Author: John Winkelman

A Collection of Links Concerning Gary Snyder

John Winkelman

This is a collection of links to articles about, and interviews with, poet and environmentalist Gary Snyder. They are in roughly chronological order, and will be updated as time and interest allows.

“The Wild Mind of Gary Snyder”, Shambhala Sun interview, May 1996.

“The Art of Poetry”, Paris Review interview with GS, 1996.

GS in 2009 at U.C. Berkeley on the 50th anniversary of publishing RipRap. (video)

The Oregonian interview with GS, June 2011.

NCTV Interview with GS in 2012. (video)

“The Man in the Clearing”, Ian Sinclair discusses GS, London Review of Books, May 2012. (essay and video)

Simple Backbone/Marionette Example With Nested Views

John Winkelman

Here is the Javascript file:

/* create a new instance of the Marionette app */
var app = new Backbone.Marionette.Application();

/* add the initial region which will contain the app */
app.addRegions({
	/* reference to container element in the HTML file */
	appRegion: '#AppBase'
});

/* define a module to keep the code modular */
app.module('App',function(module, App, Backbone, Marionette, $, _){
	
	module.RegionOneLayoutView = Marionette.LayoutView.extend({
		
		/* specify element type of auto-generated container element */
		tagName: 'div',

		/* add ID attribute to the generated element */
		id: 'regionOneLayoutView',

		/* add class name to the generated element */
		template: '#layout-region-one',

		/* HTML template for this view */
		className: 'subLayout',
		initialize: function(){console.log('Region 1 Layout: initialize');},
		onRender: function(){console.log('Region 1 Layout: onRender');},
		onShow: function(){console.log('Region 1 Layout: onShow');}
	});

	module.RegionTwoLayoutView = Marionette.Layout.extend({
		
		/* specify element type of auto-generated container element */
		tagName: 'div',

		/* add ID attribute to the generated element */
		id: 'regionTwoLayoutView',

		/* add class name to the generated element */
		className: 'subLayout',

		/* HTML template for this view */
		template: '#layout-region-two',

		/* define UI events and assign event handlers */
		events: {
			'click .button1' : 'onButtonOneClicked',
			'click .button2' : 'onButtonTwoClicked',
			'click .button3' : 'onButtonThreeClicked'
		},

		/* click handlers for buttons */
		onButtonOneClicked: function(mouseEvent) {
			console.log('button one clicked');
		},
		onButtonTwoClicked: function(mouseEvent) {
			console.log('button two clicked');
		},
		onButtonThreeClicked: function(mouseEvent) {
			console.log('button three clicked');
		},
		initialize: function(){console.log('Region 2 Layout: initialize');},
		onRender: function(){console.log('Region 2 Layout: onRender');},
		onShow: function(){console.log('Region 2 Layout: onShow');}
	});

	/* define a view; in this case a 'Layout' */
	module.AppLayoutView = Marionette.Layout.extend({
		
		/* the auto-generated element which contains this view */
		tagName: 'div',

		/* id attribute for the auto-generated container element */
		id: 'AppContainer',

		/* reference to the template which will be rendered for this view */
		template: '#layout-template',

		/* define the regions within this layout, into which we will load additional views */
		regions: {
			'RegionOne' : '#regionOne',
			'RegionTwo' : '#regionTwo'
		},

		/* called when the view initializes, before it displays */
		initialize: function() {
			console.log('main layout: initialize');
		},

		/* called when view renders in the DOM. This is a good place to 
			add nested views, because the views need existing DOM elements
			into which to be rendered. */
		onRender: function() {
			console.log('main layout: onRender');
			/* create new instance of the region 1 layout view, and display it in Region1  */
			var regionOneLayoutView = new module.RegionOneLayoutView();
			this.RegionOne.show(regionOneLayoutView);

			/* create new instance of the region 2 layout view, and display it in Region2  */
			var regionTwoLayoutView = new module.RegionTwoLayoutView();
			this.RegionTwo.show(regionTwoLayoutView);
		},

		/* called when the view displays in the UI */
		onShow: function() {
			console.log('main layout: onShow');
		}
	});

	/* Tell the module what to do when it is done loading */
	module.addInitializer(function(){
		/* create a new instance of the layout from the module */
		var layout = new module.AppLayoutView();

		/* display the layout in the region defined at the top of this file */
		app.appRegion.show(layout);
	});
});

