[Raynes]

NickDMax, on 10 Jan, 2010 - 10:41 AM, said:

Raynes, on 8 Jan, 2010 - 10:06 PM, said:

skyhawk133, on 8 Jan, 2010 - 07:04 AM, said:

Let me see how next weeks XNA challenge goes to gauge interest then I'll let you know

Aw man! Next week's challenge is an XNA challenge? :\

Another one I wont be doing. ._.

Although I don't know if I will be doing the XNA one either -- I think that just spending a couple of hours to hack away at something new is excellent experience. I was not too enthusiastic about the JQuery challenge but I found that hacking away a the DIC interface was fun. I learned a little about how DIC's rss feeds work, I got a chance to practice a little at Ajax, not to mention working with some JQuery events... It was fun.

Besides I suppose you could look at it this way: i bet you are excited to see some people try their hands at some functional programming -- you could at least be polite enough to tolerate brief excursions outside of your comfort zones.

SO I do hope that you will participate in SOME that are a little sideways for you.

Quote

I run Linux bro. Don't really want to bother trying to get that stuff to run in Mono.

But if you have no windows box, well you have no windows box... nothing to be done about it

Well, of course I will! I'm looking forward to challenges in languages I've done little in, and with stuff like Twitter that I've not messed with (Though, I've been playing with Twitter with Haskell lately. Even wrote a small function to update my status, and I'm working on figuring out OAuth now.). I never meant anything by what I said. A lot of people here really like XNA, so this will be fun for them. I was just expressing my own dismay. :>

As for the JQuery challenge, that just isn't my thing. I doubt I'll do many web-development related challenges.

[AfaoMAX]

VB.NET 2010 (2008) – Testing the New Framework




CHALLENGE: Play around with the new NET Framework, and see what can be made with it, or with VB.Net 2008


INTRODUCE THE LANGUAGE/TECHNOLOGY: Normally, I am quite against Single System Languages, But i think that VB is a nice language to get to know, because it can do many things that some high level programming languages can do. Even though it doesn’t give the programmer the greatest control over events, it does give a nice incite to new developers. Although many C/C++ developers believe that VB is a bad route to go into, that is NOT true, with the amount of things you can do with it.

The .NET Framework allows you to:
• Apply common skills across a variety of devices, application types, and programming tasks
• Integrate with other tools and technologies to build the right solution with less work
• Build compelling applications faster
The .NET Framework is:
• Common Language Runtime – provides an abstraction layer over the operating system
• Base Class Libraries – pre-built code for common low-level programming tasks
• Development frameworks and technologies – reusable, customizable solutions for larger programming tasks


IDEAS:
For Beginners:
• Make a basic Web Browser
• Make a text editor
• Make a dice program
• Make a basic Catchpa
For Seasoned Developers:
• Make a hide-window program
• Make an advanced Web Browser (History, Website Thumbnails, etc)
• Make a virtual operating system
• Make an application that interacts with a PHP page on the web
• Make an email client

RESOURCES:
Visual Studio 2010 is quite similar to that of 2005 and 2008, with several framework changes. There are many, many sources online for how the syntax and framework works.

VbForums
Vb.Net Forums
DreamInCode - VB.Net
MSDN
MSDN - More



HOW TO GET STARTED:

You will need to download the Beta version of the 2010 Visual Studio (or the express edition of 2008) both at http://www.microsoft...press/download/

Just play around with it, and see what you can create

[polymath]

Here's a pretty simple (and unoriginal challenge). It isn't even mine. If you go to http://www.overthewire.org/wargames/ they have a ton of wargames that you can go through that (i think, at least) are very helpful in learning about systems. Vortex is a pretty good one, it starts out with some very simple network programming using raw sockets (though you can do it with abstraction layer like in python), and moves on to subjects like stack protection and smashing, etc. After level 4 they start to get pretty challenging (at least for the uninitiated like me), but the forums and IRC community are useful.

I'm not sure what DIC policy is about sites like that, since they *can* be used for hacking and stuff, but i'm reasonably sure that the main intent is to teach about networking and systems and how they can be safeguarded/protected, not cracked.

So there's my $0.02.

[NickDMax]

Mozilla JetPack



CHALLENGE: Explore writing Firefox extension using the JetPack API --

INTRODUCE THE LANGUAGE/TECHNOLOGY: All you need is to know is a little Javascript, HTML, CSS and you too can extend FireFox.

IDEAS:

* Tools for DIC Contributers
* Use FF as a platform for an app.
* Write a FF widget
* Write a Blog/Review the API for other developers.
* Write a tutorial
* Make suggestions to the API team.
* Join the JetPack open source project and contribute.


