Aspyct's Blog

Spell checking with VIM

2011-05-29T11:59:00.003+02:00

Vim is known to be a powerful text editor, and it's true. With this simple command, you can enable spell checking (replace "fr" with your language code):

:setlocal spell spelllang=fr

If this locale is not installed for VIM, it will offer you to download and install it.
Once the spelling is activated, the misspelled words are displayed in red. Now you can use the spelling commands:

]s -> move to the next (probably) misspelled word
z= -> suggest corrections
zg -> add this word to the dictionary

Interrestingly, if a couple of words are valid only together, you may select them in visual mode and then hit zg.

Happy writing!

More about spelling in VIM

Blogger "dynamic view"

2011-05-28T21:01:00.000+02:00

Hi there :)

As I was playing around with the settings of my blog, I discovered a nice new feature. Try out this new dynamic view.

EEE 1015pem & Ubuntu: fix headphones

2011-05-27T19:41:00.000+02:00

Hi there :)

I recently acquired a nice little Asus EEE pc 1015pem, and installed Ubuntu besides Windows. The linux runs very smoothly and this netbook has an absolutely huge battery life (I would not lie if I told you it lasts for about 9 hours).

I had a few troubles however. First, I could not get the highest brightness on the screen, but this seems to be fixed magically by now.

Second problem was that headphones would not work at all. Simple fix (run as root):

echo "options snd-hda-intel model=auto" >> \
  /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Now reboot, and there you go :) Have fun !

Accounting for Developers

2009-11-20T13:33:00.000+01:00

Hey, you know SQL and want a simple but powerful tool to track your incomes and expenses ? Then maybe you'll be interested by A4D. It's totally free, as it belongs to the public domain. Don't miss it ;)

Python + HTTP + MIT + Freedom = Cenchria

2009-09-04T16:07:00.001+02:00

Hi there ! Just… check out the little Cenchria ;)

OOP: Three reasons to use interfaces

2009-08-17T19:17:00.001+02:00

I’ve been long wondering why I should use interfaces. Hold on, this post is going to be somewhat long ;)

Of course, there is the most commonly known fact: you can specify one interface for several implementations. A good example of this is the Java List interface, with its subclasses: ArrayList, LinkedList, Vector…

But I recently discovered two other reasons. Consider these classes I wrote a few days ago in PHP:

class Statement {
    public function __construct($query);
    public function execute(array $args);
    public function fetch();
}

class ResultSet {
    public function __construct(Statement $stmt);
    public function hasNext();
    public function next();
}

A ResultSet is created from a freshly executed Statement, taking its data from the Statement::fetch() method. But don’t you see a little design flaw here ? Doesn’t something bother you a little bit ?

Yes, you got it! We just gave the ResultSet class the right to execute a Statement, and that’s really bad!

Now guess what… we are going to use an interface to correct this design error. (changes are in bold)

interface Fetchable {
    function fetch();
}

class Statement implements Fetchable {
    public function __construct($query);
    public function execute(array $args);
    public function fetch();
}

class ResultSet {
    public function __construct(Fetchable $ftch);
    public function hasNext();
    public function next();
}

Now, our ResultSet class doesn’t have the ability to execute a Statement anymore.

This is called “Defensive Programming”, or at least it’s a bit of it. Defensive Programming is a kind of coding mindset, aiming to reduce the risk that other people, or even you, make mistake while coding. With the above example, this is done by restraining the actions your code is allowed to do.

The last reason to use I found (but I bet there are lot more), it that it will help you to perform Test Driven Development (TDD). Let’s take the above example once again. I want to test this ResultSet class. One way to test it would be to create a select statement, execute it and create a ResultSet object with it.

