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• Find optimal strategy and AI for the game 'Proximity'?

  - by smci

  'Proximity' is a strategy game of territorial domination similar to Othello, Go and Risk. Two players, uses a 10x12 hex grid. Game invented by Brian Cable in 2007. Seems to be a worthy game for discussing a) optimal algorithm then b) how to build an AI. Strategies are going to be probabilistic or heuristic-based, due to the randomness factor, and the insane branching factor (20^120). So it will be kind of hard to compare objectively. A compute time limit of 5s per turn seems reasonable. Game: Flash version here and many copies elsewhere on the web Rules: here Object: to have control of the most armies after all tiles have been placed. Each turn you received a randomly numbered tile (value between 1 and 20 armies) to place on any vacant board space. If this tile is adjacent to any ally tiles, it will strengthen each tile's defenses +1 (up to a max value of 20). If it is adjacent to any enemy tiles, it will take control over them if its number is higher than the number on the enemy tile. Thoughts on strategy: Here are some initial thoughts; setting the computer AI to Expert will probably teach a lot: minimizing your perimeter seems to be a good strategy, to prevent flips and minimize worst-case damage like in Go, leaving holes inside your formation is lethal, only more so with the hex grid because you can lose armies on up to 6 squares in one move low-numbered tiles are a liability, so place them away from your main territory, near the board edges and scattered. You can also use low-numbered tiles to plug holes in your formation, or make small gains along the perimeter which the opponent will not tend to bother attacking. a triangle formation of three pieces is strong since they mutually reinforce, and also reduce the perimeter Each tile can be flipped at most 6 times, i.e. when its neighbor tiles are occupied. Control of a formation can flow back and forth. Sometimes you lose part of a formation and plug any holes to render that part of the board 'dead' and lock in your territory/ prevent further losses. Low-numbered tiles are obvious-but-low-valued liabilities, but high-numbered tiles can be bigger liabilities if they get flipped (which is harder). One lucky play with a 20-army tile can cause a swing of 200 (from +100 to -100 armies). So tile placement will have both offensive and defensive considerations. Comment 1,2,4 seem to resemble a minimax strategy where we minimize the maximum expected possible loss (modified by some probabilistic consideration of the value ß the opponent can get from 1..20 i.e. a structure which can only be flipped by a ß=20 tile is 'nearly impregnable'.) I'm not clear what the implications of comments 3,5,6 are for optimal strategy. Interested in comments from Go, Chess or Othello players. (The sequel ProximityHD for XBox Live, allows 4-player -cooperative or -competitive local multiplayer increases the branching factor since you now have 5 tiles in your hand at any given time, of which you can only play one. Reinforcement of ally tiles is increased to +2 per ally.)

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• NSMutableString leaks on append or replaceOccurrencesOfString

