Chunk Confirmed (Chunk 22)

My chunk has been confirmed. It's Chunk 22 (Vector graphics and animation). I hope first impressions are not deceptive, but the chunk looks like a relatively easy assignment. Of course, one can't be too complacent. I haven't started writing yet. I shall probably spend a bit more time on reading up the subject matter. Hopefully, the reading will then suggest the structure for the Chunk. Knowing which Chunk I am going to be writing is certainly a big help. It focuses the mind. I can get on with the job now.

Chunk Re-bid

Have been checking the "BookFragmentsBlog" as usual. Chunk 26 has already been allocated to someone else. I was quite sure that it was available but I could have been wrong. I hope I haven't confused matters by forwarding my blog URL to Darrel BEFORE I had been allocated a Chunk, rather than AFTER (as, I think, the "MassWritingInstructions" advise). I may have to write to Darrel to avoid any confusion and re-bid.

Awaiting Chunk Confirmation

Haven’t heard yet whether my bid for Chunk 26 has been approved. So reading Greenberg and working with the IDE continues. In the Processing pages that the Chunk description refers to, Greenberg only mentions one event: “mousePressed”. Of course there is a whole host of them such as “mouseReleased”, “mouseMoved”, etc which come later on in the book. I’ll have to make sure that my text takes due note of them all.

Chunk Bid

Having looked at the Chunks that were still unallocated and the texts that correspond to them in Greenberg, decided to apply for Chunk 26 (Event Handling). It is undoubtedly one of the less onerous Chunks and I wouldn't be surprised if others had applied for it as well. I just hope that I am given it, but we shall see.

Reading Progress

My reading of Greenberg continues. Graphics programming, as I have said before, is a new subject to me, - having never really immersed myself in it before. Greenberg doesn't spare the reader from mathematical concepts either. Some of them, such as Affine Transformations, for example, took me right back to my M203 days. It hasn't made the book any the less interesting though and of course the running the code examples in the IDE is always fun.

Reading-up Greenberg

Have been looking through some of the other "Mass Writing" blogs. I was staggered by the Java expertise that is evident there. I used Java a lot in my work as a developer (I am retired now) but I had seldom forayed in the world of computational art. Nearly all my work was concerned with record manipulation and database operations. Therefore when I notice that there are people on the project who have long experience of working with computer-game software and graphics software, I feel quite humbled.

I have been busy ploughing through the Greenberg book, focusing initially on the sections that pertain to "Chunks" that are still up for grabs. Have so far managed to read up on Chunks 21, 22, 25 and 26. Of these Chunk 26 seems the least onerous. I wouldn't be at all displeased to be allocated to it.

Working with Greenberg

Started reading the Greenberg book. I have to admit that I jumped straight into "Your First Program" on page 59 rather than starting at page 1. I am one of those who tend to skip through a book before coming back to reading it from start to finish in chapter-sequence, - although on this occasion it may not be too inappropriate to do so, as Greenberg himself exhorts you not to feel obliged to read the book "linearly", as he puts it. Having joined the project rather later than many others, I am conscience of the need to read-up on the book as quickly as possible

IDE Problems Resolved

My hunch about the IDE problems being caused by incorrect CLASSPATH declarations, turns out to have been right.

As recommended by the "Processing" web site, I had downloaded the full "Windows" version, rather than the "Windows without Java" version of the IDE. This was because I had already had JDK 1.4 installed on my PC and I did not wish to upgrade it to JDK 1.5 (a pre-requisite for the IDE), as it would probably have meant upgrading my MySql as well, - which I wasn't too keen to do. Since the full " Windows" version came as a ".zip" file with the required JDK 1.5 included, I had assumed that all that was required was the extraction of the ".zip" file in a stand-alone directory. This however, turned out not to be the case. The IDE did not start up correctly. The log file for the IDE showed that start-up command for the tool used a "-classpath" argument. This argument appeared to specify some incorrect relative pathnames for some of the ".jar" files. I therefore created a new "batch" file in which the CLASSPATH used full pathnames (rather than relative ones) and placed the file in the working directory for the IDE. Running the "batch" file before starting up the IDE succeeded, to great my great relief, in resolving the problem.

The Book Purchase - Problems with the IDE

As planned, I travelled into London to purchase the Greenberg book. It was just as well that I took the trouble to phone Waterstone's in Gower Street beforehand, to reserve the book. When I arrived there, I found that they had only two copies in stock, of which I had grabbed one. On opening the book, I turned immediately to the Section on "Setting Up Processing", in the hope of finding some advice on how to get the IDE going, - which has been causing me some problems. The IDE starts up OK but none of the pull-down menus work. Disappointingly, the book was no more helpful than the "Processing" Web site which adviced that the IDE be started from the command line. This method of start-up, produces a log file which can be used for diagnostic purposes. The log file does not show any errors as such but my feeling is that the problem probably lies in incorrect declaration of CLASSPATH. I am going to write my own "batch" file for CLASSPATH declarations and see if that works.

The Book Token Arrives

The OU's Catherine did not let me down. The book token for the Greenberg book duly arrived in the post yesterday morning. My inquiries with the local Waterstone's in Walthamstow confirmed that the book wasn't available locally. The shop assistant that I spoke to, helpfully offered to check availability of the book with other Waterstone's branches. The only branch that has the book in stock is, apparently, the one in Gower Street. Unfortunately, I couldn't dash off to Gower street immediately, - Saturday being the day when I am duty-bound to take my wife to Morrison's for our weekly shopping. The book-purchase will have to be done on Monday next week It will not cost me anything to travel into London however, - I have my pensioners' free Travelpass.

First Post (for testing)

My first post on BLOG creation (for testing)