Greetings!
When I started this blog, I promised myself I would do at least one post every month and try for one every two weeks.
That hasn't happened because of... you know.... life.
Anyway, now that we a month into the new year, I thought I would at least post something to let you know I am still alive.
What's Been Happening
After returning from a whirlwind trip and speaking in Pittsburgh back in October, I got to work on my next book, Hands-On Design Patterns with Qt. It has been taking a bit more of my time than I expected. I will say that I am learning a lot during the process and I am already starting to see both where I have been using design patterns for years and how I can more efficiently design things I am coding.
Finding A New Tool
One of the big things I had to figure out while writing my upcoming book was how to draw the pretty pictures I am using for illustrations. I am doing most of my work on Ubuntu Linux Machines, so Microsoft's Visio wasn't a good answer. What else was there?
State Machine Drawings
For state diagrams, I have been using the excellent SCXML Designer that is part of Qt Creator. It has allowed me to create state diagrams in Qt Creator, turn them into executable code, and even export them as PNG files.
This state diagram was a rather complicated example I came up with for a simple Cruise Control system. The really cool thing is that to add it to an existing Qt Project, I only had to tell the Qt project that I was using SCXML, create the diagram, and then import the header file for the working state machine.
I talk more about designing with State Machines in an earlier blog post, Designing with State Machines, and also in my book, Hands-On Embedded Programming with Qt.
With state machine drawings figured out, it left me looking for a tool for Class and Sequence Diagrams. Qt Creator has some support for modelling them, but it wasn't quite a feature rich as I wanted.
Class and Sequence Diagrams
I looked at a variety of solutions. I tried LibreOffice, but it didn't quite do what I wanted. Finally, I settled on the Dia Diagram Editor. It comes with optional support for UML and is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. This GPL'd software works very well for drawing both Class and Sequence Diagrams. Here are a couple of examples I did for Hands-On Design Patterns with Qt.
The fist is a simple class diagram for the Observer Pattern.
When Hands-On Design Patterns comes out, you will find many more diagrams created with Dia.
Speaking of books, I really should have mentioned this promotion about a month ago, when it started.
Book Sale!
Writing books is one of the things I really enjoy. Part of the enjoyment is in explaining and teaching new things, and another part is in learning new things on the way.
I keep a copy of my first book, Hands-On Embedded Programming with Qt, on my desk. I treat it much like a notebook. I will often crack the book open and look up the solution to the problem I am trying to solve in Qt. My skill is really in knowing where to find answers, not knowing all of the answers. That's why I refer to my book and other resources like Stack Overflow or the all encompassing search engine of my choice.
Lately, it has been Hands-On Embedded Programming with Qt. I put a lot of work covering just about every aspect of Qt I could fit in the book. While I wrote it for others to learn, I also wrote it for me so I could find the answers to problems I know I have already solved. (I expect my next book will be the same.)
Right now, Packt is finishing up a sales promotion on all of their books. You can pick up Hands-On Embedded Programming with Qt for $5 until the end of the promotion. Just follow this link:
Other Things
I have way too many other interests. One of those, Digital Photography, came back in a big way. A few months ago, I purchased a OnePlus 7 Pro [right before the 7T and 7T Pro came out -- duh!]. If you don't know the OnePlus brand, I wouldn't be surprised. They are a bit of a niche Android phone maker for people who are interested in good solid hardware, Android unburdened with bloatware, and reasonable prices. They listen to their customers and try hard to be customer focused. They have become known for their camera sections. The OnePlus 7Pro (and 7T and 7T Pro) feature three different hardware cameras: Normal, 3X and 0.3X, and they produce very nice quality pictures, sometimes exceeding older DSLRs. (I also carry a Nikon D7000, so I have a basis for comparison.)
Seeing as the OnePlus 7 Pro is easier to carry than my D7000, and I always have my phone on me, I am finding I am taking a lot of pictures with it and looking for opportunities to use it.
I also discovered a myriad of ports of Google's Pixel Phone Camera App. These ports can run on almost any Android phone and often offer a variety of customizations. This led to me seeking out even more software and configuration files to try and taking more photos. It's an endless cycle, but there are some cool things that have come out.
-John
#Qt5 #Qt #cplusplus #softwareengineering #embeddedprogramming #embeddedDevelopment #programming #embedded #designpatterns #swengineering #scxml #statecharts #statemachines #flckr #instagram #smugmug
