A command line build tool for Blitz developers.
Browsing Category: Software Development
10 Apr, 2007
Adding Apps to the Windows PATH
Save typing by adding tool directories to the Windows PATH.
10 Apr, 2007
Automating the Build Process
Creating software is a time consuming business, and it’s important to always be on the lookout for ways to reduce the amount of time spent on less important tasks. The process of actually building software (creating the finished distributable binary) is one such area that can be optimised. Opening up your IDE and hitting “compile” […]
15 Feb, 2007
Using zip files with Blitz Basic
How to use zip files within Blitz Basic applications. Open and create archives and compress your data.
15 Feb, 2007
Getting Started with Subversion
An introduction to using Subversion to manage your source code.
06 Dec, 2006
Tweaking the Sociable plugin
I use the “Sociable” WordPress plugin to add social bookmarking links to the bottom of every post. There are a tonne of social bookmarking sites around, so I’ve kept things light to avoid the icon overload that can be seen on some blogs. I’ve made two updates over the last few days, one was adding […]
11 Sep, 2006
New Resource - Blitz.ZipApi
What is Blitz.ZipApi?
Blitz.ZipApi is a userlib and set of helper functions for BlitzPlus and Blitz3D that allow you to use ZIP functionality, such as compression and decompression of data. The helper functions take care of the most common operations, such as adding data (either from a file or a bank) to an archive or extracting a […]
01 Aug, 2006
The Boring Parts of Game Development
Let’s face it, most of what I’ve been working on over the past few weeks has not been particularly exciting. In fact, it’s been downright boring. Unfortunately, game development is not all fast cars and multi-coloured particles. A lot of it is dull, tedious and less exciting than watching a race between paint drying […]
25 Jul, 2006
What’s going down…
As many of you will know, hot weather and software development do not go together. The last few weeks have seen temperatures in Britain hit the high 90s, which wouldn’t be so bad if I had air conditioning. Suffice to say, my productivity hasn’t been as high as I’d like it. Still, at least I […]
30 Jun, 2006
Five things I wish I’d known when I started programming
Halloween isn’t for a while, but it’s always a good time to read some coding horror stories.
26 Jun, 2006
Changing the header image every month
Find out how to change your blog’s header image every month by using a little bit of server-side trickery.
26 May, 2006
Early Impressions of Office 2007
Microsoft released Beta 2 of Office 2007 on Tuesday, and I decided to give it a try. I’ve not been using it long enough to make a real judgement about it, but my initial impressions are quite positive. It’s still quite rough in some places, but the overall experience is pleasant enough.
Installation
Probably the […]
22 May, 2006
Why do programmers hate planning?
As an Indie developer, you must wear a lot of “hats” in order to run your business properly. Perhaps the least favourite hat for developers is the “planning and scheduling” hat.
A lot of indie developers come from a programming background, including myself, so we should all know the benefits of planning; shorter development […]
20 Feb, 2006
More PowerPoint Prototyping
Jensen Harris just posted a walkthrough of how Microsoft prototype using PowerPoint. It’s almost identical to the way I’ve been doing it, although I prefer to build the entire UI from shapes and images before creating a detailed picture and overlaying transparent “hot spots”. This makes it much easier to move elements around, which […]
16 Feb, 2006
Prototyping the UI with PowerPoint
I’ll be honest; PowerPoint is one of those applications that I treat rather harshly. I’ve been put off by too many awful presentations with whooshing bullet points, dreadful clip art and perhaps even a few sound effects for good measure. As far as I’m concerned, PowerPoint is a tool for creating nightmares. Horrible, bullet […]
