My blog has a new home!

Thanks for the interest! The blog continues on the new domain: mijocoder.com

Compile SFML app with VS Code on Linux

As official tutorial says, there are 3 ways to install SFML on Linux:

1. Install it directly from your distribution's package repository
2. Get the source code, build it and install it
3. Download the precompiled SDK and manually copy the files

On Ubuntu 18.04, $ apt search sfml reports that the latest version in repository is 2.4.2, while actually the latest version is 2.5.1. So the first option might not be the best. Third option is probably the worst, because precompiled SDK was most likely compiled with different version of GCC.

So that makes the second option the best way to go. After SFML is installed, it's time to compile SFML app. Here's an example of VS Code configuration files:

c_cpp_properties.json

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Linux",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**",
                "/path/to/SFML/SFML-master/include/"
            ],
            "defines": [],
            "compilerPath": "/usr/bin/gcc",
            "cStandard": "c11",
            "cppStandard": "c++17",
            "intelliSenseMode": "gcc-x64"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

launch.json

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [

        {
            "name": "(gdb) Launch",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/sfml-app",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": true,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                },
                {
                    "description": "Skip raise.c files",
                    "text": "-interpreter-exec console \"skip -gfi /build/glibc-OTsEL5/glibc-2.27/**/*\""
                 }
            ],
            "preLaunchTask": "build"
        }
    ]
}

tasks.json

{
    // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
    // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "compile",
            "type": "shell",
            "presentation": {
                "reveal": "never",
                "panel": "shared",
            },
            "command": "g++",
            "args": [
                "-g",
                "-c",
                "main.cpp"
            ]
        },
        {
            "label": "build",
            "type": "shell",
            "presentation": {
                "reveal": "never",
                "panel": "shared",
            },
            "command": "g++",
            "args": [
                "main.o",
                "-o",
                "sfml-app",
                "-lsfml-graphics",
                "-lsfml-window",
                "-lsfml-system"
            ],
            "dependsOn": ["compile"],
            "group": {
                "kind": "build",
                "isDefault": true
            }
        }
    ]
}

Swift development journey on Linux

After a few days of search to find the best IDE for Swift development on Linux/Ubuntu,
I concluded that currently the choice is VS Code + Swift Development Environment extension

First we need to download Swift from Swift.org
Follow download instructions. Just one note about setting toolchain path - if you run:

$ export PATH=/path/to/usr/bin:"${PATH}"

That change will affect $PATH variable only in current terminal seasson.
To make it permanent, there are few options on Ubuntu. For example, I appended

$ export PATH="$HOME/Dev/swift-4.2/usr/bin:$PATH"

to ~/.profile and that did the trick. The script gets loaded on re-login or it can be run manually by executing . ~/.profile.


Second step is installation of VS Code. Just a few clicks in Ubuntu Software app.

Next we install Maintained Swift Development Environment extension. There are several steps here and thy are described in extension's marketplace page and github. Make sure you also install LLDB extension for debugging.


All done? Great, now it's time to run some swift code. But first run some commands to create a Hello project:

$ mkdir HelloSwift
$ cd HelloSwift
$ swift package init --type=executable

Now in VS Code chose File/ Open Folder... and selecte HelloSwift.
Select Debug view (Ctrl+Shift+D)
Add LLDB configuration. launch.json should look like this:

{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "type": "lldb",
            "request": "launch",
            "name": "Debug",
            "program": "${workspaceFolder}/.build/debug/HelloSwift",
            "args": [],
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "preLaunchTask": "swift-build"
        }
    ]
}

Tap Run button and alert pops up about missing swift-build task. Tap Configure Task.
tasks.json should look like this:

{
    // See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=733558
    // for the documentation about the tasks.json format
    "version": "2.0.0",
    "tasks": [
        {
            "label": "swift-build",
            "type": "shell",
            "command": "swift build"
        }
    ]
}

Tap Run again and voila! Console shows:

Hello, world!
Process exited with code 0.

View App Store reviews on Slack

AppStoreReviews is a command line tool which can send latest reviews for an app to Slack using Incoming Webhooks.