  - by John

  Hello Folks, I know similar questions have been asked time and time again but I ask that you please bear with me as I cannot seem to find an answer that helps. My application has leaks that are driving me out of my mind. Actually, they are not reported as leaks using Leaks, but my net bytes in ObjectAlloc goes up and up and up and never stops, eventually leading to a crash if it goes on long enough (not very long). The problem occurs with NSMutableStrings. I think there is either something fundamental I don't understand about them, or I am facing another problem that I am having difficulty tracking down but keeps hiding behind the NSMutableStrings. Specifically, I am noticing that whenever I append to or perform a replace on a NSMutableString, ObjectAlloc reports what appear to be mismatches in malloc/frees behind the scene when resizing the NSMutableString. I'm sorry to say this is the second time I'm facing this problem - the first time I messed around for hours and hours and finally the problem went away (magic!) but I don't really know why. When I look at the code below (and believe me, I've stared at it for hours) I cannot see the problem. I look at the code and think to myself that I should be fine because I'm releasing the only object for which I am responsible (aString) and that NSMutableString should be taking care of cleaning up after any resizing it does. In the second example, just so you know in case it helps, the string being passed in comes from an ASIHTTPRequest object (it's the responseString) and I don't do anything at all with it. It's being called simply like so ([self DoStuff2:[request responseString]]) and I don't free the request myself either (I'm using a ASINetworkQueue and I assume that the requests are destroyed for me (I tried and caused errors because the request was already being release somewhere else). Also, I know it shouldn't do anything, but I even tried wrapping the code in autorelease pools, which of course did nothing. I should mention that this code is being run inside of an NSOperation. I thought that perhaps I am experiencing problems because NSOperations should create an autorelease pool for themselves, but I've tried that to no avail. Not related to NSMutableString, but I find I also have similar problems using the NSString componentsSeparatedByString method. Sometimes the memory used by the array that gets the separated components is never released. Hmmm...strings in general seem to be somewhat problematic for me it seems. I would appreciate ANY help anyone can provide. If you require more info, I'll be glad to add it. I do promise you that I've struggled with this (and other problems) for weeks and every problem I encounter I research hard and long until I find a solution - this is not an idle request, but a true cry for help! I've written so much code and now I'm trying to seal some small leaks etc and I notice this problem. Honestly, I cannot believe how memory management in Objective C can stump me so at times...I've read Apple's memory mgmt docs many times and I thought I thoroughly understood it and I try to be diligent about releasing objects I own, but sometimes I find myself wondering if I truly understand...I would like to put this to bed once and make sure I understand all this fully - to have this sort of question/problem after writing thousands of lines of code is more than a little scary/embarrassing/annoying. So again, if anybody has any insight, I'd be grateful. Thanks for your time and efforts. -(void)DoStuff { NSString *aString [ [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"text %@ more text", self.strVariable]; [self.someMutableStringVar replaceOccurrencesOfString:@"replace" withString:aString options:NSCaseInsensitiveSearch range:NSMakeRange(0, [self.someMutableStringVar length])]; [aString release]; } -(void)DoStuff2:(NSString *)aString { [self.someMutableStringVar appendString:aString]; }

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• Synchronizing issue: I want the main thread to be run before another thread but it sometimes doesn´t

  - by Rox

  I have done my own small concurrency framework (just for learning purposes) inspired by the java.util.concurrency package. This is about the Callable/Future mechanism. My code below is the whole one and is compilable and very easy to understand. My problem is that sometimes I run into a deadlock where the first thread (the main thread) awaits for a signal from the other thread. But then the other thread has already notified the main thread before the main thread went into waiting state, so the main thread cannot wake up. FutureTask.get() should always be run before FutureTask.run() but sometimes the run() method (which is called by new thread) runs before the get() method (which is called by main thread). I don´t know how I can prevent that. This is a pseudo code of how I want the two threads to be run. //From main thread: Executor.submit().get() (in get() the main thread waits for new thread to notify) ->submit() calls Executor.execute(FutureTask object) -> execute() starts new thread -> new thread shall notify `main thread` I cannot understand how the new thread can start up and run faster than the main thread that actually starts the new thread. Main.java: public class Main { public static void main(String[] args) { new ExecutorServiceExample(); } public Main() { ThreadExecutor executor = new ThreadExecutor(); Integer i = executor.submit(new Callable<Integer>() { @Override public Integer call() { return 10; } }).get(); System.err.println("Value: "+i); } } ThreadExecutor.java: public class ThreadExecutor { public ThreadExecutor() {} protected <V> RunnableFuture<V> newTaskFor(Callable c) { return new FutureTask<V>(c); } public <V> Future<V> submit(Callable<V> task) { if (task == null) throw new NullPointerException(); RunnableFuture<V> ftask = newTaskFor(task); execute(ftask); return ftask; } public void execute(Runnable r) { new Thread(r).start(); } } FutureTask.java: import java.util.concurrent.locks.Condition; import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock; import java.util.logging.Level; import java.util.logging.Logger; public class FutureTask<V> implements RunnableFuture<V> { private Callable<V> callable; private volatile V result; private ReentrantLock lock = new ReentrantLock(); private Condition condition = lock.newCondition(); public FutureTask(Callable callable) { if (callable == null) throw new NullPointerException(); this.callable = callable; } @Override public void run() { acquireLock(); System.err.println("RUN"+Thread.currentThread().getName()); V v = this.callable.call(); set(v); condition.signal(); releaseLock(); } @Override public V get() { acquireLock(); System.err.println("GET "+Thread.currentThread().getName()); try { condition.await(); } catch (InterruptedException ex) { Logger.getLogger(FutureTask.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex); } releaseLock(); return this.result; } public void set(V v) { this.result = v; } private void acquireLock() { lock.lock(); } private void releaseLock() { lock.unlock(); } } And the interfaces: public interface RunnableFuture<V> extends Runnable, Future<V> { @Override void run(); } public interface Future<V> { V get(); } public interface Callable<V> { V call(); }

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• Is possible to make mt.exe embed manifest files correctly in Visual Studio 2008?