/* once the DOM initializes, start the app */
$(document).ready(function() {app.start();});

And here is the HTML document:

<!doctype html>
<html>
	<head>
		<title>Backbone/Marionette basic setup with nested views</title>
		<style type="text/css">
			body {
				background: #ffffff;
			}
			#AppBase {
				width: 100%;
				max-width: 960px;
				height: 480px;
				margin: 10px auto;
				padding: 0;
				float: left;
				outline: 1px solid #808080;
			}

			#AppContainer {
				margin: 0;
				padding: 0;
			}

			h1 {
				float:left;
				width:100%;
				margin:0;
				padding:0;
				text-align: center;
				height:100%;
			}
			.subLayout {
				float:left;
				width: 50%;
				height:200px;
				outline:1px solid #808080;
			}
			h2 {
				width:100%;
				text-align:center;
			}
			button {
				width: 75px;
				line-height:30px;
				text-align: center;
			}
		</style>
	</head>
	<body>
		<!-- Base element for app -->
		<!--
			Dont use the BODY element as the base because when the app renders in the BODY
			it will wipe out the template files before the views can pick them up 
		-->
		<div id="AppBase"></div>

		<!-- TEMPLATES -->
		<!-- main layout template -->
		<script type="text/template" id="layout-template">
			<h1>Main Template</h1>
			<div id="regionOne"></div>
			<div id="regionTwo"></div>
		</script>

		<!-- region 1 layout -->
		<script type="text/template" id="layout-region-one">
			<h2>Region 1 content</h2>
		</script>

		<!-- region 2 layout -->
		<script type="text/template" id="layout-region-two">
			<h2>Region 2 content</h2>
			<p>
				<button class="button1">One</button>
				<button class="button2">Two</button>
				<button class="button3">Three</button>
			</p>
		</script>
		<!-- libraries -->
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/underscore.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/backbone.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/backbone.marionette.js"></script>

		<!-- app code -->
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/script.js"></script>
	</body>
</html>

Links to necessary code libraries:

Lake Michigan, Mid-January 2014

John Winkelman

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1106″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

Four weeks after my Christmas Eve walk around Kirk Park I returned to Lake Michigan to see what had changed, and to try out my new camera.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1111″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

The extreme cold of the past few weeks increased the ice cover dramatically, and now the lake is covered out to near the horizon.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1116″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

The large piles of ice roughly correspond to where the sand bars or shallow regions near the beach appear in the summer.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1121″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

I walked out to the first large piles. I am certain the ice would have held me out much farther, but it was difficult walking; slick ice interspersed with patches of snow which might also be deep holes.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1126″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

After an hour here I drove up to Grand Haven State Park, where many people (comparatively) were enjoying themselves on the ice.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1131″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

The mouth of the channel was apparently the only open patch of water in this area, and therefore there were ducks in abundance.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1136″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

You can see the entire set here on Flickr.

Barebones Backbone/Marionette File

John Winkelman

I am posting this for two reasons: First, so that I have an easy place to go when I want to start a new Backbone/Marionette application and I don’t want to search around for a bare-bones template; and second, because when I started working with Backbone/Marionette I wish I could have found something like this; the equivalent of ‘Hello World’. Code follows, with comments therein.

/* create a new instance of the Marionette app */
var app = new Backbone.Marionette.Application();

/* add the initial region which will contain the app */
app.addRegions({
	/* reference to container element in the HTML file */
	appRegion: '#AppBase'
});

/* define a module to keep the code modular */
app.module('App',function(module, App, Backbone, Marionette, $, _){
	
	/* define a view; in this case a 'Layout' */
	module.GardenLayoutView = Marionette.LayoutView.extend({
		
		/* the auto-generated element which contains this view */
		tagName: 'div',

		/* id attribute for the auto-generated container element */
		id: 'AppContainer',

		/* reference to the template which will be rendered for this view */
		template: '#layout-template',

		/* called when the view initializes, before it displays */
		initialize: function() {
			console.log('initialize');
		},

		/* called when view renders in the DOM */
		onRender: function() {
			console.log('onRender');
		},

		/* called when the view displays in the UI */
		onShow: function() {
			console.log('onShow');
		}
	});

	/* Tell the module what to do when it is done loading */
	module.addInitializer(function(){
		/* create a new instance of the layout from the module */
		var layout = new module.GardenLayoutView();

		/* display the layout in the region defined at the top of this file */
		app.appRegion.show(layout);
	});
});


$(document).ready(function() {app.start();});

And here is the base HTML file, including references to all of the libraries which are required for creating a Backbone/Marionette application.

