Things are running smoothly regarding the update of the player object. In this post I will briefly describe what has been done so far.

The first step was the refactoring of the MCPlayer related code. Formerly, the MCPlayer class used ifdefs in most functions, based on whether it was using the ‘platform player’, ‘quicktime’, or was on Linux. Now, MCPlayer is split into two classes in separate files (player-legacy.cpp/.h and player-platform.cpp/.h). The former is the pre-platform API version; the latter the platform API version. This made it easier to update the platform-player version to use its own controller.

The next step was to implement a custom controller bar. For the reasons described in the previous blog post for Multimedia on Mac OS, we had to implement our own controller. After some discussion, and some research on the appearance of modern video controllers, we are almost there! Below is a preview of the current, and probably final version.

 

 

Because some users may not like this color, we thought it is better to make it customisable. So we added some properties to the player object. In fact, we tied in some existing properties that were not used for the player object. For example, the hiliteColor. For the player object, the hiliteColor is the color of the played area, as well as the color of the volume area in the volume popup window. It is also the color of a button background when this button is clicked. So, if you don’t like the purple color that is set by default, all you have to do is add a new button (or just type in the message box) with the following code:

on mouseUp

set the hiliteColor of player 1 to red 

end mouseUp 

The result is the following:

  

In the player object, you can also set the foreColor, which is the color of the selected area, i.e. the color of the area between the selection handles. This is dark grey by default.

 

 

Modify the code in your button, to change both the hiliteColor and the foreColor: 

on mouseUp

set the hiliteColor of player 1 to “127,255,0″

set the foreColor of player 1 to “106,156,56”

end mouseUp

The result is the following:

 

Finally, we had to move from Quicktime/QTKit to AVFoundation. This transition is now done, and the new player object seems to work perfectly with the AVFoundation APIs. Some tweaks have still to be done, in order to ensure similar (or at least as similar as possible) behaviour with the old Quicktime/QTKit controller. Next, and final step as far as the player object is concerned, is to test it thoroughly and fix any bugs that may arise.

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On Tuesday 17th June we were invited to take part in a BBC initiative called Connected Studio.  This is a BBC initiative for collaborative innovation with some of the best of the UK’s online creatives.  Over the last few years they have run a set of events on a variety of topics including Weather & Travel, The Commonwealth Games and The Natural History Unit, each aiming to develop innovative ideas for digital media output with the resources, experience and power of the BBC behind them.

The event we were invited to take part in was Coding for Teenagers, a day long brainstorming and briefing event taking place across three sites in Salford, Cardiff and Glasgow. The challenge was to “Inspire your people to realise their creative potential through technology”. The UK is currently facing a severe skills shortage in the technology sector and the goal of the day was to come up with ways to encourage and inspire 13-16 year olds to get more involved with technology, in a creative way rather than just as end users, the brief was 

“to create an appealing digital experience with a coding component for teenagers aged 13-16.”

Needless to say we were excited to be invited to take part in such a  fun event with such an important goal, and so in line with the ideas and message behind LiveCode. So on one of the warmest, sunniest mornings of the year Kevin, Ben, Neil and I headed across to Glasgow ready sit inside watching presentations in the dark and coming up with some ideas.

The day started off with an introduction and live link up between the three sites. This was followed by an ideas board and team forming, and some presentations on the research that has been done in this area to help inspire us and point us in the right direction when coming up with ideas.

A lot of the issues that inspired this event are of interest to me. As a female developer I’m in the minority and I think that its important to help teenagers, and in particular girls, realise how varied and creative the work can be. 

The briefing document we were provided with specifically mentioned some of these points.

The Audience

Your challenge is to make sure we inspire not just teenagers in general, but teenage girls aged 13-16 in particular. That’s because only 

18% of computing professionals are women (E-Skills, 2012) and the number of female computer science graduates is down 13% (HESA, 

2013). A study for Nesta (TNS, 2014) suggests girls are less likely to make things using digital technology. They are also twice as unlikely to 

learn about it outside of school. 

Ideally, we’re looking for ideas that appeal to both boys and girls, however, we’re particularly keen to see ideas that appeal to girls. It’s 

always difficult to generalise but here are some insights that could help you understand our audience: 

Constantly connected 

Teenagers stay in constant contact. Unsurprisingly, mobile phones are more important to them than any other device, even TV. Girls are 

particularly prolific communicators; in 2012, 12-15 year old girls sent 35% more texts than boys (Ofcom, 2012). 

Visual self-expression 

Teenagers can be highly visual, and use photography and video to express feelings, forge friendships and share their lives (Boyd, 2014). 

Examples include the appeal of emojis to express emotion; Vine to easily edit and share video and Snapchat or Instagram to share photos. 

