Blog Update

I've been doing a little bit of work on my version of the Movieland Directory for the iPhone. I've been getting home from work tired though and just not want to deal with things so the amount of time I've put in has been disappointing.

I'm tired.

Also been working with Excel VBA at work. I'm learning new stuff here. I'm also trying to write an Excel formula parser. If I get this sucker working it will take a complex nested formula and make it easier to read and understand by a human.

New iPhone Obsessed Blog

FYI: A new blog on the iPhone. Check it out.

Chicago iPhone Tech Talk: Will I go?

I got the time off with my boss to go to the August 28th iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago. The question is, will I get an invite? I submitted my request plenty early. Are they ignoring requests that they might think are "riff-raff?"

"Oh, this Orville Chomer dude doesn't work for a company that develops Apple software... Strike 1... and look... according to the info he entered on-line he doesn't own an iPhone yet... Strike 2.... And we looked at his crummy Chomer.com site and we don't want to give info to someone whose site is a total mess like this one! ... that can be Strike 3! Yes! Strike 3! Let me see here, is this Chomer-dude an A-List blogger? No? .... Well.... not even that to consider!"

I'm thinking about showing up regardless and seeing what happens. Though I'd much rather get an official "you're in" note from Apple!

Arkonoid Game on the iPhone?

Somewhere I found after fishing around on the internet, an Arkonoid clone done completely in DHTML. Although not perfect, this game by Scott Schiller I consider it well done.

To play go to: http://www.schillmania.com/arkanoid/arkanoid.html

I did notice that the game did not work in IE6. I haven't tested it in IE7 yet. It worked fine in FireFox and Safari running on a Windows XP box.

And, what I'm really trying to get to is it runs on an iPhone (sort-of). Scott mentions that he modified the game to work on the iPhone (sort-of), so, Wednesday night after dinner, I bid my wife ado and went off to the Apple store at the Oakbrook Centre. In my pocket written on a yellow index card was the URL listed above. I entered the URL into an iPhone there and tried out the game. Below are a few comments I have regarding it:

• First some positive things... The game is playable, unlike the one I'm working on. But bearly so. More on this later.


• The ball / paddle speed in the game is good. I have a ball and paddle in my game but they move much too slow on the iPhone.


• The graphics for the game (on the iPhone or in a regular web browser) is very sharp and professional looking.


• Despite self-effacing comments at the top of the main Javascript file, I think the coding is pretty well documented (not perfect but still pretty good). There is alot here that a Javascript developer can learn from.


• Now the negative... I had to do the finger-pinch (or is it unpinch) move to zoom the page big enough to play the game.


• The button to start the game is way too small for iPhone usage. I had to zoom the page even more just to get it so I could barely press it will my finger without pressing buttons on either side.


• The hack he implented for the iPhone is that you can press a spot on the x-axis to move the paddle to. You cannot slide the paddle back and forth. This works rather clunky.

Application
I plan on studying the Javascript for this game. The main reason, I want to find out how Scott kept his game performance good even on the iPhone. I have some ideas on how to track paddle movement based on a post I read on the iPhoneWebDev Google group. I want to create a test event page more suitable to my needs and post it on Chomer.com. Then I will go to the Apple store again and try out my test page to collect more detailed event information. And, finally (I hope), I will update my game so that it actually works correctly!

iPhone event handling frustration

I went with my wife on Friday evening to Oakbrook Centre to the Apple store and tapped in the URL for my iPhone game.

• The game fits in the screen properly.
• The game's attract mode worked pretty good, but it ran WAY slower than it did in the Safari browser on my PC at home.
• Tapping the screen did start the game, but...
• onmousemove did not work.

I've been scouring the internet looking for information on how to use the proper event handlers in Javascript to make it so the user can use his finger to move a paddle back and forth over the screen (this info is a little hint on the game I am working on). I've had very little luck so far.

As far as speed, I might be able to set the setTimeout timer value to a smaller value when running on an iPhone.

I'm somewhat stumped regarding the paddle control right now. Any ideas regarding how to do this in Javascript?

iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago

Apple is going to have an iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago on August 28th this year. I work in Chicago so this is a great opportunity. I submitted a request to attend. I hope I get in! That would be a fun day. I think I can get the day off from my boss.

Developing for the iPhone

Though I don't own one yet, I find this subject intriguing. A cool site that gets you off to a good start is: http://www.iphonewebdev.com/ Click on the Examples button. This is where there is some really good stuff!

It's a fun place to poke around. Yes, I am working on a game for the iPhone. It is well along it's way to completion. I'm initially testing it in Safari on an XP box. Once I think it is ready, I'm going to the Apple store to test it out on one of their showroom models.

What is the game? I'm not telling until it's done!

iPhone First Impressions

Sunday evening my wife and I were at the mall. Ah! The Apple store. We went inside and I played around with an iPhone that they had tethered to the table. Here's a few comments that I'd like to make:

• The fonts are pretty amazing, i.e. it's amazing what you can read even before you zoom in on a web page. I could read the page of the Movieland Directory without zooming (in landscape mode).
• One bad thing, I seemed to have to press down rather hard to get it to register my touch.
• The right edge of the display seemed less sensitive than the rest of the screen.

It could be that the iPhone I was playing with had gotten alot of abuse being on the "floor" so it might have been abit "beat up." Who knows! Still can't afford one now.