  - by Sorin Sbarnea

  I found that mt.exe fails to correctly create and embed manifest files into executables when run inside a VCPROJ. For example the same executable load well on Windows 7 but failed to load on Windows XP. The manifest was embedded and correct. After I spend lots of hours searching for possible reasons and solution I modified the project settings to generate the manifest outside the exe file. Now it works on both systems. Here are the examples for debug builds. With embed disabled: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?> <assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0"> <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3"> <security> <requestedPrivileges> <requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false"></requestedExecutionLevel> </requestedPrivileges> </security> </trustInfo> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.DebugCRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"></assemblyIdentity> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.DebugMFC" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b"></assemblyIdentity> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> </assembly> This is with embed enabled: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?> <assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0"> <trustInfo xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3"> <security> <requestedPrivileges> <requestedExecutionLevel level="asInvoker" uiAccess="false" /> </requestedPrivileges> </security> </trustInfo> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.DebugCRT" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b" /> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.VC90.DebugMFC" version="9.0.21022.8" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b" /> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> <dependency> <dependentAssembly> <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="x86" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*" /> </dependentAssembly> </dependency> </assembly> If you compare them the second one adds common controls (I don't know from where) and also it is a small difference with the syntax of requestedExecutionLevel tag.

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• Recommended ASP.NET Shared Hosting (USA)

  - by coffeeaddict

  Ok, I have to admit I'm getting fed up with www.discountasp.net's pricing model and this annoyance has built up over the past 8 years or so. I've been with them for years and absolutely love them on the technical side, however it's getting ridiculously expensive for so little that you get. I mean here's my scenario: 1) I am running 2 SQL Server databases which costs me $10/ea per month so that's $20/month for 2 and I only get 500 mb disk space which is horrible 2) I am paying $10/mo just for the hosting itself which I only get 1 gig of disk space! I mean common! 3) I am simply running 2 small apps (Screwturn Wiki & Subtext Blog)...so I don't really care if it's up 99% or not, it's not worth paying a total of $300 just to keep these 2 apps running over discountasp.net Anyone else feel the same? Yes, I know they have great support, probably have great servers running behind this but in the end I really don't care as long as my site is up 95% or better. Yes, the hosting toolset rocks. But you know I bet you I can find a similar set somewhere else. I like how I can totally control IIS 7 at discountasp and I can control my own app pool etc. That's very powerful and essential. But anyone have any good alternatives to discountasp that gives me close to the same at a much more reasonable cost point? I mean http://www.m6.net/prices.aspx gives you 10 SQL Databases for $7 and 200 gigs disk space! I don't know about their tools or support but just looking at those numbers and some other hosts I've seen, I feel that discountasp.net is way out of line. They don't even offer any purchasing discounts such as it would be nice if my 2nd SQL Server is only $5/month not $10...stuff like this, to make it much more realistic and fair. Opinions (people who do have discountasp.net, people who have left them, or people who have another host they like)??? But geez $300 just to host a couple DBs and lightweight open source apps? Not worth the price they are charging. I'm almost at a price point that enables me to get a decent dedicated server! I really don't care about beta ASP.NET frameworks support. Not a big deal to me. If you have alternative suggestions rather than your experience with discountasp, I'd like to know how their toolset is. Do you have complete control over your DB in terms of adding users, and same goes for the web app pool, etc.? Discountasp.net's control panel rocks. I don't want to loose the ability to at least control and add virtual directories, recycle my dedicated app pool myself, backup my sql database myself, through tools which is what discountasp does give you. I'd also want to know that the hoster at least gets the latest and greatest in terms of non-beta ASP.NET related frameworks available to its shared hosters.

