Re: Templating Solutions

2001-06-19 Thread Mark Fowler

On Tue, 19 Jun 2001, Ian Brayshaw wrote:

> I am finding XSLT & XML to be a good alternative to normal templating
> techniques. One of the biggest benifits I've found is being able to generate
> the one data set and have it rendered in different ways for different
> applications. I presume this is possible in TT2.

Have a look at http://london.pm.org/~mark/ttxpath/

(from last technical meeting)

Leo's been playing around with this a bit more since the last technical
meeting and I've been talking over him how it's possible to switch views
and have different output

The concept is you have a template that defines what 'bits' of the xml you
want which you pull out with xpath.  You then 'tell' TT to render these
with the view ('output system of choice') which goes through the xml and
converts it into whatever output you feel like recursivly like.

Note that this example has too much code in the template view that
really should be squirrled away/converted into perl (/me hides) but
you get the idea...

Later.

Mark.

-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: (Open|Net)BSD local root exploit

2001-06-18 Thread Mark Fowler

On Mon, 18 Jun 2001, Jonathan Peterson wrote:

> However, after playing Baldurs Gate 2 all weekend, I'm obliged to say that
> really if you have a priceless artifact that you don't want found, the
> trick is to give to a peasant, because no adventurer is going to go round
> killing every peasant in the land to find the one with the treasure. See

That is unless you're Herod. "Then Herod, when he saw that he had been
tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all
the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years
old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise
men".

I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. That's the only
way to be sure.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}





Re: Training anyone ?

2001-06-13 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 13 Jun 2001, Lucy McWilliam wrote:

> "Beer good."

Beer Foamy.

-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: rewind elector

2001-06-08 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 8 Jun 2001, jo walsh wrote:

> gah, i feel old and sleepy

As does anyone who got home at 4am ;-)

> so nothing changes, but it was nice to realise that in the company of
> perlmongers.

Yey.  Thanks dave it was much fun, and I only inaproperatly fell asleep
three times... Interesting ride home in the minicab with the driver not
knowing where brick  lane or highbury corner was...and me much leafing
through his A-Z and attempting not to notice him getting flashed by speed
cameras

Now all I've got to do is actually get up, tear myself away from the three
tvs (showing breakfast, bbc text, sky news and gmtv) and internet
connection the gareth seems to have set my front room and get to work.

Thanks again Davewas great.

-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: old pictures

2001-06-06 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 6 Jun 2001, Lucy McWilliam wrote:

> On Sun, 3 Jun 2001, Greg McCarroll wrote:
>
> > just looking at some old pictures of london.pm meetings and YAPC::Europe
> > and i came across the classic, London.pm drinking in a hair dressing salon,
>
> Why oh why?

Infact, more to the point, where is this?  I seem to be in shot, though I
have no recollection of any hair dressing salons.  And I wasn't that drunk
at YAPC::E (unfortunately)

-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: Hang the Java programmers

2001-06-04 Thread Mark Fowler

On Mon, 4 Jun 2001, Jonathan Peterson wrote:

> But then I'm not a real programmer.

You eat quiche?

-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: Slow disks under linux

2001-05-31 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 31 May 2001, Paul Makepeace wrote:

> I have,
>
> Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Default Layout" Screen "Primary"
> Screen "Secondary" LeftOf "Primary" InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
> InputDevice "Configured Mouse" EndSection
>

Look, look, bad Text::Autoformat setup.  I suck.  Anyway..

And I have

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier  "another layout"
Screen  "Primary"
Screen  "Secondary" RightOf "Primary"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

You really only have to change LeftOf and RightOf to switch the monitors
around (which I did last time I moved desk as I went from having one
monitor to the left of the primary console monitor to having one monitor
to the right.)

You can't do that in Windows.  Ha.


-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: Slow disks under linux

2001-05-31 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 31 May 2001, Paul Makepeace wrote:

> OK, getting more esoteric now -- is anyone running dual monitors? I
> finally got my G450 running with KDE2 but the window manager doesn't add
> decoration to the windows on the 2ndary monitor, i.e. I can't move
> windows and they don't get mouse focus.

Are you using xinerama (i.e. so your monitors are spliced together into
one display?)  E (still 0.15.5...) runs fine with this[1] on my G400 and
XFree86 4.0 (with dem beta drivers)

Later.

Mark.

[1] Actually sometimes it moves a windows I'm resizing on my secondary
monitor onto my first, but that's only once in a very blue moon.

-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: Windows Perl - how?

2001-05-31 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 31 May 2001, Roger Burton West wrote:

> It makes a certain amount of sense. Rather than having to distribute an
> installer program with every package, have a standard installer program
> that you only need to download once.
>
> Copying files, of course, is _much_ too difficult.

Hmm..all working now (well, apart from GD crashing every time I try and
write out a JPEG - but that's another converstation)

I supose the real question is

 a) Why don't activestate mirror the latest installer on their site, or..
 b) At least link to it whenever you offer a MSI package to download (or
at least on the 'downloads' page

>From my point of view I clicked on the 'activeperl' link on their front
page and was simply offered a load of files that I had no idea how to
download.

Grr.

Mark. (back to coding under 'nix)

-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Windows Perl - how?

2001-05-31 Thread Mark Fowler

So I'm using a windows computer to do some stuff.  Which means I need a
decent scripting language, that means I install perl.

I head off to the activestate page and download the MSI for the latest
build.  My question is...how do I install this?  I can't find the MSI
installer anywhere on their site.

I seem to remember downloading an .exe last week (which I no longer have
and no longer seems to be where it was on thier site.)  Are they randomly
switching between MSI and .exe and haven't bothered to upload the
installer when they switched back.

'elp!

Mark.


-- 
s''  Mark Fowler London.pm   Bath.pm
 http://www.twoshortplanks.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




RE: [PUB] Possible candidate

2001-05-30 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 30 May 2001, Cross David - dcross wrote:

> Maybe I should have said "a pint to the first person WHO WASN'T IN THE
> PUB LAST NIGHT LEARNING ALL ABOUT THE HISTORY to explain the name".

Okay. I was sitting on my sofa last night.

The right to wear Doggett's Coat and Badge is the prize in a rowing race
held yearly since 1715 between London Bridge and Cadogan Pier, Chelsea
in London. It was initiated by Thomas Doggett to commemorate the
coronation of George I. The badge is silver and shows the white horse of
Hannover. The race is now held in July.

Later.

Mark.

--
s'' Mark Fowler Technology Developer Profero Ltd http://www.profero.com/
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 020 7700 9960 ';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent
Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/ +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: Buffy moves to London to do Eastenders

2001-05-28 Thread Mark Fowler

On Mon, 28 May 2001, Redvers Davies wrote:

>
> Well, not quite... but nearly:
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/features/exclusive.shtml
>

There seems to be something wrong with this URL...where's the
@decimalipaddress after the domain name?

Later

Mark

-- 
s''  Mark FowlerTechnology Developer Profero Ltd
 http://www.profero.com/  [EMAIL PROTECTED] 020 7700 9960
';use Term'Cap;$t=Tgetent Term'Cap{};print$t->Tputs(cl);for$w(split/  +/
){for(0..30){$|=print$t->Tgoto(cm,$_,$y)." $w";select$k,$k,$k,.03}$y+=2}




Re: [Announce] Hackspoitation film fest

2001-05-25 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 24 May 2001, Greg McCarroll wrote:

> and i can't buy it, because its still on boring old VHS
>
> - Greg 'DVD' McCarroll

It *was* released on DVD (in the US, but we don't care about that, do
we boys and girls) but this was a while back, and it's now out of stock
(everywhere.)

I think this might be the one film I'd be prepared to have a copy on VHS
and on DVD.

Hmmm.

Mark.

-- 
 "Spontaneity has its time and place."
  - The Sure Thing




Re: [Announce] Hackspoitation film fest

2001-05-24 Thread Mark Fowler


Piers asked:

>> The sure thing
>
> Ooh. Not seen that one. Is it any good? And that's Anthony "TopGun,
> Northern Exposure, ER" Edwards to you.

Any good, any good? It's only my all time favourite film of all time[1].

Where frat movie meets romantic comedy, on a road trip. Quite a few good
one liners. John Cusack being John Cusack very well. Zuniga being
Zuniga, also very well.

Later.

Mark.

[1] Not sure why. It just is.

