Central App: Stiletto MP3 & SHOUTCast Player

This started off as an app I was gonna spend my newfound freetime on, as copying and surpassing WinAMP’s current incarnation is a nigh impossible, albeit daunting task. I love those.

Well, then the contract work hit, then Flex came along, and the whole time I’m attempting to do homework so I can pass class. I’ve waited 3 weeks for my Yahoo account, but haven’t followed up simply cause I was busy. I know form the Central Dev list who to talk to… but at this point, I’ve got better things to do. This project I do want to continue when I have more time, but figured sitting on ice for 3 weeks doesn’t help those that might want to look inside. It’ll be awhile before this is anywhere close to being worth 5 bucks.

She’s full of bugs, uncompleted functionalities, and she’s one hell of a memory hog after 30 minutes (adding to the 60 meg footprint your start with), but hey… there’s a reason I’m going to R&D vs. Developement soon, hehe…

BTW, removed the Slider component from… uh… DRK 3? Just to confirm I’m not proliferating anything illegal, but you could make your own I guess. Anyway, the point isn’t to compile, but rather see the code. The good code is the PLS to DataProvider or whatever I called it. I used Sean Voisen’s approach to classes, Geoffrey William’s Central AS2 classes, and Grant Skinner’s GDispatcher. My disclaimers are that my structure does NOT follow the mx.core.UIObject/UIComponent framework correctly at all, and my base class wrapper is old, so disregard for best practices (not that you would look to me for guidance beyond what games to play). It’s my first time using a Pod, so be gentle…

If you keep the pod open to listen to music, make sure you stop and start every 30 minutes… or you won’t be able to once Central laches hold to your virtual memory; at that point, it’s all over.

Yes, I know the installation badge is offsetting my site mr/mrs designer head, werkin’ on it…

Stiletto : Central MP3 and SHOUTCast Player – App | ZIP

Why Central Matters Editorial Discussion

So last night, Phillip Kerman posted a link to the editorial I wrote for MX Developer’s Journal. I was curious if he really did like it as I’m insecure about a lot of people’s feelings for Central. It’s cut and dry with other technologies, and since Central is so new, I’ve been trying to be, on purpose, more sensitive to understand people’s reactions and try to understand where they are coming from.

I went back to read what I wrote to see if his comments coincided positively with what I wrote, or, as a professional writer, he was bringing to our attention some glaring error I (or the editors) had missed. I have yet to take JD’s advice, and get the point quickly.

I then noticed that you could give feedback on the article. I didn’t know this, and saw that someone had. It was interesting that it had the typical response of not knowing what Central was buried in the middle, but additionally, it was a perspective of web applications I hadn’t heard before, so it was a good read. I tried to respond the best I could as we both are definately from different perspectives with different opinions on what the web does for us, for users, and where it’s going.

Anyway, if you have thoughts, if you could leave them here or there, I’d appreciate it.

Why Central Matters

LJ Pal – Failed Central App

As I get more comfortable with my new development server, I’ll re-upload all of my files. Until there, here’s a new one.

I attempted, twice, to create a front-end client for the online blogging service LiveJournal. The first was a component in MX, but failed because of cross-domain security issues. Central at least asks for permission, but the XML-RPC was so convoluted, I got really frustrated and gave up on this project.

Anyway, one man’s trash is anothers treasure.

LJ Pal – Failed Live Journal Client in Central

Things NOT to do when building a Central Application

If you think these are a given, then good for you.

– do not hardcode URL’s in any of your components; utilize a _global variable scoped to your Central’s application, like _global.com.yourapp.BASE_URL
– try to confirm the URL you are hosting your Central application at. Changing multiple shared library files, even with the help of a JSFL script, is a royale pain