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• Using UUIDs for cheap equals() and hashCode()

  - by Tom McIntyre

  I have an immutable class, TokenList, which consists of a list of Token objects, which are also immutable: @Immutable public final class TokenList { private final List<Token> tokens; public TokenList(List<Token> tokens) { this.tokens = Collections.unmodifiableList(new ArrayList(tokens)); } public List<Token> getTokens() { return tokens; } } I do several operations on these TokenLists that take multiple TokenLists as inputs and return a single TokenList as the output. There can be arbitrarily many TokenLists going in, and each can have arbitrarily many Tokens. These operations are expensive, and there is a good chance that the same operation (ie the same inputs) will be performed multiple times, so I would like to cache the outputs. However, performance is critical, and I am worried about the expense of performing hashCode() and equals() on these objects that may contain arbitrarily many elements (as they are immutable then hashCode could be cached, but equals will still be expensive). This led me to wondering whether I could use a UUID to provide equals() and hashCode() simply and cheaply by making the following updates to TokenList: @Immutable public final class TokenList { private final List<Token> tokens; private final UUID uuid; public TokenList(List<Token> tokens) { this.tokens = Collections.unmodifiableList(new ArrayList(tokens)); this.uuid = UUID.randomUUID(); } public List<Token> getTokens() { return tokens; } public UUID getUuid() { return uuid; } } And something like this to act as a cache key: @Immutable public final class TopicListCacheKey { private final UUID[] uuids; public TopicListCacheKey(TopicList... topicLists) { uuids = new UUID[topicLists.length]; for (int i = 0; i < uuids.length; i++) { uuids[i] = topicLists[i].getUuid(); } } @Override public int hashCode() { return Arrays.hashCode(uuids); } @Override public boolean equals(Object other) { if (other == this) return true; if (other instanceof TopicListCacheKey) return Arrays.equals(uuids, ((TopicListCacheKey) other).uuids); return false; } } I figure that there are 2^128 different UUIDs and I will probably have at most around 1,000,000 TokenList objects active in the application at any time. Given this, and the fact that the UUIDs are used combinatorially in cache keys, it seems that the chances of this producing the wrong result are vanishingly small. Nevertheless, I feel uneasy about going ahead with it as it just feels 'dirty'. Are there any reasons I should not use this system? Will the performance costs of the SecureRandom used by UUID.randomUUID() outweigh the gains (especially since I expect multiple threads to be doing this at the same time)? Are collisions going to be more likely than I think? Basically, is there anything wrong with doing it this way?? Thanks.

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• Struts 2- problem with s:action tag

  - by Raghave

  Here is a small test application that does following things ask user to enter his name and submit - (index.jsp) as a result of index.jsp is the welcome.jsp page that asks user to select his/her blood group index.jsp <%@ page language="java" import="java.util.*" pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%> <%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags" %> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> </head> <body> <form action="MyName"> <s:textfield name="UserName" label="Enter Your Name"/> <s:submit/> </form><br> </body> </html> struts.xml <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.1//EN" "http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.1.dtd"> <struts> <package name="module1" namespace="" extends="struts-default"> <action name="MyName" class="module1.User"> <result>/Welcome.jsp</result> </action> <action name="Blood_Group" class="module1.SelectBloodGroup" method="bloodGroupList"/> </package> </struts> SelectBloodGroup.java package module1; import java.util.ArrayList; import com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionSupport; public class SelectBloodGroup extends ActionSupport{ private ArrayList<BloodGroup> bglist; public String bloodGroupList(){ bglist = new ArrayList<BloodGroup>(); bglist.add(new BloodGroup("1","A+")); bglist.add(new BloodGroup("2","B+")); bglist.add(new BloodGroup("3","AB+")); bglist.add(new BloodGroup("4","O+")); bglist.add(new BloodGroup("5","A-")); bglist.add(new BloodGroup("6","B-")); bglist.add(new BloodGroup("7","AB-")); bglist.add(new BloodGroup("8","O-")); return "SUCCESS"; } public ArrayList<BloodGroup> getBglist(){ return bglist; } } class BloodGroup{ private String id; private String bg; BloodGroup(String id,String bg){ this.id=id; this.bg=bg; } } welcome.jsp <%@ page language="java" import="java.util.*" pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1"%> <%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags" %> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> </head> <body> <s:action name="Blood_Group" executeResult="false"/> //***************here is the problem*************** <s:select list="bglist" listKey="id" listValue="bg"/> //*********************************************** </body> </html> Struts is unable to identify bglist as a collection or Array or List or iterator. WHAT SHOULD I ASSIGN TO list ATTRIBUTE IN THE s:select TAG IN THE FILE welcome.jsp What is wrong with the code please tell me in detail. If you could send me the correted version. WHY IS THE s:action Tag not working ? This is the error i am getting Apr 13, 2010 1:49:19 PM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher invoke SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet jsp threw exception tag 'select', field 'list': The requested list key 'bglist' could not be resolved as a collection/array/map/enumeration/iterator type. Example: people or people.{name} - [unknown location]

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• TabHost / TabWidget - Scale Background Image ?

