OK - so I went to try and get Ira's book today and they hadn't got it. Not a surprise.

So I asked if I could order it - "Um - currently unavailable" was the reply. "It should be available on the 29th October" she went on to say.

My mood lifted a little.

"But that isn't guaranteed" she added. Mood goes down a little further!!

Ah well. I shall continue attempting to get my hands on it and continue researching my chunk (which is 59 by the way).

My choice...I hope

Having mulled it over, over night I think I definitely would like to take on Chunk 59 for my part of the project.

I had to do a similar type of tutorial for a college course a few years ago and feel that this may play to my strengths.

Mass Writing Project

OK - Having been accepted on to Darrel Ince's Mass Writing project (23/10/08) I have been perusing the profiles of some of the other members (or actually I have looked at all the ones available), and am now thinking "Oh My God! What have I let myself in for?!".

I am already wondering whether I am in over my head. I hope not. I am really excited about this and want to do well in it.

So far I have downloaded the Processing software, albeit at work so I won't get much chance to tinker with it, but I will download it again at home this evening.

I have been looking at the various chunks and mulling over which one I fancy a crack at.
So far I am pondering the following (but leaning towards chunk 59):

CHUNK 76
TITLE Loading and tiling images
DESCRIPTION This is the start of the part of the book that deals with image manipulation. It shows you how load images and set and get the pixels in an image.

CHUNK 66
TITLE Shapes--an introduction
DESCRIPTION This part of the book introduces some of the 2D Processing shapes. Describe rectangle, ellipse, arc and triangle

CHUNK 59
TITLE An introduction to object-oriented programming
DESCRIPTION Make this an introduction, dont show the code for any classes, just get the student to understand there are objects and there are methods which correspond to messages. The BurritoRecipe class will be your inspiration; use a different example though.

CHUNK 16
TITLE Example 1
DESCRIPTION Describe a program that uses all the Java facilities that have been described in Greenberg 58--104; use no other facilities. Make it quite substantial, say around 100 lines of Java code. Present the full listing and then go through it section by section. Concentrate on the tough facilities in your description: while statements, functions, arguments in functions and brackets. Make the program visually exciting. This is one of four examples at this point in the book.

I am finding it difficult to choose prior to getting my hands on a copy of Greenbergs book and reviewing the relevant material.