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• Is there a measure of code rot?

  - by DarenW

  I'm dealing, again, with a messy C++ application, tons of classes with confusing names, objects have pointers into each other and all over, longwinded Boost and STL data types, etc. (Pause and consider your favorite terror of messy legacy code. We probably have it.) The phrase "code rot" oft comes to mind when I work on this project. Is there a quantitative way to measure code rot? I wouldn't expect anything highly meaningful or scientific, since no other measure of code productivity or quality is so fine. I'm not looking for a mere opposite of measures of code quality, but specifically a measure of how many bad things happened after a series of maintenance software "engineers" have had turns hacking at the code. A general measure applying to any language, or many languages, would be great. If there's no such thing, at least for C++, which is a better than average language for creating messes. Maybe something involving a measure of topology of how objects connect during runtime, a count of chunks of commented out code, how mane files a typical variable's usage is scattered over, I don't know... but surely now, a decade into the 21st Century, someone has attempted to define some sort of rot measure. It would be especially interesting to automate a series of svn checkouts, measure the "rottenosity" of each, and plot the decay over time.

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• symlink for dbus headers

  - by DarenW

  Source code for something that won't compile has the line #include but in real life that header file is in /usr/include/dbus-1.0/ Similarsituation exists for the dbus-c++ package. Why doesn't Ubuntu provide a symlink /usr/include/dbus pointing to the dbus-1.0 directory? Is this an bug in the dbus package? If intended, what it the purpose? Is it a proper fix to add a symlink myself? (Changing the source is not practical - there are many files, and they need to match what other people have.) update: ok, I totally misunderstood the situation, though it still comes down to a problem I think should be solved by a symlink. The dbus directory referred to in the #include statement is a deeper level directory under /usr/include/dbus-1.0/. The real problem is that the file dbus-arch-deps.h appears to be missing, but is actually stored in the weird location /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dbus-1.0/include/dbus/ so now - why doesn't ubuntu provide a symlink to this in /usr/include/dbus-1.0/dbus, or actually store it there?

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• Where would my different development rhythm be suitable for the work?

  - by DarenW

  Over the years I have worked on many projects, with some successful and a great benefit to the company, and some total failures with me getting fired or otherwise leaving. What is the difference? Naturally I prefer the former and wish to avoid the latter, so I'm pondering this issue. The key seems to be that my personal approach differs from the norm. I write code first, letting it be all spaghetti and chaos, using whatever tools "fit my hand" that I'm fluent in. I try to organize it, then give up and start over with a better design. I go through cycles, from thinking-design to coding-testing. This may seem to be the same as any other development process, Agile or whatever, cycling between design and coding, but there does seem to be a subtle difference: The methods (ideally) followed by most teams goes design, code; design, code; ... while I'm going code, design; code, design; (if that makes any sense.) Music analogy: some types of music have a strong downbeat while others have prominent syncopation. In practice, I just can't think in terms of UML, specifications and so on, but grok things only by attempting to code and debug and refactor ad-hoc. I need the grounding provided by coding in order to think constructively, then to offer any opinions, advice or solutions to the team and get real work done. In positions where I can initially hack up cowboy code without constraints of tool or language choices, I easily gain a "feel" for the data, requirements etc and eventually do good work. In formalized positions where paperwork and pure "design" comes first and only later any coding (even for small proof-of-concept projects), I am lost at sea and drown. Therefore, I'd like to know how to either 1) change my rhythm to match the more formalized methodology-oriented team ways of doing things, or 2) find positions at organizations where my sense of development rhythm is perfect for the work. It's probably unrealistic for a person to change their fundamental approach to things. So option 2) is preferred. So where I can I find such positions? How common is my approach and where is it seen as viable but different, and not dismissed as undisciplined or cowboy coder ways?

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• Basics of ERP for dummies

  - by DarenW

  A situation has arisen where (if I don't scream and run away) I will be involved in an ERP system. This project will be using OpenERP specifically. My background is entirely science/engineering/music/games/art/whatever. I've never set foot in the realm of business systems or anything describable with the word "enterprise". What is a good introduction to the whole ERP concept, OpenERP and business systems in general suitable for those with flat zero experience in that world? The ideal intro would explain, from no assumptions, what the main ideas are, terminology, they style of work and thinking of people in that world, and maybe some concrete suggestions how one can tinker around with a copy of OpenERP to gain basic familiarity.