--
 "I didn't sleep with you, I slept in a bed you happened to be in!"
- The Sure Thing




Re: Email Style (was: Re: Election Manifestos)

2001-05-24 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 24 May 2001, Leon Brocard wrote:

> Paul Makepeace sent the following bits through the ether:
>
> > Have you integrated into a mail server (module, procmail, whatever)
>
> .muttrc: set editor="/home/acme/bin/autoformat %s; xemacs -nw %s"
>
> Leon
>

in PINE

S SETUP -> C Config

display-filters: ~mark/bin/autoformat

where autoformat is simply



#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use Text::Autoformat;

$_ = <>;

# don't process the headers
if (/^Subject/)
{
 print;
 print while (<>);
 exit;
}

# slurp in text and process
my $foo = $_;
$foo .= $_ while (<>);
$_ = autoformat($foo, {all => 1});

# begon disclaimers
s/The information contained in this communication.*//si;

print;



Later

Mark

--
 My other mail program has a .muttrc




Re: [Announce] Hackspoitation film fest

2001-05-24 Thread Mark Fowler

On 24 May 2001, Dave Hodgkinson wrote:

> Simon Wistow <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> > I also have D.A.R.Y.L (Data Analyising Robot Youth Lifeform) but I
> > thinkt hat's pushing it a bit.
>
> If that counts, then Weird Science counts too!
>

That's more geeksploitation or nerdsplotitation...

Later.

Mark.

-- 
 "Do you realize that it is snowing in my room, goddammit!"
- Chet, Weird Science




Re: Election Manifestos

2001-05-24 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 24 May 2001, Simon Wistow wrote:

> Have no problem with them making money out of it it was just that it was
> ripped off and not released under the GPL and/or the changes sent back
> to us.

They don't have to under the artistic licence.  However, they do have to
"duplicate all of the original copyright notices and associated
disclaimers." which they did not do; Credit where credit is due.

Anyway, in the end IIRC the response was 'fuck it' let's have another beer
and think up some more madcap schemes.

Which brings us back around nicely to NMS and how we're going to licence
that stuff.  I think Leon will agree with me here that we should just
simply go for the 'do what the hell you want' licence.  If someone else
'steals' our code and makes a commercial library out of it, then so be it.


Oh sod this discussion for a lark, I'm off to write some free software...


Later.

Mark.

-- 
 This is my signature.  There are many like it, but this is mine.

 Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer and am speaking on my behalf and my behalf
 alone.  I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything




Re: Election Manifestos

2001-05-24 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 24 May 2001, Richard Clamp wrote:

> On Thu, May 24, 2001 at 09:13:12AM +0100, Robert Shiels wrote:
> > Typical quotes from Simon this week:
>
> Ah, he'd be fine if it weren't for those fucking mood swings.
>

You see, this is why we don't need to make a london-perl-mongers movie.
If we did, it's just turn out like SPACED.

Later.

Mark.




Re: Election Manifestos

2001-05-23 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 23 May 2001, Simon Cozens wrote:

> On Wed, May 23, 2001 at 11:17:14AM +0100, Simon Wistow wrote:
> > But Mail::Cclient is also unbeleivably powerful. Lying round on my HD
> > there's a Mail::Cclient::Simple which amkes everything much easier but
> > it's one of many projects I've never got round to finishing. Why
> > reinvent the wheel by rolling my own or using 5 or 6 different modules
> > when one will do.
>
> Because it doesn't exist? :) OTOH, Mail::Cclient does do NNTP as well, which
> would be a boost, because WING is meant to be the Web IMAP and NNTP Gateway.

Mail::Cclient was (not sure if it is still) a bitch to install.  Requires
c headers from IMAP libraries.  How likely is it that you have these
(still) lying around on your client machine[1]?

Most people opt for something that they can get to install easily[2]
rather than something more powerful.  If I can't just write a bundle for
cpan then it's probably not worth the bother...

Oh, let's just add it to the list of things to do once we've done NMS, the
new website for london.pm.org and conferences are out of the way...

Later.

Mark.

[1] Rhetorical question, not flame bait.
[2] in under 2 hours

-- 
 My other mail has a signature




RE: Election Manifestos

2001-05-23 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 23 May 2001, Cross David - dcross wrote:

> I've had another idea tho'. Why don't we install acmemail on Penderel and
> suggest that people with braindead mail clients use that?
>
> This, of course, presupposes that acmemail passes everyone's definition of a
> decent mail client. And if it doesn't, we can just slap the authors until it
> does :)

Oi, what did I ever do to you.  Slap Leon around as much as you want, but
leave me out of it.

Later.

Mark.

(who suggests that someone writes a script that will accept mail, fixxor
the threading into a proper format and sends it on, security allowing...)




Re: O'Reilly Safari - anyone use it?

2001-05-21 Thread Mark Fowler

On Sun, 20 May 2001, Robin Szemeti wrote:

> The interesting question for me is : if I already own a paper copy of the
> book, which costs 30p to produce and the remaining £39.70 is for 'a
> licence on the copyright' .. why do I have to pay full price for a CD
> version as well? ... seems to me that I already have a licence to the
> copyright, surely I can choose to view it any manner I see fit?

Oooh, interesting.

a) Should you have a right to view the work that you have paid for a
licence wherever you are, in whatever form you see fit?  Probably, yes.

b) Should you have the right to loan the work to other people (here,
borrow my book, my CD, etc?)  Probably, yes.

Piracy is nothing more than doing both of these at the same time, and
that's why it's so acceptable to people (people in general, not
necessarily to me.)  Personally I think the whole idea of copyright is
outdated and doesn't really work, but (as is the case for democracy) we
haven't got anything better and because it doesn't work 100% doesn't mean
I can ignore it and do what the hell I feel like.

Oh sod this discussion for a lark, I'm off to write some free software...

Later.

Mark.

-- 
   Copyright (C) 2001 Mark Fowler.  All Rights Reserved.
   These views are free opinions; you can redistribute them
   and/or modify them under the same terms as Perl itself.
   These are my personal views, not that of my employer.





Re: More Questions

2001-05-17 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 17 May 2001, David Cantrell wrote:

> EINSUFFICIENTLYSPECIFIEDPROBLEM :-)

Probably.  Here's my solution, and I can't see any obvious way of making
it smaller.  Suggestions?

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

use Data::Dumper;

my %scores = ( Adams   => 78,
   Davies  => 35,
   Fowler  => 78,
   Edwards => 84,
   Thomas  => 47,
   );

my %results;

my @x = sort {$scores{$b} <=> $scores{$a}} keys %scores;

my $i = 1;
while (@x)
{
my $delta = 0;
my $current;
do
{
my $name = shift @x;
$current = $scores{$name};
$results{$name} = $i;
$delta++;

} while (@x && $current == $scores{$x[0]});
$i += $delta;
}

print Dumper \%results;


-- 
 mark fowler, bad at perl at 6pm in the evening.




Re: TPC Quiz Team

2001-05-17 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 17 May 2001, Cross David - dcross wrote:

>
> I need three volunteers to join me in the london.pm team for Jon Orwant's
> Internet Quiz at The Perl Conference.

Does it have questions on Buffy and drinking competitions?

Later

Mark.

-- 
 The use of the beer glass image in association with the Perl language
 is a trademark of the London Perl Mongers.




Re: [gnat@frii.com: Damian Conway's Exegesis 2]

2001-05-17 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 16 May 2001, Greg McCarroll wrote:

> I don't think Perl 6 can be a tremendous leap forward, not because
> of RFC's along the lines of `Perl must stay Perl', but because
> the next leap forward is VisualPerl which will be as much about
> IDE as core language. Now lets not get hung up on the IDE bit
> of that statement, its more about how people build programs
> than the interface they use, the IDE merely focuses them towards
> a certain methodology of building software.

Greg, I was wondering if you've used Glade with Perl.  I think it's
everything that VisualBasic is.  It allows you very simple access to the
vast range of really complex components and provides very simple access to
the code both via generated 'only edit me if you know what you're doing'
code and 'ignore the rest of the program and just write what you
want me to do when you  click here' callbacks.

This of course comes with all the advantages and disadvantages of such an
approach.  It's very easy and quick to build a GUI that functions well and
stops you making so many GUI bloopers, but it's a very fixed approach that
doesn't lend itself to too much dynamic GUI creation.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
 perl is my itch
 (Simon, did you recently do an advertising campaign for divorce laywers?)




Log::Agent

2001-05-15 Thread Mark Fowler

Has anyone used Log::Agent, or for that matter any of the other logging
modules?

I'm just looking for a consistent way to do logging.  I've got a wheel
that I reinvented, but it's a very simple one (no tyre or inner tube yet)
and before I make any improvements I was just wondering if it was time to
switch to one of the established brand of wheel manufactures.

Recommendations anyone?

(look, a perl question)

Later.

Mark.




Politikal Disskusion

2001-05-14 Thread Mark Fowler

Hmm.

Leon once complained that I always read everything and then post and
unknowingly summed up the point everyone was trying to make by simply
rephrasing and clarifying a few issues (in the real world they call this
'plagiarism'.)  He said this was a problem, because he always ended up
linking to me rather than people who came up with original ideas.

