I have not managed to get started with a regular cadence of writing on this blog. My day job as a software laborer has been consuming a lot of my creative energy and I have become another Dark Matter Developer. There are also a number of other things, probably not worth writing about, that are weighing on my mind. I feel like I need to do a bit of “clearing the deck” before I can move forward. Though it would probably be good to get back into writing on this blog (and to write better stuff) I am having trouble making it a priority now. So as to not over-promise and under-deliver (it’s a problem I have, especially with software project estimates), I am hereby not promising any regularity or quality with regard to my posting here.
Something
I wanted to start blogging something every week. I am hoping that next week it will be something better. At least it must be something else.
I know this is one of those “should have just stayed home” performances.
BTW: I listened to FLOSS Weekly 320 today, and Fossil seems like it might suit my style for personal projects.
It is not in here
go finish something
pick one thing
just one
and do it
then repeat that process
with the next unfinished thing
it is not about leaving nothing unfinished
it is about leaving a few good things finished enough
it is about not waiting for a spark from somewhere else
do not sit at the table waiting for the next meal
work or play until hunger calls you in
remember that feeling of flow
it comes from within
but not here
in this box
now go
Flashy Pomodoro
I sometimes use the Pomodoro Technique when I’m having trouble getting started or focusing on something that I need to get done. I also use it when I’m focusing too much on one thing and not taking breaks as often as I should. I don’t have one of the cute little tomato timers – the original pomodoro. When I’m working in my home office I use a digital kitchen timer. It has a fairly loud alarm.
In my current job I work in a cubicle at the corporate office more than at home. Since I didn’t think my coworkers would appreciate the noise of a kitchen timer, I was using a reminder in Outlook. That just didn’t work as well. It occurred to me that perhaps there are kitchen timers for deaf people that flash a light instead of making noise. A search on Amazon turned up one that looked worth trying.
I have been using this "General Tools & Instruments Timer for the Visually and Hearing Impaired" for a while now and I can recommend it as a quiet alternative for cube dwellers. It can be noisy if you want. Not only does it have flashing lights – it has an alarm, and vibration. Each mode of alert can be switched on or off. It also has a magnet on the back so it sticks nicely on the whiteboard surface at the back of my desk. It sits just to the right of my monitor, in arm’s reach, and it flashes bright enough to catch my attention even when I’m deep into some code.
Showers
Forecast for today from NOAA: “Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 1pm, then a chance of showers between 1pm and 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm.”
So, I guess this means there is no chance of thunderstorms between 1pm and 2pm. Did they really need to call that out?
MS Access Utility Scripts
Real developers and DBAs can stop right here and move along. This is a post about Microsoft Access. I’ve heard the jeers and snide remarks, and agree with some, especially with regard to the GUI changes in Access 2007 (let’s make everybody learn where to find everything again). Nonetheless, I do work with Access from time to time and actually think there are some things about it that are really awesome [EDIT: Yes, that’s an exaggeration. I was channeling a valley girl at the time].
Access is very powerful as an ad hoc analysis and reporting tool. The Access query builder is a great tool for learning SQL. You can use the visual designer and then switch to SQL View and see what the query is doing behind the scenes. I’ve used Access as a SQL generator when building complex queries for other databases. Copy, paste, and edit the SQL to make it compliant with the target database’s SQL dialect. Perhaps not an ideal work flow but faster than coding the SQL by hand.
Below are three VBA modules that I have found to be useful on several projects. I wanted to document them here for future reference. If anyone else finds them useful that’s a bonus.
Linking external tables:
In many cases, I prefer to create links to external tables, in another Access database or an ODBC data source, using code instead of the Linked Table Wizard. Doing so makes it easer to switch back-end databases when developing a front-end application in Access. The following VBA module provides that function.