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• EE vs Computer Science: Effect on Developers' Approaches, Styles?

  - by DarenW

  Are there any systematic differences between software developers (sw engineers, architect, whatever job title) with an electronics or other engineering background, compared to those who entered the profession through computer science? By electronics background, I mean an EE degree, or a self-taught electronics tinkerer, other types of engineers and experimental physicists. I'm wondering if coming into the software-making professions from a strong knowledge of flip flops, tristate buffers, clock edge rise times and so forth, usually leads to a distinct approach to problems, mindsets, or superior skills at certain specialties and lack of skills at others, when compared to the computer science types who are full of concepts like abstract data types, object orientation, database normalization, who speak of "closures" in programming languages - things that make little sense to the soldering iron crowd until they learn enough programming. The real world, I'm sure, offers a wild range of individual exceptions, but for the most part, can you say there are overall differences? Would these have hiring implications e.g. (to make up something) "never hire an electron wrangler to do database design"? Could knowing about any differences help job seekers find something appropriate more effectively? Or provide enlightenment or some practical advice for those who find themselves misfits in a particular job role? (Btw, I've never taken any computer science classes; my impression of exactly what they cover is fuzzy. I'm an electronics/physics/art type, myself.)

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• What is the history of why bytes are eight bits?

  - by DarenW

  What where the historical forces at work, the tradeoffs to make, in deciding to use groups of eight bits as the fundamental unit ? There were machines, once upon a time, using other word sizes, but today for non-eight-bitness you must look to museum pieces, specialized chips for embedded applications, and DSPs. How did the byte evolve out of the chaos and creativity of the early days of computer design? I can imagine that fewer bits would be ineffective for handling enough data to make computing feasible, while too many would have lead to expensive hardware. Were other influences in play? Why did these forces balance out to eight bits? (BTW, if I could time travel, I'd go back to when the "byte" was declared to be 8 bits, and convince everyone to make it 12 bits, bribing them with some early 21st Century trinkets.)

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• Converting Inkscape layers directly to a slideshow presentation?

  - by darenw

  I'm creating a slideshow in Inkscape. There's one or more layer per slide, plus several background layers, and some special layers to be used on several slides in a row, etc. In the past, I'd create each slide as a .png image by turning on appropriate layers and exporting an image. This is tedious and easy to make mistakes. Is it possible to automate this? To enable the right layers and save all slides directly to a file format suitable for presenatations, such as .ppt, which I can give to anyone for display? The solution will have to work on Linux.

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• Convert .png images into a .ppt presentation on Linux?

  - by darenw

  I've created a presentation as a series of .png images, one per slide. What is a good way to convert these into a .ppt (PowerPoint) that I can give to some audio-visual person? I'm entirely on Linux, with no Windows or Mac software available. (Or maybe PowerPoint isn't the only game in town for presentation file formats?)

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• Why did cherokee-admin-launcher crash?

  - by DarenW

  I'm trying out the Cherokee http server on a seemingly fine machine. Following simple set-up instructions, I tried running cherokee-admin-launcher but it printed error messages and hung up. Ctrl-C did not kill it; I had to kill -9 it from another xterm. OTOH, cherokee-admin ran fine (or at least got a lot further). What is the problem with python and cherokee-admin-launcher, and how to fix it? [root@iron rc.d]# cherokee-admin-launcher Checking TCP port 9090 availability.. OK Launching: LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib /usr/sbin/cherokee-admin Exception in thread Thread-1: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/lib/python2.7/threading.py", line 530, in __bootstrap_inner self.run() File "/usr/bin/cherokee-admin-launcher", line 209, in run return self._run_guts() File "/usr/bin/cherokee-admin-launcher", line 217, in _run_guts env=self.environ, close_fds=True) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 672, in __init__ errread, errwrite) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1202, in _execute_child raise child_exception OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory ^C ^C

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• Which FLOSS text editor is most like kwrite without being KDE-based?