However, for the political discussion, I think I can sum up and point out
that we oddly enough have seen to made our usual points...

* All Operating Systems Suck in various ways (Democracy, Dictatorship)
* All Distributions Suck in various ways (Labour, The Conservatives)
* All Licensing Systems Suck As They All End Up Having Restricting
  Addenda As Well As Trying To Promote What They're About (The Left, The
  Right, etc)
* All Content Management Systems Suck (Parties, Media, other vectors for
   and systems for change)
* Throwing Money at Something Doesn't Help If You Don't Have The Good
  Programmers And/Or Good Management Systems (The NHS, Schools)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
 These are my views, not my company's.  You may copy these views and
 alter them under the same licence as perl itself.




Re: Perl training

2001-05-14 Thread Mark Fowler

On Mon, 14 May 2001, Martin Ling wrote:

> On Mon, May 14, 2001 at 12:27:20PM +0100, Chris Ball wrote:
> >
> > OoOoOoh, Red Snapper! Very tasty!
> >
> > 
>
> Heh. It's *so* good, and has even managed to remain obscure. This is
> probably because you can't get it anywhere any more, of course...
>

It's not that obscure, though admitadly you can't get hold of it anymore.

Anyone who finds me a copy gets to drink from the firehose.

Later.

Mark.




Re: Monitors

2001-05-11 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 11 May 2001, Dominic Mitchell wrote:

> How many things do you have on top of your monitor?

Hmm.  I usually have a technic lego bike (thanks secret santa.)  Also
floating around in my geek sphere at the moment is:

 - A wind up clockwork chick (as in 'chicken,' not as in 'woman')
 - Coffee Mug (extra large) & Empty Caffinated Mints boxes.
 - A Beach ball
 - A copy of 'e' and the 'bofh' books
 - Various O'Reilly books (mostly blue) and a Manning Book (the other one
   is on the main bookshelf)
 - A SPACED DVD, A copy of the 'Worms World Party' computer game.
 - A large card that has 'Horror' printed on one side and 'Beauty' on the
   other.
 - Simpsons' daily desk calendar
 - One arm of my chair (that I removed because it was annoying me and now
   use as a book holder)
 - Palms (multiple,) Laptop, flash memory and other computer
   hardware items (such as a PCMICA network card that I borrowed off of
   leon and then never returned.)

At home on top of my monitor is a Mars Bar that I was presented for
'putting up the most from another perl monger while they were in another
country' (I don't eat chocolate.)

Later.

Mark.





New Mongers' Script Archive Update

2001-05-11 Thread Mark Fowler

I am posting an update of what's going on with this to the list because,
erm, dave told me to.

Right, this is what has happened/will happen:

 At the technical meeting it was decided that we need a developers site;
 This site should be used primarily to disseminate information about the
 state of each part of the NMS Archive Project.

 The proposed format for this site is that for each of the sections will
 have a page that will have

  a) a short description of the section
  b) a summary of the current state of affairs
  c) a list of *current* files
  d) a weblog of the recent changes
  e) a pumpking

 The sections will be

  * the website itself
  * the unix install
  * the windows install
  * the mac install
  * one for each script

 The front page will have, in addition to a link to each of the pages, a
 quick summary of the state of affairs of the project and a collection of
 the most recent entries from all the weblogs

 The technology to do all of this will be quick and dirty.  The reasoning
 for this is simple:

  1) Let's do it quickly, and we can refactor later.

  2) The code we're using isn't that complicated and something like CVS
 would probably be an overkill.  Likewise for a proper bugzilla
 system.

  3) All changes should be go through the pumpking for each of the
 individual sections so this shouldn't be a problem

 People that have agreed to be pumpkings so far:

  Mark Fowler (that's me) agreed to be website pumpking
  Simon Batistoni agreed to be windows install pumpking.
  Paul Mison agreed to be mac install pumpking

  If you agreed to write a script, you're pumpking for that (note that
  pumpkings can hand the responsibility to other people if they want)

 The developers website is working now, and it's just a matter of slapping
 in the code for listing files, editing the weblogs, and um the sections.
 Shouldn't take that long then ;-)

 The trial website should be up in the next week or so[1] and I'll post
 more info to the list once it's done.

Later.

Mark.

NRN.

[1] Damn nice weather making me want to sit in the sun.

-- 
 dammit jim I'm a doctor not a signature line




Re: Bah!

2001-05-10 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 10 May 2001, David Cantrell wrote:

>  has anyone done TeX goodness with Template Toolkit?

See the latest post to the TT mailing list:

http://www.template-toolkit.org/pipermail/templates/2001-May/000931.html

Later.

Mark.




RE: sing if you're happy that way

2001-05-08 Thread Mark Fowler

On Tue, 8 May 2001, Lucy McWilliam wrote:

> L.
> Never argue with a biologist.

Why not?  Not that I ever would, you understand...just wondering what the
exact precedent for this is?

-- 
 mark wrote this

Disclaimer: The above statement is not intended to be legally binding





Re: tube strike / may meeting postponed til 10th

2001-05-03 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 2 May 2001, Struan Donald wrote:

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1307000/1307103.stm
>
> for those who don't get a kick out of seeing server errors :)

Which we all know you don't ever get on news.bbc.co.ukeven when a page
you're looking for doesn't exist

Later.

Mark.

(who has complained to them about blanket 200 OK responses but got no
response.)

-- 
 If I had a .signature file it would be included here.




Re: Not Matt's Scripts

2001-05-01 Thread Mark Fowler

On 30 Apr 2001, Dave Hodgkinson wrote:

> I've got someone needing a form to mail script. Where's ours[0]?

According to my records, Dave C was doing it.

Dave?

Later.

Mark.

-- 
 mark typed this




Re: MySQL -> Oracle wrapper/compat. libs

2001-04-27 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, Robin Szemeti wrote:
> On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, someone who Robin's attrib to fscked up wrote:
>
> > [side note: I did just see a bizarre thread in macosx-dev where
> > one guy claimed his FFT code was executing faster in Java than C
> > because its interpreter used runtime info to optimize it. Search on
> > 'informal benchmarks']
>
> uh huh .. but he's a Java programmer .. his C could be *REALLY* bad ;) ..
> favourite Java quote 'If javas garbage collector is damn good, how come
> the whole thing doesn't delete itself upon execution?'

Don't see why this isn't possible.  The idea is that you factor out *all*
really unlikely cases (how you know this is based on past performance) and
catch them all with some simple test.  Then you (more expensively, but who
cares since this happens only once in a blue moon) deal with it and work
out exactly what was the problem.

Another example, you could use a processor level exception to catch those
pesky divide by zero errors (which is very expensive if it fires, but much
much cheaper each time round than explictly checking it.)  The advantage is
that a compiler doesn't have this information lying around - you can't
tell from the code how often cases come up;  You need to profile at run
time as you go.

Sorry if this is all babble.  I haven't had much sleep.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
 who *still* hasn't got round to getting a new .signature




Re: MySQL -> Oracle wrapper/compat. libs

2001-04-25 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, David Cantrell wrote:

>
> Trouble is, they all have non-standard extensions, which are *really* handy
> and which you *will* use if you don't know any better.  For example, MySQL
> has AUTO_INCREMENT fields which are dead useful for id fields; the closest
> Oracle equivalent would be using a sequence.
>

Why you say don't know better, what should I use instead of this.  Is
there any sensible way to do this in bog standard SQL that won't have a
massive perfomance hit on mysql?

Later.

Mark.

-- 
 mark still hasn't replaced his sig.





Tk::Canvas Rectangles

2001-04-20 Thread Mark Fowler

Watching veeg's really cool music program in Tk last night reminded me
that I've got a slight problem with something I was writing with
Tk::Canvas...

If I create a rectangle, how do I go about changing its width and height?

Any ideas?

Mark.

-- 
 ENOSIGSIGSTILLONOTHERSERVER




RE: Mutagenic modules: online slides

2001-04-20 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, dcross - David Cross wrote:
> Mark Fowler wrote on the 20th April:
>
> > On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, Robin Houston wrote:
> >
> > > You want to take arbitrary languages, and execute them as if they
> > > were Perl. I want to take Perl and execute it as if it were an
> > > arbitrary language :-)
> >
> > Here be dragons.
>
> "You can't just make up any old shit and expect the computer to know what
> you mean, retardo!"
>

It's more like DWRM programming (do what robin means.)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
 ESIGSTILLONOTHERCOMPUTER
 EUSERTOOLAZYTOUSESCP




Re: Mutagenic modules: online slides

2001-04-20 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, Robin Houston wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 19, 2001 at 11:57:01PM +0100, Simon Cozens wrote:
> >
> > Funny. You've come across the same idea I did.
> > http://simon-cozens.org/pg.pdf
>
> Having now read your paper, I think that in some ways it's the
> *opposite* idea; or at least a complementary one.
>
> You want to take arbitrary languages, and execute them as if they
> were Perl. I want to take Perl and execute it as if it were an
> arbitrary language :-)

Here be dragons.

