Comfort Zone

The border of the 'comfort zone' is aptly fractal for my project. Almost nothing of what I am doing is something with which I am familiar, but on the other hand thats what makes me feel so at home programming. I enjoy the variety and diversity of the project. The more things I learn, the better, and there is no better way to learn than getting a challenge and having Google by your side.

Istvan.

Mentor Meeting

NOTE: This post has been a 'draft' for nearly a week now, and I didn't notice.

I met with Mr. Drix today - we talked about Iterative Canvas a lot, specifically the help text. We tweeked the wording, and he helped me develop a clear way to explain the Sierpinski triangle. We also briefly talked about future options for this project, looking beyond this year. More on that later.

Istvan.

Revision 2827

While spelunking around in my old website where I have dozens upon dozens of tests, mini-projects, and and the bones of once-great-ideas, I came across an app I developed for my math teacher last year. During a unit on logistic functions, he made mention of the function's ability to produce chaos. The next day, I had a little web app ready for him to show the class.

When I found this app I figured I'd bring it to the Fractal Canvas site -- Check it out!

I will be posting documentation for it soon... Once I remember how it works :)

The title of this post comes from the revision of SAFE (the framework I use) that I installed today. I asked for a couple of features to be added that were required to get this app running, and that revision contains those updates.

Istvan.

Two Tramps in Mud Time

Robert Frost's Two Tramps in Mud Time tells the story of two men who come upon Frost splitting wood. I thought the most significant part of the whole poem was:

...I  had no right to play with what was another man's work for gain.

My right might be love but theirs was need.

And where the two exist in twain

Theirs was the better right  - agreed.

 I think it's interesting that in our culture one's enjoyment is second to another's livelihood. I don't know that it is good or bad.

Perhaps it is a naivety, but I think that people can make a living of their love. Ms. Gergely is always encouraging her students to love their projects, their school work. My greatest mentors have loved something enough that they made a living from it. In particular I think Neil deGrasse Tyson is a great example.

Istvan.

Controls

Here is a rough sketch of the controls users will get when they hover over a line in Fractal Canvas.

This is obviously not an intricate sketch. It has just the locations and shapes of important elements. I use these rough sketches to figure out what elements I actually need to have, and roughly where they will go.

These tools allow a user to move, delete, and splice line segments. The numbers on top let users change line types. The shaded part in the middle starts a drag-and-drop when you click it, the button on the bottom right deletes the line, and the button on the bottom left splits the line into two segments where the cursor is.

Here is this sketch coded up and running in a web browser:

In the picture, my mouse is hovering over the 4 (which is why it sticks out.) The colors are all semi-transparent, but when your mouse hovers over them they light up.

Edit: It is worth noting that the image above took 160 lines of HTML/CSS to code.

Tweaks and Quirks

While I work on the Fractal Canvas app, I am continuing to tweak Iterative Canvas.

When I work at home, I have my laptop's 17.3" screen and a 22" display connected. I test all of the apps I create on this setup, which leads to some quirks sometimes. For example, the Iterative Canvas controls all fit fine (with plenty of room to spare) on my screens, but when people viewed the app on school computers they found that the controls were too wide for the screen and that it was difficult to see the controls and the canvas at the same time. I have tweaked a few things to minimize the screen real estate the controls take up, hopefully bettering the experience of users.

Down the road, I might make the controls a drawer on the canvas, so you hover your mouse on the top or right side of the canvas, the controls slide out, you change what you like, and then when you hit 'Go' the controls slide back in. This will take some thought though, since it might be inconvenient at times.

But thats later to come.

One of the comments I have gotten several times has been "Can you explain the Fractals and Chaos behind the app?" -- In previous posts I have struggled with explaining what is going on in big chunks of text. For several reasons, those walls of information are less than ideal - not the least of which is that presented to me I certainly would not read it! One idea I got from a friend is to make videos. I need to explore this a little more, but I am thinking it would be very cool to make 1 minute videos explaining what is going on in apps. These are much more friendly to consume, and allow me to present the ideas verbally - a medium with which I am far more familiar.

Istvan.

Quick Lists

As part of the "Out of the Rut" assignment, here is a planning list:

• 7 Things I want to accomplish in the next week
1. Design (sketch) the tool palette for Fractal Canvas
2. Implement the tool palette for Fractal Canvas
3. Code template functions
4. Code template to sketchPoints features
5. Decide on Canvas vs WebGL implementation
6. Explore more ad spots
7. Make Iterative Canvas more friendly to SMART Board setup
• 5 People I should talk to about my project
1. Mr. Drix
2. A student who is now using Iterative Canvas in class
3. A student who is now using Iterative Canvas in class
4. A student who is now using Iterative Canvas in class
5. A student who is now using Iterative Canvas in class
• Supplies I need to get
• Supplies not required
• 3 Things I should talk to my mentor about
1. Testing plan for Fractal Canvas
2. Video lessons for all apps
3. Review of how Iterative Canvas is doing in-class
• 7 Things to research
1. JavaScript Closures
2. SVG Optimization
3. Canvas vs. WebGL implementation
4. Advertising options
5. How to perform usage analysis of web apps
6. How to make the site load more quickly
7. Learn how to use drag and drop features of HTML5 for layout adjustments

Istvan.

Ads

I published ads on fractalcanvas.com in the sidebar. This ad is hopefully unobtrusive, but will still bring in some money as people use the apps. Some portion of that money might go into buying ads which will bring people to my site.

Istvan.