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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Examining the Compilation Process. Part 1.
4 days, 20 hours ago
This article, and the one to follow, are based on a Software Development class I taught a few years ago. The students in this class were non-programmers who had been hired to receive bug reports for a compiler product. As Analysts, they had to understand the software compilation process in some detail, even though some of them had never written a single line of code. It was a fun class to teach, so I'm hoping that the subject translates into interesting reading. -
Branching, tagging and merging in Subversion
5 days, 11 hours ago
In this Automation for the People installment shows how to effectively tag, branch, and merge source code using the open source, freely available Subversion version-control system. -
Kernel Log: No unstable series; Linux 2008.7; dealing with security fixes
2 months, 3 weeks ago
Along with 2.6.27 development ramping up, there is a variety of other Linux kernel news. Shortly after the release of Linux 2.6.26, someone on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) asked what sort of changes -- either potential or already in the works -- might give rise to a 2.7 development series. Torvalds did not even wait 20 minutes to respond, "Nothing. I'm not going back to the old model. The new model is so much better that it's not even worth entertaining as a theory to go back." -
Ubuntu to unveil new version of its Launchpad community next week
2 months, 3 weeks ago
Christian Reis, known in the open source community as "Kiko," talked about the scheduled debut next week of the new Version 2.0 of Launchpad yesterday at the 10th annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention. The new version will be announced next week by Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux. -
Jaspersoft Unveils New Community Platform at the O’Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON)
2 months, 3 weeks ago
OSCON, PORTLAND, Ore. — July 23, 2008 — Jaspersoft Corporation, the market leader in open source business intelligence (BI), today announced the open beta of its new JasperForge, a next-generation community platform that will support the open source BI community with tools that meet the evolving needs of all community stakeholders – from developers to business users.
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Open source still the best way to develop software
2 months, 3 weeks ago
The open source way of creating programs is still the best way. Just don't confuse it with being the perfect way -- there's no such thing. -
Incredibly fast handling of decimal numbers in ANSI C
2 months, 3 weeks ago
Find out about decNumber, a high-performance decimal arithmetic library in ANSI C, especially suitable for commercial and human-oriented applications. The library consists of several modules that provide direct support for integer, fixed-point, and floating-point decimal numbers, arbitrary precision values and special values and much more. -
Refine XPath results using predicate matching
3 months, 2 weeks ago
Predicates give you advanced and refined searching capabilities, allowing you to evaluate the values of attributes and the parent and child nodes of a targeted element. Rather than find a wider node set and refine or filter that set programmatically, you can add predicates to your XPaths to find exactly the nodes you want. -
The blessings of synchronised releases
3 months, 2 weeks ago
"The open source world is currently debating the merits -- if any -- of synchronising the release schedules of several of the bigger, key projects that make up a Linux distribution. The discussion was started by Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth, and continued as a back and forth between the Ubuntu leader and KDE's Aaron Seigo, but of course other members of the community discussed right along on blogs and other venues. Sander, developer of Coccinella (an open-source Jabber client) provides some insights into the whole discussion." -
The A-Z of Programming Languages: C++
3 months, 2 weeks ago
Bjarne Stroustrup of C++ fame dissects the history of his famed programming language. -
Embedding a File in an Executable, aka Hello World, Version 5967
4 months ago
I recently had the need to embed a file in an executable. Since I'm working at the command line with gcc, et al and not with a fancy RAD tool that makes it all happen magically it wasn't immediately obvious to me how to make this happen. A bit of searching on the net found a hack to essentially cat it onto the end of the executable and then decipher where it was based on a bunch of information I didn't want to know about. Seemed like there ought to be a better way... -
Google defends open source from 'poisonous people'
4 months, 2 weeks ago
The Case of the Self-Centered Date Parser. "Google I/O: Once upon a time, there was an open source project called Subversion, and it needed a new date parser. One day, a coder came along and wrote one. But he insisted on tagging the source code with his John Hancock. And that was against the rules. Subversion's founders said that name tags would undermine collaboration ...." -
Haiku Code Drive 2008 launched
4 months, 3 weeks ago
Haiku, an open source project dedicated to the development of a new operating system inspired by the BeOS, has launched the first Haiku Code Drive, a Summer of Code like initiative designed to sponsor students to write code for Haiku. The program is funded by the community, who also gets to choose which candidates get to be sponsored through a public poll. The Haiku Code Drive program, initially thought out to give one more opportunity to the students that applied for Haiku in the Google Summer of Code 2008 but were turned down, has a total of five candidate students/projects. Haiku is accepting donations here until May 29th, and is holding the Haiku Code Drive Poll from May 22nd through the 29th. The results of the fundraiser and the poll are scheduled to be announced on the Haiku website on May 30th. -
Use JavaServer Faces components with AJAX in Rational Application Developer
6 months, 1 week ago
Design a weather forecast application by using AJAX with a Relational Record List, Combo Box, Panels-Tabbed, and Data Tree components in Rational Application Developer. Also, discover a technique for accessing data elements from a Relational Record List that has two related tables. -
The 8 Essential Tools for Programmers
6 months, 1 week ago
What tools to you consider essential and fundamental for programmers? - More News
Linux.com : Programming
Video tour: Bluefish editor
Bluefish is a GUI-based text and code editor that runs on "most (maybe all?) POSIX compatible operating systems including Linux, FreeBSD, Ma cOS X, OpenBSD, and Solaris." It has an impressive feature list, and is both lightweight and speedy. It is not currently under heavy development primarily because it is a mature program that already does exactly what it is supposed to do with no fuss or complaint.