Later.

Mark.

P.S. You might want to have a look at File::Remote (as this 'overrides'
open and changes it's meaning.)  Oh and
http://www.mail-archive.com/london-pm%40lists.dircon.co.uk/msg03442.html

-- 
 ENOSIGSIGONOTHERMACHINE




Template Toolkit and XPath notes

2001-04-20 Thread Mark Fowler

Have been uploaded to london.pm.org.  And by jove, with a ickle bit of
httpd.conf bashing they even render out okay.  Shame about the spelling
mistakes though.

http://london.pm.org/~mark/ttxpath/

Later.

Mark.




Re: London.pm List Weekly Summary 2001-04-16

2001-04-19 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 19 Apr 2001, Greg McCarroll wrote:

> On Thu, 19 Apr 2001, Simon Wistow wrote:
> >
> > This is the thirteenth of hopefully many weekly summaries of the London
> > Perl Mongers mailing list. For the week starting 2001-04-16:
> >
> > Greg McCarroll asked about online brokers, Robert and
> >
>
> *GUNSHOT*
>
> *queue eastenders theme track* ( or dallas if you really want )
>
> 
>
> Tune in next week to find out who shot Simon! Was it a Randal?
> Was it the father of his ex-girlfriend? Was it a crazed YAPC::Europe
> organiser remembering the aniversary of PIMB fiasco?
>
> 

Oh don't start that again.  I had enough of that last time round.

Later.

Mark Fowler.




RE: Tech mtg?

2001-04-19 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 18 Apr 2001, Dave Cross wrote:

> At 17:08 18/04/2001, jo walsh wrote:
>
> > > this all gives me a creeping sense of deja type
> >
> >yeah, i've just looked and realised it says almost exactly the same thing
> >on the website, except in more detail:
> >http://london.pm.org/WhatDo.shtml
>
> Did _I_ do that? Whatever happened to my memory? (rhetorical!)

Kind of.  I noticed that you'd cunningly left it in elite web reader mode
with the directions still there from last time, just commented out.  Of
course, as we all read the web by using telnet or (for the advanced) GET
we all saw this an knew what was actually going on.  But I thought I'd
better just alter it an ickle for those damn mozilla/netscape/ie/opera/lynx
users who wern't seeing it.

Hope you don't mind.

Later.

Mark.

(tech support ninja in training)

ESIGONOTHERMACHINE




Re: NWS (was Re: Technical Meeting - 19th April)

2001-04-17 Thread Mark Fowler

On Tue, 17 Apr 2001, Struan Donald wrote:
> * at 17/04 14:00 +0200 Philip Newton said:
> > Mark Fowler wrote:
> > >  3) Write a set of scripts that are all basically the same but have
> > > different #!/usr/bin/perl lines on the top and tell you the
> > with a bunch of different extensions such as .pl .plx .cgi for
> > combinations of "operating system" + web server that map scripts to
> > interpreters by extension and/or directory rather than by shebang line...
> surely there should be a better way than this? after all the
> combinations involved are quite numerous. is the notion of something
> that does :
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> 
> if [ -e /usr/bin/perl ]; then
> exec './bin_perl.pl'
> fi
> 
> or equivalent too silly? although not sure this sort of thing is possible
> on non unix type systems. OTOH would at least cut down the number of
> files that the person installing needs to worry about.

I don't particularly see the number of scripts this person is installing
as a problem.  The key concept is that these scripts are designed so that
someone who knows *nothing* about their system can basically upload them
all then see which one works.  Once they've got this script working the
script should contain instructions on how to modify any of the
other scripts to work with their server.

I don't think what you're suggesting will work at all on windows.  Or pure
mod_perl...

Feel free to disagree, I'm just suggesting ideas here.  Honestly, I'm not
sure what's the best way...

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: NWS (was Re: Technical Meeting - 19th April)

2001-04-11 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 11 Apr 2001, Struan Donald wrote:
  
> > I'll also be able to give a quick status update on the website for NMS
> > (probably at the same time as I'll be using it as my example)
> 
> what is the status of the NMS thing. i'm liable to have some spare time
> over the weekend so if there's anything that needs doing on this i could
> have a bash.

Just to preempt all I was going to say next technical meeting ;-)

Website is going fairly well, if not slowly.  The backend bits for
churning out the HTML are nearly done (or will be nearly done by the time
the technical meeting.)  I'm trying to get it so that we only have a
few core files to maintain (perhaps only one or two a script) and
that everything else is automagic. 

For the design itself: Celia did some rough plans for how the site should
function (with justifications) and I've been playing around with these and
trying to implement them.  I'm not going to make it very pretty, but I
will make it so that it's easy to prettify it at a later date altering
the templates behind it.

Here a list of things that could do with being done if anyone's got some
spare time:

 1) Come up with a name.  Something that isn't Not Matt's Scripts.

 2) Come up with a logo that will go at the top of the page.  Currently
we're trying for a vaguely corporate look to the whole thing.  I was 
thinking something like a Bodoni version of the name (but not that 
because that's been done to death)

 3) Write a set of scripts that are all basically the same but have
different #!/usr/bin/perl lines on the top and tell you the
information that you might need to know about the server.  For example
what version of perl you're running, what the current working
directory is, what the permissions on the directories are, etc, etc.
 
 4) Install Apache::Template, Bundle-XML, Template Toolkit 2.02 on penderel 
I think this has already been mostly done, but I could be wrong.

 5) Write some step by step instructions for installing this stuff on
Windows because I have no idea how to do this.  Simon B, you agreed to
do this right?

 6) Stop inviting me to the pub when I should be doing work.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Technical Meeting - 19th April

2001-04-11 Thread Mark Fowler

On Mon, 9 Apr 2001, dcross - David Cross wrote:

> As usual I'll aim at having four or five lightning talks and two or three
> longer talks.

I could do a lightening talk on playing around with skinning stuff with
Template Toolkit's brand spanking new VIEW directive.  This would be very
quick as we've seen Andy do this kind of thing before in the pre-release
version.  I'd be skinning XML again in my example, but this time I'd be
using XML::XPath...

I'll also be able to give a quick status update on the website for NMS
(probably at the same time as I'll be using it as my example)

Later.

Mark.

(Who thinks this is almost a show 'n' tell situation)

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









Re: Test

2001-04-06 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 6 Apr 2001, Merijn Broeren wrote:

> # Else use lynx to view it as text
> text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput

Quick question for us non mutt users that may one day consider using
it.  Does this run throgh the shell?  And what's %s in this?  I'm kinda
hoping it's not able to be '; rm -rf ~/*' or worse, if you get my drift

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








RE: the 2nd best london.pm meeting of all time

2001-04-06 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 6 Apr 2001, dcross - David Cross wrote:

> > The stolen wine by the thames at 1am was a particularly nice feature.
> 
> Oh $deity. Are we going to be barred from Vinopolis now?

To clarify: We did actually pay for the wine IIRC, but strictly speaking
we shouldn't have removed it from the resturant.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: [HELP] Traceroute

2001-04-05 Thread Mark Fowler

> Yup. The machines on hops 11-24 aren't answering the traceroute
> packets, but are passing them on. Possibly a routeing loop if you'd
> normally expect to see fewer hops there.

Sounds good to me.  Quick explanation of what traceroute does:

 You can set a TTL for packets.  Each hop they go though (or each second
 they are at a hop but ignore this bit) this is decreased. When the TTL
 hits 0 the packet is dropped and the dropper sends back an error to the
 sender.  Traceroute exploits this by sending a packet with a TTL of 1, so
 the first hop drops it and errors you (thus declaring who it is to
 traceroute in the process.)  Traceroute then up the TTL and sends another
 packet so the second machine drops the packet and reports back.  This
 goes on and on till each machine en-route has returned information back.

Right, that was boring, and probably not needed, but anyway:

Not all machines (not many routers infact) will report dropped packets so
you get * * *.  This may simply be the problem you're experiencing.

Another problem is that the ICMP packet that is sent back about the
dropped packet might be caught in a firewall (maybe yours, trying to stop 
teardrop style attacks, etc) and so you might not get the data back - or
worse your network topology is so screwed that from this point they can't
work out how to communicate back to you (as suggested above.)

Finally, the type of packet that traceroute normally uses (a udp packet)
might be prevented from getting though by a firewall, etc (if this
happens try using -I or other options)  If you're getting hosts at the
end though this *should* be okay, but some firewalls/filters do very odd
things.

