One more step!

Progress is being made on Portable Canvas!!

I'm starting to mark my progress heavily, in comparison to before. It may be too little and too late, but the habit will likely help in future projects.

On the Windows side of things, 0.3 is almost done! I've restricted browsing to c3dl.org as before, but I've also enabled local files to be opened. At the moment, you can type in a local file path to an html file with the proper JavaScript, and it'll load the 3d Canvas element properly! The last step is to shift this from text box to GUI; otherwise, this wouldn't be a quality release worthy of the title "final project of the term".

On the Mac side, I have the application running. The trouble is, I don't have the Mac equivalent of Canvas 3d's dll file, so the program can't load the Canvas elements properly. This should just take 10 minutes of coordination with a Mac user on the c3dl project.

Combining the two sides should be simple. The project-specific code is all in jar files, and should be cross platform by nature; the interface work on the Windows side should carry over nicely to the Mac side. I'll be posting two separate downloads to simplify my work; one for each platform. In theory, I may be able to combine the two for a later release...

Found and lost

As I scramble away in the middle of exam week, I feel the need for good documentation the first time through a project, even if you fully (and truly) understand the methods used. Memory will fail, and this fact will likely come back to bite you. T.T

In phase 3 of the Portable Canvas project, I had resolved to get the program working on Macs as well as Windows. Now, I'm stuck trying to figure out how to build on said Mac, because I mentioned that I "compiled" MyBrowser for Windows back in phase 1. Does it mean I really compiled it, like I'd compile Firefox with Mozbuild? Does it mean it isn't really compiled, just a bunch of JS files that call XUL functions? I can't even remember the search terms I used to find the XUL documentation anymore.

Alas, agony is the seed of wisdom. If I survive this, good things will come. ^^;;

On the bright side, I've got Canvas 3D examples running on my local machine now... =D

Back to Episode One

The final stretch of DPS 909 rolls in, but the work hasn't gotten any easier. I've learned so much, yet it seems I'll never run out of stuff to learn. This is both good and bad.

There was the comment on my v0.2 Portable Canvas; it doesn't work on Mac. The solution seems simple enough; compile it on Mac, just like I did on Windows. But, after all the trials and tribulations that came *after* the simple compile the first time around, I've forgotten how to build the thing! It's like starting 0.1 all over again, and that took a while...

The next major obstacle is the new feature I've set for myself (with Cathy's approval). I want Portable Canvas to be able to load a local file. Such a simple goal represents a mountain of dirt to dredge through...

For one, there's no such thing as a Canvas 3d file. C3d creates objects by modifying data within a canvas element tag, so the state of the tag is constantly changing. The complexity is enormous, never mind the fact that I haven't created a working example online yet.

Next up is the modification of code. I've never written a serious JavaScript application in my life, and now I'll have to write one that dynamically creates local content. Tom Aratyn was kind enough to perform a guest lecture on JS; it'll be a big help for sure, though I still feel a little under-prepared.

The word of the day is "worry", because there'll be plenty of it. ^^;;