Issue 31

7 August 2019

by Lori M Olson

Here we are in August already. Summer sure is flying by (if you are in the Northern hemisphere like me). If you are like me, you had a lot of things you wanted to get accomplished this summer. Now’s a good time to revisit that todo list, see what’s left, and get cracking! – wndxlori

#DRGTK—DragonRuby Game Toolkit

You’re not too late to join in LowRezJam 2019 but it’s only fair to warn you it has already started. It runs to the 17th of August so you still have plenty of time to get on the proverbial bandwagon, and without losing any sleep!

Of course, we recommend our favourite 2D gaming toolkit—that would be DRGTK, of course!—as a great place to start. Amir has put together a great package which you can find on the DragonRuby page on itch.io. It comes complete with simple to follow instructions which will get you going in less time than it takes the jackass behind you to beep his horn when the light turns green.

#MSH—Motioneers Slack Highlights

The big news this week is if you’re on the Motioneers Slack team (you are signed up, right?) for the #gamedev channel then you’re going to have to move that bookmark over to Discord. We’ll let Amir provide a brief explanation: “Slack is fine for business app development. But Discord is ‘the de facto standard’ for chat-based communication with regards to game development. Consider this channel [here on Slack] archived and move your butt over to Discord.”

‘Nuff said, so we’ll see y’all over there in less time then…well, a really short amount of time, in any event.

Oh, right, and this will be the last #MSH. No, we’re not signing off Slack—perish the thought!—but the folks over at DragonRuby have rebranded the Slack team. It’s now the Dragon Riders which we think has a nice Game of Thrones ring to it. Next week look for #DRH—Dragon Rider Highlights or some such thing.

#GOTW—Gem of the Week

Speaking of renaming things, perhaps we’ll consider a new name for #GOTW given this week—again—we’re featuring some cool code which in no way can be described as a gem. It’s not RubyMotion, or even Ruby for that matter, but rather C Sharp. (spit-take, cough, cough – ed.)

Assuming you’re still with us, those participating in the LowRezJam may find this map generator both interesting and useful: WaveFunctionCollapse. “This program generates bitmaps that are locally similar to the input bitmap.” Wuffuh? Just go to the README.md which has lots of examples to illustrate what it does exactly. We think it’s pretty cool.

In this case you really will have to let the end justify the means. Or you could re-write it all in Ruby ¯_(ツ)_/¯

#COMM—Community

We’re not in the habit of leading off #COMM with a story from CNBC (yes, that CNBC) but that’s exactly what we’re going to do this week with Apple just made it easier than ever to set up a new iPhone. They bury the lead a little, so here’s what we think is significant: “Before the update, Apple let you quickly set up two iPhones or new iPads if you put one next to the other, but it only transferred some data, like your Apple ID and Wi-Fi settings. Now, you can transfer pretty much everything, including messages, pictures, app settings and more.” To which we say, finally. About time.

So, you should download iOS 12.4 final IPSW links and get that sweet over-the-air update for all compatible iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices. This article from Redmond Pie has links for all the platforms you could ever want including that iPad Air 1 you misplaced years ago.

Speaking of really old hardware, the final #COMM for this week is from MacRumors which reports that Apple Releases iOS 9.3.6 and iOS 10.3.4 With GPS Bug Fix for Older iPhones and iPads. About time, again.

That iPad Air 1? Check under the sofa cushions.

#AHOTW—App Highlight of the Week

Some of you may remember, way back when, jsFiddle as a popular means of running little snippets of JavaScript code so you could, y’know, fiddle with it and then immediately see the results. Well, did you know there is a DragonRuby equivalent called fiddle.dragonruby.org? It works pretty much the same way. You can cut-n-paste your code to the code window, click the Run game! button and—voila!—view the results in the graphics window on the right.

Not convinced it’s that easy? Take this code, copy-n-paste to the code window in fiddle.dragonruby.org and then click Run game! at the bottom. So, whaddya think? Useful, n’est pas?

The only downside? Thinking about how hard this kind of thing used to be to set up and run. If only we could have all that time back and put it to good, productive use now. Sigh.

#FITS—Featured in the School

Do you like free money? No? In that case, are you insane?! Well, maybe that’s going a little too far but you really would have to be insane to pass up a $25 discount on Motion In Motion - The Complete Collection. All you have to do is provide the code AUG1925OFF at checkout and you’ll instantly be given $25 off the complete set of current Motion in Motion screencasts. It’s a deal you really won’t see everyday so we recommend you take advantage if you can.

Speaking of WNDXLori, have you ever wanted an opportunity to meet her in person? If you’re anywhere near Edmonton, Alberta this coming Saturday (that’s August 10th) you’re in luck. Lori will be at the August Meetup of YEGRB where she’ll be leading a session of DragonRuby/RubyMotion Jumpstart. It starts at 1.00 pm sharp MDT and it will be hosted in the elegant confines of Startup Edmonton HQ at 10359 104th St. in downtown Edmonton.

Attendance is free but you will need to RSVP, which you can do right here.
#TWIL—This Week I Learned —————————

One quick thing from Phasorburn (AKA WNDXLori’s better half Trever Miller) this week, command-line software updates for your Mac: sudo softwareupdate -i -a. You’ll be glad you did.

That’s a Wrap!

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Until next time, may all your software be properly updated. Over the air, if possible.

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