Option Compare Database Option Explicit '- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' modLibLinkTable ' ' Create or refresh linked tables using code instead of the wizard. '- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sub LinkDataTable(odbcDSN As String, dbPath As String, tableName As String) ' ' If odbcDSN (ODBC Data Source Name) is blank then the table is ' linked to the Access database file specified in dbPath. ' Otherwise the table is linked to the ODBC data source. ' On Error GoTo Handle_Error Dim dbs As Database Dim tdf As TableDef Dim conn As String If odbcDSN = "" Then conn = ";DATABASE=" & dbPath SysCmd acSysCmdSetStatus, "Linking table " & tableName & " in " & dbPath Else conn = "ODBC;DSN=" & odbcDSN SysCmd acSysCmdSetStatus, "Linking table " & tableName & " in ODBC data source " & odbcDSN End If Set dbs = CurrentDb ' Delete existing link. On Error Resume Next dbs.TableDefs.Delete tableName On Error GoTo Handle_Error ' Create new link. Set tdf = dbs.CreateTableDef(tableName) tdf.Connect = conn tdf.SourceTableName = tableName dbs.TableDefs.Append tdf Exit_Here: Exit Sub Handle_Error: MsgBox Err.Description, , "ERROR in " & "LinkDataTable" Resume Exit_Here End Sub
Exporting Excel files:
There are a number of ways to get data from Access into Excel. Excel can pull data from an Access database and Access can export to Excel files. The following VBA module has two subroutines for quickly pushing a table or the results of a query out to an Excel file. The second subroutine lets you specify some formatting and add sums using parameters. It’s not pretty but it works (at least it has worked for me in the past).
Option Compare Database Option Explicit '- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' modLibExcel ' Library of functions related to Excel. ' Requires reference to Microsoft Excel 12.0 Object Library. '- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sub ExportRecordsetToExcel(strSheetName As String, ByRef rst As DAO.Recordset) ' ' Generic procedure to export a RecordSet ' to an Excel workbook. ' ' Using the built-in DoCmd.OutputTo , , acFormatXLS ' command produces an Excel 95 format. ' This sub will create the newer Excel format. ' Dim app As Excel.Application Dim wb As Excel.Workbook Dim ws As Excel.Worksheet Dim i As Integer On Error GoTo Handle_Error Set app = New Excel.Application Set wb = app.Workbooks.Add app.DisplayAlerts = False For i = wb.Worksheets.Count To 2 Step -1 wb.Worksheets(i).Delete Next i app.DisplayAlerts = True Set ws = wb.ActiveSheet ws.Name = strSheetName For i = 1 To rst.Fields.Count ws.Cells(1, i).Value = rst.Fields(i - 1).Name ws.Cells(1, i).Font.Bold = True Next i ws.Range("A2").CopyFromRecordset rst For i = 1 To rst.Fields.Count ws.Columns(i).AutoFit Next i app.Visible = True Exit_Here: On Error Resume Next Set ws = Nothing Set wb = Nothing Set app = Nothing Exit Sub Handle_Error: MsgBox Err.Description, , "ERROR in ExportRecordsetToExcel" Resume Exit_Here End Sub '- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' Sub ExportToExcelNewWorksheet ' ' Parameters: ' ' strSheetName: Name to give worksheet. ' ' app: Reference to an Excel.Application object. ' ' wb: Reference to an Excel.Workbook object. ' ' rst: Reference to Recordset containing data to be ' placed on the worksheet. ' ' strPctColumns: Comma-separated list of columns to ' format as percent. ' ' strN2Columns: Comma-separated list of columns to ' format as number with 2 decimal places. ' ' strSumColumns: Comma-separated list of columns to add ' a Sum() formula below data. ' ' strColor1Columns: Comma-separated list of columns to ' set background color to COLOR_1. ' ' strColor2Columns: Comma-separated list of columns to ' set background color to COLOR_2. ' ' strColor3Columns: Comma-separated list of columns to ' set background color to COLOR_3. ' '- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ' Sub ExportToExcelNewWorksheet(strSheetName As String, _ ByRef app As Excel.Application, _ ByRef wb As Excel.Workbook, _ ByRef rst As DAO.Recordset, _ Optional