I’m trying to wind up the current version of pong, it just needs basic collision detection and response / scoring. Every time I settle down to finish that last 10% it seems to balloon to 90% in complexity, and just drags on and on.

With no visible light at the end of the tunnel, I’ve started experimenting with WebGL (and consequently JavaScript), Python and Unity. It’s surprising and disappointing how few free, suitable IDEs there are. The search for a (free) editor has lead me to Cloud9 IDE (web based), CodeLobster (which insists on using IE for previews) and Aptana (which is huge and Eclipse based). I haven’t tried Aptana yet, but both Cloud9 and CodeLobster provide code completion, which is good as I’m lazy and don’t feel like learning all the possible properties for WebGL, HTML5 and JavaScript objects.

Cloud9 is rather interesting and straigthforward to use, although occasionally it can be sluggish and I’m uncomfortable with it being web-based. There’s a local version available for Mac and Linux but, as I’m Windows based, CodeLobster will have to be my fall-back for now.

Using Unity and WebGL should allow me to post future projects on my web-site without the need for downloads, a good thing, I hope.

Python training is being provided via Coursera, it’s free, which is always nice.