Easily displaying two-dimensional data with GtkDatabox
Many applications need to graphically display the relation between two data axes. Common examples are how one resource such as CPU load or an exchange rate varies over time. GtkDatabox makes presenting such information in a GTK+ desktop application much simpler.
Workbench Linux distro is a workhorse for software developers
If you develop applications using FOSS tools, Workbench is an ideal distro for you. In addition to packing a gamut of development tools, the distro also bundles everyday apps and eye candy, so you can use it on your desktop as well.
Linux Foundation launches killer development tool
Ask any independent software vendor what he hates most about developing for Linux and he'll tell you that it's having to develop for SUSE and for Red Hat and for Ubuntu and ... you get the idea. The Linux Foundation has just released a beta of a new program, Linux Application Checker (AppChecker), that's going to make ISVs and other programmers start to love developing for Linux.
OOo Basic crash course: Creating charts with Base and Calc
While OpenOffice.org Base is good for storing and querying data, it doesn't provide any easy way to chart information. This is exactly what Calc does best, with its dedicated chart module. If you want to visualize data stored in a Base database, you can write an OOo Basic macro that pulls data from a database, inserts it into a Calc spreadsheet, and then creates a chart. Here's how.
Veteran developer ditches Microsoft for open source
If you've ever used Microsoft Access or Excel, you have likely used a product that Mike Gunderloy had a hand in developing. The irony is that Gunderloy himself doesn't use those products anymore. He's given up Microsoft for open source -- and he's not going back.
Designing rich AJAX Web interfaces with ZK
ZK is an AJAX toolkit designed to make creating user interfaces that run in a Web browser as simple as creating event-driven interfaces for desktop applications. The interfaces created with ZK use an XML markup language to define the user interface and Java code to implement the Web application's functionality. ZK includes support for data-bound controls so that you do not have to worry about updating the user interface forms when you change your Java objects.
Fast, powerful Geany editor offers IDE features
Geany is a lightweight text editor for Linux based on the GTK2 toolkit. Geany supports internal and external plugins, and it excels as a source code editor, since it includes basic integrated development environment (IDE) functionality. Here's an introduction to using Geany's built-in features, including the IDE and built-in development capabilities.
Lessons learned from NCSU FOSS class
Free and open source software (FOSS) is only beginning to find a foothold in computer science departments in North America. FOSS tools may be used in teaching or be the subject of research or special committees, but few departments include courses that introduce students to the FOSS community. As a result, when North Carolina State University created a FOSS graduate course in the 2008 spring semester, it turned to Red Hat to find an instructor with a suitable background of FOSS involvement and university teaching experience. Community manager Greg DeKoenigsberg recommended performance tools engineer Will Cohen, who now looks back at the experience with an eye to how what he and his students learned might help other instructors.
Version labeling is out of control
Anybody who spends time trying new free software applications and distributions will soon notice that version numbering and labeling is next to meaningless. These days, versioning rarely gives an accurate idea of the state of development, except relative to other builds of the same project. It is simply a label that distinguishes one build from another. That's too bad, because a properly labeled release can give users a sense of how advanced the build actually is.
