GIMP, Python, C programming screencast tutorials.

14 · Functions implementations

2011-04-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

In this occasion we prototype, define and call the print_always_7() and sum() functions.

We review some basic function concepts like return and parameter types, prototype checking and calling a function that returns a value so that it is assigned to a local variable.

Study skills for programmers

2011-04-20T18:27:00.000-07:00

Promoting these video series so that I get more interest in study skills and computer programming in general, more affluence for my blog and youtube channel. but most importantly to share.

Today I am also adding a donate button with the only intention to allow the learner to contribute monetarily so that this project is kept alive. Stop supporting huge billionaire academic corporations and start embracing Open Source Software and Documentation. It's noble, fair, and serves the people at its core. It's a symbiosis that can work.

Functions in pseudo-code

2011-03-05T05:33:00.000-08:00

Functions are code blocks that execute where the function call is placed in the code. That could be inside the main function, inside another function that is called inside main, inside another function that is called inside another function that is called inside main, and so on.

Function prototypes serve the builder to inform a priori what types(how much allocation must be made and how must it be divided) does the function return and receive(as parameters).

Function definitions serve to specify the code to be executed, when the function call is encountered in the code.

Span of statements

2011-03-05T05:06:00.000-08:00

We check the behaviour of the builder(GCC from the MinGW project) in regards to line separations amidst statements. First it is separated at white-spaces between tokens(no problem), then amidst a string literal(compilation problem) and finally we divide the string literal into two string literals, which works.

Line by line explanation

2011-03-05T04:57:00.001-08:00

We take time to scrutinize the code that we previously wrote, line by line, reviewing and understanding what each line prominently does.

If statement

2011-03-05T04:45:00.000-08:00

The if clause is useful in that allows bifurcations : true and false tracks. If the if expression evaluates to non-zero(1, 20, -5, 0.3202), the true track is chosen by the computer's processor. If the if expression evaluates to zero(0), the false track is chosen.

Pseudo code is firstly used, then the actual C syntax replaces the pseudo code, and finally the application is built and run.

Comment usage

2011-03-05T04:20:00.000-08:00

Comments are useful for education materials, that is documentation, manuals, tutorials, references, etc. becuase they allow in-code, to explain in further detail each successive line(or group of lines), in the syntax and general logic of the application.
Also, how a library works, how the program is supposed to be used or expanded from the user programmer's perspective, etc.

The two types of comments in C are:

/* C classic comment
May span multiple lines*/

// C++ derived comment, endures up until a newline is encountered(up until the end of the line)

Variables definitions

2011-02-25T11:44:00.000-08:00

The firstCprogram.c is changed. We define variables and extract(by evaluation of the rvalues) and output to the standard output the values held in them. The "equals"(=) sign is not to be confused with mathematical equality but it is an assignment being done from the rvalue token to the lvalue token. A very succinct explanation of printf is present. 3 programs are used for editing the file, the old edit.exe from the 16-bit era, notepad.exe, the classic ASCII encoded text editor, and Code:Blocks (where the keyword highlight feature is present)

Batch commands

2011-02-25T10:54:00.000-08:00

We familiarize ourselves with certain batch commands like cd (change directory), md (move directory), cd .. (move one level backwards in the directory tree), del (delete files) and so on. We manually set our environment so that the files are in the correct place (01 folder inside the MinGW_exercises folder).

First C program built (from terminal)

2011-02-25T02:24:00.000-08:00

We modify the command line window(cmd.exe) properties so that the width allows more space to be viewed without cropping the line. Quick Edit Mode checkbox is selected. We change and create some directory names so that the projects compiled with Code::Blocks are separate from those compiled directly at the command line. The firstCprogram.c is passed as the first argument to the GCC builder at the command line.

Code::Blocks setup and test

2011-02-14T07:34:00.000-08:00

In this occasion we solve Code::Blocks 8.02 missing the compilation.
We change the mingw32-g++.exe to mingw32-gcc.exe at the linker tool place-holder. Preprocessing, compilation and linkage is done correctly this time.

Code::Blocks setup

2011-02-14T06:13:00.000-08:00

In this occasion, we set MinGW as the default compiler for the IDE, and a compilation attempt is performed.

