Another Ilda view tool

[teknical]

Haha updated video card driver and voila it opens perfect, now to have a play cheers colouredmirrorball

[colouredmirrorball]

Nice! Hope you like it

[BlueFang]

So I had some time today to play around a bit with Processing, and I must say that it's quite impressive. It's kind of what Java should have been like from the beginning. The Ilda viewer app from cmb worked without a hitch in OS X. The drawing API seems really clean and well thought out and even has anti aliasing turned on by default. I think I would get frustrated pretty quickly with the built in IDE but it looks like it is quite easy to use your favorite Java IDE though I haven't tried with IntelliJ yet. It has support for native libraries via JNI so anything you can compile on your system can be used from within Processing. It also looks like it has quite a vibrant user community. I am impressed and surprised that this is the first I have heard of it. Fun stuff!

[colouredmirrorball]

True, the default IDE is good enough for little programs and quickly trying out things, but as it grows I'll have to find an alternative. The downside is that I'll have to code in "proper java". I didn't bother with declaring each variable and method as public or private since that's not required in Processing (when exporting to java, everything is public by default).

Good to hear it still works on OSX. If you upload a compiled version I'll put it in the first post.

[CountFunkula]

True, the default IDE is good enough for little programs and quickly trying out things, but as it grows I'll have to find an alternative. The downside is that I'll have to code in "proper java". I didn't bother with declaring each variable and method as public or private since that's not required in Processing (when exporting to java, everything is public by default).

A few years ago I was working on something that required the processing libs + a whole bunch of other heavy-duty stuff. It was a snap to use the processing libraries from within eclipse. When you're using processing from outside of their own IDE, you really get a feel for how much they've abstracted made life "easy"

[BlueFang]

cmb, there is no need to be afraid of "proper java". You are 95% of the way there. So what if you have to decide whether a method is public or private. Unless you are writing an API that will be used by third parties and you really want to obfuscate some inner code, just make everything public. No one will care. And when you start using an IDE, it fills in most of the extra verbose stuff automatically.

The problems with Java have nothing to do with the syntax of the language - the syntax is actually quite nice (though maybe a bit verbose) - the problem most people have with Java is over promising on it's goals and it's simplicity. It was suppose to be this great "write once run anywhere" solution - the first true multiplatform programming language. But it turned out that creating something that actually runs everywhere on every OS was much, much more difficult than it originally seemed. It's better now, but realize that we are 20 years into its lifespan.

Another big gripe is that Java is typically burdened with a dependency nightmare of libraries. Let's say your project needs a Java library called 'A'. Well 'A' depends on 'B' and 'B' depends on 'C' - but only version 3.32343 of 'C' and 'A' only works with version 2.42343 of 'C'... That sort of thing. You spend half your time trying to figure out compatibility problems, and not actually programming.

These are the kind of problems that it seems Processing has solved. They have an approved list of libraries to choose from which just work. No questions asked. Also, the simple "Export Application" menu item of Processing is genius. It just works. Again, even though Java promises this simplicity out of the box, it really is much more difficult to produce a runnable application than Processing makes it seem.

With regards to IDEs. I have spent quite a bit of time in all of the major Java IDEs. Without a doubt, IntelliJ is handsdown the best out there. Netbeans would probably be my 2nd place, followed by Eclipse. Eclipse is just super slow and overburdened. I like the GUI of Netbeans the best, but the speed, usability, and awesomeness of IntelliJ easily makes it the best Java IDE out there to date.

[BlueFang]

Good to hear it still works on OSX. If you upload a compiled version I'll put it in the first post.

Here is a version compiled for OS X.

IldaViewer.zip

[colouredmirrorball]

Thanks! I added a link in the first post, in the hope it's useful for anyone.

[colouredmirrorball]

A quick WIP version to fix the export bug. I hope to find some time this week to cook up a decent release. Most new things don't work yet.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9p...it?usp=sharing

[liteglow]

Any update on this ?

I tested it on my win7 64 bit. all I got is a white screen.