Comments on: Ironcoder Future http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/ The official #macsb ironcoder website. Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:24:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Jedi Tooka Barf http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-54 Jedi Tooka Barf Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:01:41 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-54 As a totally new user here at ironcoder I thought I'd share some of my initial thougts and observations about this site. As a potential participant the things I'm looking for is past competitions, with a detailed description of the assignment, the competitors, and the results of the competitions. I'd have to look through a lot of pages before I was able to find the latter. And have yet to find the two former... And I want that information for two reasons - first of all I want to know what level of difficulty the competitions are, and secondly I want to get inspired by what the others are able to come up with. I would like to see a page dedicated to this which shows past and present competitions, which has a complete description of the assignments, and also the results where all competitors are listed with their submissions. Downloadable. And there should be a seperate page where competitors are listed, perhaps ranked by results from past competitions. It would be nice if it could show a profile of the competitor, showing his/hers experience/knowledge/education within IT. On the offchance that somebody where looking to hire a talented cocoa programmer. Who knows? :-) And if there was only one competitor the last time, for whatever reason, this site deserves a lot more attention to attract other programmers. I was just bu accident that I stumbled across this site. I'm sure we all have lots of ideas on how to accomplish just that. As for the format of the competition? I have to come back on that when I'm able to find the the assignments for the two first competitions (if they are there at all..). ;-) Well anyway, it's great find a place like this. Looking forward to get to know you all. JTB As a totally new user here at ironcoder I thought I’d share some of my initial thougts and observations about this site.

As a potential participant the things I’m looking for is past competitions, with a detailed description of the assignment, the competitors, and the results of the competitions. I’d have to look through a lot of pages before I was able to find the latter. And have yet to find the two former…

And I want that information for two reasons - first of all I want to know what level of difficulty the competitions are, and secondly I want to get inspired by what the others are able to come up with.

I would like to see a page dedicated to this which shows past and present competitions, which has a complete description of the assignments, and also the results where all competitors are listed with their submissions. Downloadable.

And there should be a seperate page where competitors are listed, perhaps ranked by results from past competitions. It would be nice if it could show a profile of the competitor, showing his/hers experience/knowledge/education within IT. On the offchance that somebody where looking to hire a talented cocoa programmer. Who knows? :-)

And if there was only one competitor the last time, for whatever reason, this site deserves a lot more attention to attract other programmers. I was just bu accident that I stumbled across this site.
I’m sure we all have lots of ideas on how to accomplish just that.

As for the format of the competition? I have to come back on that when I’m able to find the the assignments for the two first competitions (if they are there at all..). ;-)

Well anyway, it’s great find a place like this.
Looking forward to get to know you all.

JTB

]]> By: Jonathan Wight http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-41 Jonathan Wight Thu, 25 May 2006 17:14:57 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-41 Allan: see <a href="http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/17/ironcoder-v0-entries/" rel="nofollow">http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/17/ironcoder-v0-entries/</a> for the old entries. Allan: see http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/17/ironcoder-v0-entries/ for the old entries.

]]> By: Allan http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-40 Allan Thu, 25 May 2006 13:35:54 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-40 I agree with Dale; the lack of solid code from Apple was a difficulty. Alex Kadis's idea sounds intriguing; Jonathan Rentzsch gave out several awards for different categories, so why not have a second tier of awards for those who were unable to complete it within the two days, but were able to get something together after a week? (One month is Right Out.) (Also, completely off topic, the v0 contest posts from tales of the red shed should be retrofitted into this blog. Just to have, see?) I agree with Dale; the lack of solid code from Apple was a difficulty.

Alex Kadis’s idea sounds intriguing; Jonathan Rentzsch gave out several awards for different categories, so why not have a second tier of awards for those who were unable to complete it within the two days, but were able to get something together after a week? (One month is Right Out.)

(Also, completely off topic, the v0 contest posts from tales of the red shed should be retrofitted into this blog. Just to have, see?)