strPctColumns As String = "", _ Optional strN2Columns As String = "", _ Optional strSumColumns As String = "", _ Optional strColor1Columns As String = "", _ Optional strColor2Columns As String = "", _ Optional strColor3Columns As String = "" _ ) On Error GoTo Handle_Error Const DECIMAL_2 = "#,##0.00_);[Red](#,##0.00);" Const PERCENT_2 = "#0.00%;(#0.00%);" Const COLOR_1 = 12713921 Const COLOR_2 = 16777164 Const COLOR_3 = 12180223 Dim i As Integer Dim n As Integer Dim r As Integer Dim C As Integer Dim ws As Excel.Worksheet Dim varPctList As Variant Dim varN2List As Variant Dim varSumList As Variant Dim varColor1List As Variant Dim varColor2List As Variant Dim varColor3List As Variant Dim strColumn As String Dim strRange As String Dim strFormula As String Dim DoNewSheet As Boolean varPctList = Split(strPctColumns, ",") varN2List = Split(strN2Columns, ",") varSumList = Split(strSumColumns, ",") varColor1List = Split(strColor1Columns, ",") varColor2List = Split(strColor2Columns, ",") varColor3List = Split(strColor3Columns, ",") Set ws = wb.ActiveSheet ' If active worksheet is empty then use it ' otherwise add a new worksheet. An empty ' sheet shows used range of one row and one ' column. This assumes that a non-empty sheet ' will actually use more than one cell. ' C = ws.UsedRange.Columns.Count r = ws.UsedRange.Rows.Count DoNewSheet = ((r > 1) Or (C > 1)) If DoNewSheet Then Set ws = Nothing Set ws = wb.Worksheets.Add End If ws.Name = strSheetName For i = 1 To rst.Fields.Count ws.Cells(1, i).Value = rst.Fields(i - 1).Name ws.Cells(1, i).Font.Bold = True Next i ws.Range("A2").CopyFromRecordset rst For i = 1 To rst.Fields.Count ws.Columns(i).AutoFit Next i r = ws.UsedRange.Rows.Count C = ws.UsedRange.Columns.Count ' Add totals to specified columns. n = UBound(varSumList) If n >= 0 Then For i = 0 To n strColumn = varSumList(i) strFormula = "=SUM(" & strColumn & "2:" & strColumn & CStr(r) & ")" strRange = strColumn & CStr(r + 2) With ws.Range(strRange) .Formula = strFormula .Font.Bold = True End With Next i End If ' Refresh to include any totals rows. r = ws.UsedRange.Rows.Count n = UBound(varPctList) For i = 0 To n strColumn = varPctList(i) strRange = strColumn & "1:" & strColumn & CStr(r) ws.Range(strRange).NumberFormat = PERCENT_2 Next i n = UBound(varN2List) For i = 0 To n strColumn = varN2List(i) strRange = strColumn & "1:" & strColumn & CStr(r) ws.Range(strRange).NumberFormat = DECIMAL_2 Next i n = UBound(varColor1List) For i = 0 To n strColumn = varColor1List(i) strRange = strColumn & "1:" & strColumn & CStr(r) ws.Range(strRange).Interior.Color = COLOR_1 Next i n = UBound(varColor2List) For i = 0 To n strColumn = varColor2List(i) strRange = strColumn & "1:" & strColumn & CStr(r) ws.Range(strRange).Interior.Color = COLOR_2 Next i n = UBound(varColor3List) For i = 0 To n strColumn = varColor3List(i) strRange = strColumn & "1:" & strColumn & CStr(r) ws.Range(strRange).Interior.Color = COLOR_3 Next i ' Set borders (setting interior color ' wipes out the gridlines). ws.UsedRange.Borders.LineStyle = xlContinuous ws.UsedRange.Borders.Color = RGB(&HBB, &HBB, &HBB) ws.Range("A2").Activate app.ActiveWindow.FreezePanes = True Exit_Here: On Error Resume Next Set ws = Nothing Exit Sub Handle_Error: MsgBox Err.Description, , "ERROR in ExportToExcelNewWorksheet" Resume Exit_Here End Sub
Exporting code and table definitions:
One of the things I don’t like about Access is the way bits of code (and business rules) end up all over the place, hiding in parameters behind forms and reports. The last chunk of VBA code for this post is a utility I use to dump code from modules, forms, and reports into a set of text files. It also writes out table definitions. It creates a set of text files in a sub-folder named for the current date and time when the script is run. I use this mostly to track changes by running Beyond Compare against sets of files created at different times. I can see code and table structure changes that were made during the interval. This utility also comes in handy for exploring an unfamiliar database.
