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Flex Builder Tips

I am mostly writing a few good tips I learned a few days (before I forget). If someone accidentally  benefits from this link, then that his/her luck.

 

1. MXNA told me that asdoc comments in Flex SDK 3.2 onwards are now possible.
<!--- asdoc --> is the syntax.
2. Flex Builder Tip: ctrl+space before type and semicolon in a variable declaration, brings in an import namespace at the top.
3. Flex Builder Tip: Ctrl+shift+p does the trick of going from one '{' (block beginning) to end ('}). That is why I like vim, they solved this ages ago.

I think points 2 and 3 were originally provided by Mike morearty, though I am short of time to try and find related post.

Old ways are best

http://www.spinellis.gr/blog/20090121

Entertaining reading - Brian Kernighan's article and usefulness of cygwin.

How to do AIR and Web app together in Flex

David Coletta Architecting A Shared Codebase For Browser And Desktop Final

From: dcoletta,
1 month ago

David Coletta Architecting A Shared Codebase For Browser And Desktop Final

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Learn from our experience in adapting a complex codebase like the application Buzzword to run also as an Adobe AIR application. This session addresses the architectural challenges of developing SWF files to be shared between browser and AIR versions. We’ll cover user interface considerations, such as reconciling a single browser window with multiple AIR windows, and technical issues, like problems with the Singleton pattern when using multiple native windows. Other topics include abstracting code that must call AIR only APIs and packaging code into modules that load over HTTP for browsers and load from the file system under AIR.

SlideShare Link

That Satyam Story

Just like everyone else, I too spent some time in watching news coverage, reporting, and reading blogs about Satyam saga - some of them apologetic till the last day.

I have been wrong many times before, but this is what I think (or rather my influences make me think):

1. Rajus have reportedly strong political connections. They should be out in no time. Their personal assets won't be attached/taken over; there would be no/negligible fine. They may be convicted after 5-6 years of trial, but would get bail.
2. Satyam must have had cash. The whole Indian outsourcing industry couldn't have been booming all these years with 3% (below inflation) returns. This point has been made by a much more intelligent person.
3. That cash won't be recovered. That cash should have gone into Raju's pockets.
4. It looks like the auditors (PWC) have been accused before (Global Trust Bank). They won't be punished this time too.

I don't know what would happen to victims of this saga - 53K employees. I hope they do well.

Rsync tips

I have been using DeltaCopy (a rync GUI wrapper) for quite a while now. It works well.

But rsync and DeltaCopy aren't user-friendly. That, I feel is their biggest undoing.

For example, the retry count in DeltaCopy for a failed backup attempt is 5. That should be 1 (Edit->Modify Retry Configuration menu-item). If it fails once, then it would fail again and again.

Also, they would be better off making -i (itemize changes) and --modify-window=1 (don't write back a file if modify time is < 1 second). The latter option is particularly insidious. Until, I read the rsync FAQ, I didn't know what was the reason that the backup wasn't looking like an incremental one (quick and easy).

Oh, DeltaCopy automatically adds -rlt options to rsync command line which some tips pages refer as well.

I think, DeltaCopy owners lost the enthusiasm in perfecting the product - it works but it could have rocked.

The positive of it

Ever since the recession has hit the world, I have only heard the bad stories. Folks going out of jobs, houses' valuation going down the drain - doom and gloom.

Amidst all this, there has a been a positive change too.

All those nasty cold calls that one had to put up with at the most inconvenient time; those calls that peddled credit-cards, personal loans are gone now :).

Banks are actually interested in doing a credit-worthiness check!