Design
September 23, 2007
1. High Display DPI (PPI) as well as new wide screen monitors is and apparently will be a continuing problem - distortion and small text. There are no simple solutions. My last research is on a separate page Monitor Resolution.html
Combined with browser differences, I really have no ideas about what to do next. Will probably try to streamline the site a bit, minimize the problems and work on organization.
November 13, 2006
To keep an eye on:
Microsoft is making its own entry into the field. (launched April, 2007 - as Expression Studio. - Silverlight, their plug-in competition for Flash Player has also launched - but it, like the new Flash CS3 requires a larger computer than I have so I will not be keeping up with these developements.)
http://www.publish.com/article2/0,1895,1914880,00.asp
Interactive Designer - Sparkle - WPF/E Windows Presentation
Foundation /Everywhere (old name-Avalon?)
... an alternative to Adobe's
popular Flash...Sparkle builds complete programs that have the potential to
access anything within the Windows operating system...
(So far), apparently, for professionals...(is this code only?)
not the occasional novice user.
(ror - i.e. - not me)
http://www.blink-media.com/jeffjoneslive/Expression-interactive-designer.asp
jeff jones...Over all...If your want to build something people
can use in the next five years use Flash...
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Flash versus Ajax
(ror - Ajax, as a programming language, is
essentilly beyond my capabilities in any event.)
Flash is better for creating... software demonstrations including audio and animated user interaction, (and...eye candy attention...animated cartoons and impressive personal websites.)
AJAX is better then Flash for creating the over all Rich Internet Applications...( web applications that have the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications)
July 7, 2006
Some alternatives to Flash are noted here: My conclusions so far, I'm staying with Flash but may want to take a closer look at Cinderella and Geometer's Sketchpad.
As I understand it, Flash is an artistic drawing program, it takes shortcuts with the math and physics for the sake of making appealing presentations, suitable for use on the internet. Game developers are emphatic that such shortcuts are needed, that you cannot get bogged down in details if you want to hold interest and make things "look right".
The drawings and animations involving time are a nice mechanical proceedure for learning some of the principles - some of which are not understood without this process. Flash does this better than anything else I've seen so far but it now does many other things and it's drawing tools have become more difficult through Flash 8. A new version "CSR" is now out (May 2007) and if I can get myself a newer computer I'll see what Adobe is a now up to.
Some understanding of Flash's limitations is necessary - perhaps from the geometry programs noted .
The geometry program "Cinderella" may be a practical solution for students to create such animations.
My thinking again, a principle method of learning is to create such animations - at as early an age as may be found practical.
http://cinderella.de/tiki-index.php
Geometer's Sketchpad and Cabri Geometry and a number of other programs and discussion forums etc. may be found at http://mathforum.org/dynamic.html
Sketchpad
http://www.keypress.com/sketchpad/
The following example may take a while to download:
http://www.keypress.com/sketchpad/javasketchpad/gallery/pages/sine_waver.php
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A GoogleSearch on May 14, 2006 has discouraged me from seeking immediate help from SVG technology.
http://gilbane.com/gilbane_report.pl/80/SVG__The_Future_of_Web_Rendering.html
A 2002 article...
"PDF and Flash are the only serious survivors here, and they both allow for more graphically sophisticated content."
April 5. 2005
I have spent some time experimenting with various color combinations and alternatives to solid colors, this has proven surprisingly difficult and no improvements have yet been discovered. I'll take a look at more flash sites for ideas. Some people may not be able to distinguish the colors used.
Sound - sometime maybe, there is a lot out there already and I am placing the visuals for complex motion of an air molecule ahead of everything else. Images of simple harmonic motion are commonplace - images of complex harmonic motion and the change from one pattern to the next are pretty much nonexistant but that is what happens when music is played. That is the nature of 'chord progression'. Some people cannot hear either but may appreciate the visual animations.
February 1, 2005
1. The design of the website is important, I chose the content long ago because of its fundamental educational significance and because I was interested enough to study it for some time. When the web came along it became the fundamental means of communication for the content so, how to use the web became the study.
2. I have tried to address 'Conceptual Problems' that might
benefit from the interactive, animated medium; if not actually solved, hopefully
they have not been made worse.
3. I have used mostly drawing techniques to date, verifying
my math with paper, pencil and calculator. It has some advantages in sketching
out design ideas and it allows "virtual experiments" to verify the math - up to
a point. The Tutorials page (Update>Tutorials) and the Links page show what
others are doing.
4. I think of the animations as supplements to lectures and treatises in the areas of Math, Science, and Music. They are experiments on how technology might be used, somewhat speculative, and subject to review by more qualified experts in those fields.