  - by user359519

  I need to scale my TabWidget background images so they maintain aspect ratio. I am using a TabHost with a TabWidget. I am then using setBackgroundDrawable to set the images. I found a close answer here - Background in tab widget ignore scaling. However, I'm not sure just where to add the new Drawable code. (Working with the HelloTabWidget example, none of my modules use RelativeLayout, and I don't see any layout for "tabcontent".) I also found this thread - Android: Scale a Drawable or background image?. According to it, it sounds like I would have to pre-scale my images, which defeats the whole purpose of making them scaleable. I also found another thread where someone subclassed the Drawable class so it would either not scale, or it would scale properly. I can't find it now, but that seems like a LOT to go through when you should just be able to do something simple like mTab.setScaleType(centerInside). Here's my code: main.xml: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <TabHost xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:id="@android:id/tabhost" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:background="@drawable/main_background"> <LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent"> <FrameLayout android:id="@android:id/tabcontent" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:layout_weight="1"/> <TabWidget android:id="@android:id/tabs" android:layout_width="fill_parent" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:layout_weight="0"/> </LinearLayout> </TabHost> main activity: tabHost.setOnTabChangedListener(new OnTabChangeListener() { TabHost changedTabHost = getTabHost(); TabWidget changedTabWidget = getTabWidget(); View changedView = changedTabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(0); public void onTabChanged(String tabId) { int selectedTab = changedTabHost.getCurrentTab(); TabWidget tw = getTabWidget(); if(selectedTab == 0) { //setTitle("Missions Timeline"); View tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(0); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_timeline_on)); tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(1); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_map_off)); tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(2); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_search_off)); tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(3); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_news_off)); tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(4); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_license_off)); //ImageView iv = (ImageView)tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(0).findViewById(android.R.id.icon); //iv.setImageDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_timeline_on)); //iv = (ImageView)tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(1).findViewById(android.R.id.icon); //iv.setImageDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_map_off)); } else if (selectedTab == 1) { //setTitle("Spinoffs Around You"); View tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(0); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_timeline_off)); tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(1); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_map_on)); tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(2); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_search_off)); tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(3); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_news_off)); tempView = tabHost.getTabWidget().getChildAt(4); tempView.setBackgroundDrawable(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.tab_license_off)); } I also tried 9patch images, but they wind up being too small. So, what's the best way to go about this?

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• Phone-book Database Help - Python

