Nathan Levesque

I have to admit for a steadfast love of RSS. Without it I no doubt would spend hours each day combing sites for news - well, I still do to a degree. I have to say that checking RSS feeds is without a doubt an addictive behavior. So who wants to start up a support group? RSSers Anonymous anyone?

At any rate I have to say that at least 70% of the items that drop in my aggregator of choice are complete garbage, clones of other posts, posts about posts I’ve already aggregated, or some other mundane category of blog post that I generally won’t bat an eye at.

Of course, I should note that at least 30%-40% of my incoming items are from a couple of aggregator themselves. Would probably do me some good to weed those out at some point. Of course I don’t really have the time, I have blog posts to read!

So it almost the New Year again (already is for some). I figure I should make a list on things I want to do this year as a programmer/developer. This last year I’ve accomplished very much as far as learning new technologies, programming languages and stuff. I didn’t have a list last year though, so here’s a list for this year in order of how much I want to do them (I think of this as more of a “could-do list”):

• Find a full time job in web development, right now I’m thinking in Flex development (I’m presently a student)
• Start, and hopefully accomplish a great deal of work on developing a long term Flex 3 project
• Learn Visual Basic .NET
• Become proficient in Java
• Learn ColdFusion
• Learn Ruby/Ruby on Rails
• Learn more JavaScript
• Do a Python port of PureMVC

I figure if I do at least 60% of this I can be happy with myself. Leave a link to your own Developer’s Resolution I’d love to read through others. Don’t forget, 2008 is a leap year so you have a whole full extra day to get stuff done!

Every time you upgrade to a new version of software it of course takes you a couple of weeks to get accustomed to changes and new features. For fun I’m going to highlight a few things I noticed within the first 24 hours of using Flex builder Beta 3 vs. Beta 2.

Application Menu

The first thing I noticed is a few new entries in the application menu. The are now immediate shortcuts to import Artwork and Web Services and to export a Release Build. Additionally, when you choose to import a project. You now have the option of importing a project folder, instead of just a zip file that must have been specially exported from Flex Builder. Thank you Flex Builder Team this is a huge feature. I no longer have to create new projects and copy folders because a code sample zip file wasn’t exported from Flex Builder.

Reorganized Help Docs

The help documentation files have been reorganized so it is much easier to find what you’re looking for without having to dig through seven layers of nested docs to find it. The only thing I would have appreciated here is some notes about what class methods/properties had been deprecated between Beta 2 and 3. This is especially noticeable in the AIR Beta 3 docs.

Advanced UI Constraints(Gone!)

Also noted here on Deepa Subramaniam’s blog, this feature has been dropped from Flex Builder 3. Sad to hear this, because honestly, this made Flex Builder 3 a pleasure to work with. But fortunately, the feature will be back in the future. On the bright side, a feature drop like this does give us an indication that the Flex Builder Team is really starting to finalize things for release. They obviously dropped it because they don’t have the time to make it work flawlessly before release. The Flex Builder Planning document states early 2008 as the release period for Flex Builder 3. Here’s hoping for March.

Can’t use Flex 2 License to Extend Trial Period

You should be happy for this feature. Flex Builder 3 Beta 3 expires after 90 days. Flex Builder 3 was released on 12/12/07. If you installed on 12/12/07, your Flex Builder will expire on 3/11/08. Take that how you will, but it looks like a good omen for a probable release date (or at least a projected release date). It’s just a guess, so don’t take my word on it, it’s not like I’m on the Flex Builder Team.

This morning felt like an early Christmas for some developers. For Flex Developers, Beta 3 of Flex 3 was released today, along with Beta 3 of Adobe AIR. This was hinted to at last week’s Flex Camp Boston (actually all they said was “wait until 12/12″, but I think anyone who had been following Flex knew what they meant). This means we’re one step closer to the release of AIR 1.0 and Flex 3.

Also released today was the release version of XNA Game Studio 2.0, which marks the first release use of the Windows Live and XBox Live on the XBox 360 for the casual developer. This new version also works with alternative editions of Visual Studio 2005 other than the Express version. Hopefully this will invite more commercial developers and help push the platform further.

All in all, I really don’t know which to program first tonight!