I have been working to understand more aspects of the Flash platform and how we are implementing it in our Full Sail curriculum and this XML basics article I just found was really helpful in explaining E4X syntax and how to traverse the XML node tree.

The article does mention implementing the Flash IDE for their code, but Flex Builder is a much nicer environment for building ActionScript projects. Plus, you can install a copy of ...

All the unnecessary hatin' that has been happening lately toward the Flash platform has been getting out of hand and definitely on my nerves ... so I have decided to start animating small little nuggets of fun into some of my drawings here on the blog. If you are not among the misinformed and propaganda-gobbling masses, please enjoy! Of course, I am also adding a nice bit of accessibility for all the iPhone users, ...

One of my favorite Action Script-ers to follow, Felix Turner of AirTight Interactive, recently posted about all of the applications, plugins and resources he uses for Flash development. It is definitely a list worth checking out (as are many of the lists compiled by the great Smashing Magazine) and if nothing else, it gave me a reason to draw this nerdy guy, marking out all of the languages and frameworks I am either working with ...

Sadly, one of my favorite lil' Mac tools, Validator, which is perfect for validating XML files against custom Document Type Declarations (DTDs), is currently not working with Snow Leopard, or more specifically, Snow Leopard's implementation of 64-bit Perl.

There is an easy way have 10.6 load the 32-bit version of Perl, but unfortunately, even after doing so, it looks like Validator is still having some other issues.

There is no contact information on Robert Crews' website, so ...

While creating an example AS3 file for our Deployment of Flash Projects class just now in Flex Builder, I almost found myself in an absurd "the-files-are-missing" predicament that we hear about every now and then from our students. Turns out some of it may not be so absurd ...

While Flex Builder allows for multiple Undos in several areas of its interface, it also has a subtle way of not indicating where those Undos are taking ...

I happend to be testing one of the current Illustrative projects locally and notice the following PHP error on my date('y') function:

Warning: date(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are required to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected 'America/New_York' for 'EDT/-4.0/DST' instead in ...

One of the problems Norm and I have found with our DFP students building ActionScript 3 projects in Flex Builder is that any AIR-specific code that is implemented lacks code-completion and error-resolving. A really simple solution, though, is including the Global AIR SWC in the project's Library. You can follow along with the video for a demonstration on how.

If you haven't already, definitely check out AppleInsider's or TechCrunch's coverage of the sweet App Wall that developers at Apple made for the recent WWDC event.

Here are all the deets:

"What you're looking at:
Over 3,000 apps - and growing - are downloaded every minute from the App Store. This is a live feed showing the activity of 20,000 popular apps currently on the store. Every time a customer downloads an app, its icon lights up (5 ...

Another instructor on the Web team at Full Sail (Michael Smotherman) put out this handy little jQuery Cheat Sheet that I thought you all might find helpful when working with that wonderful client-side library. He also worked up this great little MooTools add-on, for creating slide animations between areas of HTML content. Enjoy!

During the DFP lab session yesterday, Norm and my students were having issues validating their XML data files using a couple of the services we normally recommend. Namely, their XML files were showing no errors, despite adding intentional mal-formed tags and whatnot.
It just so happened that Norm was reading through one of FlashTuts newer posts about different methods for setting up a Flash Development Sandbox and discovered a great Eclipse plugin for writing and validating ...

I really been working hard to get back on track with the Bible reading I normally do in the morning, but have been slack on for a few months now. And even though it means that I have been needing to go to bed earlier (or actually at normal hours for most people) and wake up in the dark morning hours, it has already begun to feel beneficial.
Near the end of class on Thursday, I ...

In my ongoing attempt to fall more and more in love with the “One-Window Web Development” amazingness that is Panic’s Coda app, I have reached another yet milestone. I present to you the following Syntax Modes, re-colored to match the ever-popular Textmate “Twilight” theme:ActionScriptCSSHTMLJavascriptJSP-HTMLPHP-HTMLXMLCoda Coloring Theme - "Twlight"In case you are wondering, the font I am using is the delicious Inconsolata by Raph Levien.P.S. If anyone wants to send me a few example files of ...

After Sitepoint showed us all how easy it is to add custom references to the "Books" section of Coda (using their excellent HTML and CSS references as examples), I began my search for even more handy code guides with which to fill out that big empty gray space at Command+6.

Jon Hicks had some good stuff to say, as did the Coda Google Group, but what really got me moving was when I found Ray Brown's ...

I am a little late to the game on this, but recently I was creating an iPhone screen optimized version of a site for my personal usage and thought I would share some of my findings.

The InitialThough Apple recommends through the expansive information in its iPhone Developer Connection to implement CSS3 conditional statements to effectively achieve alternate style-sheets for personal computers and for the iPhone, I wasn’t satisfied with the resulting functionality. Yes, it did ...

or maybe an even better question: Should I customize my form elements like Apple? Let me explain.The DilemmaUp until recently, I haven’t really worked too directly with the <form> elements, but when finding that I needed to add more screen sizes for the Desktop section of my page on this site (as well as wanting to expand on the demonstrations I offered in my GWD classes), I decided to implementing drop-down listings, using ...

Secret Friend Society by DraStudio on ZooomrIn light of the recent Dra Studio re-design, I thought it might be fun to share some of my ruminations and recent thoughts about back-end content management systems and such that I saw as possible solutions for both the this site and the Illustrative. site, but for some reason or another, abandoned. I also wanted to share some of the more influential sites that I found inspiring me ...

Open in Textmate (uploaded by DRA Studio)Had a really fun lunch meeting with one of the WDD (Web Design & Development and) degree course directors yesterday. It is so enjoyable being able to sit around and talk about web standards, markup and CSS syntax. Yes, Courtney, that is really nerdy … but still, so much fun. For all of you coding-kids, Chris dropped a little script on me that I am finding really handy. MacroMates, the ...

I am in the middle of some research for my Graphic Web Design course and I am in search of an article I thought I had read a while ago.If I am remembering correctly, it outlined the pros and cons of using the two typical methods of hiding content using CSS styles.Option #1:selector { display:none; }Option #2:selector { text-indent: -9999px; }The second is a little trick I first saw Zeldman use, but I know the ...