Diversion

11Oct09

Well Snow Leopard has put my gas at a peep a little bit. My Pendulum Sync software works quite well until I’m forced to think about different versions of OSX, especially when there have been serious changes under the hood. I’ll still continue with Pendulum Sync though, it’s a good idea that needs doing. I can use online sync services (like dropbox for example) to share my files, but for those mysterious repositories hidden within applications (like delicious library for example), pendulum sync will be the way to do it.

Anyway, the title of this post is diversion. I’m currently reading O’Reilly’s head first Object Oriented Analysis & Design. I’m rather enjoying the Head First approach with all the little doodles etc. The Head First book challenged me to think about my last major project with an eye to improving the architectural decisions therein. Now most of my work is paper based with forrays into database design and report writing, so I didn’t really have a project to be working with (the design of P.Sync is very classical, so it didn’t suit the requirements for OO analysis and design).

I needed a project to work through to become a perfect example of OO design. I was also stuck on an aeroplane for 13 hours with (crap) movies that I’d already watched on the road out. My (very retro) mobile phone has one redeeming feature – yahtzee! so I decided to write a Yahtzee! implementation for OSX. I’m guessing that Yahtzee! is a trademark, so I’ll use the name Dicer!

After the flight was finished, here is the result. Features straight Yahtzee! scoring (no bonus), ‘n’ players and crucially uses an AppController -> Players -> Player -> Dice -> Die object model. Now I’m sure that the AppController knows way too much about how dice work etc. but I think I’ve got a good model to build upon.

Side branch is teaching the computer to play against me, my mobile phone can do it, so how hard can it be!

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Filed under: cocoa, code, Dicer!   |  2 Comments