Site Update

I've been doing some general maintenance of my blog and website, so I can finally start posting again. Highlights of what I've updated:

• My About Me Page
• My Longer Bio
• My Resume in various formats

I've also added a Where to Find Me page to catalog all of the places on the Internet to find me.

As I noted above, I've updated my resume as I am currently looking for either short-term contract work, or, preferably a full-time position. My primary professional experience has been in Java, Python, and C++, working on server-side or cross-platform software. I have a passion for software tools -- using, creating, and tweaking. Linux has been my primary development environment for the last 8 or 9 years.

I'm primarily interested in positions in Utah or telecommuting. If I have skills or experience that might fit for a position for you, please don't hesitate to email me.

Syndicated 2008-09-17 05:23:00 from Travis B. Hartwell / Software Craftsman

Iswitch-window handler update

I keep meaning to announce that my iswitch-window deskbar handler as described here, has now been included in the core Gnome Deskbar Applet distribution, as seen in the 2.15.1 announcement. Any further changes or improvements will go directly into deskbar cvs.

Enjoy! Thanks Raph and team for a great project and including my contribution!

Syndicated 2007-07-27 00:46:00 from Travis B. Hartwell / Software Craftsman

Redirecting stderr and stdout to a file plus displaying them

It has taken me ages to figure this out. Googling has been fruitless. Finally, after some tinkering, I was able to figure out how to properly redirect stdout and stderr to a file plus display them from within a script. Here's the idiom:

#!/bin/bash

OUTPUT_LOG=output.log
OUTPUT_PIPE=output.pipe

if [ ! -e $OUTPUT_PIPE ]; then
    mkfifo $OUTPUT_PIPE
fi

if [ -e $OUTPUT_LOG ]; then
    rm $OUTPUT_LOG
fi

exec 3>&1 4>&2
tee $OUTPUT_LOG < $OUTPUT_PIPE >&3 &
tpid=$!
exec > $OUTPUT_PIPE 2>&1

echo "This is on standard out"
echo "This is on standard err" >&2

exec 1>&3 3>&- 2>&4 4>&-
wait $tpid

rm $OUTPUT_PIPE

It works but it might not be entirely correct, particularly the exec &> /dev/null. Improvements or suggestions are welcome.

Update: Figured it out. I had to store stderr and then restore stdout and stderr and close the fd that I stored them in.

Update update: Looked back and realized I had a typo on my first exec line.

Syndicated 2007-07-27 00:46:00 from Travis B. Hartwell / Software Craftsman

Quick pop-up of Tomboy notes

I've started using Tomboy to keep track of my tasks lists, to keep random notes, whatever. I've found it to be very useful.

I am always seeking to be more productive and find ways to reduce the amount of distraction in my life. One example: if I am in the middle of working on a project and remember I have to pick something up on my way home from work, I want to quickly jot that down so I don't forget. But I don't want to interrupt the concentration that I have on the task at hand. Tomboy is an ideal solution for this. I am trying to implement a GTD-like system, so I have a Tomboy note titled "GTD Inbox". The idea is to put all of those things that need to be processed and remembered in my "GTD Inbox" to be dealt with later.

Normally, to get to do this, I would have to click on the Tomboy icon in the notification area and select the note title. Alternately, I would hit Alt-F12 to pop up the same menu and move down with the arrow keys and hit Enter. If I am trying to minimize the interruption of the original task, that's too much. I'd rather rely on "muscle memory" -- something that is as natural as pressing Alt-Tab to switch between windows.

With the help of Alex Gravely (thanks Alex!), I was able to come up with a popup_note.sh that uses dbus-send to open up a specified note. With that, I could set a hotkey in Metacity for each of the important notes. For example, at work Windows-i opens "GTD Inbox", Windows-n opens "Next Actions" (my list of next actions for all of my projects, GTD-style), and Windows-t opens "Today" (my list of goals and tasks for the day).

So, back to my "remember to pick up the milk" example. All I'd do is hit Windows-i, type "Pick up Milk", and hit Escape. The Note goes away and I'm back at doing whatever I was doing previously. Wonderful.

To use the script, just pass the title of the note on the commandline, like so:

 $ popup_note.sh GTD Inbox

If you want to set up global hotkeys in Metacity, do this:

 $ gconftool-2 -t string -s /apps/metacity/global_keybindings/run_command_1 "<Mod4>i"
 $ gconftool-2 -t string -s /apps/metacity/keybinding_commands/command_1 "popup_note.sh GTD Inbox"

Download popup_note.sh.

This and other scripts will be linked from my Random Code page. Hopefully something there will be useful.

Syndicated 2007-07-27 00:46:00 from Travis B. Hartwell / Software Craftsman

New Blog

I'm moving my blog from LiveJournal to my own domain. I'm using PyBlosxom, and so far I'm pretty pleased.

I plan on blogging more now that I have greater flexibility and control.

Watch this space.

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Syndicated 2007-07-27 00:46:00 from Travis B. Hartwell / Software Craftsman