  - by darenw

  Among text editors on Linux, I usually prefer KWrite. I like that I can quickly turn on/off line numbers and line wrap in the View menu. Other settings are easy to change. Other text editors I've used in the past, such as Gnome's gedit, bury line numbering and wrapping checkboxes deeper into the menu system, making it more distracting to change while concentrating on real work. However, KWrite is a KDE app. On Ubuntu it drags in over a dozen other packages, which I suspect I don't really need. Why would a text editor need all that? It's slower to start up than some other editors I've tried. I'm also trying to run an all-gnome system w/o any KDE, just to see how far I get with it. So, what GUI text editor isn't KDE-based, has few dependencies and quick start-up, easy to change line wrap and numbering, and general similarity to KWrite? What comes closest?

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• Why did my laptop turn off?

  - by darenw

  Normally I can slip my running laptop into a backpack, go somewhere, and if it's no more than about half an hour later, it'll still be running. At the destination I plug in the AC power unit and all is well. I run it off of the AC unit before and after the trip, have the screen at less than full backlight brightness, and don't have any peripherals that burn power. Sometimes the wireless switch accidentally slides in the backpack, and that causes extra power to be used and the laptop dies before I reach the destination. Sad, but so be it. But sometimes the wireless switch is off, I've reached the destination in less than 30 minutes (typically 10-20 min), and I know the battery was fully charged, yet the machine is off. Is there a way to determine, after the fact, why the machine shut itself off? I'm running Linux on a fairly powerful Gateway with 4GB RAM, fancy nvidia graphics, dual core cpu, chosen more for number crunching power than battery life, but should last easily for half an hour if not an hour.

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• How to automatically show USB camera or memory stick contents in Icewm?

  - by darenw

  I normally use a very lightweight Linux setup. No desktop like Gnome or KDE, just Icewm as the windows manager and nothing else that normal users might consider essential. Well, I do need a file manager - I use Thunar. Recently I've been trying Gnome. Whenever I shove a memory stick into a USB port, or connect my digital camera, it can automatically pop up a file manager showing all the goodies on that device. KDE does this too. I like this. Although quick at the command line, I like not having to go sudo to mount the device and all that. If I want to stick with a lightweight setup using Icewm+Thunar, is there something non-huge I can install to make external devices fire up a Thunar window, or otherwise make access to the contents brainlessly easy?

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• How does one launch PhpPgAdmin?

  - by DarenW

  I just installed postgresql, php5 and in particular PhpPgAdmin using Ubuntu's synaptic app. The PHP is running fine, the http server (lighttpd) is working fine, and I can do pg a the command line. The only thing that remains a mystery is PhpPgAdmin - just how does one fire it up to use it? I am clueless about the proper means of starting PhpPgAdmin; it isn't explained anywhere on the site for it. I tried typing phppgadmin at a bash command prompt, and entering "http://phppgsdmin/" and "http://localhost/phppgadmin" as wild guesses in the address bar in a browser - nothing happens. What is the secret? BTW, i'm only serving http on localhost, doing purely private web development.

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• Is it possible to view two files simultaneously in Geany?

  - by darenw

  I tend to be a simple text editor user, but when I want IDE-like features, I've been using Geany. One thing I find bothersome about it, though, is I can see only one file at a time. Sometimes I want to edit a .cpp file while looking at a .hpp file (or two) without flipping back and forth trying to memorize code. (Of course the easy answer is to try a different IDE, but if I want to stick with geany for some good reason...then what?)

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• Why is Thunar not creating and showing thumbnails of images?

  - by darenw

  Thunar is my main file manager. Normally it automatically creates thumbnail images of all images in the directory being viewed. After experimenting with other Linux distros then installing Arch Linux once and for all, Thunar is not showing thumbs. Image files all get the same generic image icon. Googling turned up some information: Something called gvfs needs to be installed. I have it. Still no go. (Apparently this isn't actually needed anyway.) Someone had this problem and fixed it by running some mime-related command (I didn't save any notes) I did this same command but no go. Checking the obvious: in Thunar's Edit/Preferences, yes, the [x] Show thumbnails is turned on. When I view one image in GIMP or EOG, the generic icon in Thunar is replaced by a thumbnail. But only for that one file I opened.