<!doctype html>
<html>
	<head>
		<title>Backbone/Marionette bare-bones setup</title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css"/>
	</head>
	<body>
		<!-- Base element for app -->
		<!--
			Dont use the BODY element as the base because when the app renders in the BODY
			it will wipe out the template files before the views can pick them up 
		-->
		<div id="AppBase"></div>

		<!-- TEMPLATES -->
		<!-- main layout template -->
		<script type="text/template" id="layout-template">
			<h1>This is a rendered template</h1>
		</script>

		<!-- libraries -->
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/underscore.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/backbone.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/backbone.marionette.js"></script>

		<!-- app code -->
		<script type="text/javascript" src="js/script.js"></script>
	</body>
</html>

The libraries which load in before the code for the script can be found here:

Each link also has information necessary for learning and implementing the libraries.

A Collection of Links Concerning Jim Harrison

John Winkelman

This post is a central point where I can collect articles about, and interviews with, the American author Jim Harrison. I’m trying to keep them in roughly chronological order. One interesting effect of this is listening to his voice change through the years, and being able to hear him in my head while reading the print articles.

The Art of Fiction No. 104 – Paris Review interview, Summer 1988

Between Dog and Wolf (French documentary on JH), 1993

Writers and Company interview with JH from 1994. (audio)

“Will Write for Food”; NYT interview with JH, April 1994.

Excerpt from a documentary c. 1997. (video)

Wild Duck Review interview with JH from 1997.

Joseph Bednarik interviews Jim Harrison, October 2000.

JH reading at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico – February 2002. (video)

JH conversation with Peter Lewis, February 2002 (video)

Robert Birnbaum interviews JH for The Morning News, June 2004.

Pleasures of the Hard-Worn Life – New York Times article 2007.

All Things Considered review of Returning to Earth, February 2007. (audio)

Interview for PlumTV, c. 2008. (video)

Article about Harrison’s Montana farm house; Wall Street Journal c. 2009.

PBS Newshour interview with JH, 2009. (video and transcript)

Daily Beast interview c. 2010.

Outside Magazine article about JH – “The Last Lion” c. 2011.

Interview with JH in Patagonia Arizona, February 2012. (video)

“Courage and Survival” essay by JH in Brick Magazine c. 2012.

Mario Batali interview Jim Harrison for Food & Wine Magazine, April 2013

“Four Meals with Jim Harrison” – HuffPost Books, May 2013

Q&A with Jim Harrison – Oregon Live, December 2013

“It Has to Come to You” – Jim Harrison discusses Theodor Roethke in The Atlantic, January 2014

“What I’ve Learned” – article in Esquire Magazine, August 2014

“A Prairie Prologue in Nebraska” – essay by JH in the New York Times, January 2015

“The Rodney Dangerfield of Literature” – essay in The Daily Beast, February 2015

“An Afternoon with Jim” – article in The Big Timber Pioneer, October 2015

The Gospel According to Jim – article in Angler’s Journal, February 2016

This page will be updated as I find more links.

Kirk Park, Christmas Eve 2013

John Winkelman

By Christmas Eve the ice had stopped falling and we had an inch or so of snow taking the edge off. This made it fairly easy to drive out to Kirk Park in time to catch the sunset over Lake Michigan. I have the entire set available for viewing on Flickr.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1071″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

The dune path leading to the water was covered by a shell of ice at least two inches thick. This was not obvious until I stepped on it and slid, feet out front like on a toboggan, to the bottom of the dune. Anyone on an actual sled probably could have easily made it to the waterline.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1076″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

The clouds came in from the west in two distinct layers; the higher ones which flowed to the horizon, and the lower ones which formed over the water and dropped lake-effect snow farther inland.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1081″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

On the beach the ice made for treacherous footing. Out in the water I could see some small chunks of ice floating and growing, and tiny ice crystals forming where the cold air pulled the heat from the water.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1091″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

On the shoreline the beginning of what would become huge piles of ice began to form.

[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”1101″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”480″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”640″}}]]

As they day wound down the sun came through at an oblique angle and created spots of brilliant color in an otherwise muted landscape.

