Jeff Ward
Mobile, Web, Linux, and other cool Tech
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A Beginner's Guide to Hacking Haxe Macros

Jun 14, 2016 #Haxe#Macros#Development

Haxe macros are described on Haxe's website as "the most advanced feature of Haxe." But the topic is vast and complex. Even with the excellent set of macro examples in the Haxe cookbook, it can be daunting just to grasp the subtlties of working with macros. This article aims to give you the tools,... continue reading


Less Glue via Haxe Macro Lazy Props

Mar 18, 2016 #Haxe#Macros#Development

As programmers, we're well aware of the dangers of singletons and static access. But, lazy programmers (which are the best kind!) will often resort to them because they're so convenient to use! However, through the power of Haxe macros, we can avoid excess glue logic and succinctly declare all our dependencies. ... continue reading


F2P Mechanics of SimCity BuildIt

Feb 15, 2016 #GameDev#Reviews#F2P

SimCity BuildIt is a late-2014 free to play mobile game that seems to be doing well for EA. I recently started playing it and was initially (like many reviewers) appalled at the complete divergence from past SimCity titles. Still, the freemium mechanics are fascinating from the perspective of a app designer, so I decided to try and describe them. ... continue reading


Haxe Notes For ECMA Coders: Object Literal Notation

May 16, 2015 #Development#Haxe#OpenFL#JavaScript

ECMAScript programmers (JavaScript, ActionScript, etc) are familiar with writing object literals in JSON notion. This appears to work in Haxe, but you'll quickly run into pitfalls and type issues. A bit of background about the Haxe type systm will help you avoid a lot of frustration.... continue reading


Can OpenFL Recapture The Magic of Flash?

Oct 16, 2014 #Actionscript#Flash#Development#Code+Art#Haxe#OpenFL

The recent blog post about how Flash Pro is trending toward exporting to various platforms in combination with OpenFL's related latter got me thinking -- just what made Flash such an awesome creativity platform? And how... continue reading


Installing AIR Apps On Linux

Jan 16, 2014 #Actionscript#Linux#AIR#Ubuntu

Adobe AIR isn't officially supported under Linux anymore, but it's easy enough to install AIR apps using Wine and a couple handy scripts. This post will walk you through installing Wine, AIR, and a couple test apps, SWFWire Inspector and Dragon Age Legends (simply because their .air packages are easily accessible.) ... continue reading


Setup AIR 3.9 SDK On Ubuntu 12.04

Jan 9, 2014 #Actionscript#Mobile#Linux#AIR#Ubuntu

This post includes all the setup necessary to get started using the AIR SDK under Ubuntu linux. While the instructions are fairly generic and should be applicable in many circumstances, I used Adobe AIR SDK 3.9 and a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04.3 64-bit. I like LTS releases and developers will usually be working in 64-bit environments with lots... continue reading


Unfinished LD28

Dec 17, 2013 #Actionscript#Flash#Games#LudumDare

I've been watching Ludum Dare competitions from afar for a year or so, and occasionally I get excited at the idea of whipping out a game in 48 hours. I gave it a moderate effort this past weekend, but it turns out I'm not 20 anymore.... continue reading


FCSH for ASC 2.0 Compiler

Oct 7, 2013 #Actionscript#Mobile#Linux#Windows#Mac#AIR#Compiler

If you remember how the fcsh / fcshd compiler wrappers sped up the Flex SDK compiler (or if you've noticed that the Flash Builder compiler is much faster than, say, Flash Develop), read on. Your AS3 workflow may get a performance boost from my new tools, ascsh and ascshd.... continue reading


AIR 3.9 Workers Beta

Sep 3, 2013 #AIR#Actionscript#Flash#Workers

Bill Howard announced that Flash Workers would be available for Android in an upcoming Beta, and here it is! The Adobe AIR 3.9 SDK introduces Workers on Android. Since I have my AS3-Workers-Compat library and testcase just sitting around, I thought I'd give it a spin on Android using AIR 3.9.... continue reading


Adobe AIR Mobile Development On Linux

Aug 15, 2013 #Actionscript#Mobile#Linux#AIR

While Linux isn't an officilaly supported development platform for the Adobe AIR SDK, mobile development is possible from Linux targetting both Android and iOS. I use Ubuntu 12.04, Wine 1.4 (though 1.5 should work fine), AIR SDK 3.6 (though again, later versions should work fine), and Flex SDK 4.6. Here's a quick list of the commands I use... continue reading


CPU Performance, AMD is MIA

Aug 15, 2013 #ComputerHardware#AMD#Intel#Visualization#Web

So I've been pondering building a new computer, and I've been browsing the charts over at cpubenchmark.net. I thought it'd be fun to scatter-plot that data to get a feel for price/performance of today's CPU selection. What I found really surprised me.... continue reading