Option Compare Database
Option Explicit
Dim mstrCodeExportDir As String
Sub DevTool_ExportCode()
If ExportDirReady Then
DevTool_ExportQueries
DevTool_ExportModules
DevTool_ExportTableDefs
DevTool_ExportTableNames
DevTool_ExportFormModules
DevTool_ExportReportModules
MsgBox “Exported to ” & mstrCodeExportDir, , “Finished”
End If
End Sub
Private Function ExportDirReady() As Boolean
Dim mr As Integer
mstrCodeExportDir = CurrentProject.Path & “\_code_history”
‘ Create base code history directory if needed.
If Len(Dir(mstrCodeExportDir, vbDirectory)) = 0 Then
MkDir mstrCodeExportDir
End If
‘ Create subdirectory for current date and time.
mstrCodeExportDir = mstrCodeExportDir & “\” & Format(Now(), “yyyymmdd_hhnn”)
If Len(Dir(mstrCodeExportDir, vbDirectory)) = 0 Then
MkDir mstrCodeExportDir
ExportDirReady = True
Else
mr = MsgBox(“Directory already exists:” & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & mstrCodeExportDir _
& vbCrLf & vbCrLf & “Overwrite existing files?”, vbYesNo, “Warning”)
ExportDirReady = (mr = vbYes)
End If
End Function
Sub DevTool_ExportQueries()
Dim db As DAO.Database
Dim qry As DAO.QueryDef
Dim ctr As DAO.Container
Dim doc As DAO.Document
Dim f As Integer
Dim fn As String
Set db = CurrentDb
For Each qry In db.QueryDefs
fn = mstrCodeExportDir & “\sql-” & Replace(Trim(qry.Name), ” “, “_”, , , vbTextCompare) & “.txt”
SysCmd acSysCmdSetStatus, “Query: ” & fn
f = FreeFile
Open fn For Output As #f
Print #f, qry.SQL
Close #f
Next qry
SysCmd acSysCmdClearStatus
‘MsgBox “Done.”
End Sub
Sub DevTool_ExportModules()
Dim db As DAO.Database
Dim ctr As DAO.Container
Dim doc As DAO.Document
Dim f As Integer
Dim fn As String
Set db = CurrentDb
Set ctr = db.Containers!Modules
For Each doc In ctr.Documents
fn = mstrCodeExportDir & “\mod-” & Replace(Trim(doc.Name), ” “, “_”, , , vbTextCompare) & “.txt”
SysCmd acSysCmdSetStatus, “Module: ” & fn
DoCmd.OutputTo acOutputModule, doc.Name, acFormatTXT, fn
Next doc
SysCmd acSysCmdClearStatus
‘MsgBox “Done.”