]]> By: Dale http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-39 Dale Wed, 24 May 2006 13:00:51 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-39 I almost put in an entry. Even though I'm in Australia, the start time wasn't too much of a problem. But the API and theme threw me.The following comments aren't a criticism of Lucas, but more an insight into how a a less experienced, mostly Cocoa programmer found the event. I was hoping for a Cocoa API but we got a Carbon API. That was OK, but Apple's SDK sample in this instance was poor (compiling with errors and warnings, having to be upgrade the project to a native target to compile without errors though still with warnings, and seemingly causing iTunes to quit occasionally). I wasn't happy about using the SDK sample as the basis for an entry in a competition to be scrutinised by our highly experienced judges. I thought cleaning up the sample *might* be something the judges expected. The other issue with the API was that I couldn't find any info on how to use the waveform and fourier transform data (?) to do stuff on the screen. For example, how do I work out the beat of a song with this info? As an aside, I'm was hoping one of the entries might shed some light on this. The theme wasn't straightforward, being Australian and not big on English I hadn't heard of ED. But the Wikipedia entry was a good, and it gave me an idea for an entry. It noted that many of Dickinson's poems use of common metre and can be set to music. So I thought I'd have a poem that was displayed in iTunes one line at a time, and each word was changed (coloured, enlarged, etc) to the beat of a particular song whose beat fit the common metre. So I'd worked at the I could use various QuickDraw string methods to draw to the graphics port provided by iTunes to plugins. But I was stumped how to do this to a beat. (See the comment above about the waveform and fourier transform data available in the plugin.) In the end I decided not to go ahead as I couldn't work out this technical issue (I'm obviously no musician, either ;-) and wasn't happen about the quality of the SDK sample (it was taking too long to clean it up). So after all of this waxing and waning, what would I suggest about future Ironcoder events? I like the idea of giving the API and theme together, and providing 48 hours. This'll let contestants focus on using only the part of the API they need. (Or is this a negative?) More publicity would be good - getting everyone blogging about it. And maybe a some words of advice for less experienced developers about the API to encourage them. For example, with the iTunes Visualisation API, letting people know the SDK is poor and to just use it as is. I almost put in an entry. Even though I’m in Australia, the start time wasn’t too much of a problem. But the API and theme threw me.The following comments aren’t a criticism of Lucas, but more an insight into how a a less experienced, mostly Cocoa programmer found the event.

I was hoping for a Cocoa API but we got a Carbon API. That was OK, but Apple’s SDK sample in this instance was poor (compiling with errors and warnings, having to be upgrade the project to a native target to compile without errors though still with warnings, and seemingly causing iTunes to quit occasionally). I wasn’t happy about using the SDK sample as the basis for an entry in a competition to be scrutinised by our highly experienced judges. I thought cleaning up the sample *might* be something the judges expected.

The other issue with the API was that I couldn’t find any info on how to use the waveform and fourier transform data (?) to do stuff on the screen. For example, how do I work out the beat of a song with this info? As an aside, I’m was hoping one of the entries might shed some light on this.

The theme wasn’t straightforward, being Australian and not big on English I hadn’t heard of ED. But the Wikipedia entry was a good, and it gave me an idea for an entry. It noted that many of Dickinson’s poems use of common metre and can be set to music. So I thought I’d have a poem that was displayed in iTunes one line at a time, and each word was changed (coloured, enlarged, etc) to the beat of a particular song whose beat fit the common metre.

So I’d worked at the I could use various QuickDraw string methods to draw to the graphics port provided by iTunes to plugins. But I was stumped how to do this to a beat. (See the comment above about the waveform and fourier transform data available in the plugin.)

In the end I decided not to go ahead as I couldn’t work out this technical issue (I’m obviously no musician, either ;-) and wasn’t happen about the quality of the SDK sample (it was taking too long to clean it up).

So after all of this waxing and waning, what would I suggest about future Ironcoder events?

I like the idea of giving the API and theme together, and providing 48 hours. This’ll let contestants focus on using only the part of the API they need. (Or is this a negative?) More publicity would be good - getting everyone blogging about it. And maybe a some words of advice for less experienced developers about the API to encourage them. For example, with the iTunes Visualisation API, letting people know the SDK is poor and to just use it as is.

]]> By: Blake Seely http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-37 Blake Seely Wed, 24 May 2006 00:42:54 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-37 For me, this past contest was strictly a matter of timing - I was out of town. However, I think giving both the theme and the API on Friday - giving a full 48-hours for the contest would be great. During IronCoder v0, I spent several hours reading over the Accessibility API, but didn't actually start coding until I heard the theme - I had a hard time coming up with a solid idea with only half the required info. As for the theme+api combo for /01, it might have been a bit esoteric - literature mixed with a visual API might have been too difficult for people, too. I was surprised there weren't more entries anyway. -Blake For me, this past contest was strictly a matter of timing - I was out of town.

