Friday, 02 May 2008With the launch of Google App Engine, I decided to give it a spin by rewriting PixelToy, a Java Applet (and backend server) that I wrote more than a decade ago to learn Java. This time, the technologies I'm trying out are jQuery, Ajax, and Python. PixelToy is a simple paint program where everyone who visits paints on the same canvas. The new Pixeltoy also lets you take a snapshot of your painting and see a gallery of pictures others have made; the gallery also has a feed. How it works: the PixelToy web page sends each brush stroke to the server when you release the mouse button and polls the server for updates. The polling gets slower for inactive users. (Warning: since anyone can paint anything they like and painting is anonymous, you never know what you'll find when you visit. I ask that visitors keep things generally "safe for work," but can't monitor it all the time.) 
(And yes, this is also an excuse to post a gratuitious squid picture.) |