Downloading Code::Blocks

2011-01-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

In this video I show you how to download Code::Blocks from the world wide web. Code::Blocks is an Open Source and free Integrated Development Environment for C and C++, with support for lots of plug-ins.

Our purpose to use Code::Blocks is to show that IDEs(Integrated Development Environments) quicken the workflow for programmers but are not absolutely necessary to build programs(MinGW is necessary). The editor (which is a part of the IDE) will prove useful early on this video series.

setting up MinGW

2011-01-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

In this video I aim to show the audience how to set up MinGW so that we can easily compile with the command line tools and Code::Blocks(Integrated Development Environment) alike.

Downloading MinGW

2011-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

In this simple educational video, I show you how to download from the official website MinGW, which stands for Minimalist GNU for Windows. It is open source software that uses some GNU and Microsoft libraries to build C (and other languages as well) programs.

10 new "Just Enough C" language tutorials.

2010-11-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

Hello.

Long time since my last post. Now I inform you that I´ve finished the work of 10 new "Just Enough C" screencast tutorials. Highly edited and enhanced so that audio is clear and concise. There are some zooms here and there and the method of recording was:

Record only video of screencast with Camstudio
Edit the necessary parts(censoring ads form webpages, adding zooms, deleting unnecesary frame ranges), with VirtualDub or GIMP-GAP. Depending on the level of editing.
Add audio with Audacity whilst following the edited video being played.
Join the audio with the video stream through VirtualDub.
Compress using MPG4 or Camstudio Lossless codec. For audio raw WAV of AC3.

Review of ¨The screencasting handbook¨ by Ian Ozsvald

2010-05-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

Well suffice is to say, there is no better person to learn from than from an expert on the field. Even if someone has read dozens of books on screencasting, that does not make him/her an expert. What makes him/her an expert is practice. That´s what Ian Ozsvald has to offer to us with the first edition of The Screencasting handbook.

Aesthetics

The book could have been enriched graphically by contracting a professional book layout artist. The text in the same font with no particular formatting looks dull. Some screen-shots are thrown at us randomly to show some examples. Perhaps in future releases we can have a professional look to the book. But in my opinion, that is not what people interested in screencasting are craving for.

Content

The content is precious information that actually matters for screensters, whether professionals or beginners, there is something for everyone. Ian starts with how he got to be a screencaster, his other occupations and his start in the professional screencasting business, with his company Procasts.co.uk . There is a very messy part where Ian just starts gathering screencasts usage one paragraph after the other, some are put in to alot of inspection, some are not (i.e. machinima). That particular section could be improved by actually associating that information with the usefulness of the screencasting process (having google videos as an example for later chapters, or ideas of machinima or video editing that could enhance the screencast, or perhaps not even mention machinima, as it seems pervasively random).

The section of ¨making a screencast in 30 minutes¨ is the nutshell of the book. Despite an unnecessary publicity to a shoe company refering to the famous frase ¨just do it¨, this section really shines because one of the most daunting tasks in any new subject that´s being learnt is starting your first exercise. Ian evokes confidence by providing a succint and effective tutorial using Jing. Ian focuses on simplicity and shortness of the length of the video. Practice runs are recommended by Ian, as well as a repeatable environment (few or no changes to the recorded environment from screencast to screencast). Ian recommends not worrying too much on the `ums` `ahs` and little audio glitches as long as one teaches something and gets to the point in less than 5 minutes (That´s the Jing recording length limit). One is then welcomed to the screencasting handbook google group.

One is the led to an yet-to-be-tidy list of examples that Ian and students of Brighton University made using Jing.

¨Making a screencast in two hours¨ is what one would expect if one would ask for a thorough tutorial on screencasting from zero knowledge. It goes as far as telling you the specifics of OS and recording/editing/miscelaneous tools usage. ScreenFlow BBflashback, CamtasiaStudio, Camstudio, they are all covered here, and in more detail in later chapters. The aim here is to guide intermediate screencasters into creating more compelling screencasts, by editing some video, audio and taking care of the check-list (voice control, rehearsal of the voice over without recording, removing background noise, avoiding common distribution pitfalls, etc.)

