Older blog entries for zoia (starting at number 5)

Spent past few days reading papers and wondering why LaTeX doesn't allow nested includes. Would be nice to have thesis broken into lots of logical sections within sections.

Fixed various alias and trigger editing code. Added kludge to get the text of a GtkOptionMenu. Not particularly impressed at having to keep a list of the items in the menu to figure out which one is selected. GtkOptionMenu is a child of button, but gtk_button_get_text() returns NULL. Various investigations into widget internals indicate that it doesn't use a regular label, but a GtkAccelLabel which isn't accessible as an item in the GtkOptionMenu.

So far that's been the only real long term issue with GTK2. Most other problems have resolved themselves after some websearches and/or reading of header or source files for GTK. This particular problem has lots of people asking about how to get the text of the selected option, but no solutions. Spent about 5 hours trying to find a solution I'm happy with.

List of things to do before 1.0 is getting larger. Need to get things tidied up as they are now and release 0.94 which is long overdue, but not been released due to incompleteness of alias/trigger code, which is only really near complete on GTK2. Backport to GTK1 needs doing.

Wireless LAN still not functioning perfectly. Suspect D-Link card/driver combo is hosing things as it works flawlessly when booted into Windows. When booted into Linux other wireless card spews TX errors everywhere. Read about problems with D-Link card using 0.8.2 firmware and supposed to upgrade to 0.8.3. Only I've got 1.x.y firmware.

Reconfigured the way Papaya compiles. Combined main, plugin and manual distributions into one distribution and rehomed cvs from sourceforge to cvs.gtk-papaya.org. Setup cvsweb. Finally got anonymous pserver access working after much reading of not terribly useful cvs documentation.

Considering installing FreeBSD on spare box to test new configuration of Papaya to make life easier for freebsd port maintainer. Realise that xhosting won't be particularly nice with wireless network managing a whole 25k/sec. Consider cleaning bathroom instead.

Finally got wireless network up and running after several machine hangs, large groans in the direction of the computer when "iwconfig wlan0 mode ad-hoc" returned "Operation not supported", several kernel recompiles, some reboots to EvilOS and sheer luck.

Wireless network now running with encryption and mac address iptable filtering to prevent any unauthorised used of IP masqueraded Internet connection.

Added splash screen for Papaya. Really need to find a decent graphic artist to produce image that doesn't look like it was created by a 5 year old just introduced to paint.

Parcel Force attempted delivery of wireless ethernet card at 7:49am. On phone to Parcel Force by 8:50am asking why it hadn't arrived last week as it was sent out "Next Day". They agree that it should have arrived last week and contact driver of vehicle containing parcel. Delivery is re-arranged for some time in the next half hour. Wonderful.

Spent most of yesterday downloading RedHat 7.1 CD number 1. Burned it, installed it. Attempted to duplicate Papaya bug. Failed. Informed by bug reporter that they always compile with dmalloc support (which I don't unless debugging something particularly nasty). Compile with dmalloc support. Bug rears its head. Try to duplicate bug with RedHat 7.2 and dmalloc.

Wireless network card arrived. Went onto uni campus in attempt to get some more PhD thesis write up completed. Have the urge to waste time instead.

Midday and parcelforce still haven't delivered wireless ethernet card that was ordered last week.

Meanwhile much cursing is being directed at RedHat 7.1 and Windows 98 as Papaya crashes repeatedly on both of those systems. Of course I'm using RedHat 7.2 and Windows XP and it's rock solid on those. Current unverified theory is that the std C library lists are somehow being used improperly. May install RedHat 7.1/Windows 98 on spare computer at some point today to see if it's possible to duplicate the bug reports.

New microwave is installed in kitchen. However, lack of microwavable food in freezer means testing it must wait. Unlikely to go shopping for microwavable food as arms hurt a lot from carrying microwave to bus station, and am waiting for delivery of above mentioned wireless network card.

It'll be nice not to fall over ethernet cable currently running through the kitchen and up the stairs.

Even more cursing. Disc 1 of RedHat 7.1 has suffered catastrophic physical damage. 4 hour download starts. Maybe will start with Windows 98 and hope VC++ doesn't frazzle it.

Woke up at 9am, got up and started making house presentable for visit by father and father's "girlfriend". They arrived at 10:20, wasn't expecting them until 11am. Then realised that clocks went forward last night and it was really 11:20am.

Woke other half up to present to father for first time. Other half materialised 45 minutes later. Spent a few hours entertaining father.

Spent remainder of day in company of other half not writing any Papaya code. Read posting on message board that mentioned Papaya had every feature but the automapper. Must rewrite automapper from tcl to C for inclusion in Papaya.