RESOURCES:
Mozilla Labs JetPack site


HOW TO GET STARTED:
Since this is new to me as well I don't know the best way to get started but should the challenge be accepted I would be glad to contribute a sample.

[ladyinblack]

@robert_edgar and LeisureProgrammer: Robocode, definitely sounds interesting. I would definitely like to try my hand at that. And since its in Java, maybe we Java programmers can learn something new.

@everyone else:
how about a beginner php challenge for those of us not familiar with it. Give me a few hours, I'll whip up a challenge. And a C++ challenge for those of us who only did Java in school, and might find C++ unfamiliar territory. There was a C++ challenge, but sounds complicated to me.

[arthurakay]

Put Your Company On the Map!

Challenge: Use the Google Maps API to create an interactive map for your company's website.

The Google Maps API has been around for a few years and is one of the more frequently used APIs offered by Google. The benefits of using the Google Maps API are obvious: it's free, simple to use, and (most importantly) visually impressive. In order to use the Google Maps API, you only need a basic understanding of HTML, CSS and Javascript - so almost anyone involved in web development can find ways to use it!

Example: Adding a map to your website.

<html>
  <head>
	<script src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&amp;v=2&amp;key=XXXXXXXXXX" type="text/javascript"></script> 

	<script type="text/javascript"> 
	//<![CDATA[
	function load() {
	  if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
		var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
	map.addControl(new GSmallMapControl());
	map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());

		var companyAddress = "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500";

		var geoCoder = new GClientGeocoder();
		geoCoder.getLatLng(companyAddress, function(point) {
			map.setCenter(point, 14);
			map.addOverlay(new GMarker(point));
			map.openInfoWindowHtml(point, "This is the White House!");
		});
	  }
	}
	//]]>
	</script> 
  </head>
  <body onload="load()" onunload="GUnload()">
	<div id="map" style="margin: 5px; height: 500px; width: 500px;"></div>
  </body>
</html>

In the example above, you will see that we create a 500x500 pixel map that has centered on the White House.

We use the Javascript method getElementById() to locate the DIV element where the map will be rendered. We then provide the Google Maps API with the appropriate address for our map location, and finally place a marker on the map with an info window listing our company for the world to see.

To build your own map you need to do two things:
(1) you need to get your own API "key", replacing the "XXXXXXXXXX" in my example
(2) you need to replace the White House address with your own

(Note: Be sure to use the onload() and onunload() event handlers on the BODY tag - the map won't work correctly without them!)

Ideas for Advanced Users:
- try adding the various map overlays (Traffic, StreetView, etc.)
- explore the GMap2() class methods (enableDoubleClickZoom, enableGoogleBar, etc.)
- try adding more than one location and marker

Resources:
- Google Maps API: http://code.google.com/apis/maps/

Attached image(s)

• 

[rs4]

I saw Erayan's post and thought that a challenge in its self could be to use a Subversion (SVN).
CHALLENGE: use a Subversion (SVN)

What is it?
SVN is used to control large projects(often used for open source projects), it stores all changes made to the project and allows changes to be made by committing changes to the SVN. When users submit a commit they can comment about what changes they have made. Anyone who is downloading and build from a SVN only needs to download the files which have changed saving time and bandwidth.

IDEAS:

• Download and learn to use a SVN Client (like TortoiseSVN)
  
• Download and build a program that uses a subversion to store its source code
  
• Could we set one up at dream in code and make something maybe one for each language?
  
• Try make a patch
  
• Try place a commit (you normally will need an account with commit permissions)

RESOURCES:
Subversion.tigris.org/

This post has been edited by rs4: 17 January 2010 - 11:36 PM

[Mila]

Just a comment on the above Scheme idea -- I think it's going to be way too easy, especially for any participants who are current or recent computer science students (Scheme is commonly used to teach functional programming.) Can I suggest something a little more involved, like a rudimentary AI ala a basic psychiatrist program? Also, the filters and effects in The GIMP are written in Scheme, so maybe that would be a cool(er) project to do than just "write some recursive code."

Will be back to submit an idea later, when I'm not slacking off at work.

Mila

[Raynes]

CHALLENGE TITLE: Embrace Clojure


CHALLENGE: Use Clojure to write any sort of application you like. Use it to write a web application, a desktop application, or anything in between. Use some of your existing Java code in Clojure, or create a clone of one of your Java apps in Clojure. Have fun.

Clojure is an amazing new language that was created two years ago by a man named Rich Hickey. It is not an implementation of an existing Lisp, but a whole new Lisp in itself. It isn't held back by the limitations of the Common Lisp standard. It embraces the JVM to offer direct and idiomatic interoperation with Java (or any other JVM language), so you can use any existing Java code in Clojure, without wrapping it in a Lispy wrapper.

