Stay tuned to ammotin.com for more updates!

While I enjoy all the work I do, I do miss being closer to the machine. The average PC is ridiculously powerful these days, but your average web application can’t do much with that power.

I’ve switched my home desktop to Ubuntu recently, and loving it. But, there’s a few Windows apps I miss. What’s a developer to do? What is a developer, skilled in C++ GUI development, to do, eh? Answer me that.

The recent release of Qt4.5 and it’s accompanying licence change couldn’t have come at a better time. I had an itch to scratch, and it looked gooood. One simple install, and you have a great IDE, a GUI designer, and a stack of great classes and widgets. I was sold on the ease of integrating a WebKit browser and the fact I could build a ECMAScript based scripting engine for my app. But there’s so much more! I was a little skeptical of the smoke and mirrors behind the signals and slots paradigm, but having used it for a weekend, I’m sold.

Bottom line is that I spent more time writing my app than figuring out the framework. There’s hardly any “boilerplate” crap in each class. Once you’ve written your first signal and slot handler, you’re away. It’s all thriller, and no filler

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, recompiling for Windows and Mac is easy too. Qt doesn’t just get you closer to your machine, it gets you closer to *all* machines. Hallelujah, Flying Spaghetti Monster be praised, I’ve rediscovered a love of programming I didn’t know I’d lost.

Anyway…..

I don’t want to say too much about the app I’m writing, aside from the fact that it’s aimed at geocachers. It’s called Ammotin, and will probably get released much later in the year. I think it will be spectacular, because Qt has got me so fired up and focussing on the app, that I don’t need to worry too much about the framework.

Am I over excited?

On the big day I’ll be sending pics and reports to the team blog, and you’ll also be able to send us messages of support via SMS too.

We’re hoping to raise £1500 for Oxfam, so if you can possibly afford it, please consider sponsoring me.

You can keep track of our training and out how to sponsor us on our team blog at http://trailwalker.dixo.net

Fortunately, thanks to the geotools javascript library which I had a hand in creating, you can perform a reasonable WGS84 to OSGB conversion entirely on the client side.

So, within a few hours of the geocaching.com developers “breaking” their site, myself and others went and fixed it again with the wonder of Greasemonkey. You can find my script for inserting map links here.

My little parcel of land is up near Fort William, which is an area I’ve wanted to visit for some time, so I can’t wait to get up there and stand on my turf. I’ll leave a cache there too hopefully, probably called “Get Off My Land”

I wonder how many new geocachers the piece will create when it goes out next week?

I’m sure they’ll be impressed with the result – two skips filled with junk!

After that, it was time to retire to the pub and bask in the sunshine on what must have been the hottest day of the year so far.

Summer is here! Yay!