Developing identities 

Teenagers become increasingly conscious of shaping the way they present themselves to others (Sherbert research for BBC, 2013). Social 

media now plays a key role in how they maintain and develop their identity (Doster, 2013). For example, the photos that they stage, share 

and comment on help them express not only who they are but also how they want to be seen. Some also use social media to connect with 

cultural icons and earn kudos from their peers. 

The full document can be found at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/partnersandsuppliers/connectedstudio/events/coding.html

 Our idea

We wanted to come up with an idea that would somehow combine the things that teenagers enjoy using in technology while also inspire an interest in the creation of technology. 

We came up with an app that would allow users to create a photo story or small comic using their own pictures, videos and sounds and adding speech bubble, text, graphics, transitions etc. These stories could then be passed on and added to by their friends.

The coding element would come in because the feature set would initially be full but basic. The stories would be created using a drag and drop interface which also output real, readable and editable code allowing the user to extend the features of the app to acheive the effect they want.

For example initially we might provide 3 text colours for speech bubbles black, white and red, but if you really wanted green text you could go into the code editor and add this option. The initial code would be well commented and simple enough that this basic type of extension would be easy to accomplished by copying and pasting an existing line and just change the relative part of the line, ideally getting people coding without even realised that that is what they are doing. The hope is that this would lead to the users adding more complex features to their stories.

Another element of this that we hoped would encourage the use of code would be to see a story one of your friends had made with a really nice feature in it that your version doesn’t have. If you want that feature you either have to add it in yourself or ask your friend to share it with you. This sharing of features would itself expand the users understanding of coding and the creative possibilities.

Audience Feedback

In the afternoon we had the chance to put our idea forward to a panel of genuine young people, luckily they liked the idea and gave us plenty to think about, both for our pitch later and for things to think about if our idea gets taken forward. This included thinking about how ownership of a story would work and pass on through each page, and the variety of ways it could be used, including as a story board or inspiration board for sharing ideas for a theatre production.

The pitches

At the end of the day each team, 36 in all, did a 2 minute pitch of their ideas. It was interesting to see how many teams had independently come up with similar ideas and the range of ideas that were put forward.

Some of the ideas that were pitched included

– a secret message that is sent to you by a friend,  you have to change the code to uncover the message

– a dream house creating tool

– a Hackstage Pass where you unlock content and experiences from musicians by completing coding tasks and challenges,  presented by a team including CoderDojoScotland @CoderScot

– using magic tricks to teach coding concepts

The next stage

Following the Creative Studio 10 teams are invited to the Build Studio, a 2 day event where the selected ideas are developed further and refined. If we are selected I’m sure you’ll be looking forward to another blog post on that event.

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I recently read this article, which had me chuckling for a week. Do read it, it’s brilliant. But it got me thinking. Really, the LiveCode offices are not your typical place to work, and LiveCode is not your typical programming language. It’s Easier with LiveCode.

 

Our development team are a pretty happy bunch overall (unless they’re faking it really really well!). I think this is down to a number of things. We expect you to work hard, but we also listen to your input, and there is a certain amount of flexibility in the working hours. Some members of our team regularly spend a day working from home – others prefer always to work from the office. We have monthly whole team meetings, where every member of the company presents their work for the month. This leads to a feeling of inclusiveness – I may not always understand Mark Waddingham’s presentation but I have at least a vague idea of where the tech is heading! Equally, the tech team gets an overview of what is happening in marketing or customer support.

Pets Galore

Possibly the relaxed atmosphere is assisted by the Office Dogs.

Developers in Training?

I frequently get asked why the servers running our hosting service have such odd names. Meg, Diesel, Tio, Jasmine, Pancake … what’s that all about? Well, they are the names of the office pets. A number of members of staff have pets who regularly come in to the office, providing entertainment and light relief. Your code not doing what you wanted? That bug proving intractable? Spend a few minutes playing tug of war with Tio, or throw the squirrel for Meg, and the problem may magically resolve itself. No, I cannot tell you why Arnaud’s cat (now sadly deceased) was called Diesel. You’d have to ask him that.

Programmers and Beards

An interesting phenomenon – almost all of our team have beards. And some have an uncanny resemblance to each other. I’m not sure why this is, does coding attract this genotype, or does working in code all day cause long hair and beards?

 

 

Spot the difference: Ali Lloyd and Sebastian Nouet.

We’re a creative bunch, and coding after hours for the sheer joy of it seems to be the norm, rather than the exception. A case in point – shortly after coming to work for us, we discovered that Fraser Gordon had a love of Raspberry Pi… to the point where he had picked up the embryonic LiveCode implementation for this platform and turned it into something useable, in his spare time. Way to go Fraser – don’t forget to sleep sometimes.

Yes, its definitely not a typical place to work. But friendly, fun and awash with creative atmosphere.

We’re hiring

Do you like dogs? Love working long hours for a deadline? Got some serious Programming Experience and credentials? Have a beard? Apply here.

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