setting up Git and GitHub

Last night I went onto the Processing.js Lighthouse page, to get the instructions on how to push my code. I'm quite new to this, and am following the instructions, and learning what I'm doing while I do it, usually after making a mistake, then I get it right, then I know what it is I was trying to do :). I think that's normal... I hope it's normal... it's normal for me, and works.

Anyway, I went to these instructions on setting up Git and GitHub, and created a new fork of jeresig's repository into my ownfork. I had some difficulty with some of the instructions setting up Git to connect to GitHub, and it was a silly mistake. It ended up being because I was so tired, as after going to bed, I woke up, and everything was so clear and easy. A good thing too, because I could of easily wasted hours on it. What was happening was, when I tried to connect, I would get an error, because my SSH key was not properly set. The key was right, the file location was wrong, as I didn't let the key go into the default location. The key is used to connect my Git command line, to GitHub, which holds my fork, I believe. Ah, so many new terms :). Anyway, I simply generated a new key with the "ssh-keygen -C “youremailinquotes@com” -t rsa" command, this time leaving all requested fields blank. So I believe the first time I tried, my key was right, it was just looking for it in the wrong place. Which is an easy mistake to over look if you over think things. Some say children are better at solving logic puzzles simply because they don't over think things, or they get more sleep :).

Finally, here I am in the morning, 5:00ish, going through my newly cloned source, trying to get that setup. I figured a good place to start would be checking out the READMEs. So I've bee folloing the README instructions in the test folder, and it's been going quite well. I first had to setup a Mozilla build again, like I did on in my last post, which I wanted to do again anyway, as I made some mistakes last time, and I will understand things better the second time though. It's always good to be able to work on one thing, and get two things done. Last time I built Firefox, I used a tarball, as apposed to cloning a new one. The tarball before worked, but it was confusing, this time, it's been smooth.

I am now making a JavaScript shell, to use to for the test code for Processing.js. It is running as I started this post, and it is now done. So I'm off to do the next step.

Two more things I want to improve on.

• Start putting screen shots into my blog.


• And post at least two blogs a day, as I didn't get a chance to yesterday.


• Or one large, detailed post.

Update, with screen shots! I have a working js.exe, and adding the path to my Processing.js makefile. I know this, because I ran a test "make test" on the processing,js file, this was the result.

I am now doing "make test-parser", will come back with updates.

Ok, ran "make test-parser". I won't bother with the screen shot, as it looks a lot like the last one, cept it has 662 passed, 188 failed, and 850 total. I'm excited to run my code from a few days ago through the tests, but I still have a few more steps in the README.

Next step has to do with converting a processing file into JavaScript. It all made sense to me, cept it wants the processing file to be of type pde, not sure what that is, so I'll go check that out now. Here is an article on pde. There is a spot near the bottom of interest to us.

Processing Development Environment (PDE) (Source Code File) by ProcessingThe Processing Development Environment (PDE) consists of a simple text editor for writing code, It is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. When programs are run, they open in a new window called the display window. Software written in PDE and also all Processing projects are called sketches. Each sketch is saved in its own folder. The main program file for each sketch has the same name as the folder and is found inside it. For example, if the sketch is named "Sketch123", the folder for the sketch will be called "Sketch123" and the main file will be called "Sketch123.pde". The PDE file extension stands as an acronym for the Processing Development Environment. This association is classified as Source Code.

I noticed some .pde files already in the processing.js test folder, going to play around with them.

I just ran the command "make test/parser/shiffman-test.js", with success. What happened was, it took the file shiffman-test.pde, which is a processing file, and converted it to javascript, using processing.js. It outputted the new code right in the command line, I was expecting a new file to be saved, but that's no big deal, as I just used "make test/parser/shiffman-test.js > shiffman-test.js". easy enough.

Next step is to go through the workflow link, add my code to the local processing.js file, test it, then submit it if everything is good.

It's quite a learning process getting this all setup for the first time, and I find this class to be one of the more challenging classes. Not that it's harder, just that I'm doing more learning, and challenges. I find the solution is usually quite small, it's just getting there. Ah, I should use the word "new challenges" instead of the usual jump-through-the-same-old-hoops challenges. I'm really enjoying editing and working with code, it's more professional, I'm actually starting my career now, as apposed to before, when I was just doing academic assignments. I don't know if any Seneca faculty are reading this that don't already agree with me, but this class, this OSD600 has been the best fit for me, I highly recommend it to any 4th semester students that can get over the hurdle of making a blog *gasp*, but I would not be able to do it if it wasn't for the steps before. It feels like a long process, but to think, just 5 semesters ago, not much more than a year, I knew nothing about programming! Ok, I'm rambling now.