End Sub
Sub DevTool_ExportTableDefs()
Dim db As DAO.Database
Dim tdfs As DAO.TableDefs
Dim tdf As DAO.TableDef
Dim flds As DAO.Fields
Dim fld As DAO.Field
Dim strPath As String
Dim fnHTM As String
Dim fnTXT As String
Dim intFileH As Integer
Dim intFileT As Integer
Dim strTitle1 As String
Dim strTitle2 As String
Dim strTbl As String
Dim strFld As String
Dim strTyp As String
Dim strConn As String
Dim strTblTyp As String
Set db = CurrentDb
strPath = mstrCodeExportDir & “\”
fnHTM = strPath & “table_defs.html”
fnTXT = strPath & “table_defs.txt”
intFileH = FreeFile
Open fnHTM For Output As #intFileH
intFileT = FreeFile
Open fnTXT For Output As #intFileT
Set tdfs = db.TableDefs
If tdfs.Count > 0 Then
strTitle1 = “[Created by DevTool_ExportTableDefs ” & Format(Now, “yyyy-mm-dd Hh:Nn:Ss”) & “]”
strTitle2 = “Tables in ” & CurrentProject.Name
Print #intFileT, strTitle1
Print #intFileT, ” ”
Print #intFileT, strTitle2
Print #intFileH, “”
Print #intFileH, “
Print #intFileH, “
Print #intFileH, “”
Print #intFileH, “”
Print #intFileH, “
” & strTitle1 & “
”
Print #intFileH, “
” & strTitle2 & “
”
For Each tdf In tdfs
strTbl = tdf.Name
SysCmd acSysCmdSetStatus, “Table: ” & strTbl
‘ Do not list MS Access system tables.
If Left(strTbl, 4) <> “MSys” Then
strConn = Nz(tdf.Properties(“Connect”), “”)
If Len(strConn) > 0 Then
‘strTblTyp = “(LINKED)”
strTblTyp = “(LINKED ” & Right(strConn, Len(strConn) – 10) & “)”
Else
‘strTblTyp = “(local)”
strTblTyp = “”
End If
Print #intFileH, “
” & strTbl & ” ” & strTblTyp & “
”
Print #intFileH, “
” & strFld & “ | ” & strTyp & “ |
”
End If
Next tdf
End If
Print #intFileH, “”
Print #intFileH, “”
Close #intFileH
Close #intFileT
SysCmd acSysCmdClearStatus
End Sub
‘ Function FieldType is modified version of example in MS Access Help.
Private Function FieldType(intType As Integer) As String
Select Case intType
Case dbBoolean
FieldType = “Boolean”
Case dbByte
FieldType = “Byte”
Case dbInteger
FieldType = “Integer”
Case dbLong
FieldType = “Long”
Case dbCurrency
FieldType = “Currency”
Case dbSingle
FieldType = “Single”
Case dbDouble
FieldType = “Double”
Case dbDate
FieldType = “Date”
Case dbText
FieldType = “Text”
Case dbLongBinary
FieldType = “LongBinary”
Case dbMemo
FieldType = “Memo”
Case dbGUID
FieldType = “GUID”
End Select
End Function
Sub DevTool_ExportFormModules()
Dim dbs As Object
Dim obj As AccessObject
Dim frm As Form
Dim wasLoaded As Boolean
Dim strName As String
Dim fn As String
Set dbs = Application.CurrentProject
For Each obj In dbs.AllForms
strName = obj.Name
SysCmd acSysCmdSetStatus, “Form: ” & strName
Debug.Print “Form: ” & strName
wasLoaded = obj.IsLoaded
If Not wasLoaded Then
DoCmd.OpenForm strName, acDesign, , , , acHidden
End If
Set frm = Application.Forms(strName)
Debug.Print “Form Module: ” & frm.Module
fn = mstrCodeExportDir & “\” & Replace(Trim(frm.Module.Name), ” “, “_”, , , vbTextCompare) & “.txt”
DoCmd.OutputTo acOutputModule, frm.Module.Name, acFormatTXT, fn
Set frm = Nothing
If Not wasLoaded Then
DoCmd.Close acForm, strName, acSaveNo
End If
DoEvents
Next obj
SysCmd acSysCmdClearStatus
End Sub
Sub DevTool_ExportReportModules()
Dim dbs As Object
Dim obj As AccessObject
Dim RPT As Report
Dim wasLoaded As Boolean
Dim strName As String
Dim fn As String
Set dbs = Application.CurrentProject
For Each obj In dbs.AllReports
strName = obj.Name
SysCmd acSysCmdSetStatus, “Report: ” & strName
Debug.Print strName
wasLoaded = obj.IsLoaded
If Not wasLoaded Then
DoCmd.OpenReport strName, acDesign, , , acHidden
End If
Set RPT = Application.Reports(strName)
Debug.Print RPT.Module
fn = mstrCodeExportDir & “\” & Replace(Trim(RPT.Module.Name), ” “, “_”, , , vbTextCompare) & “.txt”
