Pem’s Tech Blog

As someone who is passionate about software development, most of my life is pretty engrossed in software / computers / technology.  In addition to things like this blog, keeping up on technology news, having technology-related hobbies, trying out new software, organizing my digital life…  I often do side projects, scripting / automation projects, and learning / studying that is not necessarily for immediate direct application to my current day job.

Some recent examples include:
* My enthusiasm for AutoHotkey scripts
* file organizing / sync / backup (and lists of applications)
* notes / note taking
* this blog / website
* a game prototype with Torque 3D, and continued attention to electronic games (and to the computer / technology industry)
* increased use and awareness of mobility computing (devices / mobile OS)
* more cross platform (Windows 7, Mac OS X, GNOME, KDE) on a daily basis, and use / develop cross platform (I use a hardware KVM)
* Try out other IDE’s / languages than what I normally use.  I normally use Visual Studio with C++.  And also (C#, Python, Java) and (EditPad text editor).  I’ve also tried out, for example, (RenderMonkey, Eclipse, NetBeans, Adobe Flex, Windows Mobile in Visual Studio, XCode / Interface Builder).
* more and deeper use of subversion
* these are just a few examples that I pulled out from memory

This small list is mostly for nights / weekends, which is separate from the work / study I do for my day job.  However, there is definitely plenty of overlap, and of course all of it helps me grow as a software developer.

Sometimes I use the phrase “side projects” to include a broad range of (programming hobby projects, scripting / automation projects, trying out hardware / software, or in some way attempting to improve my current hardware / software setups).  Other times I use the phrase “hobby projects” to only mean actual software development with a significant project size.  I might not be consistent on my terminology.  Anyway…

My next few posts are going to relate to a new software development hobby project, with a significant focus on using (Qt, C++, Qt Creator) for (cross platform GUI application development).

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/04/13 (Tuesday, April 13, 2010) :: Misc, Qt :: No Comments »

I used Java a lot in college…  But it’s been a while.  I’m trying out NetBeans IDE (for both Java and Python).  Here’s some notes from writing my Java application.

System.out.println(), System.out.print()

…

Add a .jar library:
1. Right-click the Libraries node and choose "Add JAR/Folder".
2. Browse to and select the .jar file(s).  It didn’t work when I added it as a folder, so i strongly recommend you add each .jar file separately.

3. Right-click the Libraries node and choose Properties
4. Choose the file you added (for each file), then Edit, then specify the Javadoc and Sources

5. In your java code, import the package.  The package names should be specified in the java doc.  In my example, this would be (import net.sf.sevenzipjbinding.*;) or (import net.sf.sevenzipjbinding.SevenZip;) etc.

…

Shift+F11 to build main project.  F6 to run main project.

…

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/22 (Friday, January 22, 2010) :: Java, Misc :: No Comments »

On Windows, try: echo hello | clip

On Linux, try: echo hello | xclip

On Mac OS X, try: echo hello | pbcopy

For example, you might do (cat myFile.txt | xclip).  This would basically allow you to edit the clipboard directly.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/21 (Thursday, January 21, 2010) :: Mac OS, Misc, Windows OS :: 1 Comment »

The biggest let-down is the “use less than 100KB/user/month" part, because Kindle doesn’t have WiFi – at least not yet.  Two applications I would most imagine myself using on a Kindle are read it later (or instapaper) and EverNote (or something that can import my OneNote notes), but 100 KB/user/month wouldn’t be enough.  Hopefully the next version of the Kindle will have WiFi, and allow applications that use unlimited data over WiFi.

Since it’s short, I’ll just quote the entire thing from:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?ie=UTF8&docId=1000476231

KDK Limited Beta Coming Next Month

Submit your e-mail address to get notified when the limited beta starts next month. Participants in the limited beta will be able to download the Kindle Development Kit, access developer support, test content on Kindle, and submit finished content. Those wait-listed will be invited to participate at a later date as space becomes available. The Kindle Development Kit includes sample code, documentation, and the Kindle Simulator, which helps developers build and test their content by simulating the 6-inch Kindle and 9.7-inch Kindle DX on Mac, PC, and Linux desktops. We are excited to see what you invent for Kindle.

Revenue Share

User revenue will be split 70% to the developer and 30% to Amazon net of delivery fees of $0.15 / MB. Remember that unlike smart phones, the Kindle user does not pay a monthly wireless fee or enter into an annual wireless contract. Kindle active content must be priced to cover the costs of downloads and on-going usage.