However, I think giving both the theme and the API on Friday - giving a full 48-hours for the contest would be great. During IronCoder v0, I spent several hours reading over the Accessibility API, but didn’t actually start coding until I heard the theme - I had a hard time coming up with a solid idea with only half the required info.

As for the theme+api combo for /01, it might have been a bit esoteric - literature mixed with a visual API might have been too difficult for people, too. I was surprised there weren’t more entries anyway.

-Blake

]]> By: Alex Kadis http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-36 Alex Kadis Wed, 24 May 2006 00:34:46 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-36 Kind-of a crazy idea, and I'm not a developer (I want to be one, I just don't know Cocoa yet!) but what about lengthening the contest to one week (I know, not very "Iron Chef," more "Iron Man") so that more people will be able to enter. To keep it from being too many entries, maybe it has to be "useful." While one's definition of useful is arbitrary, it can be agreed that Emily Dickinson poems from iTunes songs probably isn't -- despite how cool and random it is. (Note that this is not meant to be a jab at Gus' application, it's very creative, but probably not something many people would use on a day-to-day basis.) It may not be what people want, but it could result in more applications that people in the Mac community would use. I can imagine a lot of other non-developers would get interested in the contest - because it would result in a few free applications that *other developers* have approved - that they can use in their everyday lives. Kind-of a crazy idea, and I’m not a developer (I want to be one, I just don’t know Cocoa yet!) but what about lengthening the contest to one week (I know, not very “Iron Chef,” more “Iron Man”) so that more people will be able to enter. To keep it from being too many entries, maybe it has to be “useful.” While one’s definition of useful is arbitrary, it can be agreed that Emily Dickinson poems from iTunes songs probably isn’t — despite how cool and random it is.

(Note that this is not meant to be a jab at Gus’ application, it’s very creative, but probably not something many people would use on a day-to-day basis.)

It may not be what people want, but it could result in more applications that people in the Mac community would use. I can imagine a lot of other non-developers would get interested in the contest - because it would result in a few free applications that *other developers* have approved - that they can use in their everyday lives.

]]> By: Mark Dalrymple http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-35 Mark Dalrymple Tue, 23 May 2006 21:27:51 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-35 I like three months - it's once a quarter / once a season. "It's springtime, when a young man's fancy turns to IRON CODER!!11!!!" I like three months - it’s once a quarter / once a season. “It’s springtime, when a young man’s fancy turns to IRON CODER!!11!!!”

]]> By: ccgus http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-34 ccgus Tue, 23 May 2006 19:08:21 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-34 I agree the api+theme should be done at the same time. Prizes would be good as well, and I had already planned on making a demo app before the api+theme was announced (to make sure it wasn't too insane). I suppose we'll hash it out a bit more in #macsb as well. I think iron coder should be every 3 months.. maybe 4? I agree the api+theme should be done at the same time. Prizes would be good as well, and I had already planned on making a demo app before the api+theme was announced (to make sure it wasn’t too insane). I suppose we’ll hash it out a bit more in #macsb as well.

I think iron coder should be every 3 months.. maybe 4?

]]> By: Jonathan Wight http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-33 Jonathan Wight Tue, 23 May 2006 16:55:07 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-33 Mark, that sounds like a good idea. Which leads us on to - how often should we host Ironcoder? Mark, that sounds like a good idea. Which leads us on to - how often should we host Ironcoder?

]]> By: Mark Dalrymple http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-32 Mark Dalrymple Tue, 23 May 2006 15:56:59 +0000 http://ironcoder.org/blog/2006/05/23/ironcoder-future/#comment-32 Some more publicity would be good. We probably don't have to go the press-release route, but getting it posted on all the popular developer blogs, as well as getting it onto stepwise. If we can get the date staked out before the typical Cocoaheads meeting time, I can ask all of the organizers to announce it at the meetings. Likewise for xcoders CAWUG, and PHAD. Some more publicity would be good. We probably don’t have to go the press-release route, but getting it posted on all the popular developer blogs, as well as getting it onto stepwise. If we can get the date staked out before the typical Cocoaheads meeting time, I can ask all of the organizers to announce it at the meetings. Likewise for xcoders CAWUG, and PHAD.

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