The tool can be called with following arguments:

-a AppId -c CountryCode -s WebHookId

For example: AppStoreReviews -a 584557117 -c us -s 234234/sdfsf/234324

Only AppId is mandatory. If WebHookId is omitted, reviews will be printed to standard output.

To obtain Slack Webhook URL, Slack app needs to be created with Incoming Webhooks feature.  Last 3 parts of URL are used as WebHookId.

To automate messaging process, we can tell OS to call the tool at designated times. To do that create a file containing job description and place it in ~/Library/LaunchAgents.

For example, this is job description that calls tool every day at 8:45:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  
 <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">  
 <plist version="1.0">  
 <dict>  
  <key>KeepAlive</key>  
  <false/>  
  <key>Label</key>  
  <string>com.mijocoder.AppStoreReviews</string>  
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>  
      <array>  
         <string>/Users/mijo/Dev/appstore-cli/AppStoreReviews</string>  
         <string>-a</string>
         <string>584557117</string>   
         <string>-s</string>
         <string>234234/sdfsf/234324</string>  
      </array>  
  <key>StandardOutPath</key>  
  <string>/Users/mijo/Dev/appstore-cli/log.stdout</string>  
  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>  
   <array>  
    <dict>  
     <key>Hour</key>  
     <integer>8</integer>  
     <key>Minute</key>  
     <integer>45</integer>  
    </dict>  
   </array>  
 </dict>  
 </plist>  

To find out more about Launch Agents check launchd.info.

Git broken on MacOS High Sierra

Today I updated to MacOS High Sierra and everything was fine until I tried to execute:

git push origin my_branch

I was greeted with this output:

failed MSpanList_Insert 0x96b000 0x419b0d8d161 0x0 0x0 
fatal error: MSpanList_Insert 
runtime stack: 
runtime.throw(0x5f1530, 0x10) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/panic.go:530 +0x90 fp=0x7ffeefbff490 sp=0x7ffeefbff478 
runtime.(*mSpanList).insert(0x8503a8, 0x96b000) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mheap.go:933 +0x293 fp=0x7ffeefbff4c0 sp=0x7ffeefbff490 
runtime.(*mheap).freeSpanLocked(0x84fba0, 0x96b000, 0x100, 0x0) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mheap.go:809 +0x4be fp=0x7ffeefbff528 sp=0x7ffeefbff4c0 
runtime.(*mheap).grow(0x84fba0, 0x8, 0x0) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mheap.go:675 +0x2a0 fp=0x7ffeefbff580 sp=0x7ffeefbff528 
runtime.(*mheap).allocSpanLocked(0x84fba0, 0x1, 0x0) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mheap.go:553 +0x4e3 fp=0x7ffeefbff5d8 sp=0x7ffeefbff580 
runtime.(*mheap).alloc_m(0x84fba0, 0x1, 0x15, 0x0) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mheap.go:437 +0x119 fp=0x7ffeefbff608 sp=0x7ffeefbff5d8 
runtime.(*mheap).alloc.func1() 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mheap.go:502 +0x41 fp=0x7ffeefbff638 sp=0x7ffeefbff608 
runtime.systemstack(0x7ffeefbff658) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/asm_amd64.s:307 +0xab fp=0x7ffeefbff640 sp=0x7ffeefbff638 
runtime.(*mheap).alloc(0x84fba0, 0x1, 0x10000000015, 0x103cf) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mheap.go:503 +0x63 fp=0x7ffeefbff688 sp=0x7ffeefbff640 
runtime.(*mcentral).grow(0x8517a0, 0x0) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mcentral.go:209 +0x93 fp=0x7ffeefbff6f0 sp=0x7ffeefbff688 
runtime.(*mcentral).cacheSpan(0x8517a0, 0x84a2f8) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mcentral.go:89 +0x47d fp=0x7ffeefbff730 sp=0x7ffeefbff6f0 
runtime.(*mcache).refill(0x967000, 0x15, 0x7ffeefbff798) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/mcache.go:119 +0xcc fp=0x7ffeefbff768 sp=0x7ffeefbff730 
runtime.mallocgc.func2() 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/malloc.go:642 +0x2b fp=0x7ffeefbff788 sp=0x7ffeefbff768 
runtime.systemstack(0x7ffeefbff828) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/asm_amd64.s:307 +0xab fp=0x7ffeefbff790 sp=0x7ffeefbff788 
runtime.mallocgc(0x180, 0x58ecc0, 0x0, 0x800000000) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/malloc.go:643 +0x869 fp=0x7ffeefbff868 sp=0x7ffeefbff790 
runtime.newobject(0x58ecc0, 0x84a8b0) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/malloc.go:781 +0x42 fp=0x7ffeefbff890 sp=0x7ffeefbff868 
runtime.malg(0x8000, 0x84ac60) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/proc.go:2634 +0x27 fp=0x7ffeefbff8c8 sp=0x7ffeefbff890 
runtime.mpreinit(0x84b420) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/os1_darwin.go:140 +0x1f fp=0x7ffeefbff8e0 sp=0x7ffeefbff8c8 
runtime.mcommoninit(0x84b420) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/proc.go:494 +0x105 fp=0x7ffeefbff928 sp=0x7ffeefbff8e0 
runtime.schedinit() 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/proc.go:434 +0x79 fp=0x7ffeefbff970 sp=0x7ffeefbff928 
runtime.rt0_go(0x7ffeefbff9a0, 0x4, 0x7ffeefbff9a0, 0x0, 0x4, 0x7ffeefbffad0, 0x7ffeefbffae7, 0x7ffeefbffaf0, 0x7ffeefbffaf7, 0x0, ...) 
 /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1/libexec/src/runtime/asm_amd64.s:138 +0x132 fp=0x7ffeefbff978 sp=0x7ffeefbff970 
error: failed to push some refs to 'https://github.com/mijo-gracanin/repo.git'