Ow, wow, poor database, poor testers, who will have to ensure the db is not empty, poor developer who will have less quality tests, poor…

With interfaces, however, I can create some stupid class, let’s say DummyFetchable, that would implement this interface. And simply give this class to my ResultSet: I swear, this good guy will see nothing!

class DummyFetchable implements Fetchable {
    public function fetch();
}

class ResultSetTester {
    public function testResultSet() {
        $source = new DummyFetchable();
        $rs = new ResultSet($source);

        … and test this out, without killing your db :)
    }
}

Hope this post has been of some use to some people :) Let’s summarize it all:

one external behavior, several implementations;
Defensive Programming;
Unit Testing;
and certainly more, please let me know :)

Kheops: working hard !

2009-08-06T01:02:00.001+02:00

I have been working hard lately on Kheops… The underlying framework is mostly operational, but I guess it lacks some features… However, it already offers effective module management, localization, logging, database connectivity and so on !

I’m currently working on a little “goodie” that will speed up module development a lot ! Once this goodie is finished, sources will be available so that you can develop on this wonderfully new platform ;)

I’ll keep you posted !

Kheops: on the road again !

2009-07-13T16:53:00.001+02:00

Kheops will be back soon. It’s being built on a stable basis, a custom, all new and re-usable web framework (yet another PHP framework…).

You can’t get it yet, but it should be soon available. Of course, as this is a new start, it does not implements features at this time, and even some parts of the structure still have to be decided.

One of the biggest question is:
”Will it use database, or rather files” ?
For now, I would tend to use files, as it proved to be a wise choice before.

What d’you think ?

XMind, an open source mind map designer

2009-07-08T23:48:00.001+02:00

Hi there.

Maybe you know what is a “mind map”. If not, maybe you would be interested in it ;)
Anyway, I just laid my hands on this nice mind mapping software: XMind. It’s an open source software, based on the Eclipse platform.

Have a look at it ;)

Test ticket for Live Writer

2009-06-29T00:10:00.001+02:00

Ok… Live writer tells me it can handle my blog. Nice, let’s try this out.

If you see this, consider it worked ;)

Edit: Amazing so far ! Will this edit work ?
Edit2: OMG ! It works !

PySh

2009-06-10T00:27:00.000+02:00

Ever wondered what could be Python along with bash ? Ok... I was bored with studying sql :p See the result ;) http://www.aspyct.org/short/pysh.tar.gz It's released under the terms of the WTFPL license :)

Development stalled

2009-05-31T17:05:00.000+02:00

Hi there Wondering whether Aspyct is dead ? No, it's not, at all :) But well... school examinations are alive too :( See you soon ;) PS: try updating to the latest svn version... it contains some great improvements :D

Eclipse: Cannot connect to the keyStore

2009-04-05T20:58:00.000+02:00

I installed a few days ago a new Debian on my laptop. It's nice, but... Eclipse version is only 3.2 (about three years old !) So I started updating it. Not that hard: extract, create link in /usr/bin and you're done. However, when installing PyDev, Eclipse encountered an error: "Cannot connect to the keystore" Well, what is this... ? Google didn't help me that much, but after a while I realized that the java installed on my Debian was gij, and not the standard java jre. And this was the problem. The below commands solved it all

apt-get install openjdk-6-jre sun-java6-jdk
update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun

Pyro

2009-04-03T00:37:00.000+02:00

Today in my Java lessons, we learned about RMI (Remote Procedure Invocation). Looks very nice! Networking without any socket hassle... love it! And that reminded me of Pyro. It's the same, but for Python. Oh, the same... Not really. In fact it seems even easier and more powerful to use ! Have a look for youself ;) http://pyro.sourceforge.net/example.html It's not impossible that some documentation will be written in the future to explain what you can do with Aspyct and Pyro together. (hmmm, yes, when I'll find something to say of course ;) )

Blog opening

2009-04-03T00:35:00.000+02:00

Multiple times I thought about opening a blog along with my website. Now it's done. Oh, don't expect too much from it, but there will be posts from time to time. These could be about... hmm, no, future will tell :) Well, have a great aspyctian visit, and see you soon ;)