Pricing Options

Active content will be available to customers in the Kindle Store later this year. Your active content can be priced three ways:

• Free – Active content applications that are smaller than 1MB and use less than 100KB/user/month of wireless data may be offered at no charge to customers. Amazon will pay the wireless costs associated with delivery and maintenance.
• One-time Purchase – Customers will be charged once when purchasing active content. Content must have nominal (less than 100KB/user/month) ongoing wireless usage.
• Monthly Subscription – Customers will be charged once per month for active content.

Active content applications have an upper size limit of 100MB. Applications larger than 10MB will not be delivered wirelessly but can be downloaded from the Kindle Store to a computer and transferred to the user’s Kindle via USB.

Developer Guidelines

Voice over IP functionality, advertising, offensive materials, collection of customer information without express customer knowledge and consent, or usage of the Amazon or Kindle brand in any way are not allowed. In addition, active content must meet all Amazon technical requirements, not be a generic reader, and not contain malicious code.

We will work to refine the above guidelines throughout the beta.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/21 (Thursday, January 21, 2010) :: Misc, Mobility, Notetaking :: No Comments »

In recent times, I’ve mostly used Visual Studio, for C++, and for C# .NET.  Plus, EditPad Pro as a simple text editor.  But I’ve also done plenty of Java (in college) and Python (right now).  For Python, I’ve just been using EditPad Pro.  But now I’d like to try an IDE for Python, and for Java too.  Python has a list here:
http://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments

I mainly focused on the (IDEs with introspection-based code completion and integrated debugger) choices:
* NetBeans IDE: primarily for Java; Sun Microsystems owns NetBeans IDE, runs on Solaris too; also works with JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Groovy, C, C++, and Clojure
* Eclipse with PyDev: written primarily in Java; for developing with Java, and via plug-ins for other languages including: C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP, and others; started by IBM but now more fully open source community
* WingIde: for python only, not free: $35 personal or $179 professional, for one developer on one OS; source assistant shows documentation in the IDE for code completion text
* Komodo: British company, closed source; not free – $295 for license
* others: IDLE written in python and looks weak, Spyder written in python and scientific, PyScripter is Windows only

Just based on that, my current top choices for Python are (NetBeans, Eclipse with PyDev, WingIde).  For NetBeans I did Tools -> Plugins -> Available Plugins -> Python (version 0.103 beta), then linked my new project to my python install, since by default it referenced Jython (right-click project –> properties –> Python –> Manage –> New).  For Eclipse, I went to Help –> Install New Software, pointed it to ( http://pydev.org/updates ).  For WingIde, I tried the professional version trial.

NetBeans code completion with Python, with doc:

Eclipse code completion with Python, with doc:

WingIde code completion with Python, with doc:

All three show some form of code completion with integrated dynamic documentation.  As seen in the above screen shots, it shows code completion and function comments for my pemTest1() and pemTest2() functions.

As seen in the above screen shots, both WingIde and Eclipse gave me function comments for my pemTest1() method that I wrote, via pressing ctrl+space.

For Java, looks like the top IDE choices are NetBeans or Eclipse (or IntelliJ IDEA, which costs $249 for a personal license).

Based on one review, it sounds like: Eclipse has more plugins vs. NeatBeans has more-and-simpler out of the box.

As of 2010/01/10, the NetBeans Python plugin is marked as beta version 0.103, and it referenced Jython 2.5.1.  Python 3.0 has been out for a while, and I was hoping this would run with Python (not Jython).

I noticed the latest Grammar Version choices for Python (with Eclipse PyDev) were 2.6 and 3.0, even though I have Python 3.1.1 installed.

Based on this very brief survey, it’s not obvious which one I’d like better in the long-run.  But even just for the ctrl+space code completion (with convenient function comments), this looks promising to use a real IDE, rather than just using a basic text editor.

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/10 (Sunday, January 10, 2010) :: Misc :: No Comments »

I’m adding a new category…  Probably what I should do is create a separate blog (or page / area) that is for software development (programming, computer science, graphics programming, game development, virtualization programming, code tools, application development, etc) related stuff.  In fact, probably what I should really do is just delete this blog and focus on development topics O:-).  But for the moment, I’ll just make this a new category: Software Development

Pem (Admin) :: 2010/01/10 (Sunday, January 10, 2010) :: Blogging, Misc :: No Comments »