Lori M Olson <div style="padding-bottom: 0px width: 100%; padding-top: 35px;">
</div>
OPED — Lori’s Unvarnished Opinion
This popped up in my timeline a while back, and I had to laugh—and sob—a little. If one thing is a constant in the software industry, it’s these wild swings back and forth, or sometimes even competing strategies at opposite ends of a spectrum.
Don’t let yourself get caught up in these struggles. There is no ‘one right way’ to do almost anything in software. There’s only ‘a right way’ to do it today, based on what you know and what you can quickly learn … and a constant need to check and evaluate when that right way changes.
Also, on a personal note, I just wanted to say thanks to all who offered condolences on the passing of my dad. They were all very much appreciated.
FITS — Featured in the School
The beta invitations for our new game course will be out before the end of the week. Hit reply if you want to get in on the limited opportunity for that. Meanwhile, while you’re waiting, if you haven’t ever taken the DragonRuby Game Toolkit tutorial, what are you waiting for—you can enroll in our course for free!
TALK — Talk of the Tech
Here are this issue’s selections from two of the finer RubyMotion/DRGTK chat spaces:
-
</a>Slack — While it may seem like only yesterday it launched—it was actually over 22 years ago!—MacOS 10 is no longer supported by Apple notes Amir Rajan. While you should probably have done it a while ago 😉 it’s now officially time to update your RubyMotion projects accordingly.
-
Discord — MacOS be damned, what about you fans of the Steam distribution service? Well, good news on that front as there is now support for that, at least in beta, for the DRGTK.
You will find participating in either and/or both of these two forums is a real benefit.
GAME — All Things Gaming
We’ve talked quite a bit about the role of complexity—or rather the desirable lack of it—when it comes to game development. Here’s a great example where the developer lets apparent simplicity draw the player in, but then slowly adds complexity to increase engagement. Craig S. Kaplan’s game Slide to Unlock is really clever in this regard. Give it a try but use a phone or tablet when you do.
APP — All Things App
For those of the filmmaking persuasion, there are arguably only two pieces of software required to take your Oscar-worthy project from paper-thin premise to wide release: Final Draft to hack together the script and Final Cut Pro to edit the raw footage. In the case of the latter, did you know there’s now a version for the iPad which seems like a marriage made in heaven, no?
Just one little oversight, though: you can’t take projects from the MacOS version of FCP down to the tablet. Fortunately, Chris Hocking has quickly stepped into that gap and with Transfer Toolbox. Once again, not a complicated idea but this will be wildly popular shortly—that is, if the folks who are working on its approval for the App Store don’t ‘accidentally’ tip-off the team working on FCP for the iPad.
SPOT — Spotlight On…
Clever developers continue to push the envelope of what’s possible with game play randomizers: Sean Hogge reports that he has made progress on his version which contains 65535 tiles.
TWIL — This Week I Learned…
[Either](https://ruby.social/@joeldrapper/110326745406134729?utm_source=dragonrubydispatch.com).
That’s it. That’s the whole blurb.
HAHA — And They All Laughed
We see what you did there …
The World’s Best DragonRuby Newsletter can be delivered to you directly—at least it will be if you subscribe! Follow the WNDX School on Facebook, and don’t forget to follow WNDXLori on Twitter and Instagram.
If you enjoyed this issue of the DragonRuby Dispatch, please forward to a friend and ask them to subscribe, too … we really appreciate it!
“What happens to people like myself, who have been involved with computing for a long time, is that you begin to see how many of the ‘new’ ideas are simply old ones coming back into view on the swing of the pendulum, with new and faster hardware to back it up.” — Ellen Ullman