Saturday
Aug022008
My Recent Appearances on MacBreak
Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 9:23AM
If you're a Mac user then you may be familiar with the Macbreak video podcast with Alex Lindsay. The last three episodes have included yours truly showing some little interesting Quartz Composer fun tricks, including my take on Wiimote-powered heading tracking, originally invented by Johnny Lee, and made popular by the TED talks.
I'm still getting used to being in front of the camera, but many thanks to Joe and Alex Lindsay of the Pixel Corps for making it a fun and comfortable experience!
The show is only available as a podcast, so you need to click the links below to to find them in iTunes.
Head Tracking with a Wiimote and Quartz Composer
Moving Images with Sound
Motion Detection with Quartz Composer
Quartz Composer is an excellent tool for developing ideas quickly, and beautifully integrates into Cocoa (Mac) programming. However the interface is a little clunky to use, and the concepts take a while to wrap your head around. However, as it progresses, I can see Quartz Composer, and tools like it, becoming something that the 'average' person uses to connect a few 'blocks' together to make themselves a custom application. The convergence of scripting, patch programming, and recording actions seems to be the approach which would most idiomatically cover all program design concepts.
Hypercard on the early Macintosh was to many the easiest way, and it's still argued, the best way for the non-programmer to build simple applications to solve unique problems. The approach focused on a set of 'pages' which could dynamically link to others, in many ways like a website.
What is the most popular non-programming UI out there today? And how do the different approaches of scripting, connecting, page-flipping and recording-actions overlap and work together?
I'm still getting used to being in front of the camera, but many thanks to Joe and Alex Lindsay of the Pixel Corps for making it a fun and comfortable experience!
The show is only available as a podcast, so you need to click the links below to to find them in iTunes.
Head Tracking with a Wiimote and Quartz Composer
Moving Images with Sound
Motion Detection with Quartz Composer
Quartz Composer is an excellent tool for developing ideas quickly, and beautifully integrates into Cocoa (Mac) programming. However the interface is a little clunky to use, and the concepts take a while to wrap your head around. However, as it progresses, I can see Quartz Composer, and tools like it, becoming something that the 'average' person uses to connect a few 'blocks' together to make themselves a custom application. The convergence of scripting, patch programming, and recording actions seems to be the approach which would most idiomatically cover all program design concepts.
Hypercard on the early Macintosh was to many the easiest way, and it's still argued, the best way for the non-programmer to build simple applications to solve unique problems. The approach focused on a set of 'pages' which could dynamically link to others, in many ways like a website.
What is the most popular non-programming UI out there today? And how do the different approaches of scripting, connecting, page-flipping and recording-actions overlap and work together?
tagged Quartz Composer in Announcements
Quartz Composer in Announcements
Reader Comments (2)
Hi there many many thanks for creating the Podcast... I've been wanting to replicate what you demonstrated since that episode was released! I don't think I have the correct Wiimote Quartz Patch as it's different looking to yours. Do you have a link to where I could get the Patch you used OR do you have an updated Quartz Composer file for the newer patch. Again many many thanks for sharing and well done!
All the best
Derek Nugent
Hi Derek,
Sorry about the slow reply.
I've moved my system over to 10.6, and that patch is not currently supported—so I'm not sure my results will work with you.
The patch I use is this one:
http://kineme.net/WiiMoteControlPatch20080111publicbeta
Be sure to follow the instructions to install, as it's a bit counter-intuitive.
Best to send me an email if you need more help. Keith at plasq dot com. :-)