Some things do more harm than good, imho. Linux has a problem which is that too many unqualified people have to much to say.
Take this blog post from a developer whose code was rejected by the plasma developers. Was the reason his code was rejected right? I think so but thats not the point of this post. The point of this post is to highlight the fact that one upset, rejected developer having a hissy fit on his blog has caused yet another KDE bashing session.
Posts like this do no project any good at all and give Linux and the Linux community a bad name. Especially once some fool has dugg it and every Gnome user on the planet adds fuel to the fire. Love him (how could you not) or hate him I think the response by Aaron shows who is (once again) concerned with KDE rather then his own code.
31 March 2009
27 March 2009
C# TextInfo Class, ToTitleCase() Method.
As someone who spent a number of years working with VB6 I still miss a built in function for turning a string to Proper case. string has the ToUpper() and ToLower() static methods which work as you expect but no ToTitleCase or ToProperCase function. (Yes I know that if you are compiling against .Net3.5 you can extend the string type but I am still compiling against .Net2.0 for this project).
So I was looking at the best way to proper case a string today and I found this Microsoft help article. The article points to the TextInfo class and it's ToTitleCase() instance method.
Although you have to go through hoops to get an instance of the TextInfo class (you need to provide details of the culture etc) you can then pass the ToTitleCase() method a string and use the result.
Only what seems to be undocumented is the fact that the string provided to the method has to be lower case. It seems to work on the assumption that it only needs to make the first letter in the word upper case and ignore the remaining characters. Therefore, if you provide an upper case word you get an upper case word back.
I may be alone but I think that is a bit lazy. Whoever, implemented that function should be checking the case of the parameter. I mean to make the function fool proof parameter.ToLower() as the first line of the function would do the trick.
So I was looking at the best way to proper case a string today and I found this Microsoft help article. The article points to the TextInfo class and it's ToTitleCase() instance method.
Although you have to go through hoops to get an instance of the TextInfo class (you need to provide details of the culture etc) you can then pass the ToTitleCase() method a string and use the result.
Only what seems to be undocumented is the fact that the string provided to the method has to be lower case. It seems to work on the assumption that it only needs to make the first letter in the word upper case and ignore the remaining characters. Therefore, if you provide an upper case word you get an upper case word back.
I may be alone but I think that is a bit lazy. Whoever, implemented that function should be checking the case of the parameter. I mean to make the function fool proof parameter.ToLower() as the first line of the function would do the trick.
Google Looking To Improve Python Performance.
Interesting sounding project reported here about a Google project to improve the runtime speed of Python.
26 March 2009
It's All Text.... Bring Vim To FireFox!
Ok It Works..... Cool!!
This entry was brought to you by It's All Text a great little Firefox addon that I read about on Ivans blog.
What a great tip!
This entry was brought to you by It's All Text a great little Firefox addon that I read about on Ivans blog.
What a great tip!
24 March 2009
This is great news for KDE. The port of k3b to KDE4 should be complete within the next couple of months. In fact Mandriva have provided 2 developers to work part time on the project to help get it ready for it's next major release.
22 March 2009
Arch Linux
Sitting catching up with a weeks worth of news feeds I happened across a couple of Arch reviews ...
http://www.go2linux.org/arch-linux-review
and
http://polishlinux.org/linux/arch/arch-linux-a-distro-collectors-pick/
I have now been using Arch for about 3 months and love it. I have been using Debian for, erm, a "few" years and still love it but there where a few reasons I started to look at alternatives. The main thing was the KDE4 support. That means up to date KDE4 support not KDE 4.0. I also wanted the rest of my packages to be pretty much upto date and not have to wait months after a release to find it in apt. I did want to keep the rolling release and excellent package management. I'd also like to keep some level of reliabilty.
After doing some reading and ruling out Kubuntu (too close to Debian and IMHO too second class in the *buntu family) and SuSE (odd pakage management... too many package managers?!?!?!) I narrowed it down to Slackware and Arch and from the reading I did Arch come out as favourite down to pakage management and KDE4. I know I could have used gslapt and the various Slack KDE4 packages or even installed from source but some times you just want ease of use.
So I spent 3 weeks reading the Arch wiki and installing it! ha ha ha!!
I initialy installed it on my old Thinkpad (R40e) and that went easy enough and I was soon running the KDE mod pakages with no problems. So I backed up home and installed on Gonzo my main R60 Thinkpad. It was not so much the difficulty in installing the system (it really isn't difficault and is very very well documented) but more the "oh thats how that works....." or "ahhh... thats the config file for ....". I ended up reading up on every stage and I can say hand on heart I learnt a lot about Linux and how a distro hangs together. It was a very worth while 3 weeks and the ability to pick and choose which pakages you have is great. You feel like you've built the distro you want rather than installing one you have been given.
