![](/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/c05c1aa4a34153cda98d2ed3964498f6.png)

Well as announced [in my last post](/posts/my-2013/) im going to be spending most of this year travelling around various parts of the world. I'm leaving on the 7th on May so I have about a month left before I go so I have been thinking on what small project I can do in the meantime to keep me out of mischief.



I had a great idea for a game which I may write about in a later post but decided that perhaps now may not be the time to make it. So instead what I have decided to do is create a number of prototype games, three to be precise then let you guys decide which one I should take further.

The rules are the games all have to be designed as if they are going to work on mobile so that means only touch based controls. Ill be using Adobe AIR with Ash for all these prototypes so ill make sure that they all run in the browser with PC based controls too.

Im also going to get myself another ground rule. I can only use the free [Lost Garden Planet Cute](https://www.lostgarden.com/2007/05/dancs-miraculously-flexible-game.html) assets.

[![main](/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/main.png)](/posts/the-three-game-challenge/attachment/main-9/)

I hope that this limitation will mean I don't spend too much time worrying about the tech and how it looks and instead concentrate on what has traditionally been tough for me, making it fun!

Ill be updating regularly on my progress and then throw a vote out at the end of it and see which one people like the most, wish me luck!

With the beta for Inputtie drawing very near Oli and I are adding some final touches to the build and doing those "things we meant to do for ages".  One of those things being the app icon. This is the icon you will see on your shortcuts and in your taskbar area so its going to be pretty visible.



Oli, my partner-in-crime has whipped up 2 different versions with 2 variations on each version. See what you think:

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/round_304x304.png "round_304x304")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/round_304x304.png)[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/roundborder_304x304.png "roundborder_304x304")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/roundborder_304x304.png)

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/square_304x304.png "square_304x304")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/square_304x304.png)[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/squareborder_304x304.png "squareborder_304x304")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/squareborder_304x304.png)

I personally am favouring the circle icon with the border, however I worry that it looks too much like the Internet Explorer icon.

What do you all think?

Leave a comment below.

For the last year or so my major personal-project has been under wraps but after a few intense weeks its finally time to talk about it!

First before I explain exactly what Inputtie is I will talk about why I started this project and the problem I was trying to solve.



(If you aren't interested in all the background fluff and just want to find out what Inputtie is, head over to [inputtie.com](https://www.inputtie.com))

## **The Problem**

About a year ago I was doing a lot of work at home that involved working both on my desktop PC and my MacbookPro. Often I would find myself using my mouse and keyboard on my PC then having to lean accross to use the trackpad and keyboard on my MBP. Now, I hate trackpads so what I started doing was unplugging my keyboard and mouse from my desktop then plugging back into my MBP when I wanted to use it.

This situation was obviously less than ideal, so I started looking around for other solutions. I had heard of hardware you can buy that involves flipping a switch when you want to change which device you want your input to go to. I considered this but thought there must be a more elegant software solution. I had an idea in my head where I wanted you to simply move my mouse pointer off my desktop monitor and it would then magically appear on the laptop screen.

It was at this point I found out about [Synergy](https://synergy2.sourceforge.net/). I took a good look at it but for the life of me could not get it to work no matter how hard I tried. It also involved lots of fiddley messing around with IP addresses / hostnames and command line parameters (it has improved in a year, but more on that later). So I thought to myself surely there is a better way of doing this, surely its not a tough technical problem to solve!?

## The Solution

I had originally intended to talk about the myriad of attempts, blind alleys, different languages and general headaches I endured to get to this point however its a very lengthy topic. So instead in this post im just going to talk about the final solution talk about the previous attempts in later posts.

So without any further ado I present a screenshot of Inputtie, so you can get an idea of whats going on:

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_04-Sep.-08-19.07.jpg "ScreenHunter_04 Sep. 08 19.07")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_04-Sep.-08-19.07.jpg)

It's an Adobe AIR 2 application so it means it will look and work the same across all supported operating systems (Mac, Windows, Linux). AIR also makes it super easy to install and update so for most users it should be a very simple matter to get it up and running.