¨Making a screencst in 1-2 days¨ is even more thorough, covering topics like associating with an animator, voice over artist and scriptwriter. Creating your own storyboards and presenting drafts of the screencast to your customer. Music is also covered in a more succinct way, it points to sites where to buy songs for a reasonable price ($5-$20), or for free, and how to adjust the songs in the respective video editors, with tips and tricks using tools like the envelope on the free tool Audacity(which adjusts the volume of the sound track depending on input of other tracks, i.e. the voice over track. In professional audio terms, it is called side-chaining). Ian shows some screenshots and provides links for the procasts.co.uk job requests. What´s more valuable in my opinion, you can´t find elsewhere, is his insight on how to deal with the workflow regarding tight deadlines and the customer´s needs. After all, if you don´t emphasize on the customer needs, he/she will not have a clue of what the screencast(s) may help with regarding their product, the screencast, therefore, will serve no purpose. Ian is insightful as to how to get things done from a professional screencaster perspective.
Tools are still being improved so Ian also expresses his desire for improvements over utilities, like having auto-zooming capabilities enhanced in Camtasia studio7, ScreenFlow´s editing limitations, camstudio´s lack of official support, etc.

The highlight of this section is the rubber ducking technique. Pretend you are explaining the problem you are having to a rubber duck before disturbing a sentient being. This Allows for better problem solving and less time waste in a team.

The video and audio formats are covered in ¨Export - which file formats do we need?¨. It is a review of the codecs and containers mainly used for web-based streaming, but other codecs and containers are covered as well. What is more interesting is that he goes as far as detailing the recommended output options (resolution, codec/container selection, length, bitrate, frequency, etc.) depending on the distributed medium (ShowMeDo, Vimeo, YouTube, Bliptv, DVD, etc.) , with particular highlight on Youtube HD, and the tools used for producing the screencast(Camstudio, BBFlashBack, RecordMyDesktop, etc.)

¨Distributing your screencast¨ deals with the specific websites, or FTP services for distributing videos, or video series. It talks about ShowMeDo(educational), BlipTV(some revenue from advertisers), Vimeo(Big, high quality non-comercial videos), and YouTube(the most famous and highest bandwidth capabilities). It gives a mention to the honorabe HTML video flag that supports .ogg files (and possibly h.264). And talks a bit about managing your own FTP hosting and Amazon´s S3 CloudFront for using as a delivery network(paying for as much bandwidth as your users utilize).

¨Common Workflows¨ leads the reader to workflows that work most commonly, there is also a link to the google group for the Handbook, discussing this subject (best personal workflows).

¨Screencasting Software¨ delves more deeply into the tools, and gives pros and cons. I´d say is a very useful section if what you are looking for is a tool to start screencasting, or that applies better for your needs. Heck even Adobe Captivate is given a mention. Which, of all the screen recorders, this one integrates better to other tools like the video editor Adobe Premier, but for a scary price and learning curve. This section is divided on Operating System (Windows, Mac, Linux).

¨Editing software¨ deals with programs like Adobe Premier, Camstudio, Sony Vegas, and the free open source tools Blender and VirtualDub.

¨Screencasting tools¨, is a series of miscellaneous tools, that to my surprise, are extremely helpful in creating screencasts. From mouse position indicators, to zoom effects, to Windows ´sizers´. All covered in a small chapter enough to know about these very useful tools, especially in conjunction with the other video editing and recording tools. Audio tools like the Levator and Audacity are given a mention. Video players, like the VLC, and Mplayer are recommended by Ian. Gspot for spotting what codec/container a specific video uses.

¨Microphones¨ deals with the most important aspect of audio... the microphone and the quality/price ratio. Ian classifies a series of microphones from the Google Handbook Group users, and reviews them enough so that the reader has a better idea if it is the microphone for the current need. Although it really comes down to "The more expensive the better". I really lament the fact that the Samson Go did not get included despite the multiple praises all over the internet. Microphone techniques are also included, like avoiding lip smack, sibilants, plosives, electrical/nature´s noise, etc. Ian even provides a link to one of the best screencasts ever created... my screencast(Go fiiiiiiigure) on pop filters, hosted on ShowMeDo.

