Atomac.net

This is a post in my series “Road to Xcode.” I am currently reading Become An Xcoder by Bert Altenburg, Alex Clarke and Philippe Mougin.

02: No comments? Unacceptable!

There was nothing new going on in this chapter. I was introduced to commenting code. I am actually very familiar with this since I spend some time messing about with CSS/XHTML/PHP. I will sometimes comment over my additions or tweaks to themes and plugins I use in WordPress.

03: Functions

Functions are pretty much where I stopped during my PHP studies. I had a hard time grasping how they were called and how the variables outside the function related to inside the function and returning values. The book hasn’t had me open up Xcode yet, so my playing around with functions and their arguments is non existent at this point. PolyVector has been taking my incessant “why?” very well regarding declaring functions and how the compiler knows where to look etc. I must say I am a little confused on this main() function and why it must be there.

These last chapters were rather short and I am beginning to grow anxious as I near opening up Xcode and my first real encounter with compiling example code. Though these journal entries starting out aren’t full of useful information it is helping me feel not so isolated in my studies.

PiZZaMaN2K would like me to tell everyone he is the reason I have a Twitter account and am currently testing Ping.fm. There PiZZaMaN2K, happy? :P

Being a part of more than one social network that is based on status updates (like that of Twitter, Identi.ca, Plurk, and Jaiku) can get a little burdensome when trying to post updates. Sure you could run a native desktop client for each, but I find that a little tedious as well. My solution as of late (even though I am only a part of three microblogging services) is to use Ping.fm.

Ping.fm is a web based service that supports an enormous amount of social networking sites to post to all at once. I won’t bother naming each service as you can check out what they support right on their front page.

Now if you are like me and don’t dig going to a web site when you want to post updates Ping.fm supplies plenty of ways to get your updates through them out there. I current am updating through their AIM bot, which then send my status update out to all the social networking sites I have added in my Ping.fm Dashboard. You can even post pictures using email.

If you want to give this service a go you can signup, using the beta code “legendofping.” But be warning beta codes get used up fast and I am sure it will end up changing here soon. If you try and sign up and the beta code doesn’t work, go ahead and sound off in the comments and I’ll give an updated beta code it is now in open beta!.

I am extremely happy with the service and it is helping me test out the new comers to the microblogging scene. I still love Twitter and the native Mac OS X client Twitterrific. But curiosity kills me every time and while I try and decide what service I am going to mainly use (right now it is Twitter), Ping.fm helps me not neglect any of my other accounts.

This is a post in my series “Road to Xcode.” I will be embarking on a journey to learn Objective C and Cocoa programming for Mac OS X. This will not be an instructive series but rather a look at what I have learned as well as the resources I am using to gain ground in the wide world of software development. You can follow my progress or check out other posts in this series by heading over to the Road to Xcode tag page.

Introduction

To kick start my Xcoding journey I am reading Become An Xcoder by Bert Altenburg, Alex Clarke and Philippe Mougin. This book is aimed at people with absolutely no coding experience and is free to download in PDF form.

01: A program is a series of instructions

The introduction and first chapter to Become an Xcoder is rather simple. I was introduced to basic programming terminology like data types, integers, operators, etc. Nothing I was too unfamiliar with since I read through basic introductions to PHP which uses the same terminology (I suppose all languages do). Working through the chapter was pretty straight forward except for the introduction to the ++ operator. I don’t know what it is, but I always seem to get hung up on this thing’s function. I understand what it does (a variable will be itself incremented by 1 i.e. x = x + 1). I was having a hard time with the outcome of the variable depending on the order the operator was used, such as x++ versus ++x. The examples written in the book were not extremely helpful, but then again I am only on the first chapter and I am hoping better explanation of the ++ operator will be later on.

As with any introduction I was not compiling any code or even looking at the IDE, but I am eager to continue.

Let it be known that I am now testing out the new Google microblogging service Jaiku. It is kind of like Plurk and Twitter combined in a more Twitter/Identi.ca interface. You can check me out here: http://skunkie.jaiku.com. I do have plenty of invites for those who would also like to test this service. Sound off in the comments.

Once upon a time I wrote a confession and then started on a journey to learn PHP. Admittedly I never got very far. Why? I honestly don’t know. I spent a good deal of every day for a few weeks reading books and going over examples with PolyVector. We set out a goal that even included the purchase of our iPhone. I continued reading a bit after that but never caught on. So continues my embarrassing nongeeky existence of programming impotence.

I know you have heard it before, but I would like to invite you on a new journey of mine, becoming an Xcoder. My goals will be to go through resources PolyVector and I find to bring me up from the lowest level of coding ignorance. Atomac will serve as a journal from time to time helping me discuss (or well at least air) what I have read (and hopefully retained) from day to day. Perhaps this will help some of you who aspire to begin programming new inspiration. Or I just want to think that Atomac serves some kind of purpose other than for PolyVector or (mostly) me to talk about ourselves.

So here’s where I am going to begin, I decided on starting with a free book in PDF put together by a few independent Mac developers on the very beginning introduction to Xcode, Mac Development, and Cocoa. The book is called Become An Xcoder. If anyone would like to toss more resources my way I am more than happy to give them a look over. Tomorrow (or close to it) should bring the first bout of entries regarding my progress.

Yesterday PolyVector and I finally noticed we have been hacked. Thanks to a user email that tipped us off to the occurrence, I doubt we would have figured it out so quickly. So, I suppose I should go ahead and discuss what happened and how it affects everyone.

First let me just say this hack has nothing to do with RocketDock.com user accounts, so no personal information has been jeopardized. The hack simply hijacked a redirect we used on PunkSoftware.com (our old “company” domain) that transfers everyone to the correct sites from RocketDock or UberIcon. The hijacking simply broke our redirect script and displayed a blank page. The hacker inserted code that linked to many different erectile disfunction sites and the like. It didn’t appear to actual redirect users to any of these sites, so hopefully no one was taken by surprise with large male genitalia when in search for RocketDock addons.

Anywho, problem solved for now. We are investigating any further possible holes. Thanks again to the user who alerted us in the first place.

HeyLookListen - Our friend Sarie has decided to try out her blogging skills. Consider this Blogrolled. That means you actually have to keep this going Sarie!

Punk Labs Folding@Home Team - Our folding team has been going since we first set it up awhile back. If you wanna donate some of your CPU cycles to F@H feel free to join our team. We’re 43673.

While I would have rather just posted this and let everyone figure it out, PolyVector convinced me to give a little back story. This is a small “test” item for the new project we’re working on. There…happy?