Devblog #1: Welcome to Pixelino — The Birth of a Minimalist Pixel Art Drawing Tool

Oscar Ortiz — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 05:31:42 +0000

You can follow the project here: https://zitrocodee.itch.io/pixelino

Greetings, technology enthusiasts! 👋 I’m Zitrocode, and I’m thrilled to welcome you to my first devblog. Some of you may already know me from my “touch-win” and “inkwell” projects (although the latter, sadly, was abandoned). 😔 But today, I’m here to talk about Pixelino, my latest project. I promise this one won’t be abandoned, and to make sure of that, I’ve decided to make it public and keep a devblog of its development. In this space, I’ll share with you the entire creation process of my newest project: Pixelino, a minimalist pixel art drawing tool that will make it easier for people with no prior knowledge to enter this world.

For the past few months, I’ve been training in video game development and have discovered that creating pixel art is an incredibly useful skill in this field and other multimedia projects. However, during my search for pixel art tools, I found that many programs on the market were complicated to use or had a confusing interface for beginners.

That’s when I decided to create my own pixel art drawing tool: Pixelino. With this project, not only can I improve my programming and design skills, but also create an accessible and easy-to-use tool for other pixel art and game development enthusiasts.

With Pixelino, I aim to make the tools easy to find and use, without cluttering the space with tools that could confuse the user. Additionally, my goal is to create a minimalist tool that is accessible for those who are just entering the world of pixel art.

Through this series of devblogs, I’ll show you the entire creation process of Pixelino, from the technical details to the creative decisions behind its design. I’m excited for you to join me on this journey of creation, learning, and fun.

I plan to publish content almost every day so that you can closely follow the creation process of Pixelino and learn from my technical and creative decisions. I’ll show you every step I take in development, from selecting programming and design tools to usability testing and final release.

I want these devblogs to be not only a window into my creative process but also an invitation for us to embark on this exciting journey together. I’d love to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and feedback as we progress through Pixelino’s development. I hope this project will be a source of inspiration and learning for both me and all of you, and together we can create an incredible tool for pixel art.

Thank you for being a part of this project and for accompanying me on this creative adventure! ✨

How I created my first Open Source project

Oscar Ortiz — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 04:40:22 +0000

🧑‍💻 After using Linux for more than 2 years, I had to go back to using Windows as my only operating system, leaving behind the good times I had in Linux.

One of the things I haven't been able to overcome, and it's not my ex, has been the use of the terminal, as I could do anything quickly and easily.

Here's where I found a problem, specifically with the New-Item command, which only allows me to create one file per command. For example:

> New-Item src\index.js

You might ask me, "What's the problem?" Well, in Linux we have a command called touch which allows us to generate as many files as we want using only one command. For example:

> touch src/index.js src/components/Component.jsx src/utils/util.js

So I decided to create a CLI program called touch-win, which is written entirely in JavaScript. Someone might comment, "There are already programs that are an alternative to the touch command in windows," and that's really true. There are many programs, and they're not hard to find. You can look for them on npm, scoop, or any other package manager.

At this point, I present to you Touch-Win, my improved version of the touch command for all operating systems.

If I enjoy working in the terminal, one of the tasks I find most repetitive is creating folders and generating three or more files inside them. For example:

# Create folders
> mkdir -p ./src/components/Search

# Create files
> touch ./src/components/Search/index.js ./src/components/Search/Search.test.js ./src/components/Search/Search.css

I realized that this was a waste of time and energy, so I looked for a more effective solution.
This is where Touch-Win comes into play, as it perfectly solved the aforementioned tasks:

> touch-win ./src/components/Search/index.js ./src/components/Search.css ./src/components/Search.test.js

What's the difference? Well, Touch-Win has the ability to generate the missing folders, so you no longer need to use mkdir!

Another repetitive task is the file paths that need to be generated, in this case, .src/components/Search.

With the --base or -b option followed by the path, you no longer need to write the path again for each file, Touch-Win takes care of it for you. For example:

> touch-win -b ./src/components/Search index.js Search.test Search.css

Before publishing this blog, Touch-Win already has more than 500 downloads. Will you be the next to use it?
👉 Download Here

🧑‍💻 For a couple of months, I wanted to create something for the community after 2 years of dedicating myself professionally to software development. Today, with Touch-Win, I write my first Hello Open Source!.

Made with love by Oscar Ortiz, a technology enthusiast and passionate about open source code. This project is a personal effort to share knowledge and skills with the community. I hope it's useful for other developers and technology enthusiasts. Feel free to contribute or use this project in any way you want. Thank you for your interest and support!.

DEV Community: Oscar Ortiz

Devblog #1: Welcome to Pixelino — The Birth of a Minimalist Pixel Art Drawing Tool

How I created my first Open Source project