Hope that's helpful.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









Re: Test

2001-04-05 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Simon Cozens wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 05, 2001 at 10:41:56AM +0100, Simon Wistow wrote:
> > There's also Mail::Cclient (by Malcolm Beattie) which can be tricky to
> > install

The perl module is a bit of arse to install as well.  It needs access to
the source file of the IMAPd, which not many platforms have handy.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Backslash

2001-04-05 Thread Mark Fowler

Slashdot, and everything else running Slash (i.e. use.perl.org) seem to no
longer be doing XML RSS feeds, but a custom DTD called 'backslash'.  I 
was wondering if anyone knows anything about this.

I'm currently working on building summaries of sites, and then things
from these summaries.  I was planning to build RSS documents for each of
them using XML::RSS (following the helpful section in dmwp.)  I was
wondering:

 a) What and Why is backslash?  
 b) Is this better/worse/indifferent?  Should I use it instead?
 c) How do I parse it (XML::RSS doesn't work, am I going to have to code
it from hand?)

Dipsy seems to be able to cope with this..

Later.

Mark.

http://slashdot.org/slashdot.xml
http://slashdot.org/backslash.dtd

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Grammar (was: Re: Linux.com Online Chat)

2001-04-04 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, Simon Cozens wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 02:10:11PM +0100, Mark Fowler wrote:
> > Ah, but with perl code there is a definite 'correct' parsing (whatever
> > /usr/bin/perl does[1]) but with the English language that isn't true.
> 
> I'm afraid that's as silly as me declaring that there's only one correct
> parsing of English, and that's how *I* parse it.

No it's not that silly ;-)  Maybe it's on the same level of silliness as
the concept of 'the Queen's English' (the idea being that the Queen 'owns'
the language and anyone else has to speak/parse as the queen does) as
you could consider that /usr/bin/perl 'owns' the language and that all
other perl processors better do the same thing as /usr/bin/perl or get
scoffed at down the local for talking funny...

Anyway, we're getting off topic.  I was just saying that the reason we
can parse perl and not English is that though they are both type 0
grammars is that perl is defined by 'what /usr/bin/perl currently 
parses' and we have *all* of that written down as the source code (though
not all of it produces expected results) where we don't have a definitive
list of the entire of English because that requires a *huge* degree of
cultural background information.

I'm sure there's a point here in replacing all Human -> computer speech
interfaces that use English as a command language to making everyone talk
perl, but this topic is getting silly enough.

Beer, Buffy, Beer, Buffy.

Later.

Mark.

(going back to writing HTML for NMS now)

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









Re: Grammar (was: Re: Linux.com Online Chat)

2001-04-04 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, Simon Cozens wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 10:31:41AM +0100, Mark Fowler wrote:
> > Perl is easier to parse simply because all the irregularities are known
>  
> > and documented.  They're not in English.  In addition to the above
>   ^^
> Uhm, where?

The perl source code *is* the documentation.  There is no direct equivalent
for the English language, as it is really whatever we think is the case at
the time - or, more accurately, what the largest number of the intended
audience would understand it to mean.

> Perl requires a similar amount of knowledge to parse, although the
> knowledge is rather more domain specific - what subs are defined, what globs
> are available, what packages are defined, what filehandles are open, and so
> on.

Ah, but with perl code there is a definite 'correct' parsing (whatever
/usr/bin/perl does[1]) but with the English language that isn't true.

Later.

Mark.

(Waving hands around in the air as he speaks)

[1] This is that there is only one 'correct' parsing.  This may not be
what you thought you meant, or the coders who coded perl itself thought
you would have meant...but it is what you said.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Linux.com Online Chat

2001-04-04 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 4 Apr 2001, dcross - David Cross wrote:

> Tue Apr 17th, 2001 (12:00 pm US/Pacific)

In english?

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Grammar (was: Re: Linux.com Online Chat)

2001-04-04 Thread Mark Fowler

On 4 Apr 2001, Dave Hodgkinson wrote:

> Dominic Mitchell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 
> > ObPerl: So which is harder to parse?  Perl or English?
> 
> Time flies like an arrow
> Fruit flies like a banana
> 
> Parse that and stay fashionable...
> 

They're both Type 0, though one *could* argue that Perl was really type 1
and the grammar is defined by a really really big C program

Perl is easier to parse simply because all the irregularities are known
and documented.  They're not in English.  In addition to the above
example, consider

"The British Left Waffles on Argentina"

Which requires you to know about the concepts of political persuasion,
waffling as talking at length, usage of 'on' as 'about' etc, or you end
up with some careless people leaving behind breakfast items in a far off
land...

Later.

Mark.
   
-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









Re: Buffy

2001-04-02 Thread Mark Fowler

On Sun, 1 Apr 2001, Leon Brocard wrote:

> http://www.astray.com/Buffy/

First diff.  And it's a documentation patch for us pedantic people.

40c40
< Buffy - An encryption scheme for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans
---
> Buffy - An encoding scheme for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans


-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: [schwern@pobox.com: DNA.pm]

2001-04-02 Thread Mark Fowler

On Sun, 1 Apr 2001, Greg McCarroll wrote:

> Actually, i'm quite pleased Leon implemented Buffy.pm and took
> up the namespace before we started inventing modules for all
> of Sunnydale, along the lines of 

I was so going to have a Buffy.pm that slayed out of control deamons.  And
of course, it'd need a Giles.pm that kept track of deamons and noticed
when one was using too much CPU/memory, etc.  And a Willow.pm to invoke
new deamons when Buffy.pm had killed them all...

..Oh and a Xander.pm that did absolutly nothing apart from check that
Buffy.pm, Giles.pm and Willow.pm themselves hadn't gone out of control.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Still screwing up References: (was Re: Job: I'm looking for one..)

2001-03-29 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 29 Mar 2001, Dave Cross wrote:

> You're right, the referencing is a bit screwed up. I'll take a look at
> it today.

Your webmail CC is screwed up too.  On my mails there's now new line after
the Cc: so I get a line that says 

Cc: X-Mailer: foo 

which my mail client (PINE) wants to reply to...

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Job: I'm looking for one..

2001-03-29 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 28 Mar 2001, Paul Makepeace wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 28, 2001 at 02:58:36PM +0100, Greg McCarroll wrote:
>
> > Also i think the lack of Perl certification, is one of the biggest
> > problems with Perl work in london,
> 
> Are employers there too stupid to read CVs? Or too lazy?

I'm too lazy.  Speaking as someone who has recently spent a while vetting
CVs for people for a job, it's hell.  For a experienced perl programmer
it's easier for me to tell if you've had the experience by what jobs you've
done before.  For a mid range programmer (who may have only worked at one
company before) it's really hard.

CVs are the first step through the door.  I'm just trying to assess if
you're good enough to have in for an interview.  That's where I, and my
boss, and probably my bosses boss will actually make the decision.  A
certification system I could trust would be really helpful.  It would save
so much time trying to get rid of the guy that came in and said 'I don't
use modules, I prefer to write my own code in the script.' et al.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Perl Auto-RPC

2001-03-28 Thread Mark Fowler

Code I wrote to do most of what you people are talking about a couple of
weeks back, loading over ssh.

This does not work for non-pure perl code.  i.e. XS is a no-no

The idea I was using it for:

 a) User presses a button in the web browser
 b) Downloads .config.html from that directory the site which contains 

i)  The current directory from the server's point of view
ii) The address of the perl code to configure this site

Both of which have RC5 checksums

 c) The perl code is downloaded to configure said site and run  This
starts a Tk widget that can be used to edit config stuff remotely.

The key idea behind this is that you need nothing special on the server
bar ssh and httpd.  And your client need have no special idea of what
it needs to have installed.

Anyway, the code:

use File::Remote;

# then later

 
# Setting up the @INC trap


# right now we modify @INC so that it will load files from afar
# this stolen from p5p - http://www.perl.com/pub/2001/03/
# p5pdigest/THISWEEK-20010305.html

push @INC, sub 
{
my $foo = shift;
my $modname = shift;
  
# this is going through scp - make all :: into /
$modname =~ s|::|/|;

# combine the paths
my $filename = $codepath.$modname;

# create a $remote object
my $remote = File::Remote->new( rsh => '/usr/bin/ssh',
   rcp => '/usr/bin/scp',); 

my $fh = new IO::Handle;

# open the thingy as if by magic, returning
# undef if there is a problem
$remote->open($fh, $filename) or return undef;

return $fh;
   }


-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Job: I'm looking for one..

2001-03-28 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 28 Mar 2001, Aaron Trevena wrote:

> I think java is likely to be associated with a load of spectacular
> failures. 

