Well, instead of just having a zip file containing the source code, I decided to put it up on google code. The page is here and I've updated the homepage to include a link to it. The releases will live there, also, and I think I'll look into getting the widget to autoupdate or something, with the files on google code I think I can get an rss feed to the releases.
I'll keep y'all posted.
If you follow my twitter feed, you may have noticed that I’ve created and published a small widget to use with buxfer here. Right now it’s just two forms, one to submit and one to configure, and it isn’t all that smart at what it does.
My intent is to keep the interface simple, but to improve on three points:
- Usability-wise, I want to be faster at adding the transaction, and perhaps have some suggestion or completion for the tags. Right now it is a bit dumb, and doesn’t provide much help besides being a form.
- As far as the interface goes, I want it to occupy a bit less space, and to be prettier. As you can see on the screenshot, the widget uses the standard parts and the labels have the default size. I think I can do better than that and still keep it usable.
- The configuration is stored on the preferences cache for widgets Apple provides, which isn’t quite the best choice as far as storing sensitive data. I should put it in the keychain, and perhaps even use the same as Safari.
I was quite impressed with the ease with which you can produce widgets. Having Dashcode helps a lot, both with the layout of the forms and the debugging of the code. Widgets being based on javascript and html gives them a low entry cost if one is already used to client-side web programming, and opens up the opportunity for some rather interesting moves, such as using JQueryUI or Moo on the widget.
If you’ve tried the widget and want to leave feedback, please, feel free to contact me or to drop a comment here :)
on the newfound use of useless keys
Whilst my work is nowadays mostly done on my macbook (running windows, much to my lament), at home I usually drop the laptop besides my desktop, boot it into mac os x, and use it as a communications central with email and IM open while working on some other thing on the desktop. Call it a strange dual-head, quad-core computing station.
Instead of switching around keyboards when I need to pass from one computer to the other, I use (and profoundly adore) synergy, which allows one keyboard+mouse combo to control more than one computer, via the network. But until now, to change from one computer to another (let's say to talk to someone on IM) my hand had to leave the home keys of the keyboard to use the mouse to move from one computer to the other (since synergy uses the edges of the monitor to cross control from one computer to another).
But no more! Remembering some button with "hotkeys" on the label on the configuration manager, I managed to bind two keys, one to move left, other to move right. But then the dilema... which keys?
I didn't want a hard, multiple key, emacs-like, binding. I was looking for a short stroke to allow for quick back-and-forth, since that was the most common scenario (coding on the desktop, and going to the laptop to spout nonsense on im and back again to serious business).
Enter the most useless keys on my current keyboard, a logitech internet navigator. A fine keyboard all in all, with a wheel on the left side (which I tend to use quite often, as a matter of fact) and two keys below it, go and back.
Bind go for left, back to right and we've got a pan-computer Alt-Tab.
Joy.
At weListen we have a small python web application that we use as a time tracker and status keeper. Something akin to twitter, but with less social and more tracking. It lives in a Linux server together with a couple of our other services, and tends to be something I work on from time to time to improve small details or to fix small bugs.
Now, most of the time the development of this app is rather iterative. I think up of something new to try or a small improvement, code it on my local workstation, test it with live data taken from the production environment and if I'm happy with the results, I commit the change and deploy it on the production server. It's a small app, with a couple of services running, so the upgrade protocol is direct. It is still a couple of steps, and sometimes I tend to forget one of them (usually the one where I refresh the source code from subversion).
So, that looks like a good excuse to try out capistrano, of which I've heard many things, mostly coming from the ruby on rails community.
In a nutshell, what I wanted was for a library to take care of the connection and execution of commands on remote servers with minimal fuss. And that's what I got.
After installing the one click version, ruby was setup and ready to go. The gems library was already included, and installing capistrano was a matter of invoking the stanza featured on the project's home page.