A Walk Around Pickerel Lake

John Winkelman

The sky north of Grand Rapids looked blue, so I spent the late morning and noon hours wandering around Pickerel Lake. If you haven’t been, I recommend it highly. Pickerel Lake Park and Fred Meijer Nature Preserve is near the Cannonsburg Ski Area in the northeast part of Kent County.

I arrived at the park around 10:00; mine was the only car in the lot, and as far as I could tell, the first visitor of the day. There was some cloud cover, but it was thin, with the occasional shaft of light wandering across the lake. Everything was bright and shiny, but not blindingly so. And it was quiet. Barely any wind, and few cars to disturb the calm.

Pine trees along the northwest shore
From the boardwalk the ice was so bright against the trees on the north shore that the pines looked black.

Berries in ice
The only color to be had was that of the berries frozen to their branches and protected from the animals.

More ice
Many of the branches had ice coats so thick that the actual wood parts looked like imperfections in otherwise flawless crystal sculpture.

Looking southwest
The lake itself was perfectly smooth; the only details the remnants of dead trees and places where the wind had swept the ice clean of snow.

Southeast shore
About halfway around the lake the sun came out and turned the entire south shore to diamond.

Branches and ice
In among the trees the sun began melting and cracking the ice in the trees, and it sounded like wind chimes and electricity.

Ice and leaves
Instead of darkening the sky, the ice contrast made it the most brilliant blue imaginable.

See the entire set here on Flickr.

Solving Display Refresh/Redraw/Repaint Issues in Webkit Browsers

John Winkelman

So debugging on a phone is nowhere near as easy as debugging on a web application, if only because you can’t use the Chrome developer tools or Firebug effectively on a three-inch screen. Fortunately (for Android developers) there is a tool called the Dalvik Debug Monitor, which comes packaged with the Android SDK. It listens to any logs coming from the phone, assuming the phone on which you are testing an app is plugged into your computer via USB cable. Works pretty well, once you get the quirks sorted out.

Anyway: on the recently completed project I came across a bug where, when updating the text content of an element on the screen, the interface refused to update until another event fired in a nearby (DOM-wise) element. Debugging was a pain, because all of the traces I had running told me that yes, all of my Javascript functions had fired, and yes, the content of the element was correct. But the screen itself still showed the old content.

Turns out, this is a Known Issue for Webkit browsers (Chrome, Safari). Sometimes, when updating an inline element or style, the browser does not redraw/repaint the screen until a block-level change happens in the DOM. This bug  most often occurs when there is a lot going on in the page, and the browser seems to assume that, if the change is not happening at the block (which is to say, layout), level, then it is less important.

Fortunately, solving the issue is MUCH easier than diagnosing it. A simple, quick update to the offending element (or its parent) will force the browser to repaint the screen. Here are a few different ways to accomplish this:

/*	Silently append and remove a text node	
	This is the fix that worked for me in the Phonegap/Android application
	the setTimeout allows a 'tick' to happen in the browser refresh,
	giving the UI time to update
*/
var n = document.createTextNode(' ');
$('#myElement').append(n);
setTimeout(function(){n.parentNode.removeChild(n)}, 0);


/*	Hide and reshow the element	*/
document.getElementById('myElement').style.display='none';
document.getElementById('myElement').offsetHeight; // no need to store this anywhere, the reference is enough
document.getElementById('myElement').style.display='block';


/*	The same thing using jQuery	*/
$('#myElement').hide();
$('#myElement').get(0).offsetHeight; // no need to store this anywhere, the reference is enough
$('#myElement').show();


/*	Set the scale of the element to 1. 
	This doesn't actually change anything visually, 
	because by default everything in the browser 
	is set to scale 1	*/

document.getElementById('myElement').style.webkitTransform = 'scale(1)';

The first one is the one I used. I was using jQuery so this simplified things just a bit. All of the other fixes are valid, but the one I used was the only one that actually worked for me in the PhoneGap application.

For further reference, here are the resources I used while tracking down and solving the bug:

Time Keeps On

John Winkelman

Over four months after my last entry here, I find time for another one.

Life got busy for me right at the beginning of May. Master Lee went on vacation, visiting his students in Vietnam and Australia, so class suddenly became much busier. This continued right up through Memorial Day and into the Festival of the Arts performance. I turned 43 on June 5, and took the next week off from work. Spent a few days exploring Traverse City, then suddenly started a new relationship with a beautiful, amazing woman. This led directly to me being involved in a summer solstice celebration, where I collaborate with some people to project Flash visuals (fire, water, evolving plants, snowflakes) on the side of a barn and silo. Right after that, a big project kicked off at work, and that has kept me pretty busy since then.