  - by IDOntWantThat

  I'm new to programming and have an assignment I've been working at for awhile. I understand defining functions and a lot of the basics but I'm kind of running into a brick wall at this point. I'm trying to figure this one out and don't really understand how the 'class' feature works yet. I'd appreciate any help with this one; also any help with some python resources that have can dummy down how/why classes are used. You've been going to work on a database project at work for sometime now. Your boss encourages you to program the database in Python. You disagree, arguing that Python is not a database language but your boss persists by providing the source code below for a sample telephone database. He asks you to do two things: Evaluate the existing source code and extend it to make it useful for managers in the firm. (You do not need a GUI interface, just work on the database aspects: data entry and retrieval - of course you must get the program to run or properly work He wants you to critically evaluate Python as a database tool. Import the sample code below into the Python IDLE and enhance it, run it and debug it. Add features to make this a more realistic database tool by providing for easy data entry and retrieval. import shelve import string UNKNOWN = 0 HOME = 1 WORK = 2 FAX = 3 CELL = 4 class phoneentry: def __init__(self, name = 'Unknown', number = 'Unknown', type = UNKNOWN): self.name = name self.number = number self.type = type # create string representation def __repr__(self): return('%s:%d' % ( self.name, self.type )) # fuzzy compare or two items def __cmp__(self, that): this = string.lower(str(self)) that = string.lower(that) if string.find(this, that) >= 0: return(0) return(cmp(this, that)) def showtype(self): if self.type == UNKNOWN: return('Unknown') if self.type == HOME: return('Home') if self.type == WORK: return('Work') if self.type == FAX: return('Fax') if self.type == CELL: return('Cellular') class phonedb: def __init__(self, dbname = 'phonedata'): self.dbname = dbname; self.shelve = shelve.open(self.dbname); def __del__(self): self.shelve.close() self.shelve = None def add(self, name, number, type = HOME): e = phoneentry(name, number, type) self.shelve[str(e)] = e def lookup(self, string): list = [] for key in self.shelve.keys(): e = self.shelve[key] if cmp(e, string) == 0: list.append(e) return(list) # if not being loaded as a module, run a small test if __name__ == '__main__': foo = phonedb() foo.add('Sean Reifschneider', '970-555-1111', HOME) foo.add('Sean Reifschneider', '970-555-2222', CELL) foo.add('Evelyn Mitchell', '970-555-1111', HOME) print 'First lookup:' for entry in foo.lookup('reifsch'): print '%-40s %s (%s)' % ( entry.name, entry.number, entry.showtype() ) print print 'Second lookup:' for entry in foo.lookup('e'): print '%-40s %s (%s)' % ( entry.name, entry.number, entry.showtype() ) I'm not sure if I'm on the right track but here is what I have so far: def openPB(): foo = phonedb() print 'Please select an option:' print '1 - Lookup' print '2 - Add' print '3 - Delete' print '4 - Quit' entry=int(raw_input('>> ')) if entry==1: namelookup=raw_input('Please enter a name: ') for entry in foo.lookup(namelookup): print '%-40s %s (%s)' % (entry.name, entry.number, entry.showtype() ) elif entry==2: name=raw_input('Name: ') number=raw_input('Number: ') showtype=input('Type (UNKNOWN, HOME, WORK, FAX, CELL): \n>> ') for entry in foo.add(name, number, showtype): #Trying to figure out this part print '%-40s %s (%s)'% (entry.name, entry.number, entry.showtype() ) elif entry==3: delname=raw_input('Please enter a name to delete: ') # #Trying to figure out this part print "Contact '%s' has been deleted" (delname) elif entry==4: print "Phone book is now closed" quit else: print "Your entry was not recognized." openPB() openPB()

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• Getting Custom NSCell with NSButtonCell instance to handle mouse click/mouse events