To be fair, most of these won't be Java's fault.  It's just that Java is
the first choice of someone who is going on buzzwords, and hasn't really
thought about the technical issues involved.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Not Matt's Scripts

2001-03-27 Thread Mark Fowler

Dave Cross wrote:

> So it looks like we've got most of then sewn up. Anyone else want to report 
> on progress or grab one of the outstanding ones to do?

Progress is going quite well.  I've been fiddling with HTML for the stuff
which is quite easy to do.  The hard thing is trying to work out the exact
process involved in someone downloading stuff and setting it up, and what
information they need to be displayed.  The other hard stuff is actually
writing the copy for the pages. It's all going well, but I'm not rushing
it.

So, I guess I'm saying to say there's not much to report atm, but there
will be soon.  Be assured I haven't forgotten about it.

As far as my scripts go, they're going quite well, but two questions:

1) Is POSIX.pm a standard module (and how do I work this out for
myself) and supported on all O.S.es so I don't have to rewrite strftime.

2) How do I get strftime to produce th/st/nd for the date?  I can't see it
on man strftime, but I might just be going blind.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: originality

2001-03-27 Thread Mark Fowler

On Tue, 27 Mar 2001, Greg McCarroll wrote:

> * Dave Cross ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> > At Tue, 27 Mar 2001 11:41:05 +0100, Chris Heathcote <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > 
> > > Sunday morning Perl advocacy at Speaker's Corner
> > 
> > This _really_ should happen.
> > 
> 
> well then, lets store it up - next time we get a visitor whos up for
> it, we will do it, then retire to somewhere for sunday lunch.
> 

Okay, may I suggest the summer?

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: originality

2001-03-27 Thread Mark Fowler

Greg said:

> Chris said:
>
> > Sunday morning Perl advocacy at Speaker's Corner
> 
> i like this
> 

Sunday mornings!  We're all in bed then[1]!  Think who you are talking to!

Later.

Mark.

[1] Apart from those of us that get up each week to watch hollioaks[2]
[2] Or walking across London.  Yeah, whatever

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: "That book"

2001-03-23 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, Natalie Ford wrote:

> >How at http://london.pm.org/scripts/
> 
> 404...
> 

(Who will do some HTML this weekend)

Later.

Mark. 


-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: "That book"

2001-03-23 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, Matthew Byng-Maddick wrote:

> On Fri, 23 Mar 2001, Mark Fowler wrote:
> > > World domination is ours.  Muahahaha!
> > Not if we can't come up with a good name for not matt's script archive it
> > won't be.
> 
> I don't think we tried "London.pm's Script Archive", did we? :)

Okay, I can live with that.

How at http://london.pm.org/scripts/ 

Later.

Mark.

(Who will do some HTML this weekend)

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: "That book"

2001-03-23 Thread Mark Fowler

L. said:

> World domination is ours.  Muahahaha!

Not if we can't come up with a good name for not matt's script archive it
won't be.

Ideas to the usual address.

*Please*

Later.

Mark.

(damnit Jim, I'm a Technology Developer, not a Copywriter)

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Debuggers (was Re: Perl Training Courses)

2001-03-22 Thread Mark Fowler

On 2001, Mar, 22, Thu, Cross, Dave wrote:

> > Now with added pointy and clickyness.
> 
> Now with added Ludditeness.
>
> Dave.

Luddite n 1 : any opponent of technological progress [syn: {Luddite}]
2: one of the 19th century English workman who destroyed labor-saving
machinery that they thought would cause unemployment [syn: {Luddite}] 

You're sounding a little too much like a heretic to me Dave...all that
crashing and destroying of stuff ;-)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Debuggers (was Re: Perl Training Courses)

2001-03-22 Thread Mark Fowler

On 2001, Mar, 21, Cross, Dave wrote:

> >And how about: a decent Perl debugger (that also happens to be free).
> 
> You have a decent Perl debugger. It's called perl -d.
> 

Eugh.  perl -d:ptkdb please.

Now with added pointy and clickyness.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Perl Training Courses

2001-03-21 Thread Mark Fowler

On 2001, 21, Mar, Wed, Cross, Dave wrote:

> At Wed, 21 Mar 2001 16:19:57 + (GMT), Mark Fowler wrote:
> > One of my collegues asked me about Perl training courses in the U.K.  
> 
> As far as I can see, none of the scheduled courses in the UK are much cop.
> 
> What do you need? If you can get three or four people interested in
> doing the same course and can supply a suitable room, then Iterative
> would be only too happy to help you out.

This is what I think they would need to learn:

 a) Get hit over the head a bit with my, local, strict, good programming
practices.  Maybe a quick refresher on how arrays, hashes and suchlike
really work.  (In terms of passing between subroutines and stuff, how
doing this 'casts' one into the other, the difference between array 
and scalar context.)  Maybe a quick refresher on references.

They should know all of this already, but I'd like a course to make
*sure* they do, if you see what I mean

 b) This is how to get objects from CPAN, these are a few critical classes
that you need to know about.  E.g. this is Data::Dumper, it's fscking
useful.  LWP::Simple is your friend.  Etc, etc.  Something of a quick
tour.

 c) Get to grips with writing decent objects.  E.g. this is how bless
works, etc, etc.  This is what OO is about, how @ISA works, etc.  With
examples that are relevant.

See what I mean?  Not completely basic stuff but a course for programmers
who aren't really 'in sync' with perl who just need a little prodding in
the right direction.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









Re: Perl Training Courses

2001-03-21 Thread Mark Fowler

On 2001, 21, Mar, Wed Stevens, Michael wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 21, 2001 at 04:19:57PM +0000, Mark Fowler wrote:
> > One of my collegues asked me about Perl training courses in the U.K. 
> 
> Wasn't there some kerazy scheme to get london.pm doing courses?

Sorry.  Perl training in *programming* not perl training in *drinking* ;-)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Perl Training Courses

2001-03-21 Thread Mark Fowler

One of my collegues asked me about Perl training courses in the U.K.  To
be honest, we have no idea what is good, what is bad, etc, and so I
suggested asking you lot.

We've been looking through a Learning Tree catalog, but that's purely
because they're the last company to send us some dead tree on the matter.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: ISO8601 [was] Re: Pointless, Badly-Written Module.

2001-03-21 Thread Mark Fowler

On 2001, Mar, 21, Wed Pauley, Marley wrote:

> That would work if 'significant' was well defined in relation to names,
> but it isn't.  It works with dates because 'significant' has a well
> defined meaning in relation to numerical quantities.

I wonder what Larry thinks about this.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








RE: Pointless, Badly-Written Module.

2001-03-20 Thread Mark Fowler

> Oh it's dreadful. We need quality control on CPAN before more of this gets
> through.

Hmm.  Karma would workOr sponsorship. 'Larry Wall uses $modulename,
you should too'

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Pointless, Badly-Written Module.

2001-03-20 Thread Mark Fowler

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Dave Cross wrote:

> 
> Take a look at this <http://search.cpan.org/search?dist=Date-MMDDYY>.
> 
> Now give me:
> 
> a) a two reasons why this module should never have been written, and

1) I'm English.  MMDDYY makes not sense.  Maybe that's just a gripe about
   the name.

2) Time::Object rocks.

> b) as many flaws as possible in the implementation.

no 'use strict'

should use prototypes to force scalar context on the string passed (but
see below for gripe)

Spliting up the string representation of a time is a bad thing and why not
just use the array format of gmtime/localtime.

no 'my @format'
no 'my $delem'
no 'my @time_array'

The whole string with delimeters thing is silly and just let people pass
each formating thing in @_ directly.

no 'my @final_date' # but with an undef!

does not die, or return undef, or do anything sensible with an error, just
returns 'Error'.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









Re: Matt's Scripts Projects

2001-03-20 Thread Mark Fowler

On the subject of having zip archives as well as tarballs on the server,
Gareth Harper said:
 
> Winzip (what most windows users these days use to unzip) handlers tar.gz by
> default so that may not be neccesary.

Not neccesary from a techical point of view.  Neccesary from a social
point of view (What's this extension!  I don't understand!  What's going
on!  What are all these weird charges from AOL?  etc)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Matt's Scripts Projects

2001-03-19 Thread Mark Fowler

On Mon, 19 Mar 2001, Simon Wilcox wrote:

> >  b) That is should have a name that appeals to newbies.
> 
> How about EasyScripts ? the domain name is available, anyway.

Not very perl, but I like it.  Something similar though.
 
> >  c) It should sound at least semi-professional[1].
> 
> Can we make use of the PerlMonger connection and/or use the Programming 
> Republic logo ?

