Schinckel.net

Komodo is really designed for scripting/interpreted languages. However, I quite like it (although it’s a bit sluggish, but that may be me), and I’d like to use it for the small amount of compiled stuff I do. For instance, I had cause to decompile, edit and recompile a Java application. I was able to edit it using Komodo IDE, however the debugger doesn’t work, and it doesn’t execute. I did come up with the following command that will check the modified dates on the source and target files, if necessary compile the source to byte code, and then execute the program. This is for Java only at this stage, however, I’m planning to extend it.

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    if test "%F" -nt "%b.class"; then 
    { 
        echo Compiling %F; javac "%F" ; 
        if test "$?" == "0"; then 
            echo Executing %b.class; java -classpath . "%b"; 
        fi; 
    } else {
        echo Compiled file %b.class is up to date; 
        echo Executing %b.class; java -classpath . "%b"; 
    } fi

This was all on one line in the Add Command… box:

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    if test "%F" -nt "%b.class"; then { echo Compiling %F; javac "%F" ; if test "$?" == "0"; then echo Executing %b.class; java -classpath . "%b"; fi; } else echo Compiled file %b.class is up to date; echo Executing %b.class; java -classpath . "%b"; fi

I’m actually going to go a bit further and create a toolbar for compiling programs, which may take the form of language extensions, or GUI extensions, or just plain macros and commands. The other thing I really liked about SubEthaEdit was that you can get the source code as HTML, that is, code that keeps the syntax colouring, which can be cut and pasted into your blogging client/whatever. I’ll have to try to build this too. There is already an extension out there, called Clipboard Helper Extension, that puts a new contextual menuitem into the mix that allows for copying as encoded HTML entities, or as a URL. This could be used as a basis for Copy as XHTML Source. Basically what I need to be able to do is get the editor’s data about syntax highlighting (preferably with the class names, such as string, and so on), and them mark up the plain text using this. Then escape the HTML entities (or do this first), and place into the clipboard. Finally, back onto Java source code. I can get it so that double-clicking on a Java Source file will cause it to be edited by Komodo, but only if Komodo is already running. It seems that on startup, it checks the filetype being passed to it, or something, and fails to load properly if it isn’t a predetermined type. It works with the predefined python, perl and so on, but not Java. Strange.

Apparently, Eve Online is written in Stackless Python.

Which should, in theory, make it easier to port to other platforms.

Perhaps.

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How cool is this.

Disctop

When you insert a CD into your iMac G5/iMac Core Duo, this makes it so the disc appears “in” the desktop.  Not the icon representing the disc, but an image that looks like the disc.  It’s in sync with the disc as it goes in, apparently, and looks just like the disc is actually appearing on the desktop…

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I’ve never been much of a fan of PowerPoint.  I’d used it a little at University, and then this year I actually had cause to have to use it again.  I have been teaching Stage 2 (final year of High School) Information Technology Studies, and this is a content-rich subject.  Rather than what I’ve been teaching in the past, which is more task-based, this actually requires me to act a little more like a teacher than a facilitator.

So, I’ve built a few PPT presentations over the past couple of months.  Mostly it has been okay, but today I started playing with Keynote.  This is a much faster tool for creating presentations than PowerPoint, but I haven’t had cause to actually use it in any way that is different to how I would use PowerPoint.

There is one neato feature: export to SWF.  Which means I can still create the presentation on a Mac, and easily export it to work on either a website or a local machine, of basically any vintage.

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I’ve been playing with (and loving) Komodo Edit for a few days, and I’m about to try Komodo IDE. Basically, for one reason: debugging. Particularly for teaching kids how to code, I think being able to step through a program line by line, and see all of the variables and their effects would be useful. I assume that Komodo IDE can do this (it’s being downloaded as we speak). I’ve managed to get some buttons to help with using Komodo Edit working, however there is one thing I’d love to be able to do, and that’s end the currently running script if it is running before attempting to execute the next one.

I’ve been with Wild Internet & Telecom for about 4 months now, which is my longest ADSL supplier. Admittedly, the one month I spent with Opti Internet (before Veridas went south) was the only other ADSL I had, so take that with a grain of salt. Anyway, a month or so ago, Wild IT went into Voluntary Administration. Which basically meant they weren’t viable as a company, or were being so badly managed they were about to go out of business. They were very quiet on the subject on their own site, however there was a huge debate on the Whirlpool forums regarding their imminent demise. And then, GoTalk stepped in and purchased the customers. Almost immediately, my speeds became very slow - but I put this down to the fact I had gone over quota about two days before the end of the month, and my shaping hadn’t been removed. So I put in a complaint. Then I received a phone call from a Help Desk operator, basically saying that their network was under significant load. Which I thought had to be a load of shit, since with the talk of the demise of Wild, customers had apparently been leaving in droves, which meant that for all of March, I was downloading at basically full speed for the whole month. Apparently, 1,955 MB is about as much as can be downloaded at 256kbps in one day. So, I felt that basically the concept of their network being congested was rubbish. And this was confirmed, at least partially, on Whirlpool, where people had comments from GoTalk stating that all users were being shaped. They claimed that it was because of network congestion, but I think it was to annoy all of the heavy users, and cause them to want to change ISP. I wasn’t able to get speeds faster than ~64kbps for about a week. Happily, that seems to have now changed. When I grabbed the latest Azureus 3 update from the BT network, it came down at 26kB/s, which is about flat out. Hopefully, this is the end of the crappy speed, and with Timmy B no longer being in control of my ISP, hopefully it’s the end of heaps of the bullshit. Having said that, I’m going to read the Gotalk terms and conditions very carefully. If they don’t match up with what WildIT was offering, then I might just have to go elsewhere. I was looking for a way to get out of the exit fee anyway…

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I’m loving Komodo. I’ve just discovered it, and I’m playing with the free “Edit” only version, not the full IDE. I’ve set up a couple of macros/commands to make coding in python easier, one which just executes the selection using python, and another which saves the current file, and then executes that. This should make it possible to replace most of what I do that requires a seperate window, however, the fine-grained ability to $ python -i Source.py and then type in commands is missing. I might need to try to build an extension that does that - allows for active manipulation of python code within the defined namespaces. Oh, and it works with just about every language, and on all major platforms. Bonus.

I’ve finally gotten access to an Intel Mac, and have installed Parallels on it. Pretty snappy, and easy to install. Currently installing AutoDesk Inventor, as that’s the only PC-only (other than Eve!) program I use. Actually, running Eve in a VM would be great, as then if it crashed my system the whole machine wouldn’t go down. Not that I’m sure it was Eve causing the crashes anyway…

I’ve commented before on how people use my template conversion, and remove the attribution to myself, and more importantly to Patricia, the original person who did all of the work on the template for vanilla wordpress. What is quite funny is that they remove the tags that attribute me, but usually leave in the AdSense code. Which means anyone clicking on ads on their blog will be doing me a favour. Not that I’ve ever got anything from AdSense. I can’t even log in, since there is a clash between my original AdSense login and my new hosted domain google account. Which they haven’t fixed, last time I checked. Perhaps I should write into the code that attribution needs to be left in. I must check…