Author: Matthias Gall

Android Developer Challenge

Published by Matthias Gall

Google has announced the second Android Developer Challenge and I’m seriously considering taking part. They have ten different categories with three attractive prizes each and one overall category with three even more attractive prizes. Given the facts that there were only 1788 submissions last year, that I have already gathered some experience in mobile device development and that I do work with several Google APIs for my freelancing job I consider my chances not too bad. Idea, anyone? 😉

Firefox AddOns and OS X Software I use

Published by Matthias Gall

People seem to like posting their favorite plugins and software these days, so I thought I could add my little list of useful stuff here, too. I’m open to suggestions for other good extensions, of course. Here’s my list of Firefox AddOns I am using actively: Adblock Plus Firebug A powerful debugging aid for web developers. Comes with e.g. a DOM explorer and a JavaScript debugger. Web Developer Toolbar A toolbar which offers many useful functions for web developers. In particular, I like outlining of block elements or enabling read-only form fields. FoxyProxy Manage proxy configurations and use them depending on URL patterns etc. ImageZoom Zoom images with RMB and mouse wheel. Foxmarks Synchronizes bookmarks. I found it particularly useful to define synchronization profiles so that I can separate work bookmarks from private stuff. Tabinta Ever tried to enter a TAB in textarea controls? Tabinta allows you to use TAB there. Flagfox Shows the country flag of the server’s origin in the address bar. Split Browser Splits the browser window into multiple areas. Nuke Anything …

2D Graphics

Published by Matthias Gall

I was searching for a nice 2D graphics library today, again, because I wanted to piece something together very quickly. My requirements were: Should be available for the Mac so that I could code with my MacBook Pro on my lap. Currently I really prefer this way of coding. Screw dual monitors! Crossplatform would be a plus so that I could continue coding on the PC if need-be. Should have a somewhat modern C++ API, i.e. SDL was out of the question. Should provide basic shape drawing functionality (e.g. circles, lines,…) and font support (TTF or at least bitmap fonts) innately. SDL disqualified again. Either mature enough to be almost bug-free or still under active development. I came up with something that was described as a “C++ version of SDL” somewhere. I must admit, this didn’t sound very promising to me at first, but when I digged a bit deeper, I became confident that this was what I was searching for. http://www.sfml-dev.org/ SFML has everything I need plus lots of other cool features. And the …