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• Sometimes tabs in notepad++ won't make a new window when dragged out

  - by darenw

  Long-time Linux user on a Windows 7 machine, using Notepad++ to edit multiple text files. Sometimes I can drag a tab out of the notepad++ window onto the desktop to get a new notepad++ window. This is a very nice feature. But sometimes when I try to drag a tab out, nothing happens. I don't see what is different about these tabs or the files they contain. It is repeatable; the same tab still won't make a new window. I'm not familiar enough with Windows and its strange ways to begin to guess what is going on, unless it's a bug. How can I make all tabs draggable-to-new-windowable, no exceptions?

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• Is it possible in Gnumeric to paste-special only background colors w/o overwriting foregroudn colors, boldness, etc?

  - by darenw

  I've written a huge complex spreadsheet in Gnumeric, with areas of different background and foreground colors, text and numbers in bold or various colors to indicate meanings. Certain cells ise a diagonal pattern combining the surrounding background color with black - this warns me not to alter those cells when I haven't had my morning coffee. Big problem is changing just the background color of an area - to do so wipes out boldness, foreground colors and the diagonal-pattern cells. I use "Paste Special" and choose Format to copy-paste colors from one area to another, or make the pattern of bold/normal of several rows match one that's done right. What I'd like "paste special - just the background colors (but preserve patterns and 2nd colors of backgrounds)" and "paste special - just the text style/fonts" but I've never encountered any such thing. Are the effects I want possible?

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• Avoiding Mixup of Language Details

  - by DarenW

  Today someone asked me what was wrong with their source code. It was obvious. "Use double equals in place of that single equal in that if statement. Um, i think..." As i remember some languages actually take a single equals for comparison. Since i sometimes forget or mix up the syntax details among the several languages i use, i stepped over to my laptop to try a quickie experiment... It costs a bit of time and is a break in the flow to try "quick" experiments (though maybe the practice is good for memory.) What tips do you have for keeping straight in your mind the syntax (and other) details of multiple languages? (And nowadays, this applies just as well to the many wiki-like markups!)

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• PIL's Image.show() brings up *two* different viewers

  - by DarenW

  When toying with images in the python shell, I use image.show(), where image is an instance of Image. Long ago nothing happened, but after defining a symlink to mirage named "xv", I was happy. The last few days, show() will bring up both ImageMagick's display and also Mirage. It's not clear where show() gets information on what to run. Documentation wasn't helpful. How to make it behave and bring up only what it thinks is xv?

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• Qt4 book says "make release", reality disagrees

  - by DarenW

  Writing some simple Qt4 demos depending the book by Daniel Molkentin. In that book, it says you build the release or debug versions of your app with "make release" or "make debug". In real life, these give errors. Only bare naked "make" works. I assume something has changed between the version of Qt4 used in the book and the version I'm using, qt4.6.2. So what is the proper way to determine whether to make release or debug? (And why can't google find any updates or errata for this book relating to this?)

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• Mac OSX Programming for long time Linux geek

  - by DarenW

  I've written software on Linux since 1995 but must get up to speed with app development on the Mac. I have no experience on that platform. Obviously I should get my hands on some appropriate hardware. What are good books, tutorial websites, and other resources for experienced devs getting started on Mac? Not just APIs and app internals, but also including how does one install an app, debug it, etc?

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• What to beware of reading old Numarray tutorials and examples?

  - by DarenW

  Python currently uses Numpy for heavy duty math and image processing. The earlier Numeric and Numarray are obsolete, but still today there are many tutorials, notes, sample code and other documentation using them. Some of these cover special topics of interest, some are well written but haven't been updated or replaced, or are otherwise of use. Quite a bit is the same between Numeric, Numarray and Numpy, so I usually get good mileage out these older docs. Ocassionaly, though, I run into a line of code that results in error. Not often enough to remember how to get around it, but usually I figure it out at the cost of some time. What are the main things to watch out for when relying on such older documentation for current Numpy use? Is there a list of how to translate the differences that exist?

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