The way it works is simple. When opened it automatically detects other devices on your network that have Inputtie running. You then make a connection between your two devices by simply dragging and dropping an arrow from one device to another:

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_05-Sep.-08-19.13.jpg "ScreenHunter_05 Sep. 08 19.13")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_05-Sep.-08-19.13.jpg)

Do the same on the other device and your computers are now connected, its that simple! Now when you move your mouse across to the side of the screen (side dependant on which arrow you picked) it will magically appear on the screen of the other device, splendid!

Now over there you can use your keyboard and mouse as normal and the input will be transferred over.

You can even also copy and paste text from one device to the other. This is great when you just want to blast a URL or some other bit of text to the laptop or back again without having to send emails or use IM or make a text file and send it over a network or anything else.

If you want to fire up a game or something  that inputtie may interfere with you can simply and easily toggle it to disabled:

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_08-Sep.-08-19.31.jpg "ScreenHunter_08 Sep. 08 19.31")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_08-Sep.-08-19.31.jpg)[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_09-Sep.-08-19.31.jpg "ScreenHunter_09 Sep. 08 19.31")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_09-Sep.-08-19.31.jpg)

## Website

Early into the project I teamed up with my partner in crime and jack-of-all-trades [Oliver Pitceathly](https://www.olip.co.uk). The original idea was to release this as a commercial product so we wanted to have a nice high-quality website as a landing page for potential customers. In the latter stages of the product we decided to drop the commercial aspect and make it donation-ware instead.

Despite my constant badgering and mind-changing Oli has done a [fantastic job on the website](https://www.inputtie.com), it looks simply great!

[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_10-Sep.-08-19.46.jpg "ScreenHunter_10 Sep. 08 19.46")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ScreenHunter_10-Sep.-08-19.46.jpg)

He even found time to do an awsome video that shows off the best features of Inputtie:

<iframe width="100%" height="400" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OUM1EGbUMvQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

## ** Planned Extensions**

There are many potential extensions that you could imagine would be really handy.

Imagine being able to tare a tab from your desktop browser then drag it over to your laptop and having it then appear there.

Even better how about simply dragging a file or folder over then having it transfer quickly, be pausable, restartable, and toggle the bandwith it uses. All possible and planned extensions in Inputtie.

Another idea is using the multi-touch track pad on the macbook to interact in a multi-touch fashion with windows 7 on your desktop.

## **Beta**

"So where can I get my hands on it?" you cry. Well we haven't actually release it for download just yet, there are some niggley bugs and things to work out with it still. If you are interested in testing it out tho sign up for the beta over at [inputtie.com](https://www.inputtie.com) and ill shoot you a mail when its ready to go!

Thought I would share this little ditty. Been working in AIR recently and decided to make the window "chromeless" which means there are no controls so no resizing.

Thankfully however adobe provide the tools to allow for resizing the native window. So I produced this little mxml component to let you resize the window:



[![](/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ScreenHunter_02-Feb.-21-21.40.gif "ScreenHunter_02 Feb. 21 21.40")](/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/ScreenHunter_02-Feb.-21-21.40.gif)

The coloured edges indicate where the application is draggable, including the white corner areas.