  - by sidha

  OK I'm really stumped on this one. I want to make a checkbox with a NSTextFieldCell combined together. It's important that the checkbox goes ON if the mouse hits the box, NOT the text. I've accomplished this, more or less, but the issue is receiving the mouse event because I click one checkbox in a row, but ALL of them turn to NSOnState. I will show what I've done and my various failed attempts in order to get this to work. So this is how I've done it so far: header: @interface MyCheckboxCellToo : NSTextFieldCell { NSButtonCell *_checkboxCell; } implementation: - (NSUInteger)hitTestForEvent:(NSEvent *)event inRect:(NSRect)cellFrame ofView:(NSView *)controlView { NSPoint point = [controlView convertPoint:[event locationInWindow] fromView:nil]; NSLog(@"%@", NSStringFromPoint(point)); NSRect checkFrame; NSDivideRect(cellFrame, &checkFrame, &cellFrame, cellFrame.size.height/*3 + [[_checkboxCell image] size].width*/, NSMinXEdge); if (NSMouseInRect(point, checkFrame, [controlView isFlipped])) { // the checkbox, or the small region around it, was hit. so let's flip the state NSCellStateValue checkState = ([_checkboxCell state] == NSOnState) ? NSOffState:NSOnState; [self setState:checkState]; [_checkboxCell setState:checkState]; [controlView setNeedsDisplay:YES]; return NSCellHitTrackableArea; } return [super hitTestForEvent:event inRect:cellFrame ofView:controlView]; } I know I probably shouldn't be doing: [self setState:checkState]; [_checkboxCell setState:checkState]; [controlView setNeedsDisplay:YES]; in there... because the result is that EVERY checkbox in every goes to NSOnState. Is this because cells are re-used? How come the ImageAndTextCell can have different images in the same tableview? How do I handle the mouse event? I have tried: - (BOOL)trackMouse:(NSEvent *)theEvent inRect:(NSRect)cellFrame ofView:(NSView *)controlView untilMouseUp:(BOOL)untilMouseUp { NSLog(@"%s %@", _cmd, theEvent); return [_checkboxCell trackMouse:theEvent inRect:cellFrame ofView:controlView untilMouseUp:untilMouseUp]; // return YES; // return [super trackMouse:theEvent inRect:cellFrame ofView:controlView untilMouseUp:untilMouseUp]; } - (BOOL)startTrackingAt:(NSPoint)startPoint inView:(NSView *)controlView { NSLog(@"%s %@", _cmd, NSStringFromPoint(startPoint)); return [super startTrackingAt:startPoint inView:controlView]; } - (BOOL)continueTracking:(NSPoint)lastPoint at:(NSPoint)currentPoint inView:(NSView *)controlView { NSLog(@"%s %@", _cmd, NSStringFromPoint(currentPoint)); return [super continueTracking:lastPoint at:currentPoint inView:controlView]; } - (void)stopTracking:(NSPoint)lastPoint at:(NSPoint)stopPoint inView:(NSView *)controlView mouseIsUp:(BOOL)flag { NSLog(@"%s %d %@", _cmd, flag, NSStringFromPoint(stopPoint)); } trackMouse: ... DOES gets called but startTrackingAt:..., continueTracking:..., and stopTracking:.... DO NOT get called when I click on the checkbox "hit area" in trackMouse:... I have tried return [_checkboxCell trackMouse:theEvent inRect:cellFrame ofView:controlView untilMouseUp:untilMouseUp]; and return [super trackMouse:theEvent inRect:cellFrame ofView:controlView untilMouseUp:untilMouseUp]; and neither seems to result in the mouse event being handled by the checkbox. How do I get that single checkbox to go NSOnState? I know I'm pretty close but after a lot of doc reading and google searching I haven't been successful at solving this. suggestions and comments welcome.. OK here is a bit more to show creation and destruction of the object.. - (id)init { if ((self = [super init])) { _checkboxCell = [[NSButtonCell alloc] init]; [_checkboxCell setButtonType:NSSwitchButton]; [_checkboxCell setTitle:@""]; [_checkboxCell setTarget:self]; [_checkboxCell setImagePosition:NSImageLeft]; [_checkboxCell setControlSize:NSRegularControlSize]; } return self; } - copyWithZone:(NSZone *)zone { MyCheckboxCellToo *cell = (MyCheckboxCellToo *)[super copyWithZone:zone]; cell->_checkboxCell = [_checkboxCell copyWithZone:zone]; return cell; } - (void)dealloc { [_checkboxCell release]; [super dealloc]; }

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• eXML-PARSER output contains unwanted hash references

  - by seaworthy

  So I wrote a parser routine to take one xml file and reparse into another one. This code I later modified to split a large xml file into many small xml files. I am having a problem with an output. Parsing works fine the only thing output also includes unwanted strings like HASH(0x19f9b58), I am not sure why and need set of friendly eyes. use Encode; use XML::Parser; my $parser = XML::Parser->new( Handlers => {Start => \&handle_elem_start, End => \&handle_elem_end,Char => \&handle_char_data,}); my $record; my $file = shift @ARGV; if( $file ) {$parser->parsefile( $file );} exit; sub handle_elem_start { my( $expat, $name, %atts ) = @_; if ($name eq 'articles'){$file="_data.xml";unlink($file);} $record .= "<"; $record .= "$name"; foreach my $key (keys %atts){$record .= " $key=\"$atts{$key}\"";} $record .= ">"; } sub handle_char_data { my( $expat, $text ) = @_; $text = decode_utf8( $text ); $record .= "$text"; } sub handle_elem_end { my( $expat, $name ) = @_; $record .= "</$name>"; if( $name eq 'article' ) { open (MYFILE, '>>'.$file); print MYFILE $record; close (MYFILE); print $record; $record = {}; } return unless( $name eq 'article' ); } Sample output: ... </article>HASH(0x19f9b40) <article doi="10.1103/PhysRevSeriesI.9.304"> <journal short="Phys. Rev. (Series I)" jcode="PRI">Physical Review (Series I)</journal> <volume>9</volume> <issue printdate="1899-11-00">5</issue> <fpage>304</fpage> <lpage>309</lpage> <seqno>1</seqno> <price></price><tocsec>Articles</tocsec> <arttype type="article"></arttype><doi>10.1103/PhysRevSeriesI.9.304</doi> <title>An Investigation of the Magnetic Qualities of Building Brick</title> <authgrp> <author><givenname>O.</givenname><middlename>A.</middlename><surname>Gage</surname></author> <author><givenname>H.</givenname><middlename>E.</middlename><surname>Lawrence</surname></author> </authgrp> <cpyrt> <cpyrtdate date="1899"></cpyrtdate><cpyrtholder>The American Physical Society</cpyrtholder> </cpyrt> </article>HASH(0x19f9b58) ... HASH strings are not wanted, please advise.