¨Extra Hardware¨ deals with web-cam, mouse, trackball, and copy-holder usage. Pretty standard.

¨How screencasting works¨ is a succinct explanation of how screencasting software captures images.

The rest is just a series of reference material for future use.

Price

At a very reasonable price, $36 is the price of any small specialized and technical book found on any bookstore. But with the advantage that e-books get updated much more easily. And we all know technology changes dramatically one month to the other.

Distribution

The distribution system is the best for the type of contents... technical/educational subjects. E-books are better, because they can be more easily upgraded when the need comes, when Camstudio 7 will be Camstudio 8 and it will throw fireworks and blow whistles at the end of every screencast with the voice of a Leprechaun shouting, "thank you for watching our demo/educational video have a nice day! Hurray!", we will not want another 1/2 edition for these types of changes. OK, I need to get some sleep.

Conclusion

As biased as this review may seem(after all, I am listed in the acknowledgements section), this is probably the best book there is about screencasting. Even with all its glitches, The Screencasting Handbook delivers what it promises... pragmatic advice from an experienced screencaster, covering tools, distribution and techniques that will doubtly be available elsewhere.

Screencasting Handbook.

2009-08-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

Ian Ozsvald is releasing his screencasting handbook's first draft on September (To be finished a few months later). A manual to cover all screencasting aspects involved in producing videos for web/DVD distribution, to show products, website, and educational content.

Screencasting has become a very important yet unknown profession, that shares territory with teaching, software programming, software usage, and general computer knowledge, along with video/audio editing, voice-over, video compression/encoding and multitasking.

I'd call it a science by itself. So much, that a book is being developed by an expert. With almost 200 screencasts under his belt, Ian Ozsvald has helped dozen of thousands of programmers across the world, with his excellent free and Club-subscription based Python tutorials, aimed at beginners to intermediate Python users.

The price is still not defined, the last time I checked it was €25 . Totally worth the price if you are a teacher that wants to improve his/her teaching method; a webdesigner/maintainer that wants to introduce the functionality within the webpage to his/her users; a technical support specialist that wants to improve work efficiency by referring his/her customers to his/her screencasts; a software developer that wants to introduce his/her software functionality to the audience in a much clearer, visual and more succinct way than traditional HTML based documentation. It might even help people wanting to document their progress on certain studied subject, somewhat like taking notes, the difference being that it is much faster and clearer in the case of software usage/programming when using screencasts.

So the title had the link but here it is again:

Screencasting handbook

And visit the excellent open source software screencast (I've been uploading to) site:

ShowMeDo

Python 3.0 changes - Part 1 -

2009-03-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

Get the Flash Player to see this movie.

This video originally comes from here
at ShowMeDo from the XXX category.

David Perry on Game Design

2009-03-01T06:44:00.000-08:00

Find more videos like this on GameDesignBook

GIMP windows and docking

2008-12-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

Updated the GIMP series with an introduction to how windows might be arranged in GIMP. Click on the title above.

ShowMeDo screencast tutorials for GIMP

2008-10-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

I have updated the GIMP by example, at ShowMeDo.com , with the entry:

GIMP - 2.6.1 changes -

Hope you enjoy it.

New tutorials on GIMP.

2008-09-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

The new GIMP tutorials are about channels, layer masks and preferences.

go ahead and view then at ShowMeDo.

GIMP tutorials

2008-07-09T13:57:00.000-07:00

I've started some GIMP tutorials on showmedo.com . Interesting to expect that some python script might be developed to create automation.

New python tutorials.

2008-04-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

I started a series of videos on programming with famous Python. Follow along and you may find yourself developing a game.

Pygame 1.8.0 released

2008-04-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

pygame.mask for collision masks
pygame.scrap for clipboard support
new and improved sprite groups
blending support for filling and blitting surfaces
saving surfaces as jpeg and png
buffer access for Surface and Sound objects
numpy support for pygame.surfarray and pygame.pixelarray
New Windows and Mac installers.

Screencasts

2008-01-30T11:39:00.000-08:00

The screencasts on showmedo.com about the C programming language, are having more and more viewers as time passes. The next tutorial will be on C syntax and programming design and plan. Hope you enjoy the screencasts.