DoCmd.OutputTo acOutputModule, RPT.Module.Name, acFormatTXT, fn
Set RPT = Nothing
If Not wasLoaded Then
DoCmd.Close acReport, strName, acSaveNo
End If
DoEvents
Next obj
SysCmd acSysCmdClearStatus
End Sub
Sub DevTool_ExportTableNames()
Dim db As DAO.Database
Dim tdfs As DAO.TableDefs
Dim tdf As DAO.TableDef
Dim strPath As String
Dim fn1 As String
Dim fn2 As String
Dim fn3 As String
Dim intFile1 As Integer
Dim intFile2 As Integer
Dim intFile3 As Integer
Dim strTbl As String
Dim strMDB As String
Dim isLinked As Boolean
Set db = CurrentDb
strPath = mstrCodeExportDir & “\”
fn1 = strPath & “table_names_all.txt”
fn2 = strPath & “table_names_linked.txt”
fn3 = strPath & “table_names_local.txt”
intFile1 = FreeFile
Open fn1 For Output As #intFile1
intFile2 = FreeFile
Open fn2 For Output As #intFile2
intFile3 = FreeFile
Open fn3 For Output As #intFile3
Set tdfs = db.TableDefs
If tdfs.Count > 0 Then
For Each tdf In tdfs
strTbl = tdf.Name
SysCmd acSysCmdSetStatus, “Table: ” & strTbl
‘ Do not list MS Access system tables.
If Left(strTbl, 4) <> “MSys” Then
Print #intFile1, strTbl
isLinked = (tdf.Properties(“Updatable”) = False) And (Nz(tdf.Properties(“Connect”), “”) <> “”)
If isLinked Then
strMDB = Nz(tdf.Properties(“Connect”), “”)
If Left(strMDB, 10) = “;DATABASE=” Then
strMDB = Right(strMDB, Len(strMDB) – 10)
End If
Print #intFile2, padStrL(30, strTbl) & ” ” & strMDB
Else
Print #intFile3, strTbl
End If
End If
Next tdf
End If
Close #intFile1
Close #intFile2
Close #intFile3
SysCmd acSysCmdClearStatus
End Sub
Private Function padStrL(intLen As Integer, ByVal S As String)
While Len(S) < intLen
S = S & " "
Wend
padStrL = S
End Function
[/sourcecode]
One point I'd like to make regarding this VBA code is that I no longer think the practice of prefixing variable names with a type indicator (strBlah, intBlah, etc.) is helpful. I don’t think it is worthwhile to change the variable names just to get rid of that prefix so I left the code as it was when I wrote these modules.
What I have not included in this post are examples of calling the subroutines in these modules. For the code export utility I just run DevTool_ExportCode()
manually from the Visual Basic editor. For the other modules I’m assuming that if you have the need for that functionality you probably know how to figure out how to call the subroutines (and you may very well have better ways of performing these functions). If you would like more detail, or if you have a better way, let me know.
Geany From Source on Ubuntu
I like using the Geany IDE, perhaps because it seems more like a nice source code editor than a full-blown IDE. The version of Geany in the repository for Ubuntu 9.10 and 10.04, which I use on a couple machines, doesn’t seem to include the Treebrowser plugin that I wanted to try. Might as well take a shot at building the current version from source.
The following steps assume you’ve started a terminal in your home directory.
Get the required packages.
sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf intltool libtool libgtk2.0-dev libglib2.0-dev g++
I’m using a directory named src in my home directory to hold the downloaded source archives.
mkdir src && cd src
Download and extract the Geany source (be sure to check the Geany site to see if there is a more recent version than 0.19.1 referenced here).
wget http://download.geany.org/geany-0.19.1.tar.gz
tar xvf geany-0.19.1.tar.gz
Change to the extracted source directory, configure, build, and install.
cd geany-0.19.1
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install
If these steps completed without errors you should be able to start Geany by typing geany
in the terminal.