An introduction to CGI scripting with Python
Mention Common Gateway Interface scripting to a Web developer, and their first response is likely to be "I use Perl." While Perl has long dominated the CGI scripting world, there are other, and perhaps better, tools available. In this tutorial we'll take a look at CGI scripting with Python, a fast, versatile, multi-platform language.
Book review: Open iPhone Application Development
Johnathan Zdziarski's book Open iPhone Application Development is a guide writing applications for the iPhone without engaging the restrictions of Apple's official software development kit (SDK). The book takes readers on a concise tour of iPhone jailbreaking, setting up the free compiler tool chain, writing basic Objective-C apps, and the available libraries and APIs. Apple might not like this book, but if you need to develop for the iPhone or just want to learn more about how it works, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better practical resource.
OOo Basic crash course: Creating a simple application launcher
In previous installments of the crash course, you've learned how to build a simple basket tool, a task manager, and even a word game. This time, let's take a look at how you can use the skills you picked up from those exercises to create a simple application launcher, which will allow you to start virtually any application without leaving the convenience of OpenOffice.org. While working on this project, you'll learn how to create and use functions, handle errors, and how to populate list boxes using records from a database table.
How everyone wins with open source software
Recently, I wrote a review of the note-taking application Tomboy. Though I find Tomboy exceptionally useful, I had a minor issue with the inability to create new notebooks from within a note. Within hours of the review appearing on Linux.com, Boyd Timothy, one of the app's developers mentioned in the article's comments that my idea had merit and said he would add the feature to an upcoming build. True to his word, he did. This is a shining example of one of the most valued yet sometimes overlooked features of open source software: it really is for the people, by the people.
Scripting with Scheme Shell
Last month, Daryl Lee gave us a taste of the language Scheme in the article It's time to learn Scheme with a C++ code generator. This time we will be looking at some practical examples written with Scheme Shell (SCSH): finding and replacing text in a bunch of files, sorting files in two different ways, and converting data from a CSV file to an HTML file.
Kernel hacker and Red Hat driver maintainer Jon Masters (video)
Hey, it's dirty and unglamorous coding, but somebody's got to do it. Jon Masters is one of the people who do Good Things for GNU/Linux but get little recognition for their work outside of a small circle of friends. But if you take a look at his personal page you'll immediately realize that Jon, like many inner-circle Linux developers, has many interests besides programming. And despite his many serious accomplishments, as this casual video interview (shot at the recent Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit) clearly shows, he doesn't take himself too seriously.
Bdale Garbee: A fascinating 'open source celebrity' (video)
Let's get the first Bdale question out of the way right now: no, he didn't sell half the vowels in his name. His birth name was Barksdale, later shortened to B'dale, then to Bdale. The next thing you notice (in person) about Bdale Garbee is his size. He's a very large person. But all that aside, look at his personal home page and Wikipedia entry and you'll realize that this man is one of the most prolific contributors to Linux and open source in the world. Besides all that, he's nice (and often funny), too.
Laura Thomson on coding, the workplace, and FOSS
Ever since Laura Thomson wrote her first program in the fourth grade, coding has been a major part of her life. Over the years, she has been a lecturer in computer science at RMIT University in Australia, a principal at OmnTI, a consulting company that designs Internet systems, a trainer of other programmers, the co-writer of PHP and MySQL Web Development and MySQL Tutorial, and a frequent speaker at free and open source conferences. She is currently a senior software engineer at the Mozilla Corporation, where her recent work includes the API for the Add-ons Manager on Firefox 3. With this background, Thomson has strong views on coding, its future, and its place in business, especially where free and open source software (FOSS) is concerned, which she shared with Linux.com at the recent Open Web Vancouver conference.
Tim Bray provides a bridge between Sun and developers
"I'm a genuine old fart," says Tim Bray as he looks back at his three decades in computing. Widely known for his standards work on XML and the Atom syndication format, at an age when many former developers have moved entirely into management, he seems to have found a niche that takes advantage of his experience. As director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems, his job is to keep current with Web and general programming and to encourage adaptation of new developments within the corporation. At the recent Open Web Vancouver conference, Bray talked to Linux.com about how he fills his role at Sun, and the trends he sees in computing.
Creating charts on Web pages with Java and GChart
The Apache-licensed GChart utility lets you quickly generate nice-looking charts on your Web site.