That said you also appreciate the work that the distro makers put in to save you the hassle. Additionaly you appreciate the fact that they have to worry about every combination of hardware and pakage rather than just making it work one package at a time on one laptop.
Do I have any gripes about Arch. Yes.... of course I do. Firstly the standard KDE 4 pakages I am running on Gonzo do not include KNetManager. You can try and run the package in AUR but I did not have much success and found WICD to be a good replacement. Amarok 2 does not for some reason seem to be in the offical pakages .... yet (please feel free to tell me if I am wrong).
On the whole though I can not fault Arch. I look forward to using it for some time
http://www.go2linux.org/arch-linux-review
and
http://polishlinux.org/linux/arch/arch-linux-a-distro-collectors-pick/
I have now been using Arch for about 3 months and love it. I have been using Debian for, erm, a "few" years and still love it but there where a few reasons I started to look at alternatives. The main thing was the KDE4 support. That means up to date KDE4 support not KDE 4.0. I also wanted the rest of my packages to be pretty much upto date and not have to wait months after a release to find it in apt. I did want to keep the rolling release and excellent package management. I'd also like to keep some level of reliabilty.
After doing some reading and ruling out Kubuntu (too close to Debian and IMHO too second class in the *buntu family) and SuSE (odd pakage management... too many package managers?!?!?!) I narrowed it down to Slackware and Arch and from the reading I did Arch come out as favourite down to pakage management and KDE4. I know I could have used gslapt and the various Slack KDE4 packages or even installed from source but some times you just want ease of use.
So I spent 3 weeks reading the Arch wiki and installing it! ha ha ha!!
I initialy installed it on my old Thinkpad (R40e) and that went easy enough and I was soon running the KDE mod pakages with no problems. So I backed up home and installed on Gonzo my main R60 Thinkpad. It was not so much the difficulty in installing the system (it really isn't difficault and is very very well documented) but more the "oh thats how that works....." or "ahhh... thats the config file for ....". I ended up reading up on every stage and I can say hand on heart I learnt a lot about Linux and how a distro hangs together. It was a very worth while 3 weeks and the ability to pick and choose which pakages you have is great. You feel like you've built the distro you want rather than installing one you have been given.
That said you also appreciate the work that the distro makers put in to save you the hassle. Additionaly you appreciate the fact that they have to worry about every combination of hardware and pakage rather than just making it work one package at a time on one laptop.
Do I have any gripes about Arch. Yes.... of course I do. Firstly the standard KDE 4 pakages I am running on Gonzo do not include KNetManager. You can try and run the package in AUR but I did not have much success and found WICD to be a good replacement. Amarok 2 does not for some reason seem to be in the offical pakages .... yet (please feel free to tell me if I am wrong).
On the whole though I can not fault Arch. I look forward to using it for some time
10 March 2009
IE8 Could Be End Of Line?
Just noticed on Slashdot a story stating that IE8 could be the last version of the Microsoft browser.
What is interesting is the fact that once again it is rummorred that they might switch to a browser based on webkit.
I'm sure they won't be it's nice to dream ;)
What is interesting is the fact that once again it is rummorred that they might switch to a browser based on webkit.
I'm sure they won't be it's nice to dream ;)
9 March 2009
KDE Activity Toolbar.
I'd love to say I thought of this idea but I didn't. I found it when looking for something related but anyway....
I have been trying to find a better way of working with KDE Activities for a while. I can't be doing with the "zooming out" and "zooming in" way of switching and I am having some trouble with my keyboard shortcuts at the moment. So I started to use the Activity Tabbar. Only I got bored of getting to the dekstop to switch so I followed this great tip taken from the KDE Forums.
Basically, add a panel. Add the Activity Tabbar to the panel and set it to autohide. Nice esay to accedd Activity Toolbar!
I have been trying to find a better way of working with KDE Activities for a while. I can't be doing with the "zooming out" and "zooming in" way of switching and I am having some trouble with my keyboard shortcuts at the moment. So I started to use the Activity Tabbar. Only I got bored of getting to the dekstop to switch so I followed this great tip taken from the KDE Forums.
Basically, add a panel. Add the Activity Tabbar to the panel and set it to autohide. Nice esay to accedd Activity Toolbar!
4 March 2009
KDE 4.2.1 "Cream" Released
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