Right, Blog!

Yes, I do have one such thing.  And I should really write in it more often.

So, I've been doing a lot of cosmetic changes to the application in preparation for a first release to the Android market.  I have moved the Main Activity to be a new screen which allows the user to select which type of game they are playing; I have also modified the background colors of the countdown timers to be inline with official USCAA countdown timers.

The next major task will be to finish up the score reporting activity that shows at the end of the round.  After that, I should be very close to preparing for first launch.

Development Progress!

I tried really, really hard to think of a catchy title for this post.  Really.

Despite the unimpressive blog post title, I am very happy to announce that development on Archer's Friend is coming along amazingly!  This is my first Android application, and also my first major venture in Java programming, so there is a lot to learn.

The primary functions of the application take place in two activities: Timer and Score Keeper.  The Timer activity keeps care of all the timing portions of the application, that is preparation timer and the shooting timer.  The application then transitions into the Score Keeper to allow the archer to record his score for the round.

There will also be a third activity, which will be invoked at the end of the round.  It will report on the archer's score and export the score report to a spreadsheet for future analysis.

So far, I have timers working perfectly and the transition into the Score Keeper activity.  Score Keeper still needs a little work, but progress is good!

Hello RCOS!

Hi RCOS!

This is the blog for my RCOS project in the Spring '13 term, called "Archer's Friend".  Archer's Friend is an Android application to help competition archers time rounds and keep track of score.  The application will also allow the user to export score reports to spreadsheet via Google Drive.

I understand that my 1-minute presentation at the RCOS meeting last week may have left many people confused; it was such a brief time to explain the purpose of the application, especially to audience members unfamiliar with competition archery.  From my proposal, here is an overview of a typical archery competition round and how the Archer's Friend application will aid the shooter through each step:

• Initial countdown: Archers have ten seconds to advance from the staging area to the firing line. The Archer's Friend application will implement a countdown timer for all the timed phases of an archery round.
• Firing countdown: Archer's have two minutes to fire an 'end' of three arrows. The Archer's Friend will move seamlessly from the initial countdown to the firing countdown without input from the user, so that the can concentrate on shooting.
• Pulling and scoring: This is the phase where the archers advance to the targets to score and recover the arrows. In collegiate archery, this phase is not timed, to ensure that each arrow is properly scored. The Archer's Friend application will advance automatically after the firing countdown expires, to allow the shooter to enter in the score for each arrow of the round.
• Repeat: When the last archer returns to the staging area from pulling their arrows, the process begins again. A typical archery game lasts for 10, 15, or 20 rounds. The Archer's Friend application will keep track of the round counter and will add up the archer's score at the end of the game.

I'm still working on defining the timeline for development-this is my first venture into Android so I predict I will be a little slow at first while I get my bearings, and then be able to speed up a few weeks in once I get the hang of things.