Yes, IMHO, though IANAL.

http://www.pm.org/faq.shtml
http://republic.perl.com/logo.html

The perl mongers logo is a little on the big size (and we're not allowed
to resize it.)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Matt's Scripts Projects

2001-03-19 Thread Mark Fowler

It has occured to us we need a decent name for this.  Discussion on IRC
has concluded that:

 a) It shouldn't mention Matt in the title.
 b) That is should have a name that appeals to newbies.
 c) It should sound at least semi-professional[1].

But apart from that we've been useless

Later.

Mark.

[1] Okay, so I added this one myself, but I think it's a good idea.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Matt's Scripts Projects

2001-03-19 Thread Mark Fowler

On Mon, 19 Mar 2001, Dave Cross wrote:

> * Web page. Need somewhere to point potential users at. Probably two
> versions - one for the developers and one for the users. This can be
> a subdirectory on london.pm.org.

I don't mind doing this bit of it.  I would quite like the idea of
creating a few web pages for someone other than myself or for work for a
bit, unless anyone's got any objections...

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Dedrat 7.0 and PGP

2001-03-19 Thread Mark Fowler

On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, David Cantrell wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 17, 2001 at 02:01:11PM +, Robin Szemeti wrote:
> > On Sat, 17 Mar 2001, someone wrote:
> > > 
> > > I'm using 7.0, and hating it.  I should never have upgraded.
> > 
> > I am beginning to wonder whether we should have gone that route on the
> > swerver .. bu still.. too late now.
> 
> What I'm really hating is the stuff that broke when I upgraded from 6.2.
> Mainly X font stuff, and I rally can't be bothered to dig through the
> gazillion different places that X puts stuff so I can fix it.

Hmm.  Both my laptop and desktop are running 6.2 atm.  I find that
whenever I do a helix-gnome update (or whatever they're calling it this
week) it breaks the fonts.  The server works fine, it's just that the
/etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs file is knackered.  Typing xfs & from the command
line still works fine for me, so I'd check that first as it's probably the
same b0rken RPM they both install.

I'm running 6.2 with the following key additions: helix-gnome, perl 5.6,
new apache (with mod_perl), sudo, and the 2.4.2 kernel.  I recently
installed my laptop from scratch and this took me about a day to install
(+ a day fscking around with partition magic and windows.) It Works For
Me(tm) but I'm sure there's a better way.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: wasn't someone looking for some diagramming -> SQL stuff recently?

2001-03-16 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 16 Mar 2001, James Powell wrote:

> http://freshmeat.net/projects/dia2sql/

I was looking for some tools to create diagrams with but Ooooh! Anyhow,
now all we need is a GraphViz to dia tool ;-).  Which reminds me, how's
things going with your Perl->UML Aaron?

Later.

Mark.
-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Silliness

2001-03-15 Thread Mark Fowler

On Thu, 15 Mar 2001, Dave Cross wrote:

> but that wouldn't work on Win32 platforms as they seem to insist on double 
> quotes to delimit command arguments.

Speak for yerself, I use bash on my windoze box ;-)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Silliness

2001-03-15 Thread Mark Fowler

> print unpack('u', ';0FEG($)R;W1H97(@:7,@=V%T8VAI;F<@>6]U'),"\n";

perl -e 'print unpack("u",q{;0FEG($)R;W1H97(@:7,@=V%T8VAI;F<@>6]U}),"\n";'

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: London.pm List Weekly Summary 2001-03-12

2001-03-14 Thread Mark Fowler

> Content-type: matter-transport/beer-stream

That's not right.  MIMEs do type/format (e.g. image/gif.)  So it'd more
likely be:

Content-type: beer/guinness

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: London.pm List Weekly Summary 2001-03-12

2001-03-14 Thread Mark Fowler

> Leo Lapworth was trying to debug something with Devel::DProf and
> couldn't understand why BEGIN was called more than once. Robert Price
> and Mark Fowler pointed out that 'use Module LIST' is exactly
> equivalent to 'BEGIN { require Module; import Module LIST; }', so the
> module was being use-d in multiple places, which is fine:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/london-pm%40lists.dircon.co.uk/msg02667.html

Did I?  It's not you know.  You forgot this bit of the perldoc -f use as
well:

   If you don't want your namespace altered,
   explicitly supply an empty list:

   use Module ();

   That is exactly equivalent to

   BEGIN { require Module }

i.e. that use Module and use Module() are ne.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









Re: Matt's Scripts

2001-03-14 Thread Mark Fowler

> Yes there is.  http://www.i-tree.org/ixplorer.htm. 

I've since installed WinSCP, from the list of alternatives on OpenSSH This
is also based on PuTTY and isn't so, well, dodgy as iXplorer.  Forget I
ever mentioned it.

Seems to work well for me.  The interface is clunky (i.e. you have to
press F5 to copy rather than drag and drop) but is still something your
average windows user would have no problems using.

http://winscp.vse.cz/eng/   (we should have just googled for winscp in the 
 first place)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )







Re: Matt's Scripts

2001-03-14 Thread Mark Fowler

On Wed, 14 Mar 2001, Greg McCarroll wrote:
> * Dave Cross ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> > At Wed, 14 Mar 2001 14:34:32 + (GMT), Jon Eyre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > My several users use scp.
> > > 
> > > is there an idiot-proof graphical front-end for scp? windows 
> > > clients? my several users require them, or they'll just continue 
> > > using ftp, because it's *easier*... 
> > 
> > They won't if you stop running the ftp daemon on the server :)
> > 
> 
> Rule one of security:
>   Ensure availability for authorised users
> 
> this breaks it ;-)
> 

Do what we do.  Keep everything running, but shove a whopping great
ipchains (or firewall of choice) in the way.  If you want to access it,
ssh tunnel it first.
 

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Matt's Scripts

2001-03-14 Thread Mark Fowler

> > is there an idiot-proof graphical front-end for scp? windows?
> 
> On Windows I use pscp which comes from the same people as putty. It
> works well, but it doesn't have a pretty graphical front-end.

Yes there is.  http://www.i-tree.org/ixplorer.htm. 

I suggest you peeps read http://www.openssh.org/windows.html which lists
alternatives

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Matt's Scripts

2001-03-14 Thread Mark Fowler

> (What do you mean with "not-inplace cgi"?)

Some servers (like my own) are configured to allow you to run perl scripts
anywhere.

Some servers (especially in the paranoid ISP land) are configured to have
a /cgi-bin/ where you have to put files in that will be 'executed'.  
Typically you cannot read from these dirs with a web server (you can only
execute the program and read their output.)  This is so that if you have
passwords in your scripts it's very hard for the bad guys to read these 
files and get the script via the webserver no matter what mistakes you
make (e.g. if you accidentlally leave backup files around.)  The main
drawback of this is that you can't serve normal files (like images) from
the same directory.

I call the first 'in place cgi' and the latter 'cgi-bin'

Hope that's clear.

Later.

Mark.
 

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








RE: Matt's Scripts

2001-03-14 Thread Mark Fowler

>  


Stop, stop, this script archive is not ready yet!  Where are the Hello
world examples?  Where are the detailed instructions?  And why are you
actually working on these scripts yet!


You're all getting ahead of yourselves.  We need to write a set of
helloWorld scripts that the script user can upload first to find out the
basic facts about their server and check everything is working.

a) You have multiple copys of the script with different shebang lines on
the top.  Only one of these will work and one of the things it'll do is
print our is "The first line of programs you upload to this server should
be #!/blah/perl"

b) It checks your perl version is reasonable.  Actually it probably should
do this before a) in case there are several versions installed.

c) It tests if you've got a borken version of CGI.pm (or CGI.pm at all) by
looking at version numbers, etc.  Same for other modules.

d) It links to an image in the same directory as itself and explains that
if the image isn't viewable then you do not have inplace cgi and the
things you have to know about this

e) It prints out the time, and GMT time thus highlighting to the user any
problems they might have if this is wrong

f) It prints out a hunk of diagnostic information (e.g. perl version,
module versions, url, etc, etc)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Matt's Scripts

2001-03-13 Thread Mark Fowler

Dave wrote:
 
> Oops. I just did the Random Text one. Should have put my name down really I 
> suppose. Here it is if you're interested.

And what's wrong with the following line? ;-)

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Matt's Scripts

2001-03-13 Thread Mark Fowler

> Textclock   Mark
> Countdown   Mark

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Strange Request

2001-03-13 Thread Mark Fowler

> and here we get back to the ROPE project as discussed before, where we
> could do a standard distribution of Apache/Mod Perl/Perl/Perl modules,
> with TT, XML::*, etc.,etc. already there

Might not be a bad idea doing each of these in each of the technologies
anyhow.  It might prove a good way of showing how each of these work.