The work has been interesting. It is a PhoneGap project, using a lot of HTML5/CSS3/jQuery and associated technologies. We used an in-house MVC platform, which was a first for me (using MVC, that is), so I had to negotiate quite a learning curve. Also learned a tremendous amount about jQuery Deferreds, hardware-accelerated CSS animations, custom event listeners, and how the MVC stack keeps disparate parts of an app in synch. I discovered how frustrating it can be to debug mobile applications. The Dalvik Debug Monitor, as good as it is generally, does tend to crash with irritating frequency. Fortunately, 90% of debugging can be done in a desktop browser. But holy cow, can that last 10% be frustrating.

Okay; enough of this for now. When I have time I will post a list of the specific issues I came across, and how I solved them.

Kohonen Map in Actionscript 3

John Winkelman

Kohonen Map in Actionscript 3

This image is the output of a Kohonen Map, also called a self-organizing map, which is a type of simple neural network, mostly used for sorting and grouping large data sets. I am fairly happy with the results.

This is something I have wanted to do for about four years, starting with a project I worked on back in 2008. Click the image to launch the app. Once launched, click “PLAY/PAUSE” to begin; click “RESET” to restart the sorting process, and change the value in the “grid size” input field to change the dimensions of the color grid. Be careful; anything above 100 (e.g., 10,000 squares) will begin to run slowly.

To create the app, I started with Processing source code I found at jjguy.com. Translating the code to Actionscript 3 took about four hours, and another four to tweak and test and modify to accommodate Flash-specific functionality. All in all, it was surprisingly easy.

The code follows. There are three parts; Main.as, which is contains the UI, global variables, and initialization code; SOM.as, which is the code for the map, and Node.as, which contains the code for the individual blocks of color.

All of the source code, including compiled .swf, can be downloaded here.

 

Main.as

package {
    import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.display.StageAlign;
	import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
    import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.events.TimerEvent;
	import flash.text.TextField;
	import flash.text.TextFieldType;
	import flash.text.TextFormat;
	import flash.utils.Timer;
    [SWF(width=720,height=480,frameRate=32,backgroundColor=0x000000)]
    public class Main extends Sprite {
		[Embed(
			source='C:/WINDOWS/Fonts/ARIAL.TTF', 
			fontName='ArialEmbed', 
			unicodeRange='U+0020-U+002F,U+0030-U+0039,U+003A-U+0040,U+0041-U+005A,U+005B-U+0060,U+0061-U+007A,U+007B-U+007E', 
			mimeType="application/x-font-truetype", embedAsCFF="false"
		)]
		private static var _arialEmbed:Class;
		
		internal var _timer:Timer;

		private var isPlaying:Boolean = false;
		
		private var btnPlayPause:Sprite;
		private var btnReset:Sprite;
		private var txtIterations:TextField;
		private var txtGridSize:TextField;
		private var colorTextBG:int = 0xcccccc;
		private var btnTextFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat("ArialEmbed",12,0x333333,null,null,null,null,null,"center");
		private var labelTextFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat("ArialEmbed",12,0xededed,null,null,null,null,null,"right");
		private var inputTextFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat("ArialEmbed",12,0x000000,null,null,null,null,null,"left");

		private var som:SOM;
		private var iter:int;
		private var maxIters:int = 4000;
		public var screenW:int=480;
		public var screenH:int=480;
		private var gridSize:int = 40;

		private var rgb:Array = [
			[1,1,1],
			[0,0,0],
			[1,0,1],
			[1,0,0],
			[0,1,0],
			[0,0,1],
			[1,1,0],
			[0,1,1],
			[1,.4,.4],
			[.25,.25,.25]
		];
		
        public function Main():void {
            addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE,onAddedToStage);
        }
        private function onAddedToStage(e:Event):void {
            removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE,onAddedToStage);
			stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
			stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
            init();
        }
        private function init():void {
			_timer = new Timer(10);
			_timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER,onTimer);
			initInterface();
			initMap();
			_timer.start();
        }
		
