Progressio Tech Blog

Two useful tools from a passionate developer

2012-03-29T11:18:00.002+03:00

TexturePacker - Turns chaos into order
PhysicsEditor - Edit your physics shapes with ease

Less (CSS) - The dynamic stylesheet language

2012-03-23T17:08:00.000+02:00

LESS extends CSS with dynamic behavior such as variables, mixins, operations and functions. LESS runs on both the client-side (Chrome, Safari, Firefox) and server-side, with Node.js and Rhino.

Agility.js - OOP Javascript with MVC

2012-03-23T17:00:00.001+02:00

Agility.js is an MVC library for Javascript that lets you write maintainable and reusable browser code without the verbose or infrastructural overhead found in other MVC libraries. The goal is to enable developers to write web apps at least as quickly as with jQuery, while simplifying long-term maintainability through MVC objects.

Here are some tutorials.

Nexus S ICS Battery Drain Issue - Solved?!

2012-03-13T19:26:00.002+02:00

I own a Google Nexus S for about a year.
As most of the Android fans out there, in December 2011 when the ICS update for Nexus S was released, I made the update. Me and 4 more friends. Unfortunately for me, I was the only one who experienced fast battery drain issue.
Since then I am waiting for another release from Google so I don't have to charge my phone every night. Nothing came up, I got a thought about reverting to Gingerbread and also give it a try. Since I had to root my phone, I have tried different ROMs but ended up by going back to ICS. Nothing good happened.
Last week I was experimenting Flash Builder's mobile apps development so I had to turn on USB debugging on my mobile. This way I got acknowledge about other features that you can turn on under "Developer options" menu (System Settings > scroll at the bottom of the list > Developer options) like: Strict mode enabled, Pointer location, Show touches and more. I have turned on some options and continued with my app development.

Beside the nice impression about developing mobile apps using Flash Builder I have made an interesting discovery: my battery last longer!

So I switched my research from Flash Builder mobile apps development to Nexus S battery drain issue. I have made some test by turning features on and off from "Developer options" menu and as I am writing this post my Battery status shows:

There is a huge improvement in battery usage than before. The "Android OS" and "Android System" items used to be first and second in the list and usage time was no more than 24 hours.
From the last charge my WiFi, GPS, autosync are turned on.

I am still trying different combination of features turned on or off but I have to wait for the phone to discharge so I can have a correct Battery status.
The drawback is that I have got about 2 phone restart without even touching the phone.

Right now my turned on features are:

Strict mode enabled (Flash screen when apps do long operations on main thread);
Force GPU rendering (Use 2D hardware acceleration in applications);
Show all ANRs (Show App Not Responding dialog for background apps).

At the first look those options does not have any direct connection with the battery (maybe the second one) but seems to do the trick. I will try more configurations and let you know.
In the mean time you can try it out by yourself and post your comments.
I hope it will work out for everyone and I am waiting for your feedback.

Update March 19, 2012

Here are some screenshots with only the following features turned on:

Force GPU rendering (Use 2D hardware acceleration in applications);
Show all ANRs (Show App Not Responding dialog for background apps).

On the next cycle I will leave checked only Force GPU.

FlashPunk - free ActionScript 3 library designed for developing 2D Flash games

2012-02-07T16:31:00.000+02:00

FlashPunk is a free ActionScript 3 library designed for developing 2D Flash games. It provides you with a fast, clean framework to prototype and develop your games in. This means that most of the dirty work (timestep, animation, input, and collision to name a few) is already coded for you and ready to go, giving you more time and energy to concentrate on the design and testing of your game.

FEATURES

◦ Framerate-independent and fixed-framerate timestep support.

◦ Fast & manageable rectangle, pixel, and grid collision system.

◦ Helper classes for animations, tilemaps, text, backdrops, and more.

◦ Debug console for real-time debugging and information tracking.

◦ Sound effect support with volume, panning, and fading/crossfading.

◦ Powerful motion tweening for linear, curved, and path-based movement.

◦ Z-sorted render lists for easy depth management.

◦ Simple keyboard and mouse input state checking.

◦ Quick & efficent particle effects and emitters.

YCanvas - open source ActionScript 3 library that provides stage3D (GPU) engine for perfectly overlapping grid based zooming projects

2012-01-31T15:41:00.000+02:00

Hello YCanvas, who are you? I am an open source ActionScript 3 library that provides stage3D (GPU) engine for perfectly overlapping grid based zooming projects like world maps or onBoard. What? Ok, I am the engine that statnds behind onBoard, and I can handle much more. I can implement Wall Of Fame, WebCanvas, MapQuest, ArcGIS, Open Street Map or do some experiments like Flickr gallery, all this in one flash, few lines (10-20) of specific code per mode, all running at 60 FPS. Anyhing else would you like to see implemented? Just let me know… Do you want to know more and see it in action?

