Older blog entries for superant (starting at number 75)

Neat new option for RubyWebDialogs. I forwarded to the developer today. If you put <meta http-equiv='Refresh' content=5> into you html header, the browser will try to update content from the server every 5 seconds. This should give us much more automatic screen updates for rwd applications. My next app for rwdtinker will be an on screen clock with alarms. http://rubyforge.org/projects/rwdapplications/

Have a big project to do at work. PHP & Mysql. Just beat me with a stick, please.

8 Dec 2004 (updated 8 Dec 2004 at 15:39 UTC) »

Refactored rwdcalendar. Makes it more international. Someone can put there locale in the configuration file in $lang and the calendar should give them a locale specific month printout.

http://rubyforge.org/projects/rwdapplications/

Another thing about the rwdtinker framework is that it should be trivial to build a code generator for non-programmers to use. This comes from using RubyWebDialogs and the Tinker framework. I am mirroring downloads at http://developer.berlios.de/

The Dr Dobbs Linux digest is out for November. http://www.ddj.com/maillists/linuxdigest/

Time to start working on December DDJ Linux Digest.

Many updates to the rwdtinker project.

http://rubyforge.org/projects/rwdapplications/

Worked on updating the shell programs to work with the framework. Had a lot of problems getting the shell scripts running on my Linux machine correctly. Finally used the backtick method of passing shell commands from Ruby to the operating system. That seemed to work the best to capture the output of the command so I can print it to the browser window with RubyWebDialogs.

Tested shell commands and rwddemo on XP today. It is gratefying that the just work. After I did all the development on Linux. Now if only I had a Mac to test it on.

More development of rwdtinker. http://rubyforge.org/projects/rwdapplications/

I have accidentely stumbled on some very interesting ways to develop software for RubyWebDialogs.

I split the source code and the gui code into atomic parts and use init.rb to merge the parts together.

With the newest framework I am using the last couple of days, I am able to ship a "plugin" or as I calling them "applet" that can be dropped into a directory and installed automatically. Also uninstalled. I am calling this framework Tinker, so the core program I call rwdtinker. My wife, Charlotte. suggested the name. It relates to the the "Tinker Toys" that has blocks and dowls and shapes that can be assembled by children and take different shapes. Without the word toy, it reminds us if the older English meaning of "a person who repairs pots and household devices by soldering and hammering.

The delivered applet is setup in the required directory structure with code configueration gui including help files location of documentation rwd_files = where documention for the applet can go. installed = a inf file that lists the manifest of files

This package is zipped up and uploaded as a file like rwdashedule-0.2.zip

The enduser who has the rwdtinker program drops the zip file into a directory called zips. I have parts of rwdtinker now (for Linux) that can install it automatically and remove it (based on the .inf file)

I believe most of the framework works on XP and Mac now. The zip file would have to be manually unzipped by XP or Mac users today, but there is supposed to be a crossplatform ruby way to remove the files (just using FileUtils.rm) that should replace the Linux method I am using now (rm unix command called from rwdtinker) Also there is a module called zipfile that someone has developed for Ruby. I have not figured how to use it yet, (this whould work to install on all platforms)

It is exciting that this framework works toward 2 computer science "Holy Grails" reusable code, by just drop in and play, and with RWD, cross platform GUI I also like that people wanting to make a simple little application would not have to think much about the GUI. RWD is not much more complicated than formatting text output. Also since RWD is so light weight, people who are not allowed to install "software" on their computer, can probably still use RWD, by dropping it into a directory on the computer they have write access to.

I understand RWD is weak on intense graphics and high interaction. Some day that might be addressed with more use of javascript.

This note was sent to the author of RubyWebDialogs http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/rubywebdialogs/index.html

working on shell script rwdshell.

http://rwdapplications.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl

Just added some limited script running ability. I need to add the ability to add new scripts. The developer has released a new version of RubyWebDialogs. I see there are panels in the new version.

I was again impressed the rapidity of modifications. Using this GUI, with the Code Modularity method I use, I was able to extent the program with two tabs to use just by code and gui files directly into the directorys in rwdshell. They just worked. I did end up changing variable names to reduce namespace pollution. I should be able to fix that in the future by basing variable names on the method names.

13 Nov 2004 (updated 26 Nov 2004 at 07:48 UTC) »

Started work on some little applications that use the RubyWebDialogs GUI

http://rwdapplications.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.pl

A little movie lookup screen, a shell command runner and a tiny little address database.

Well this political stuff is keeping me busy. I am surprised no one says anything about Howard Dean, here.

I am trying to install Drupal website software. Having a hard time.

I enjoyed getting Linux on my Sony Vaio PCG-V505BX. I will have to write up my experiences. Pretty much everything is working except suspend.

I got arrested at the Downtown Los Angeles Federal building. That will teach me not to do peace protesting.

I have not done anything on the computer forever. Except I got a Palm m500 and am syncing everywhere and AvantGoing. IS that a verb.

6 Dec 2002 (updated 6 Dec 2002 at 20:02 UTC) »

Good thing I did not write the diary yesterday like I planned to.

I hated Linux. I am installing on 10 old Pentiums. I have tried: Redhat 8.0, Suse 7.3, Corel 1.1, Progeny 1.0 As you can guess it has not gone well. The main problem has been X video detection. I have since learned it is Compaq's fault. So I am not as mad at Linux as I was.

I just delivered 10 other computers to a middle school across town. It is nice being Santa Claus, but the gravy train is almost over. There is alot of demand for donated computers. You would think with all my experience with non-profits I would be able to start an organization that could recycle old cast-offs, but it seems like too big a job to me.

Well, my boss did something that makes me crazy (mad as in rabid) She said it is Karen's birthday, so could I cover the phones, so everyone else could go out to lunch. WHAT!!! so of course I said ok. See what bad child rearing can do.

I have given 10 computers to an after school program and 15 computers to a middle school. With the cooperation of 3 orgs we have managed to move some computers.

I am going to buy a new computer. The time has finally come. I am going to CompUsa tonight. I'm more excited than me on my wedding night.

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