The component that lets you do this is pretty simple:

```

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:Group xmlns:fx="https://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo">

<fx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import flash.display.NativeWindowResize;
import flash.events.MouseEvent;

import mx.managers.CursorManager;
public static const RESIZE_AREA : int = 10;

protected function onRollOver(event:MouseEvent):void
{
}

protected function onRollOut(event:MouseEvent):void
{
}

protected function onMouseDown(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var grp : Group = event.target as Group;
var resizeFrom:String = "";

if (grp==topSide){ resizeFrom=NativeWindowResize.TOP; }
else if (grp==rightSide) { resizeFrom=NativeWindowResize.RIGHT; }
else if (grp==bottomSide) { resizeFrom=NativeWindowResize.BOTTOM; }
else if (grp==leftSide) { resizeFrom=NativeWindowResize.LEFT; }
else if (grp==topLeft) { resizeFrom=NativeWindowResize.TOP_LEFT; }
else if (grp==topRight) { resizeFrom=NativeWindowResize.TOP_RIGHT; }
else if (grp==bottomRight) { resizeFrom=NativeWindowResize.BOTTOM_RIGHT; }
else if (grp==bottomLeft) { resizeFrom=NativeWindowResize.BOTTOM_LEFT; }
else { return; }

stage.nativeWindow.startResize(resizeFrom);
}

]]>
</fx:Script>

<s:Group id="topSide" rollOver="onRollOver(event)" rollOut="onRollOut(event)" mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
x="0" y="0" width="{width}" height="{RESIZE_AREA}">
<s:Rect width="100%" height="100%">
<s:fill>
<s:SolidColor color="0xFF0000" />
</s:fill>
</s:Rect>
</s:Group>

<s:Group id="rightSide" rollOver="onRollOver(event)" rollOut="onRollOut(event)" mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
x="{width-RESIZE_AREA}" y="0" width="{RESIZE_AREA}" height="{height}">
<s:Rect width="100%" height="100%">
<s:fill>
<s:SolidColor color="0x00FF00" />
</s:fill>
</s:Rect>
</s:Group>

<s:Group id="bottomSide" rollOver="onRollOver(event)" rollOut="onRollOut(event)" mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
x="0" y="{height-RESIZE_AREA}" width="{width}" height="{RESIZE_AREA}">
<s:Rect width="100%" height="100%">
<s:fill>
<s:SolidColor color="0x0000FF" />
</s:fill>
</s:Rect>
</s:Group>

<s:Group id="leftSide" rollOver="onRollOver(event)" rollOut="onRollOut(event)" mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
x="0" y="0" width="{RESIZE_AREA}" height="{height}">
<s:Rect width="100%" height="100%">
<s:fill>
<s:SolidColor color="0x000000" />
</s:fill>
</s:Rect>
</s:Group>

<s:Group id="topLeft" rollOver="onRollOver(event)" rollOut="onRollOut(event)" mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
x="0" y="0" width="{RESIZE_AREA}" height="{RESIZE_AREA}">
<s:Rect width="100%" height="100%">
<s:fill>
<s:SolidColor color="0xffffff" />
</s:fill>
</s:Rect>
</s:Group>

<s:Group id="topRight" rollOver="onRollOver(event)" rollOut="onRollOut(event)" mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
x="{width-RESIZE_AREA}" y="0" width="{RESIZE_AREA}" height="{RESIZE_AREA}">
<s:Rect width="100%" height="100%">
<s:fill>
<s:SolidColor color="0xffffff" />
</s:fill>
</s:Rect>
</s:Group>

<s:Group id="bottomRight" rollOver="onRollOver(event)" rollOut="onRollOut(event)" mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
x="{width-RESIZE_AREA}" y="{height-RESIZE_AREA}" width="{RESIZE_AREA}" height="{RESIZE_AREA}">
<s:Rect width="100%" height="100%">
<s:fill>
<s:SolidColor color="0xffffff" />
</s:fill>
</s:Rect>
</s:Group>

<s:Group id="bottomLeft" rollOver="onRollOver(event)" rollOut="onRollOut(event)" mouseDown="onMouseDown(event)"
x="0" y="{height-RESIZE_AREA}" width="{RESIZE_AREA}" height="{RESIZE_AREA}">
<s:Rect width="100%" height="100%">
<s:fill>
<s:SolidColor color="0xffffff" />
</s:fill>
</s:Rect>
</s:Group>

</s:Group>

```

To use it in your app just add the component into your existing view somewhere:

```

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<s:SkinnableContainer xmlns:fx="https://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009" xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark" xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/halo">

<components:WindowResizer width="{width}" height="{height}" alpha="0" buttonMode="true" />

</s:SkinnableContainer>

```

Setting the alpha to zero will obviously hide the coloured areas at the side of the window.