Christma's eve and it's meaning.

2007-12-10T19:33:00.000-08:00

OK christmas is almost here and people around the world actually forget it's meaning.

No it is not that Santa Claus will be giving children gifts, neither is the christmas tree. It is all about the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. And all other associations of any other type are urban legends.

Everything is commerce, so at the end sellers would even sell you their body painted in green red and gold for having a nice end of year revenue.

Well guess what. Forget about your pocket and remember about your mind. Think what is going on, and stop mal-accostumed habbits.

Christmas is peace... don't know about that, let's just be objective and say that is the standarized , thought date of birth of a great profet.

2007-11-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

Discussion in the showmedo.com google group led to determine the core reason why HTML enabling in Forums or just any posting box in any site, is risky.

excerpt from wikipedia.org, searched for BBcode:

"BBCode was devised to provide a safer, easier and more limited way of allowing users to format their messages. Programmer convenience was certainly another factor, as BBCode is very simple to implement.^{[citation needed]} Previously, many message boards allowed the users to include HTML formatting, a side effect of which was that malformed HTML could disrupt the page's layout, or HTML could be used to run JavaScript leading to XSS attacks. Some implementations of BBCode have suffered problems related to the way they translate the BBCode into HTML, which could negate the security that was intended to be given by BBCode. An alternative is a properly written HTML filter (many of which are freely available)."

And if an HTML filter is implemented, lots of time and experimentation is needed, but since showmedo.com has other priorities, RST is the lightweight markup language used, also because Python libraries are available for implementation with RST.

By the way the link to my tutorial series on C .

2007-11-22T12:13:00.000-08:00

The link is here:

http://www.showmedo.com/videos/video?name=1380000&fromSeriesID=138

Nebula 3

2007-11-22T11:16:00.000-08:00

Have been waiting for the releases of the Nebual 3 build from Floh, the main programmer behind this game engine. I think that this engine will rock, besides being open source(except, of course, for the XBOX360 nd other platform specific builds) , the engine spans lots of features previously not available in Nebula 2.

Guido's sense of humor.

2007-11-16T14:01:00.000-08:00

Guido Van Rossum, has an excellent sense of humor (consider that 'Python' for his language, is not from the well-known snake, but rather from the 'Monty Python' british comedy series):6.2 Standard Modules Python comes with a library of standard modules, described in a separate document, the Python Library Reference (``Library Reference'' hereafter). Some modules are built into the interpreter; these provide access to operations that are not part of the core of the language but are nevertheless built in, either for efficiency or to provide access to operating system primitives such as system calls. The set of such modules is a configuration option which also depends on the underlying platform For example, the amoeba module is only provided on systems that somehow support Amoeba primitives. One particular module deserves some attention: sys, which is built into every Python interpreter. The variables sys.ps1 and sys.ps2 define the strings used as primary and secondary prompts: >>> import sys>>> sys.ps1'>>> '>>> sys.ps2'... '>>> sys.ps1 = 'C> 'C> print 'Yuck!'Yuck!C>

Jens Horst suggestion on showmedo comments

2007-11-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Jens Hors, a programming teacher, suggests that I shorten the lenght of the video, due to the human mind distracting easily after an aproximate period of 6 mins. and he is right, but perhaps I should leave it as is, and people can come back and play from where they left...

For pygame learners.

2007-11-14T20:57:00.000-08:00

If you know how to program in python in a basic level, and are interested in programming sprite games, you should definetely check Chuck Arellano and Florian Meyers approach to Pygame, with screencasts.

http://www.showmedo.com/videos/python?topic=gaming

Screencast tutorials on C

2007-11-14T20:47:00.000-08:00

Screencasts are now the most used resource on internet for showing someone how to do something on the computer. Professional developers are now showing how to program, create content for web, graphic applications, etc. , motivated by paying back to the internet community.

I have started the series of screencasts on the C programming language, I start though, with studying skills for programmers and gradually advance towards more advanced subjects.

http://www.showmedo.com/videos/video?name=1380000&fromSeriesID=138

I'll keep you updated, as soon as new videos are finished.