Zero_Dogg’s blog

Here’s a very simple one-liner REPL for perl, it’s not very advanced (like ie. re.pl) but does well in most cases:
perl -MData::Dumper -MTerm::ReadLine -e '$r = Term::ReadLine->new(1);while(defined($_ = $r->readline("code: "))){$ret=Dumper(eval($_));$err=$@;if($err ne ""){print $err;}else{print $ret;}}'

It uses Term::ReadLine, which gives a simple session history if you have a Term::ReadLine::* implementation that supports it. It will also use Data::Dumper so that you can quickly see any data structures, you can always use scalar(STATEMENT) if the return value differs in list and scalar context.

Here’s an alias that can be shoved into .bashrc :
alias 'perl-repl'='perl -MData::Dumper -MTerm::ReadLine -e '\''$r = Term::ReadLine->new(1);while(defined($_ = $r->readline("code: "))){$ret=Dumper(eval($_));$err=$@;if($err ne ""){print $err;}else{print $ret;}}'\'''

I have found myself doing quite a bit of mason at work lately, both maintaining old legacy stuff and as the view in a catalyst app.

While doing this I found myself missing the old ‘perl -c’ to quickly sanity check code, however naturally that won’t work on Mason – as mason is essentially HTML with inline perl, not the other way around. As such I wrote a quick script that emulates ‘perl -c’ by loading the file using mason inside eval then printing any errors. The script itself is pretty simple, though it doesn’t have any support for printing useful line numbers – but at least it gives an idea of what/where the problem is. The script also declares $c and $m, as at least for Catalyst – those will be available.

You can clone the gist, or just copy+paste the code:

Day Planner 0.10 was released on the 25th of March! This release is, imho, a great step forward from 0.9. It fixes various minor bugs, cleans up parts of the UI, handles strange or broken iCalendar files better, enforces UTF-8 encoding on the calendar and adds a plugin system.

The largest new feature is the plugin system. Day Planner now comes with support for plugins, complete with a simple file format that allows users to easily install third party plugins. Its purpose is of course to make it easy for other people to alter the behaviour of Day Planner, or add features to it easily, without having to resort to patching the app itself, but also to make it easier for me to add optional features that perhaps not everyone wants (for instance, 0.10 comes with a tray icon plugin. It is disabled by default, but those that want to use it can do so quite easily). The API is simple, and somewhat inspired by the Gtk2-perl API, to make it feel somewhat familiar for people already used to signal-based programming.

The tarball comes with an example plugin, plugins/HelloWorld.pm that is well commented and explains how to do some of the basic things like hooking into signals, displaying simple dialog boxes and adding events to the calendar. The API itself is documented in DP::CoreModules::Plugin (access the documentation by running perldoc modules/DP-CoreModules/lib/DP/CoreModules/Plugin.pm from the base directory of the Day Planner tarball or git repo).

If you want to write a plugin, and need some help or pointers, feel free to join the Day Planner irc channel, #dayplanner on irc.freenode.net and I’ll be glad to help.

Git

As mentioned earlier, Day Planner is now using git instead of subversion. After I learned git I now greatly prefer it over subversion, and have thus moved all of my projects to it. Information on how to use the Day Planner git repo can be found at http://www.day-planner.org/index.php/development/git:

Its been ages since I last wrote about Day Planner, so I figured it might be about time I did.
I think the last time I wrote about version 0.1.2 or something along those lines. A rather buggy and incomplete release. It’s now up to 0.7.2 and rather stable, if I might say so. Some major things have happened during this time.
- Day Planner now uses iCalendar as default format, import and export formats.
- It supports iCalendar recurrances
- It has a builtin calendar synchronization system
- Loads of UI-enhancements
- Now licensed under GPLv3
- Complies with the XDG configuration dir spec
- Can import data directly from various programs (such as Evolution, Gnome Calendar, Korganizer, Plan)

There are a load of other smaller refinements and fixes too, but these are the largest ones.
I’m currently working on version 0.8 which will introduce rewritten daemon and notifier programs, support for multiple iCalendar files (not locally, but for instance it will be able to add HTTP subscriptions).

A bit further into the future I want to implement support for Conduit and eventually drop the builtin calendar synchronization system. I’m also planning to investigate better integration with GNOME through the use of the evolution-data-server, that recently got a proper dbus interface. It is useful to note however that Day Planner will never require e-d-s, but should be able to use it when available to provide additional integration with the desktop environment.

As a final note, I’m looking for someone to do some simple images for the Day Planner website. If I would do them myself I think I’d be arrested for crimes against mankind, I can’t do visual art. If you have the time and want to do it, please let me know, either in the comments below or through any of the means of contacting me available on my website (IM, e-mail, IRC and so on).

With 2007.0, all I really used was Mandriva ONE for installing Mandriva on boxes. It fit on one CD and didn’t install more than the required software (ie. not five different programs that do the same thing).
This time however, it seems that they have dropped localization for most of Mandriva One. There isn’t a Mandriva One GNOME with Norwegian Nynorsk on it anymore, rendering the entire idea useless, both as a live CD to allow people to try the system and as a handy installation disk. So right now I’m wondering if we’ll see a release of the good set of One disks as 2007.0 had or if that has been dropped completely.

*pokes Mandriva* I want my One CD :o

As a sidenote, I tried the Ubuntu Live CD too, and found Mandriva ONE GNOME superior to it, partly due to the localization.

I wish you all a happy holiday.

While I do this I also want you to take a moment to think about those that don’t have one. Some celebrate it alone, some are depressed, some drugged, some fighting for their life and some just afraid. Take a moment, give them a moment – that’s all they need. I hope you’re not one of these, but if you are my thoughts, wishes and greetings go to you (and don’t hesitate to get in touch if you so desire).

I’m going to start the semi-public beta test of the day planner services system now.

The day planner services system is a system for calendar synchronization. It does:
- Synchronization of calendars on multiple locations
- Availability of an html version of the calendar

It is integrated into day planner and needs testing.

If you want to join the test, please just contact me (by for instance commenting on this blog post).
The code is naturally free, but the service will be “payed for”. Plan is something like those that donate to the project will get this service for some time. Ofcourse nothing is to stop anyone from putting up their own server but the one run by me will be on a payed-basis.
Those in the beta will get it free for more time, a year or so maybe.

Need testers – contact me.

Well, I decided on NearlyFreeSpeech.net. They offer a great service at very very good prices. I’ve registrered zerodogg.org, and it’s already up! Took 30 mins.

I’m still battling my old provider to get iamaturtle.org transferred to NearlyFreeSpeech.net, so far half-successfull (the domain is now in my name and unlocked), I just need the transfer code now. So we’ll see, maybe I get it before it expires. My old subdomains are now being forwarded to zerodogg.org (blog.iamaturtle.org -> blog.zerodogg.org and zerodog.iamaturtle.org -> zerodogg.org).

My host sucks. The service they provide is great and cheap, but their support sucks. That is, I can live with slow response times, but they don’t answer me…ever.

So now I’m on the look for a new provider. I need:
- SSH access
- PHP(5)
- Multiple subdomains
- Good traffic (5+GB per month at a minimum I’d say, though I can live with less)
- Preferrably support for two domains (iamaturtle.org and another one)

Any hints? Put links in comments.