Driving back 8 hours is always easier with sleep… imagine that.
<b>Timeline</b>
Saw Timeline last night. Pretty good movie. Wasn’t a blockbuster, but I still say money well spent on a flic. I certainly enjoyed it. I’ve always liked the “bardic” qualities the character Marek (<a href=”http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0124930/”>Gerad Butler</a>) when he was in <a href=”http://video.movies.go.com/reignoffire/flash.html”>Reign of Fire</a>, so it was nice to have him in such a role in this one. Additionally, with all the schlack the French have been getting in the US, this was a great way for you to rally around the French, going, “Rock, the French kick ass!”.
<b>Central SDK Thoughts</b>
Curled up with my laptop on squishy couches and chairs amongst family animals at the in-laws with coffee & OJ, and read the Central SDK. Found some inconcistancies (getURL doesn’t use cached assets even though it said it did in one spot for example), but overall, very informative, and certainly brings up a lot of best practice questions. I couldn’t shake the feeling <a href=”http://www.markme.com/mesh/”>Mike Chambers</a> was sitting there pretty much reading me the docs verbatim. I mean, I don’t know if he even wrote them, but since he seems to be the front-man for it, it was just hard to get past. Didn’t complicate or slow the process, just once you have a face for a company, you personify that onto a lot of what you use from said company.
At any rate, good stuff, and will have to correspond with my homey <a href=”http://www.darronschall.com/”>D</a> about how to go about putting our ideas in such an infrastucture. I guess my hypothetical question (which I’d love to have answered) is why Agents? Here’s what I mean: Although Agents, App, and Pod have no clue if either is initiated before he, nor does any of them guarentee it’ll still be running… then really why the push for Agents? I understand the server/client metaphor, but even though they are but a 3rd of the power in the triumvirate that is an app for Central, I don’t see why he has the Controller position for apps IF any of the other pieces need him to function correctly? Regardless, I’ll do what I always do and aim for what Macromedia suggests to do.
Oh yeah, already have wish-lists for it: Agent wars. I have flashbacks to elementary school when the teacher would punish the whole class because one person acted up. The concept of one Agent’s script becomming too processor intensive shuts ALL agents down. BS. I mean, granted, I’ll naturally rally all the other Flashers to immediately travel to el developer’s house and promptly beat the living crap out of him, but still, that’s such a destructive way of enforcing good playing field rules. Still, at least give us a frikin’ event, like, “onSomeLosersAppHasShutdownAllAgents”. I mean, Agents are the integral piece of a Central app, and yet they are so fragile AND can be turned off. Heck, can you make it any harder? You know me, I love a challenge, but damn… We’ll figure it out, I’m sure, though. I’m really excited to figure out how Darron and my idea is going to work in it. Forgot my other wish, but it’ll come back.
<b>Target Hamper</b>
The lack of furniture meeting the highest standards known to women-kind has forced once again a Target binge. Found a laundry hamper in Virginia and put it together here in 5 minutes. Nice little thing, and fun to put together, but does not seem to be the <a href=”http://www.transportermovie.com/home.html”>Transporter</a> house style… but then, what is?
:(
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>I couldn’t shake the feeling Mike Chambers was sitting there pretty much reading me the docs verbatim.
It is funny that you mentioned that, because I have been considering releasing some MP3s with info on Central. That way you could pop it on your mp3 player, and learn about Central where ever you want.
I don’t know how useful it will be, but I will probably try it.
Btw, I did do a lot of work on the SDK, but all of the writing was done by our kick *ss docs team (with help from the Central engineers).
>Why Agents?
That is a really good question. I actually had the same question when I first started with Central and learned the hard way that Agents rule.
Basically, Agents give you two things:
1. A central place to access all of your data, shared objects, and act as a messaging hub.
2. the ability to run in the background even if your app is not running.
I think #2 is pretty self evident (let me know if it isnt)(just look at the new chat, max app, 906, vision, etc…).
The firs couple of apps I built, I just put all of the data connection logic into the main app, and didnt do an Agent. This actually worked well, until I wanted to add a pod(s), in which case I could either:
1. copy the code into the pod (and each additional pod), and then maintain it in two places.
2. re-factor and build an agent.
Both were painful since I already had my app working.
If I would have built the agent from the beginning, my app would have been very easy to expand and add onto.
The chat app was originally built like this, and Greg Burch and I ended up having to do a lot of re-factoring to move it to a pod (it was worth it though).
So, now, I always built an agent, even if I don’t think i need one. it is a little extra work up front, but it makes it very easy to add new features and functionality.
it also makes it easier to maintain your code since you don’t have to duplicate data access code.
And, of course, being able to have background processes in Flash Rocks!
Anyways, just a couple of reasons. We will have some more info on this on the DevNet center soon.
>Agent wars.
Yes. The is definitely an issue for 1.0, and something we will have to address.
Right now, developers just have to be good, and if they are not, then users will probably uninstall their apps.
Not a perfect solution, but I think it will work for most cases until we get a better solution in place (hopefully sooner rather than later).
mike chambers
mesh@macromedia.com
That helps a lot, good stuff, thank you, thank you!
A “dummied-down” version of onDemand for Central via mp3 I think is a great idea. …just remind me to send you my schema so you can Blast it to me in the future in Central!
My husband’s basement workshop is Transporter style, that’s what! :) He has all kinds of computer things down there, a hand drawn diagram-layout of the house, Radio Shack resistors & cord for some flying spaceship experiment he & Kyle are doing, etc, etc. All he needs now are a couple of A.K. 47’s and Oozies… I fully expect our house to be blown off of it’s foundation one day. I already have my escape route planned. :) Cool entry…miss you guys at SIS…NOT! Kidding…I miss a few of you… ;)
the bedroom is not going to be the transport style, its the rest of the house that will be! The bedroom is going for a seaside-cottage look :)
Yes, Brandy…protect your rooms at all cost from the male decor!! :) This is the voice of an old experience married woman speaking to you! :) BTW, congratulations on your engagement. You guys are just too cool together. :) I really enjoyed the proposal shots. Really cool. We got to see your rock at work before you got it. >:-D
I am a big sucker for romance… sigh… (seriously, a sweet couple…sorry Jesse…know this entry kills your primative male image, but it had to be said.) :)