Hack Scratch 2021

Well, two posts in a year - that's better than only one! Let's see, what did I accomplish this year, hack-wise?

  • bitjs, Binary Tools for JavaScript:
    • Added a Zipper to create a zip file in JS from byte arrays (issue #29). No compression, store-only for now.
  • kthoom, a Comic Book Reader:
    • Added a Metadata Viewer (issue #18) and Editor (issue #49) using the aforementioned Zipper.
  • TNO, a turn-based strategy game:
    • Finished rewriting an old, DOS-based game as a web-based game for its 25th anniversary 🙂
  • Carve, a vector graphics editor:
    • Started creating a rudimentary SVG editor in the open. Maybe this was irresponsible of me, given SVG-edit exists and I have lots of history there, but I wanted fresh infrastructure (TypeScript, mainly) and a chance to try and get the architecture right in the beginning..
  • Music playlist service and player
    • Private project where I assembled all my offline music, created a microservice to arrange, list, edit music into playlists stored in the Cloud (Firestore), and accessed via a web music player.

All of these little hack projects are strictly in the service of scratching various itches I have. Any fun projects you worked on this year?

Happy New Year, all!

§1292 · January 1, 2022 · Uncategorized · Comments Off on Hack Scratch 2021 ·

Best Bug Report Tool?

Bugs

I was thinking of setting up a bug tracker for a personal project that might have random users. I'd like to have a way for users to report bugs with as little friction as possible, but with something more than an email or a post on a mailing list. Basically a link I can send a user to. Github? Jira? Something better? Are there any good issue trackers that allow multiple identity systems?

§1268 · January 26, 2021 · Questions, Software, Technology · 2 comments ·

Orienting From Home

Logo for WebP

How's everybody doing? My work-from-home setup involves a Macbook Pro, a CalDigit TS3+ dock, two external displays (one in portrait, one in landscape), and a couple other peripherals. Since getting the TS3+, I've noticed that OSX screws up the orientation of the external displays ~50% of the time. This inevitably results in me furiously tilting my head sideways while I try to maneuver the mouse pointer onto the Mac Display preferences for that display and fix it before my first meeting of the day starts.

I found a Stack Overflow solution that works for me. I downloaded the free Display Rotation Menu tool from Mage Software and now I can just click and change the orientation from the system menu. Should be part of the OS in these WFH days!

§1229 · December 5, 2020 · Apple, Software, Technology, Tips · Comments Off on Orienting From Home ·

WebP Finally Arriving?

Logo for WebP

Kind of an interesting month for raster image formats on the web! Apple just recently announced that iOS and Safari 14 supports the WebP image format. Yay - in roughly a year, we can use it everywhere on the web without needing to have a fallback solution (like using WASM to turn WebP into PNG/JPEG). Now we just have to wait for the rest of the ecosystem (image editors).

I guess next up is for Apple to get on board with the AVIF format, since Firefox and Chrome announced upcoming AVIF support just two days ago.

§1222 · July 11, 2020 · Chrome, Firefox, Google, Safari, Software, Technology, Web · 1 comment ·

XML Needed an Array Type

Logo for JSON

To be filed under "shoulda-woulda-coulda" and "no-shit-sherlock" and also "forgot-to-write-about-this-fifteen-years-ago"...

I have had to think about XML for the first time in a few years (for the curious, you can read this EPUB bug I filed). If XML had had an array type for simple values (strings), then instead of representing a list of values like this:

<topLevel>
  <myList>
    <item value="abc" />
    <item value="def" />
    <item value="ghi" />
  </myList>
</topLevel>

It could have been this:

<topLevel myList=["abc", "def", "ghi"] />

Would folks have abandoned XML for JSON so quickly?

§1210 · January 11, 2020 · Software, Technology, Web, XML · 1 comment · Tags: ,

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