geekitarian

I've been teaching the CS1520 Programming Languages for Web Applications class at the University of Pittsburgh for 3 terms now and each term the students have formed groups to build projects on Google App Engine .  There were some great projects this term - I've got them all detailed below. Let me know what you think in the comments section! http://pittfashionshare.appspot.com > A platform for college students to showcase their daily outfits.  Really great UI. http://hsdeckassistant.appspot.com > Deck builder for Hearthstone - very complete and interactive application. http://ctrl-class.appspot.com > It's a classroom task management system to manage projects and todos. http://pitt-yak.appspot.com > Like YikYak, but just for Oakland.  Works really well on mobile. http://neko-mogi.appspot.com > Online virtual pet.  Has a great 404 page . http://pittbeer.com/ > Beer deli...

I just posted a Python tutorial for absolute beginners: http://www.coding4.us/python-programming-level1 If you've ever wanted to learn how to code, this could be your start. Head over to Coding4.us and check it out!

This year at Google's I/O Extended event in Pittsburgh, I gave a talk on building a simple application in App Engine.  I just posted the code from it at  https://sites.google.com/site/wecanprogramcom/getting-started-with-app-engine  - if you've ever wanted to learn how to deploy web applications on App Engine, this should be a pretty easy track.

For 4 months this year I taught a web application development class at the University of Pittsburgh.  We mostly used Google App Engine  but we also covered HTTP concepts, HTML5 and CSS3, JavaScript, some front-end frameworks, PHP , and mobile development, though I wish there was a bit less PHP. This pretty much sums it up. Most of the classwork is around a semester-long project.  I think the student projects were pretty impressive this term - here are the descriptions the students provided and links to the applications (in no particular order): Scratcher ( http://scratcher-app.appspot.com ) Make and share scratch art on the web. Gaggle ( http://gagglepitttest.appspot.com/ ) Crowdsourced application for tracking crowds and busyness of places. tripPAL ( http://trippal-1520.appspot.com ) tripPAL helps connects fellow commuters, and travelers to find low budget transportation options. Gradr ( http://gradr.io ) Application for managing class assignments...

I've published a few more chapters of my guide to App Engine (and some sample code) over at CODING4.US .  These ones introduce the App Engine Users API and the App Engine DB Datastore API.

I'm teaching a class at the University of Pittsburgh on web development with App Engine and as part of it I'm putting together a getting started guide. Here's Part 1 and Part 2 .

I've always liked this meme: "When C++ is your hammer, everything looks like a thumb." A thumb with multiple inheritance. The problem is that all languages have issues... so I wondered, "What kind of hammers would they be?"  These are my best guesses**. Houses with questionable indentation. But the hammer is so easy to use! But you have to pay extra for the special glove to hold it. And your screwdriver is made of modeling clay. A problem that somebody will probably solve with a screwdriver instead. But then it will be really easy to use. And nobody else will ever be able to figure out how to use your hammer. And the hammers come from a AbstractHammerBuilderFactory. But it comes in any color you want! ** I'm sure that other people have come up with the same jokes so I'm not claiming any amazing originality here.  I couldn't find a system to look up joke patents. ...