Flashalisious

The popular code snippet web site snipplr added MXML to the languages that you can store code snippets for. If you have not used snipplr then you are missing out. As coders you need to learn to work smarter and store valuable code that you will use all the time. This way you don’t have to type the same lines over and over again that you normally use for every project.

The cool thing about snipplr is that they have a TexMate Plugin. So if you are on a Mac and you code your MXML in Texmate you are just a few keystrokes away from accessing your code snippets that you have stored on snipplr. Oh and don’t worry, if you don’t have a internet connection your snippets can be stored locally.

This site promises to be a killer resource for all coders and now that they added MXML and Actionscript to the mix, this is my one stop shop for code snippets for sure.

Oh and one final plug for the site that makes it cool. If you will notice the sidebar on this blog I have

Useful Code Snippets

These are pulled directly from my snipplr account using there cool wordpress plugin, so if you have a blog that is a cool feature of the site as well.

Just started a new Community so join up and contribute if you will. Coders helping coders …. code! I know what you are thinking. Another social network? Well I promise this one is only meant to help you as a programmer grow, learn, teach and build your social contacts in your specific field. I don’t think you will find yourself wasting hours and hours just hanging out. Unless you are just that ultra geek and you can’t get enough of the programming community, but I digress.

I started a local user group here in Nashville TN (http://615flex.com). If you don’t know my name is Matthew Wallace and I am a local Flex user group manager. Over the last year I have really realized that the most learning and growing that I have done as a programmer has been from being involved in this and user groups and really trying to help the community. In my case that would be the Flex community. You would be really surprised how much you will increase your programming skills just by being around others of like mind. My hope for Coder Resource is that it in some small way will benefit whatever programing language you are interested in. I really want this to be a place that other programmers can teach, learn and talk about there skills, so join up right now and contribute and if you don’t see a group for your programming language then start your own group on Coder Resource.

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I am totally not a coding guru just yet, but I have my eyes on the prise and I hope to one day know my stuff, but for now I will admit that I have a little trouble understanding some simple tasks that most programmers would not have any trouble with. We all know and love Textmate. The great text editor for the Mac. Heck I even use it to write my blog posts. You have to check out the blogging bundle if you have not used it for that it is great.

As soon as I got Textmate I started using it for all my actionscript. At the time the bundle was only for AS2. Now that I am starting to dig into AS3 and Flex it would be great to start coding using this editor. It launches way faster than Flex Builder or Eclips. There are some draw backs. The biggest being that you do not get the code hinting quite as much as you do with Flex Builder, but still it is a great tool to work in. In the next few steps I will show you how to install SVN (subversion) client for your Mac so you can utilize all the bundles and updates that are currently being developed for Textmate and most importantly there is an AS3 / Flex bundle that you can download.

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Well, I got my invite to the new site done by Kevin Rose of http://Digg.com. Looks pretty cool. Once you set up your account you get to download a desktop applications that will show you all of your posts and also allow you to post comments, links, files, and events.

Now how does this relate to my blog. Well the desktop app was compiled using Adobe’s new Desktop Environment, AIR. Basically an app that is build using the Flex Builder or Flex SDK. Now As most of you know AIR can be a program that is written in html, Ajax, Javascript, Actionscript or Flex. Wonder how they build this one. It does not look like they are using any Animation or smooth transitions in the app so I am wondering if that build it with Ajax or something like that? It would be cool to know.

Over all Looks pretty cool. If anyone out there joins up and wants to add me as a friend that would be cool. Just hit me up.

Wow Can you believe this. Check out the original Ubuntu Logo

Now look at this Logo from Microsoft Alumni Network Homepage

Thanks to my buddy John Henshaw over at Sitening.com for pointing this out in a local Nashville User Group of Web Designers and developers that I am a part of. After seeing this I had to post it to my blog.

Now I know as designers we barrow design ideas but you never copy someone’s logo or design. Quite often I will go to web sites and look at logos or Movie Trailers at the Apple Quicktime section of the site. It is great to get the ideas burning and turning in your head. There is one thing that you should stay away from or at least try your best to stay away from. DON’T BLATANTLY STEAL ANOTHER COMPANIES DESIGN OR BRANDING. This is totally unethical and also a violation of copywrite. Hopefully Ubuntu can do something about it that. MSA should be forced to change it. As a community of designers or consumers for that matter, we should do what we can to get this in the public eye. Please digg this store. Just because they are Microsoft and this site is a “Organization of Whatever” (not the .org) does not mean that gives them the write to do whatever they wish.

I am not one to normally write a blog post of this kind but thought that it was important to point out.

I would encourage you to do your part. Get this story some attention. Also if you have two seconds write a quick NICE and I do stress NICE but informative email to Microsoft about this matter. Here is the address.

msalumni@conenza.com

Nashville, TN and the surrounding area has it’s first official Flex user group. We will be focusing on Development of rich internet applications and also desktop applications using the newest platforms from Adobe. This will consist of Flex, AIR (Apollo) and the current version of Actionscript. If you are interested in joining you just need to have an interest in Flash and ActionScript and live in the 615 area code. http://615flex.com to sign up.

Thanks to all the guys that joined the group so far. We are planning our first group meeting for June 30 2007. If you can make it please check out http://615flex.com/polls/meeting.php

Let’s move forward and make this group of developers something great. Our main focus will be helping each members grow in their skills and build some really cool stuff.

ApolloHunter.com is a simple site to download, upload and share Adobe Apollo apps! This is a great site to see who is doing what in Apollo development. Maybe by the end of the summer you will be able to see something I have done on this site?

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Three new cheatsheets for developers using and getting started with Apollo. All of the new Apollo Classes are on the sheets (and a few updates to existing AS3 Classes). There are definitely some cool new Classes including but not limited to: Apollo Application, HTML, HTMLControl, File, FileStream, Shell, JavaScriptObject, Shell and more.

Although I have been developing in Flash and ActionScript 2.0 for a wile now, I am totally new to Flex, Apollo, and ActionScript 3. These cheatsheets will come in handy for everyone, not just the newbie. Hope to see a paper back in this to keep on my desk sometime soon.

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Welcome to the Wacky World of Jazz and Thelonious Moog. This group came to me about a month ago and supplied me with great illustration work by Wayno. The group wanted an updated site that they could incorporate mp3 samples and also some video. If you like cool wacky synth jazz you should check this one out.

This web site was the first on that I got to use the new Adobe CS3 Web Design Premium that I purchased. The integration between photoshop and Flash was great. I was able to design every page using Wayno’s illustration work in photoshop and then dump that right into flash for building the animations for the web site.

Wanted to let everyone know that I have a twitter page now. Just wanted to try it out and see how it goes. I have heard of twitter for a wile and thought that it sounds like pretty cool idea so….. we will see how it goes. Here is a the link to my page http://twitter.com/mswallace