As any casual fan of BMG may be aware, I’ve been posting more frequent updates on Facebook. Development is moving along at a furious pace now that several nagging decisions are behind us.
The Joy of Javascript
I’m now fully immersed in ES6 and writing custom HTML elements is less mysterious than it used to me. Granted, quite a few of my containers are simply thin veneers on top of DIV elements, but PushButton and TabPane were fully immersive experiences that have given me a deeper feel for what is possible, or not, with custom HTML elements.
Documentation could be better, though. The W3Schools website, which I used to rely on, and still do to a lesser extent, seems backwards and almost obsolete. Newer information and APIs have been added to the site as “bolt-ons” and finding necessary information in there seems more difficult than it should be. The Mozilla Developer site, on the other hand, has quite a bit of excellent information, including which features are still experimental and which browser and version supports which feature. Excellent stuff.
Unfortunately, trying to find the silver among the dross when learning about Javascript is difficult. Most “tutorial” articles showcase very simplistic examples that seem to parrot each other in one way, shape, or form. As most Javascript coders are not software engineers, I suspect, the level of technical depth in some of the articles & examples would be hard-pressed to go beyond the kiddie area of the hotel pool. In spite of this, however, I’m making good progress.
Nor’easter on the Horizon
Our very ambitious plan to have a workable game client ready for Nor’easter XXIV is still possible, though I suspect that we’ll be developing and debugging the system alongside our game play. The user dashboard stuff is reasonably complete for what we need it to do right now. The next four weeks should see a big leap forward in terms of actual game play mechanics & display. I’ll probably need 2-3 new custom elements, but I’m fairly confident that I’ll have those ready soon.
That’s it for now. Back to work for me.