Googling gave me some clues and grep -irl "/usr/local/Cellar/go/1.6.1" revealed that mentioned path is located in /usr/local/bin/git-lfs.

Updating brew and relinking git-lfs solved the issue.

PomodoroTimer

Recently I heard about Pomodoro technique and decided to try it out. Basically it's a method for increasing productivity by focusing on work for 25 minutes, having a break, and then repeating.

There is a ton of different ways to measure those 25 mins and breaks. If you type "25 min timer" in Google, you will see countdown above search results. So thoughtful.

I wanted a light and discrete timer but noticeable when it dings. Something like Thyme + ding. I'm sure that there are plenty of nice timers on Internet but till I find the right one, I can make my own and learn something in the process.

Few tomatoes later, and there it is, ticking in navigation bar: PomodoroTimer

When time reaches zero, a short sound plays and notification pops up:

The timer starts when the app is open (cmd + space > PomodoroTimer). And it's killed when tapped on it.

In first tomato I created a new Xcode project from macOS > Cocoa Application template. By default, template app shows blank app window. One way of hiding it is to just delete it from MainMenu.xib. Standard app menu is also unwanted. To disable app menu, new entry Application is agent (UIElement) = YES must be added to Info.plist.

"Blow" is one of sounds located in /System/Library/Sounds.The rest of the code is pretty self explanatory:

import Cocoa

@NSApplicationMain

class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate {

    

    private var timer: Timer?

    private let statusItem = NSStatusBar.system().statusItem(withLength: 42)

    func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) {

        statusItem.action = #selector(terminate)

        

        let startDate = Date()

        let pomodoroInterval: Double = 25 * 60

        

        self.statusItem.title = formatTime(seconds: pomodoroInterval)

        

        timer = Timer.scheduledTimer(withTimeInterval: 0.5,

                                     repeats: true,

                                     block: { [weak self] timer in

            guard let `self` = self else { return }

                                        

            let elapsedTime = Date().timeIntervalSince(startDate)

            let remainingTime = pomodoroInterval - elapsedTime

            

            if remainingTime < 0 {

                timer.invalidate()

                let notification = NSUserNotification()

                notification.title = "Pomodoro!"

                notification.soundName = "Blow"

                NSUserNotificationCenter.default.deliver(notification)

            }

            else {

                self.statusItem.title = self.formatTime(seconds: remainingTime)

            }

        })

    }

    

    func formatTime(seconds: TimeInterval) -> String {

        let minutes = Int(seconds / 60)

        let remainingSeconds = Int(seconds) % 60

        return String(format:"%02d:%02d", minutes, remainingSeconds)

    }

    func terminate() {

        timer?.invalidate()

        NSApp.terminate(self)

    }

}

github   -   binary

Global Game Jam

Last week was held Global Game Jam. I was there with my team Pixel Farmers, especially assembled for the event. Matej was first to apply for the event, then me, maybe 10 days before the event and then Dario applied just 3 days before the event.