Creating a script to perform the same steps I previously did manually was straightforward enough, and rather "obvious", apart from the trick to get sudo not to complain:
task :update, :hosts => "<server>" do default_run_options[:pty] = true # required so that sudo doesn't complain run "svn update ~/<directory>" sudo "/etc/init.d/<service 1> restart" sudo "/etc/init.d/<service 2> restart" end
The server can use the standard username@host:post format, and the ssh framework plays nice with pageant, making passwordless logins updates real easy.
No documentation, apart from a getting started tutorial, which is completely geared to deploying ruby on rails applications according to their methodology. Both seem to be a known problem, as a quick Google search for "capistrano documentation" gives us some pages with a call for help, and a mailing list post for it, and the getting started page warns us about it being devoted to ruby on rails.
Still, It leaves the rest of the world in the dark about how to use cap to deploy other kind of applications. Also, there isn't much in the way of explaining what is their methodology, and how can a user skip or customize some of the steps. I ended up just running the commands with no automatic error checking. Which works for now, but leaves me a bit unsure as to how solid it is.
Since I use a private/public key combo to login to the server with a non-root user (standard Linux sysadmin practice), and sudo requires a password by default, the script didn't work out as well as I wanted it to be on the first try. I could either type the password each time I wanted to deploy the app, get ssh to pass through my private key from pageant to sudo, or tell sudo that the services don't require a password.
I ended up compromising and going with the last choice. It means that an attacker which gains access to the server via the normal user can restart the services and do a bit of damage, but if he's already inside, then a couple of services going down is the least of my worries.
If I already had ruby installed, adding capistrano to the list of dependencies is not a big deal. The library is small and easy to install using gems. The problem was simple, and with the right tools the solution was equally direct. The lack of documentation wasn't that big a deal, but mostly because the problem was small.
Sadly, capistrano is the only reason for me to have ruby installed, so far, making the dependency a large and difficult one to explain. I might have a look in the future for python based alternatives.
Also, I'm starting to wonder if I could use the idea behind capistrano to deploy windows based applications. The biggest problem would be the remote connection, but I believe that Windows Server 2008 already has some support for console based remote connections. If this were possible, deployments could be more easily automated, which would most likely reduce the overhead of getting a new version of a web based application live.
... is the period while you adapt to having a coffee machine at home.
The one where you learn when not to drink coffee.
The same one where you end up awake at 6am because you just had to get a cup of delicious, tasteful, awesomely scented java after dinner.
Live and learn...
One of the minor annoyances of python on windows has to do with the sockets' blocking behavior.
Python's libs have several implementations of simple server loops, where the server listens for connections or specific requests and passes it on to a handler function on your code. To do so, the server blocks on an accept or read. Which, on Windows, means you can't ctrl-c out of a server process to test a code change.
To get around this little quirk I found a small workaround. We need two tools:
Stick an infinite loop outside the python script (like this "while (1) { server.py }"). Now, open another command prompt (I use Console for managing those) and, when you want to reload the server, just run "pskill python". Sadly this kills all python sessions currently running, which may not be what you want. But for now it works well enough.
For the umpteenth time I re-installed windows today on armitage (my desktop). For the first time I did it from a flash drive, since my dvd reader was on the fritz. I considered buying a new one, but after spending quite a lot upgrading the computer, I felt some effort could be spent in trying out the usb method. Much to my amazement it turned out to be quite easy. This link explained everything, and is actually quite straightforward. But that's not the point here, this is:
Small application which allows one computer to control many via the network. A godsend for us with both laptop and desktop, an a desire to have more screens than a stock market analyst.
Kill ring for windows. Before, I had to remember to get a notepad window, paste the clipboard I wanted to use afterwards, copy something, go back to notepad, rinse, wash, repeat. How in the 9 circles of hell did I live like that I don't know. But now that way is no more. ClipX remembers the copy operations you make, and has a pretty intuitive way to go back and forth.
I understand the need for a start menu. I just don't understand why must I use it every single time I want to open a browser, visual studio or anything else. This one takes care of that. Not as good as Quicksilver, but it's good enough for me not to rip out my eyeballs out while trying to get stuff done.
The sanest virtual desktop manager for windows. Works extremely well almost all the time, and stays out of your way.
