Programming Time Savers

While there is no substitute for true programming, you can buy yourself some time by using some of the time saving tips and techniques listed below:

  1. JS Libraries – JavaScript libraries
    1. jQuery –
    2. jQuery Mobile –
    3. MooTools –
    4. Prototype –
    5. Scriptaculous –
  2. Flash Class Libraries (3D Papervision, Flash 3D engines, etc.) -- there are many open source AS code libraries that add complex interaction to a Flash movie easily. These libraries are a collection of AS3 classes that performs specific functions (i.e., 3D, Physics, Tweening, Animation, Collision Detection, Utilities, etc.). Utilities classes are tools that work behind the scene to add functionality to your project (data control, security, random numbers, etc.)
    1. PaperVision3D (http://papervision3d.googlecode.com/.svn/trunk/as3/trunk) – granddaddy of 3D libraries for Flash that is used to create 3D worlds that can import 3D Collada objects.
    2. Sandy 3D Engine (www.flashsandy.org/) -- another 3D engine
    3. Away 3D (http://away3d.com) -- yet another 3D engine that is a rapily maturing framework for 3D on the web and on mobile devices.
    4. Unity3D (   ) –
    5. TweenNano/TewenLite/TweenMax (1.6K, 4.7K, and 17,7K) – free animation frameworks that is used to reduce the amouunt of code you need to write.
    6. Box2D (http://box2dflahs.sourceforge.net) – a physic engine. Realistic Physics is difficult to accomplish with many engine (collision, gravity, friction, etc.) but not with Box2D.
    7. Verlet Physic Engine (http://code.google.com/p/ape/) -- a tool you can use to create ragdoll-like physics.
    8. JigLib (www.jiglibflahs.com/blog/source) -- best phyisc engine that integrates with 3D tools like Papervision and Away3D bu is very CPU intensive.
    9. PushButtonLab (http://www.pushbuttonlab.com) -- a full game development environment.
    10. CoreLib (http://code.google.com/p/as3corelib/ or http://github.com/mikechambers/as3corelib/) – a collection of basic utilities such as MD5 hashing, JSON serialization, and advanced data parsing.
    11. Syndication Library (http://code.google.com/p/as3syndication-lib/) – allows you to parse all ATOM or RSS feeds easily.
    12. AlivePDF (www.fpdf.org/) – allow you to convert your Flah screen content to PDF.
    13. PureMVC (http://puremvc.org/) – allow you to create a Model View Control (MVC) design pattern for your project. If you are using classes and XML you are doing this already for the most part.
    14. ASTRA (http://deveoiper.yahoo.com/flash/) -- is a collection of tools, web APIs, etc. that can tap into Yahoo's WEb Services (i.e.,  Weather, Answers).
    15. KitchenSync (http://code.google.com/p/kitchensynclib/) -- an animation library that host its documentation on Wonderfl.net.  Wonderfl.net is greate for showing and sharing AS3 code because you can play around with the code and see what it does right in your web page.
    16. AS3 Animation System 2.0  -- (www.boostworthy.com/blog/?p=170) is an ADVANCED animation library tool for advanced developers. It allows users to gain tighter control over virtual timelines and animation sequences.
  3. Templates (Flash, Flash Builder, Flex, Dreamweaver)
  4. Behaviors (Flash, Dreamweaver)
  5. Components (Flash, Flash Builder, Flex)
  6. Server Behaviors for Server Side Technologies (ASP.NET, PHP, COLDFUSION, JSP)
  7. Widget Browser (Dreamweaver)
  8. Actions, Droplets and Image Processing, (Photoshop, Illustrator)
  9. Snippets (Flash, Flex, Dreamweaver)
  10. Sample project already completed. (i.e., Flex de Tour)
  11. Google problem on a forum (i.e., ActionScript.org, etc.)
  12. Code Hinting and Code Completion
  13. Complete package framework (i.e., XAMPP)
  14. Programming Wizards
  15. Code Generators
  16. Other People Code (OPC)
  17. Learning Basic Programming Constructs Effectively
  18. Learning Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
  19. Blended learning (Books, Online Training, Instructor-led Training)
  20. Practice, Practice Practice