Next get the source for the geany-plugins package.
cd ~/src
wget http://plugins.geany.org/geany-plugins/geany-plugins-0.19.tar.gz
tar xvf geany-plugins-0.19.tar.gz
cd geany-plugins-0.19
./configure
You can install all of the plugins by running make
and sudo make install
in the current directory, or you can install plugins individually from subdirectories configured for each one. The following steps install only the Treebrowser plugin.
cd treebrowser
make
sudo make install
This Ubuntu Forums post pointed me in the right direction for figuring this out.
BTW: Geany is my lazy fallback when the quest to master text surgery in Vim hurts my brain.
COHPy Meeting – October 2010
Here are some links from last night’s meeting of the Central Ohio Python Users Group.
Austin Godber talked about virtualenv. Materials from Austin’s presentation are on GitHub.
Eric Floehr, of Intellovations, presented Building a Small Business/Personal Website With Django. He discussed some Pythonic choices for building web sites such as Blogofile for generating sites that are static content, and Plone for enterprise-scale content management. Django falls somewhere in the middle as a good choice for small business or personal blogging sites.
Other links from Eric’s talk:
Also (FWIW), here’s a bit of .bash_history from my following along with part of Eric’s presentation on a VM running Ubuntu 10.10:
sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv python-pip mkdir dev cd dev mkdir oct cd oct virtualenv --no-site-packages pyenv source pyenv/bin/activate sudo apt-get install mercurial pip install -e hg+http://bitbucket.org/stephenmcd/mezzanine#egg=mezzanine mezzanine-project sample cd sample python manage.py syncdb python manage.py runserver pip install django-debug-toolbar python manage.py runserver pip install django-extensions python manage.py graph_models blog>blog.dot sudo apt-get install graphviz dotty blog.dot
I’m not presenting this as a how-to or a tutorial, just some notes. If you don’t know what the above commands will do then I’d recommend not running them.
COHPy Meeting – September 2010
Here are some links from the September 2010 meeting of the Central Ohio Python Users Group:
Scott Scites gave a talk on Pyjamas, a "Python Javascript Compiler, Desktop Widget Set and RIA Web Framework."
The following are among items discussed during Scott’s talk:
Flask (A Python Microframework)
Raphaël JavaScript Library
gRaphaël Charting JavaScript Library
Minesweeper written in Python with Pyjamas
357 Guts – One of the guys at the meeting built this online card game using Pyjamas (and if someone tells me his name I’ll update this post, unless he wishes to remain anonymous).
Eric also mentioned GeoDjango.
I thought this was a good meeting and I certainly came away with a list of some pretty cool Pythonic stuff to check out.
Installing Git From Source On Ubuntu
Git is available from the Ubuntu repositories in the git-core, git-doc, and git-gui packages (there are other Git-related packages available but I think those three make up a basic installation). The package maintainer’s version tends to be behind the currently available version of Git. To have the latest features and fixes in Git it is necessary to install it from source. This is the process I use to install Git from source on Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic) and 10.04 (lucid):
Download the source archive from http://git-scm.com and extract it (I just extract it where it lands in my Downloads directory). Open a terminal in (or cd
to) the extracted Git source directory (~/Downloads/git-1.7.2.1
as of my latest install).
Install required packages:
sudo apt-get install libcurl4-gnutls-dev libexpat1-dev libssl-dev gettext libz-dev asciidoc
Build and install Git and its documentation:
make prefix=/usr/local all doc sudo make prefix=/usr/local install install-doc
If you don’t include the doc
and install-doc
tasks in the installation then the Git documentation will not be available via man pages or the git help
command. If you don’t want the documentation then you can leave out those tasks and you won’t need to install the asciidoc
package either. I prefer to have the documentation.