		/*	create and populate the UI elements	*/
		private function initInterface():void {
			var txtIterationsLabel:TextField = getTextField("Iterations",10,160,80,20,labelTextFormat);
			addChild(txtIterationsLabel);
			
			txtIterations = getTextField("0",100,160,50,20,labelTextFormat);
			txtIterations.selectable = false;
			addChild(txtIterations);
			
			var txtGridSizeLabel:TextField = getTextField("GRID SIZE",10,200,80,20,labelTextFormat);
			addChild(txtGridSizeLabel);
			
			txtGridSize = getTextField(gridSize.toString(),100,200,80,20,inputTextFormat);
			txtGridSize.background = true;
			txtGridSize.backgroundColor = 0xffffff;
			txtGridSize.border = true;
			txtGridSize.borderColor=0xcccccc;
			txtGridSize.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;
			txtGridSize.restrict = "0-9";
			addChild(txtGridSize);
			
			var playPauseButton:Sprite = getTextButton("PLAY/PAUSE",20,300,80,20);
			playPauseButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,function(e:Event):void {
				isPlaying = !isPlaying;
			});
			addChild(playPauseButton);
			
			var resetButton:Sprite = getTextButton("RESET",120,300,80,20);
			resetButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,function(e:Event):void {
				iter=1;
				gridSize = parseInt(txtGridSize.text);
				maxIters = gridSize*100;
				som.init(maxIters,gridSize,gridSize);
				updateMap();
			});
			addChild(resetButton);
		
		}
		
		/*	create and initialize an instance of the map 	*/
		private function initMap():void {
			som = new SOM(gridSize,gridSize, 3,screenW,screenH);
			som.x = 240;
			som.y = 0;
			addChild(som);
			iter = 1;	
			som.init(maxIters,gridSize,gridSize);
			updateMap();
		}
		
		/*	called on every tick of the timer	*/
		private function onTimer(e:TimerEvent):void {
			if(isPlaying) updateMap();
			e.updateAfterEvent();
		}
		
		/*	tell the map to make another iterations through the data, then render it to the screen	*/
		private function updateMap():void {
			var t:int = Math.floor(Math.random()*rgb.length);
			if (iter < maxIters){
				som.train(iter, rgb[t]);
				som.render();
				txtIterations.text = iter.toString();
				iter++;
			}
		}
		
		/*	functions for building interface elements	*/
		private function getTextField(txt:String,x:int,y:int,w:int,h:int,format:TextFormat):TextField {
			var tf:TextField = new TextField();
			tf.x = x;
			tf.y = y;
			tf.width = w;
			tf.height = h;
			tf.embedFonts = true;
			tf.text = txt;
			tf.setTextFormat(format);
			tf.defaultTextFormat = format;
			return tf;
		}
		private function getTextButton(txt:String,x:int,y:int,w:int,h:int):Sprite {
			var s:Sprite = new Sprite();
			s.x = x;
			s.y = y;
			s.graphics.lineStyle(1,0x808080,1,true);
			s.graphics.beginFill(colorTextBG,1);
			s.graphics.drawRect(0,0,w,h);
			s.graphics.endFill();
			s.buttonMode=true;
			s.mouseChildren = false;
			s.useHandCursor=true;
			var t:TextField = new TextField();
			t.width=w;
			t.height=h;
			t.selectable = false;
			t.embedFonts = true;
			t.text = txt;
			t.setTextFormat(btnTextFormat);
			t.defaultTextFormat = btnTextFormat;
			t.wordWrap = false;
			t.multiline=false;
			s.addChild(t);
			return s;
		}
    }
}

 

SOM.as

package {
	import flash.display.Bitmap;
	import flash.display.BitmapData;
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.geom.Point;
	import flash.geom.Rectangle;
	public class SOM extends Sprite {
		public var mapWidth:int;
		public var mapHeight:int;
		public var nodes:Array;
		public var radius:Number;
		public var timeConstant:Number;
		public var learnRate:Number = 0.05;
		public var inputDimension:int;
		private var pixPerNodeW:Number;
		private var pixPerNodeH:Number;
		
		private var canvasWidth:int;
		private var canvasHeight:int;
		private var canvasData:BitmapData;
		private var canvas:Bitmap;
		
		public var learnDecay:Number;
		public var radiusDecay:Number;
		
		/*	constructor	*/
		public function SOM(w:int,h:int,n:int,mapW:int,mapH:int):void {
			mapWidth = w;
			mapHeight = h;
			radius = (h + w) / 2;
			inputDimension = n;
			canvasWidth = mapW;
			canvasHeight = mapH;
			canvasData = new BitmapData(canvasWidth,canvasHeight,false,0x000000);
			canvas = new Bitmap(canvasData);
			addChild(canvas);
			