As we applied, we started picking on LibGDX. That Java gaming framework looked good: it's open source, cross-platform, community is active, documentation comprehensive and thanks to Gradle it works with several IDEs easily. We went there to have some fun, learn and experience something new. We achieved all of that and more.

As I sad, we didn't have much time to prepare due our daily work and late apply, so we had to type code whole day to get ready for the event where we will type code for two whole days and good part of nights :) Luckily I have an account on Packtpub and they have like 5 or 6 books about LibGDX. They even have a book titled "The Game Jam Survival Guide". That one is pretty interesting. It has some good tips and funny ones like "How to save your relationship/marriage during game jam". Well, it's not a joke for some people I guess. :)

No one in the team was experienced game maker, but we are seasoned developers working at FIVE so we had confidence. My confidence was little bit shaken after we could not agree on the game for four hours after the theme was announced!! Less then an hour before midnight we decided that we gonna save a goat. I was very excited with the idea. I never created top down shouter but I always wanted too. Something like Crimsonland. Sure, "top-down-shooter" is not very original, but it's a fun genre and we can give it charm with fine story, humour, twists and so on.

We started working. At least we didn't lose additional time on creating a project and Github repo. Skeleton project with few basic classes like GameScreen and methods like render, update and draw was set 2 days before. Well, we should have added more, things like asset manager, logic for screen transition, logic for cut scenes... Oh well, next time!

We came to the jam straight from work, so we were a bit tired. At the end of that first day, we had just black screen with white circle and one white rectangle inside that circle. Circle obeyed WASD keys and rectangle rotated in direction of mouse pointer so it wasn't that bad. We were among first to go home to sleep around 1:30 am.

Next day was a big day, we had to push hard. White circle and rectangle are not very exciting. Class room at Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (FER) was filled with jammers. I wondered who worked whole night. My team recharged their batteries so we were ready to rock, but what pumped spirits high were first sprites. I wasn't sure about graphics style of our game, since officially we were all devs, but it turned out that Dario, beside being a great dev, has also awesome artist skills. Commits were flowing. Every 15 mins when I typed git pull, something new was added to the game and you could see it on a screen. Matej added bad guys, Dario added walls and tiles and I added means to fight bad guys. Before lunch we had core mechanics, so we felt good and awarded ourselves with a walk around faculty to stretch legs and enjoy daylight.

List of features was long and we had a good laugh when throwing ideas on it. While day was turning into night, we polished animations, corrected hit boxes and collision detection. Although we wanted to go to sleep around usual hours, we stayed longer because of other jammers, because that's how jammers roll, they drink tons of energy drinks, eat pizza and sleep later. We went to sleep around 3:30 am :P

Next morning when we started working it was barely morning and our game still didn't have head
and tail. By head I mean introduction to the game story. By tail I mean end game mechanics with goat and end game screen. Although overall we didn't have difficulties with LibGDX, some stupid things were more complicated to implement then they should. Things like classic UI elements, because they require "skin" JSON file. Anyways, one hour before dead line we had head and tail. We spent last hour polishing and testing the game.

Teams produced 10 games and every team had 10 minutes to present their game. After that, 3 judges from prominent Croatian game companies (Croteam, Little Green Man, Lion Game Lion) played games, talked with teams and at end decided which games are winners. Their criteria was: game completeness, ease to understand game rules and playability. When I heard that, little voice in my head followed with "check, check, check". And really, they liked our game and gave us this fancy piece of cardboard:

Picture from Vidi.hr

This was the first GGJ in Croatia and I hope that it will become tradition. Like I said, we had fun, learned new things and meet interesting people. Organizers did a pretty good job, we had food and drinks. They also provided laptops but majority of people brought their own, so what almost everyone could use was an extra display.

You can check Goat Rescue HERE and all games made for GGJ Zagreb 2016 HERE.