5. Ideally, they would appear so obvious, the viewer
wouldn't think he or she was learning anything. and yet be interested enough to
continue through the sequence stopping only occasionally to repeat a point or
two.
6. I would expect to address official educational standards
when I can be reasonably certain the math is sufficient and accurate enough for
the topic. Partial Differential Equations is the goal right now.
7. They follow some order in that as one concept was dealt
with, it raised another question and the next animation was undertaken. The
original animations are centered about "Wave Sums 2" - the very first animation
was "Travelling Waves 2" included in it.
8. A bit more organization of the Contents page seems needed
and some titles may be changed. The current titles are little more than working
filenames and they could be a little more descriptive. I would like the contents
page to guide the viewer - better than it does now. Some of these titles were
dreamed up on the spur of the moment, very late at night and may mean very
little to others.
9. The alphabetical index is ok - I dont want people to bog
down in detail here - the quicker they get on, get the idea, then get to the
actual work the more successful the animations are.
10. The largest file size allowed so far is about 65 kb,
< 25kb is preferred, fast download is essential. A single long movie is not
possible due to continuous updates and overly long download times.
11. (Feb 01, 2005) - The Source File Download may be
abandoned at some point, it is abridged to avoid copyright infringement issues
and it is difficult to update and upload.
12. I have followed the copyright requirements to the best
of my ability. The law however relies on tradition and precedent (even when
interpreting statutes).Such things are notably hard to pin down in cyberspace,
which reinvents itself by the nanosecond. For a non-comercial website, this one
should be OK.
13. Pop-up Blockers! I just want multiple images to be
viewable side by side for comparison. Blockers weren't around much when I
started and I didn't realize they might be a problem. I may need to reprogram
and retest a lot of buttons - not before I am ready to reorganize the Contents
page. It must be assumed that some people will not get through to the animations
until the change is made. With all the pop-up blockers, anti-virus, firewalls,
security keys, etc., surfing the net seems more like dragging on a suit of armor
and going out for a joust. In the meantime, turn off the blocker and keep an eye
on the taskbar.
14. The original idea of possible use on a PDA screen can be
seen by resizing the images. I am not pursuing that goal right now; too much
explanatory text has been used and I don't see how to work it into PDA
formatting.
15. Screen size had been restricted to the Flash default
(550x400) for the possible PDA use, therefore, there is some overcrowding and
considerable screen space is available for expansion of each of the animations.
It will no doubt be filled up all too quickly on some future update.
16. The ideal is one idea, one screenview. Difficult
sometimes but worthwhile - I don't even like the scrolling text bars and prefer
to shorten my text if possible.
17. The string, as the generator of the sound, is the
central focus in most of the animations.
18. I think of the string as a number continuum and all the
various tunings and segmentation as denumerations thereof. I do not know how far
this idea will get me or anyone else.
19. The guitar image itself is something of a modified,
simplified classical guitar. It is designed to be the principle stationary image
unifying all the motion around it. The fret spacings themselves are as accurate
as I could draw them - I will have to see if that cannot be improved with
actionscript.
20. The color background has been changed from yellow to
grey. This is not quite as "inviting" but involves less eye strain and
distracting "residual image" from the animation. Eye strain is a problem with
all colors, possibly less with gray. Hopefully flat panels will reduce the
strain and will become inexpensive enough to reduce the strain on our bank
accounts.
I am considering the possible use of alternate background colors one for use in bright lighting and one for surfing in a dimly lit enviornment. Contrast with the object colors causes considerable problems though -what is dimly lit in front of one color becomes glaringly bright with another
My thinking right now is that colors should have as little contrast as is necessary to distinguish the objects in the animation. the main object highlighted with a bit more contrast.I am experimenting with various cross-hatching and plaid combinations to replace solid colors which may be difficult to distinguish by color-blind viewers. Nothing has worked out very well so far.
21. The web pages titled "Literature" and "Math" contain
some citations to authority and small screen sized quotations I hope to work
cleverly into future animations.
22. Links to other sites do a lot of the explaining.
23. There is a considerable learning curve with Flash;
hardly any of the animations would be done the same way again. I believe file
size can be reduced 10-15% and more interactivity can be introduced at the same
time. Creative action scripting may increase speed and performance.
24. I have an idea for the buttons I would like to try - a
circle format with a combined on/off button in the center. This would take less
real estate and require less mouse movement for the interactivity features. The
next and previous buttons would remain as they are. I might learn something from
the computer gamers and will spend some time there.(Feb. 2005 - I have the
on/off button but no time for the redesign, yet.)