Enough talking, now impress me!
http://blog.yoz.sk/2012/01/introduction-to-ycanvas/

UML4AS - UML for ActionScript and Flex

2011-12-14T17:44:00.000+02:00

UML4AS - UML for ActionScript and Flex is a UML editor with advanced CodeSync technology.
It is a developer friendly tool that can be used to model and synchronize ActionScript code (.as and .mxml files).

Some features highlights:

developer friendly workflow
CodeSync technology for code generation, reverse engineer, round trip and conflicts solving
support of ActionScript files and MXML files
refactoring support
team work support
and other great features ...

GestureWorks Multitouch Framework - Build Gesture-Driven Apps

2011-12-05T11:22:00.001+02:00

GestureWorks® 3 is the most advanced multitouch framework ever built. Author amazing apps with the new Gesture Markup Language.

Jangaroo - AS3 in browser without Flash Player plugin

2011-11-29T15:16:00.001+02:00

http://www.jangaroo.net/home/index.html

Jangaroo is an Open Source project building developer tools that adopt the power of ActionScript 3 to create high-quality JavaScript frameworks and applications.

Flex / RIA Alternatives

2011-11-29T15:07:00.001+02:00

Morfik - Build Ajax-based Rich Internet Applications
Wakanda - An open source platform for building business web applications with nothing but JavaScript

Starling Framework - The GPU powered 2D Flash API

2011-11-23T09:40:00.001+02:00

The Starling Framework is a pure ActionScript 3 library that mimics the conventional Flash display list architecture. In contrast to conventional display objects, however, all content is rendered directly by the GPU — providing a rendering performance unlike anything seen in the Flash Player before.

PhoneGap - Deploy your app to Multiple Platforms

2011-11-12T19:54:00.001+02:00

PhoneGap is an HTML5 app platform that allows you to author native applications with web technologies and get access to APIs and app stores. PhoneGap leverages web technologies developers already know best... HTML and JavaScript.

With PhoneGap you can:

Take advantage of HTML5 and CSS3
Use JavaScript to write your code
Access Native Features
Deploy your app to Multiple Platforms

Also, Nitobi - the owner of PhoneGap, was aquired by Adobe. That means:
"This acquisition will allow Nitobi to focus solely on PhoneGap and work with Adobe to offer developers more efficient, expressive design and development across devices with HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. By joining forces with Adobe, we’ll be able to offer even more innovative applications across platforms and devices, with greater reach."

Tumult Hype - another HTML5 content authoring software (MAC only)

2011-11-12T19:36:00.001+02:00

Using Tumult Hype, you can create beautiful HTML5 web content.
Some features:

Animations
Scenes
Timelines
Actions
WebKit based canvas
Sizing and alignment tools
Custom Javascript actions

Adobe Edge - another professional tool for creating HTML5, JavaScript and CSS-based animations

2011-11-09T11:38:00.000+02:00

Adobe® Edge is a new web motion and interaction design tool that allows designers to bring animated content to websites, using web standards like HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3.
Edge will be updated regularly to add new functionality, stay ahead of evolving web standards, and incorporate user feedback to provide the best functionality and experience possible. This is an early look at Edge with more capabilities to come.

Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neSFy1hs-G4

Faster Flex Compilation with Flash Builder 4.5

2011-11-09T11:26:00.000+02:00

The Flex 4.5 SDK compiler is slightly faster and more conservative about memory compared to its previous version. There are a couple of small changes that a developer can make to speed up compilation. One of them involves a new compiler option and others are related to organizing code in your project and can be leveraged by customers on the 4.0 SDK as well.

http://anirudhs.chaosnet.org/blog/2011.06.02.html

ActionScript 3.0 Events: The Myth of useWeakReference

2011-11-02T11:57:00.001+02:00

http://gingerbinger.com/2010/07/actionscript-3-0-events-the-myth-of-useweakreference/

AS3: Resource Management

2011-11-02T11:54:00.001+02:00

http://gskinner.com/blog/archives/2006/06/as3_resource_ma.html

Online Handwriting recognition in Actionscript 3

2011-10-18T18:38:00.000+03:00

Online Handwriting recognition in Actionscript 3

Skinnable and customizable Transform Tool component for Flex 4

2011-10-10T10:36:00.000+03:00

http://vstyran-flex.blogspot.com/2011/09/transform-tool-2-sample-1_30.html

Sencha Animator, the first professional tool for creating CSS-based animations

2011-10-07T10:43:00.000+03:00

Sencha Animator, the first professional tool for creating CSS-based animations, lets interactive designers create high-quality HTML5/CSS3-based animations that run smoothly on mobile devices and ad networks, without requiring a plug-in.

http://www.pitchengine.com/pitch/177733/