Grab the mxml here: [WindowResizer.mxml](https://www.mikecann.blog/Files/WindowResizer.mxml)

Well it thought it was about time I did some posting about my personal project im working on at the moment as I havent spoken about my coding for a while.



For a while now (alot longer than I had hoped for) I have been working on a project that falls outside the realms of my usual kind of games-related projects. Im not ready do describe exactly what it is yet but im excited about it.

For months I have been struggling with the techinal challenges the project has entailed and I have dabbled with many new and highly diverse technologies including [JavaFX](https://www.mikecann.blog/programming/flirting-with-javafx/) (Java), Qt (C++) and Mono (C#).  I have been looking for a cross-platform technology that will get the job done that I need and doing it in an elegant manner.

I thought I had found it with a combination of JavaFX and straight Java using the PureMVC framework. I however was plagued with problems throughout with Bonjour, jGroups, JmDNS, JNI and JNA.

So after months of work, hardship and struggles I read a very interesting article on the up-and-coming Adobe AIR 2.0  that was opened for beta in December. With 2.0 Adobe are bringing NativeProcess  to Air. What this means is that you can you can execute native code (.dlls, .so, .jar etc) from Air. To me this was bloody brilliant as I had been[ playing with Air reccently](https://www.mikecann.blog/programming/audiobook-organiser-v1-3-0-dragndrop/) and my [day-job](https://www.mikecann.blog/photos-personal/playdemic-my-fist-day/) heavily involves Flex and I simply love the power and beauty of Flex.

So what this meant to me was that I could write the bulk of my project including its interface in my much preferred Adobe Flex (Air) and then use Native Process to communicate with a small kernel of Java that would do all the dirty work that Air itself cant do.

So after a little playing with [Flerry](https://www.riaspace.net/2010/01/flerry-flex-java-bridge-for-adobe-air-2-0/) for Air->Java bridge I started to think about the structure of the code and the framework I would use. For my initial few runs at this project I had been using the Java version of PureMVC. I really like some aspects of PureMVC but I think its can be so overly cumbersome in some circumstances (ill write another post on this in the future I think). So instead I looked at the alternatives.

I have been using [Mate](https://mate.asfusion.com/) alot recently at work and on my own mini-project the [Audio Book Organiser](https://www.mikecann.blog/programming/audio-book-organiser-air-mate-flex-4/). However as this project is partly for my own learning and personal growth I decided to look at what else there was out there. From the videos by [Jessie Warden](https://www.mikecann.blog/fun-videos/jessie-warden-flash-flex-videos/) I had heard about [Robot Legs](https://www.robotlegs.org). Apparently this framework has been around for a while, but it was the first I had heard of it. Taking at look at it I immediately became very excited as it looks like it offers all the things that make PureMVC great but without the extra coding-baggage that goes with it.

To add to my interest it appears another very interesting, very new action-script technology has been introduced into Robot Legs called [Signals ](https://github.com/robertpenner/as3-signals)by Robert Penner. Signals is an alternative to the standard events dispatching method found throughout flash (more on this in another post).

So why have I called this post "the bleeding edge?". Well Adobe Air 2.0 is still in beta and has only been for a month or so. Its so new that some parts still havent been documented atall and the only way to find out how they work is to post a msg to the devs on the forums. Signals is also new and its integration into Robot Legs is very new indeed (last coupple of weeks). So at the moment I feel as if im at the forefront of some very new, very exciting technology, a stark contrast to my fiddlings with the ancient Java.

I realise this post is very text and tech-heavy but I needed to post about it before I forgot all the pain I have gone through with this project to get where I am at the moment. Future posts ill be delving a little deeper into some of my experiments with these new technologies ;)