Jan 23

Friday Post: Javascript for Kids Review & iOS dev needed

Hey All!

So my 31st birthday was great.  Got a Gamecube controller adapter for the Wii U, had some 8 player smash battles, and my wife made me an awesome Pokemon cake!

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PiPlay iOS App

So one of the items I have been working on on the side for PiPlay is a remote controller option.  I have the backend working.  A daemon sits on the Pi as a virtual keyboard (using udev) waiting for a specific HTTP request which is then interpreted and issued a keypress.  It’s really cool to see in action, but ugly as all get out.

This is why I am asking if anyone has any iOS design / dev experience, I would love to chat with you and hopefully work together on this as an open source project.

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My not so impressive mockup skills 🙂

Book Review: Javascript for Kids

Javascript For Kids is the next book in the “For Kids” series from No Starch Press.  When they originally sent me the Python For Kids book, I was really excited.  It was my first time reviewing a book, and it was an amazing text in its own right.  So when they told me Javascript For Kids was available, I jumped at the chance to review a copy.

I’m going to say this outright: I like Python For Kids better.

Javascript For Kids takes you from zero programming experience, all the way to programming graphics and mini games using the canvas tag.  Whereas Python For Kids was very easy to read and hard to put down, I find this book to be information dense, and a little overwhelming at parts.  The author knows his stuff, and the information is clear and well written, but I wish the book was paced a little slower.

That said the examples used are lots of fun, and the audience will probably enjoy writing and expanding on the included code.

No Starch landed a 10 / 10 on Python For Kids, which set the bar extremely high.  I’m giving Javascript For Kids a 7.5 out of 10.  It’s deserving of the For Kids title, and I eagerly await the next book in the series.

Have a good weekend all!

-Shea

Dec 27

Friday Post: 2013

Hey All,

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!!!

This year has been amazing to me.  I owe a lot of it to my readers.  Thank you.

I have had new PiMAME stickers made up.  If you would like one, send your address to me using the contact form and I will ship one out!

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Thanks everyone!  Here is to a wonderful 2014!!!!

-Shea Silverman

Feb 24

Book Review: Python For Kids

Hey All,

I met No Starch Press at PyCon 2012 where they were showing off chapters of their then upcoming book, Python For Kids by Jason R. Briggs.  I was talking to them and expressed interest in getting a copy for the students in my department at the University.  At the end of December the book started shipping and No Starch was kind enough to contact me and send me a copy.

I have to say that I think the book is great.  It has 18 chapters and is around 300 pages, with the book split up into 3 parts.  The first part is an introduction to Python 3, the syntax, as well as standard programming conventions like loops and variables and functions.  It also goes into modules, turtle graphics (like the LOGO language of old), objects, classes, and the tkinter GUI library.

The second part gets to the fun activities you can do with Python like programming games!  All the chapters in this part of the book are about using tkinter and Python to make a pong / arkanoid like game and it walks you through every step of the process.

The third part of the books builds upon the previous game, and teaches the reader how to make a simple platforming game, complete with sprites, animations, and events.

I REALLY liked this book.  I tried to read a chapter a day, and I kept having to stop myself because I would say just one more chapter tonight… (I like to pace myself).  I feel the author really captures what a kid would like to learn about and presents it in a manner that will keep them entertained, motivated, and interested.

I do have two very minor nitpicks about the book that stayed with me while I was reading it.  The first one was the lack of explaining types.  The author dives right into strings, and ints, and floats, but doesn’t explain what the difference is between them, or why you would use one over the other.  I think a simple introduction and type chart  would have made the first part a much easier read for a beginner.  The second nitpick* is that the last part of the book ramps up the difficulty.  You do get a finished game out of it, so the challenge isn’t for nothing, but I still found it to be a bit jarring after breezing through my reading of the earlier chapters.

Barring those two very minor issues, I think this is a fabulous book.  For a programming book, it is on the inexpensive side, at around $20, and packs a good amount of material for the price.  I recommend it.

-Shea

*A good friend of mine told me that I’m not looking at this one through kid glasses.  They would probably have no issue with the difficulty ramp up, and would in fact welcome the challenge.