The biggest problem I have with using these 'branches' of perl is knowing
where to start.  If we had a collection of standard scripts that was
re-written each time in TT, XML::* or whatever, then I (or other clueless
monkeys like me) could work from what they know how to start, where to go,
etc, etc.

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Kevin Smith Film Fest

2001-03-09 Thread Mark Fowler

> > > I'll also draw a map at some point
> > 
> > Details at http://www.twoshortplanks.com/simon/filmfest/
> 
> In order to try and finish at a vaguely reasonable hour I'm going to
> start early. So, my house, 2pm for a 2:30 start on Saturday.

Want us to bring anything?

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Am I going nutts ? - read before answering!

2001-03-08 Thread Mark Fowler

> Yup, that's right. So to get it to only have the one call, change your
> "use" to a require and put it in the BEGIN block.



use fred;

Will also call fred->import(), so you might want to emulate that too.





> --
> Robert Price - Technical Manager - EMAP Digital Travel  | Tel: 0207 3092711
> Priory Court, 30-32 Farringdon Lane, London, EC1R 3AW   | Fax: 0207 3092718
> 

Shouldn't these numbers be formatted 020 7XXX

Later.

Mark.



-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









Re: Graphical Documentation

2001-03-06 Thread Mark Fowler

On Tue, 6 Mar 2001, Marcel Grunauer wrote:

> > 1. Thingys showing SQL tables.
> 
> Have a look at http://www.codewerk.com. On the projects page, download
> GraphViz::DBI and dbigraph.pl. See the sample database table graph linked
> from that page. I'm working on making it more flexible and pretty.

Oooh, ahhh.  Looks really nice.  Now the only problem with this is
that it requires me to actually have created the database.  We're not at
this stage yet (though I will see if I can knock up a diagram of our
current old database schema so we can have some reference.)

Oh, there seems to be something odd with that server set up.  Because
my copy of Gnome-Terminal does url catching I can Ctrl-Click on any url
and it pops up in netscape.  However, being a good url catcher it matches
the '.' at the end of the url (as it should do.)  Now this is really odd,
as 'http://www.codewerk.com./' does not show the same thing as 
'http://www.codewerk.com/' (which it should do as
'www.codewerk.com.profero.com' or 'www.codewerk.com.loc0.profero.com'
doesn't exist on our network.) This is most odd.  I've tried it from other
locations (via the wonders of ssh tunnelling) and I get the same thing.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Graphical Documentation

2001-03-05 Thread Mark Fowler

ELLO london.pm.org.  Long time no C[1].

I'm needing some programs to produce graphical documentation[2], and as
I'm feeling lazy (which is a good thing, right,) so rather than writing my
own, I thought I'd ask you lot what you thought were the best tools out
there.

I need to produce:

 1. Thingys showing SQL tables.
 2. Thingys showing OO abstraction

Nethier of these need to be in any particular form.  They just have to
make sense to me.

Ideally, I'd like somehthing that would run on Windows or Linux
(i.e. written in Perl) but you get the idea.  

Later.

Marks.

[1] Or no Perl, more to the point.  I'm back online.  As for a week
offline: Let us never talk of it again)

[2] This is a 'oh, god this is complicated and I need to see what's going
on' kind of problem not a 'management don't get it' kinda problem

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Off the grid.

2001-02-23 Thread Mark Fowler

Right, that's it.  I've had enough.

I'm off the 'net for little over a week - I'm trying an experiment to see
what happens if I don't use a computer for a week.   This is a sanity
recovering exercise.  I'll let you know what happens.

See you at the meetings.  Those of you that I've arranged to do stuff, call
me about it, okay?  

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Greetings

2001-02-23 Thread Mark Fowler

On Fri, 23 Feb 2001, Dave Cross wrote:

> I wibbled:
> > (oooh, someone could collect these and put them on the web page)
> 
> OK. If anyone else wants to add stuff to the list, I'll edit them 
> together and put them on the web page in the not too distant future.

Q: What do I do with all this cash that I've got left over after hiring
   someone from the list and not having to pay recruiters fees?
A: When people hire people from the list they normally donate 500 usd to 
   1000 usd (depending on the role) to YAS (http://www.yetanother.org/)

Later.

Mark.

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: Greetings

2001-02-23 Thread Mark Fowler

> > have you folks never seen Angel?
> I've never seen Angel.

It's a really nice part of London, if it wasn't for all the nu meeja
hors.  You really should see it sometime.

Oh, right, you mean the person?  He sits behind me.  Nice bloke.

Other things that should go in the FAQ:

Q. How do I advertise a job on the list.
A. If you're a recruiter, you don't.  Anyone else should advertise it with
   a subject line starting JOB:

Q. What's the IRC thing?
A. london.rhizomatic.net, 6667, #london.pm

Q. What's dipsy on the irc channel?
A. An infobot.  http://www.infobot.org

Q. What's dadadodo on irc
A. It's a bot that listens to everything everyone says on the channel and
   uses some maths to build statistically likely (but mostly
   nonsensical) statements.

Q. What templating system should I use? 
A. Template Toolkit.  It's much nicer than the others, and Andy has given
   us good talks.  You should also look at www.axkit.org for a more XML 
   like solution.  This issue has been done to death.  YMMV, and you 
   should be aware that other templating solutions are also avaliable.   

Q. There's too much going on!  How do I keep up?
A. Read Leon's weekly summaries, which he posts to the list

Q. How many people subscribe to the list
A. A lot more than post.

Q. Oooops I missed a load of posts.  Are there any archives?  
A. Yes.  http://www.mail-archive.com/london-pm%40lists.dircon.co.uk/

Q. This stuff is archived?  How do I stop this happening?
A. < please someone fill this in >

Q. What is PIMB?
A. 'Perl is my B*tch', a tshirt made by Simon Wistow that got him into a
   lot of trouble.

Q. You've got a server? 
A. Yep, it's what hosts london.pm.org.  People that once paid cash for
   this have shell accounts on it.  One day we hope to move the list to
   it.  It's currently in State51 and what jolly nice people they are too.

Q. You've got a camel?
A. Yep, it's in London Zoo and we sponsor it.  People who put money
   towards it are planning to visit it at some point.

Q. What do I do if I've got more questions?
A. Post to the list.  It's a social list with a heavy technical
   slant.  Or go ask dipsy on #london.pm

Later.

Mark.

(oooh, someone could collect these and put them on the web page)

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )










Re: t-shirts

2001-02-22 Thread Mark Fowler

>  ... I mean .. people will laugh and mock us  how could you ..  it
> should be "Muttley is an Arsehole"  .. I dunno, such poor grammar these
> days :))

No, just poor typing I'm afraid.

This would only work however if Simon printed and distributed the
T-shirts ;-)

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )








Re: t-shirts

2001-02-22 Thread Mark Fowler

> Perl t-shirt ideas

=pod

=head1 Bad Perl T-Shirt Ideas

Sorry.

=head2 perl related

 * "My other t-shirt has a camel on it"
 * "I know perl" "Show me"
 * "If you programmed in perl you'd be home by now"
 * "You don't have to be mad to program perl, but it helps"
 * "95% of cats prefer programming perl over any other language"
 * "Perl.  There is no a."
 * "mod_perl.  It's not a quake add on.  It's more fun than that" 

=head2 lpm related

 * "London.pm: we  camels"
 * "I want a PONY!", on the back (("PONY"x10)."\n")x40

=head2 joke within a joke (PIMB ref)

 * "#! perl is my programming language of choice"
 * "#! perl is my itch" (preferably in the same blue, same font)
 * "Smack my perl up"
 * "Muttley is a Arsehole"  (let's see Randall complain about that)
 * "I blame Wistow for *everything*"

=head2 random

 * "XP programmers do it in pairs"
 * "This is not a credit or debit card"
 * "Just another local who happened to be in your holiday photo"
 * "If you lived here you'd be like all the other voices"
 * Front: "Why?" Back: "Why not?"
 * On front and back "humorous slogan on other side"
 * "This is a t-shirt.  There are many like it.  But this is mine"
 * on the back "Stop following me"

=head2 and finally

 #!/usr/bin/perl

 $shop = undef;
 {
  local $shop = {}; $this = $shop;
  local @people = &residents; for (@people) {$this->{$_}=\$PreciousThings;}
 }
 print HERE $shop->{You};

 $shop->{You}->touch if defined($shop->{You})
 
=cut

-- 
print "\n",map{my$a="\n"if(length$_>6);' 'x(36-length($_)/2)."$_\n$a"} (
   Name  => 'Mark Fowler',Title => 'Technology Developer'  ,
   Firm  => 'Profero Ltd',Web   => 'http://www.profero.com/'   ,
   Email => '[EMAIL PROTECTED]',   Phone => '+44 (0) 20 7700 9960'  )









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