		}
		/*	initialize the map	*/
		public function init(iterations:int,w:int,h:int):void {
			mapWidth = w;
			mapHeight = h;
			radius = (h + w) / 2;
			pixPerNodeW = canvasWidth/mapWidth;
			pixPerNodeH = canvasHeight/mapHeight;
			nodes = [];
			for(var i:int = 0; i < mapHeight; i++){
				nodes[i] = [];
				for(var j:int = 0; j < mapWidth; j++) {
					nodes[i][j] = new Node(inputDimension, mapHeight, mapWidth);
					nodes[i][j].x = i;
					nodes[i][j].y = j;
				}//for j
			}//for i
			timeConstant = iterations/Math.log(radius);
			learnDecay = learnRate;
			radiusDecay = (mapWidth + mapHeight) / 2;
		}
		/*	iterate through and update the weights of each node	*/
		public function train(i:int,w:Array):void {  
			radiusDecay = radius*Math.exp(-(i/timeConstant));
			learnDecay = learnRate*Math.exp(-(i/timeConstant));
			//get best matching unit
			var ndxComposite:int = bestMatch(w);
			var x:int = ndxComposite >> 16;
			var y:int = ndxComposite & 0x0000FFFF;
			//scale best match and neighbors...
			for(var a:int = 0; a < mapHeight; a++) {
				for(var b:int = 0; b < mapWidth; b++) {
					var d:Number = dist(nodes[x][y].x, nodes[x][y].y, nodes[a][b].x, nodes[a][b].y);
					var influence:Number = Math.exp((-1 * Math.pow(d,2)) / (2*radiusDecay*i));
					if (d < radiusDecay) {      
						for(var k:int = 0; k < inputDimension; k++) {
							nodes[a][b].w[k] += influence * learnDecay * (w[k] - nodes[a][b].w[k]);
						}//for k
					}	//if d
				} //for j
			} // for i
		} // train()
		
		
		/*	functions used by training method, for calculating node weights and distances	*/
		public function dist(x1:Number,y1:Number,x2:Number,y2:Number):Number {
			return Math.sqrt( Math.pow(x2 - x1,2) + Math.pow(y2 - y1,2) );
		}
		public function distance(node1:Node, node2:Node):Number {
			return Math.sqrt( Math.pow(node2.x - node1.x,2) + Math.pow(node2.y - node1.y,2) );	
		}
		public function bestMatch(w:Array):int {
			var minDist:Number = Math.sqrt(inputDimension);
			var minIndex:int = 0;
			for (var i:int = 0; i < mapHeight; i++) {
				for (var j:int = 0; j < mapWidth; j++) {
				var tmp:Number = weight_distance(nodes[i][j].w, w);
					if (tmp < minDist) {
						minDist = tmp;
						minIndex = (i << 16) + j;
					}  //if
				} //for j
			} //for i
			return minIndex;
		}
		public function weight_distance(x:Array, y:Array):Number {
			if (x.length != y.length) {
				//	trace("Error in SOM::distance(): array lengths don't match");
			}
			var tmp:Number = 0.0;
			for(var i:int = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
				tmp += Math.pow( (x[i] - y[i]),2);
			}
			tmp = Math.sqrt(tmp);
			return tmp;
		}
		
		/*	render node information to the screen	*/
		public function render():void {
			for(var i:int = 0; i < mapWidth; i++) {
				for(var j:int = 0; j < mapHeight; j++) {
					var r:Number = (nodes[i][j].w[0]*255);
					var g:Number = (nodes[i][j].w[1]*255);
					var b:Number = (nodes[i][j].w[2]*255);
					var c:Number = r << 16 ^ g << 8 ^ b;
					canvasData.fillRect(new Rectangle(i*pixPerNodeW, j*pixPerNodeH, pixPerNodeW, pixPerNodeH),c);
				} // for j
			} // for i
		} // render()
	}
}

 

Node.as

package {
	public class Node {
		public var x:int;
		public var y:int;
		public var weightCount:int;
		public var w:Array;
		public function Node(n:int,X:int,Y:int):void {
			x = X;
			y = Y;
			weightCount = n;
			w = [];
			for(var i:int = 0;i<weightCount;i++) {
				w.push(Math.random()*.5+.25);
			}
		}
	}
}