“ATrack allows you to track your favorite authors and keep up with their new releases. Search for your favorite authors, and add them your list to view the latest and upcoming releases. Click on the name of any book in your booklist to view more details. Upcoming versions will provide a background agent to alert you of new releases.”

Our own Adan Galvan has released his first Windows Phone app, and it’s pretty cool if you’re an avid reader who doesn’t have the time to keep up on your favorite authors. ATrack will keep the list nicely organized, and let you find out what’s new with just a tap. Future versions promise background notifications so you’ll always know when your favorite authors have something new out!

}}

The Rise of Digital Omnivores by John Gruber

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:32:07 +0100

[shared via Google Reader from Daring Fireball]

Interesting usage data from ComScore. Check out the graph showing which devices are used at which hours of the day — “tablets” skew heavily toward morning coffee and after-dinner usage. And by “tablets” they mean the iPad:

Although tablets have yet to be widely adopted, they already contribute nearly 2 percent of all U.S. Web browsing traffic, driven almost exclusively by the iPad, which currently accounts for more than 97 percent of all tablet traffic. More notably, iPads have also begun to account for a higher share of Internet traffic than iPhones (46.8 percent vs. 42.6 percent of all iOS device traffic), despite accounting for only half of the number of iPhones in use.

★

}}

Fun with Objective-C: How to learn Cocoa

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:27:34 +0100

Fun with Objective-C: How to learn Cocoa:

quatermain:

funwithobjc:

This is something any experienced Cocoa developer has been asked at least half a dozen times:

“What’s the best way to learn Objective-C/Cocoa?”

I have two answers to this question:

Be curious

Don’t be satisfied

He goes on to finish with the following epithet:

Know what a pointer is.

Memorize the memory management rules.

Never invoke -retainCount.

The second item there is the one I most frequently hear is ‘really difficult’ to understand. It’s not. It’s really not. It looks like this:

Only the owner of an object needs to think about its memory management.

You only own an object if you get it from a method whose name contains any one of:
alloc, including +allocWithZone:

new, including +newSomethingSomething

init, including -initWithSomeParameter

copy, including -copyWithZone: or -mutableCopy or -mutableCopyWithZone:

If the object doesn’t come from a method matching those rules, you don’t own it.

It’s that simple. If you call something including alloc, new, init, or copy, then you must use -release (or -autorelease) to balance that call. If you don’t call one of those methods, you Just Don’t Care.

How about CoreFoundation? That’s even simpler: you own an object if it comes from a method containing Create. The same thing could be said about Copy, but CF’s copy constructors are always careful to already contain Create, so we don’t need to. Anything named using Get returns an already-managed reference, so you don’t need a CFRelease for it.

See? Easy. A list of four keywords in Objective-C code indicate the only times you need to ever think about memory management. And one keyword in CoreFoundation to tell you the same.

Now, there are exceptions— usually when something missed the boat, or when an existing API needed to be changed to fix an internal memory-management issue. The documentation will tell you about these very rare cases, but the best way to catch them for now is judicious use of Build & Analyze. The Clang compiler’s static analysis tool knows all about these rules, and can be told about any differences to them by any API. It will tell you explicitly if you’ve released something you don’t own, or have failed to release something you do own. Use it. Love it.

Memory management in Cocoa isn’t difficult. There are rules, but they’re simple and easy to remember. The main thing to remember is:

Don’t over-think it

merlin: notdickless: (via gregrutter)

Mon, 17 May 2010 11:46:31 +0200

merlin:

notdickless:

(via gregrutter)

iTunes Finally Adds Watched Folder to Automatically Add New Music [ITunes]

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:31:20 +0200

iTunes Finally Adds Watched Folder to Automatically Add New Music [ITunes]

Go To My Music script for iTunes

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:05:29 +0200

Go To My Music script for iTunes:

Didn’t occur to me until now how annoying this is. Fortunately, Daniel’s script fixes this annoyance.

Cool new feature of iTunes 9. zachholman: The iTunes...

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:48:11 +0200

Cool new feature of iTunes 9.

zachholman:

The iTunes organizational hierarchy has been slowly getting more and more disorganized with each feature Apple adds. When you let iTunes manage your files, traditionally they toss everything in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. That works great when everything in “iTunes Music” is, you know, music. Once they’ve tossed movies, podcasts, and a slew of other features in the mix, your directory hierarchy gets really nonsensical with everything in one big ol’ pile.

iTunes 9 finally moves away from this mentality, though the feature is hidden by default. iTunes now lets you organize everything into an upper level “iTunes Media” folder structure, which then breaks out neatly into logical groupings: movies, apps, shows, and so on. You can find this in File => Library => Organize Library. You’re welcome.

megpickard: Sound advice.

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:19:37 +0200

megpickard:

Sound advice.

John Siracusa's brilliant Snow Leopard review

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:19:00 +0200

John Siracusa's brilliant Snow Leopard review:

It’s pretty long (23 pages) but very interesting. I wish though he wrote a bit more about the new Services architecture and improvements in Snow Leopard.

The problem with eBooks today

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:11:01 +0200

Today I wanted to buy an eBook from eReader.com so that my commutes are no longer boring.

I add the book to my cart and, when I want to pay, I am greeted with the following text:

Warning: The eBook you just added to your cart has geographic rights restrictions. The billing country on your credit card indicates that you do not have the right to purchase this eBook due to rights restrictions by the Publisher of the eBook. Please either remove it from your cart or purchase with a credit card whose billing address is in the USA or Canada.

WTF? Did I travel back in time to, like, 1999? Come on! And you would think they want my money …

Any idea if the Sony bookstore has these stupid restrictions?

Tumblr here I come!

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:54:50 +0100

Just discovered the Tumblr iPhone app and I thought I’ll give it a shot.

Let’s see this time how much I keep at it.