Here is what is written on the front page of clojure.org:

"Clojure is a dynamic programming language that targets the Java Virtual Machine (and the CLR ). It is designed to be a general-purpose language, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming. Clojure is a compiled language - it compiles directly to JVM bytecode, yet remains completely dynamic. Every feature supported by Clojure is supported at runtime. Clojure provides easy access to the Java frameworks, with optional type hints and type inference, to ensure that calls to Java can avoid reflection.

Clojure is a dialect of Lisp, and shares with Lisp the code-as-data philosophy and a powerful macro system. Clojure is predominantly a functional programming language, and features a rich set of immutable, persistent data structures. When mutable state is needed, Clojure offers a software transactional memory system and reactive Agent system that ensure clean, correct, multithreaded designs.

I hope you find Clojure's combination of facilities elegant, powerful, practical and fun to use."

Clojure is the fastest growing language I've ever seen. It has gained a large following in just two years of development. The language has a book called Programming Clojure written about it, and three other books are in the works (one of them will be finished in February). If Clojure can do everything it has done in two years, I feel this language has an amazing future ahead of it.


RESOURCES:

There are lots of resources right at the homepage at http://clojure.org/, including API documentation, very good screencasts, a list of libraries, a cheatsheet, and various other general information about Clojure.

There is a relatively stable Eclipse plugin in active development, here: http://code.google.c...ounterclockwise, though it doesn't offer auto-indentation yet. I've been bugging Laurent about that lately, so it shouldn't be too long.

There is a stable and pretty feature-complete Netbeans plugin you can find information about here: http://www.enclojure.org/

There is also an IntelliJ plugin you should be able to google to find.

By far, most Clojure users use Emacs coupled with clojure-mode and swank-clojure and Slime as their development environment, including myself. You'll get the most out of Clojure by familiarizing yourself with Emacs a bit, and setting it up with Slime as detailed on the swank-clojure github page, but you don't have too. I do strongly recommend it.

There is a very comprehensive Clojure tutorial here that some say is on par with the Programming Clojure book: http://java.ociweb.c...re/article.html I've not read it, though I think I will when I get a chance. I'll point out that some things are probably a bit outdated, but as long as read changes and such after reading through the tutorial, you should be fine. Programming Clojure is a little outdated as well, but luckily, a ton of more books are being written. For instance, Clojure has protocols (which are like interfaces in OOP), and types which are kind of like C structs. Types created with deftype are making Clojure's struct-maps obsolete, so if you're using Clojure from it's master branch, where deftype and defprotocol now exist, remember to use deftype instead of structs. If you are going to use the last major release (Clojure 1.1), deftype and defprotocol don't exist and struct usage will be fine. Just a little tidbit of knowledge for yas!

I'll note with enthusiasm that you do not have to know Java in order to learn Clojure. Yes, it definitely helps, and it helps even more if you know your way around the Java API, but it isn't necessary. As a matter of fact, learning and using Clojure can expose you to Java a bit, and make it easier to find your way around if you learn Java in the future. Since Clojure can directly access Java code, you have the entire Java library at your disposal. Where Java isn't broke, Clojure doesn't fix it.

Beyond what I've explicitly mentioned, I encourage you to explore the Clojure website I linked first; it has tons of good information.

Oh yeah, and you're going to want this: http://github.com/te...mancy/leiningen


HOW TO GET STARTED:

This depends on what editor you decide to use. There is really no point in putting getting started information here. If you use Emacs with Leiningen (or maven) as your build tool, this will be self explanatory. Leiningen (or maven) will handle dependencies for you, even Clojure and the companion group of libraries, clojure-contrib. Otherwise, you'd just want to slap whatever Clojure version you want on the classpath (you probably know how to do this in the popular Java IDEs) and start coding.

IDEAS:

• Write a tool you can use for your Java development.
  
• Plan to write something in Java? Write it in Clojure instead!
  
• For more advanced users: Think of a language feature you wish Clojure had, and then write that feature as a freakin' macro!

[KYA]

Excellent use of the word "embrace"

[Raynes]

KYA, on 19 Jan, 2010 - 11:25 AM, said:

Excellent use of the word "embrace"

I didn't even realize it was a pun until now.

embrace

Hah.

[smeezekitty]

How about an image editor that can load/edit/make/rotate/change/convert images and it has to be cross platform.
Yes i am a noob at this forum LOL.

[Yakyb]

how about writing an android application as far as i'm aware it is all java based

cant think of many stipulations but would be a decent small project

[Raynes]

Would anyone be interested in a Git/Github challenge if I were to create one? Just want to know if anybody would care to do it before I bother writing it up. Git is awesome.

[erik.price]

I would. Git is one of those things that is on my to do list, but I never got around to it