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• Encode audio to aac with libavcodec

  - by ryan

  I'm using libavcodec (latest git as of 3/3/10) to encode raw pcm to aac (libfaac support enabled). I do this by calling avcodec_encode_audio repeatedly with codec_context-frame_size samples each time. The first four calls return successfully, but the fifth call never returns. When I use gdb to break, the stack is corrupt. If I use audacity to export the pcm data to a .wav file, then I can use command-line ffmpeg to convert to aac without any issues, so I'm sure it's something I'm doing wrong. I've written a small test program that duplicates my problem. It reads the test data from a file, which is available here: http://birdie.protoven.com/audio.pcm (~2 seconds of signed 16 bit LE pcm) I can make it all work if I use FAAC directly, but the code would be a little cleaner if I could just use libavcodec, as I'm also encoding video, and writing both to an mp4. ffmpeg version info: FFmpeg version git-c280040, Copyright (c) 2000-2010 the FFmpeg developers built on Mar 3 2010 15:40:46 with gcc 4.4.1 configuration: --enable-libfaac --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-version3 --enable-postproc --enable-pthreads --enable-debug=3 --enable-shared libavutil 50.10. 0 / 50.10. 0 libavcodec 52.55. 0 / 52.55. 0 libavformat 52.54. 0 / 52.54. 0 libavdevice 52. 2. 0 / 52. 2. 0 libswscale 0.10. 0 / 0.10. 0 libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0 Is there something I'm not setting, or setting incorrectly in my codec context, maybe? Any help is greatly appreciated! Here is my test code: #include <stdio.h> #include <libavcodec/avcodec.h> void EncodeTest(int sampleRate, int channels, int audioBitrate, uint8_t *audioData, size_t audioSize) { AVCodecContext *audioCodec; AVCodec *codec; uint8_t *buf; int bufSize, frameBytes; avcodec_register_all(); //Set up audio encoder codec = avcodec_find_encoder(CODEC_ID_AAC); if (codec == NULL) return; audioCodec = avcodec_alloc_context(); audioCodec->bit_rate = audioBitrate; audioCodec->sample_fmt = SAMPLE_FMT_S16; audioCodec->sample_rate = sampleRate; audioCodec->channels = channels; audioCodec->profile = FF_PROFILE_AAC_MAIN; audioCodec->time_base = (AVRational){1, sampleRate}; audioCodec->codec_type = CODEC_TYPE_AUDIO; if (avcodec_open(audioCodec, codec) < 0) return; bufSize = FF_MIN_BUFFER_SIZE * 10; buf = (uint8_t *)malloc(bufSize); if (buf == NULL) return; frameBytes = audioCodec->frame_size * audioCodec->channels * 2; while (audioSize >= frameBytes) { int packetSize; packetSize = avcodec_encode_audio(audioCodec, buf, bufSize, (short *)audioData); printf("encoder returned %d bytes of data\n", packetSize); audioData += frameBytes; audioSize -= frameBytes; } } int main() { FILE *stream = fopen("audio.pcm", "rb"); size_t size; uint8_t *buf; if (stream == NULL) { printf("Unable to open file\n"); return 1; } fseek(stream, 0, SEEK_END); size = ftell(stream); fseek(stream, 0, SEEK_SET); buf = (uint8_t *)malloc(size); fread(buf, sizeof(uint8_t), size, stream); fclose(stream); EncodeTest(32000, 2, 448000, buf, size); }

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• Event bubbling with img tags?

  - by Kenny Bones

  I did some googling and figured I'm probably experiencing so called "event bubbling" that I've never heard of but are not surprised by it's existance. I want it to fire only once and I'm wondering how to fix this. Basically, I have this small code snippet: $('.bggallery_images').click(function () { alert('test'); }); This is supposed to fire once from a php snippet that basically adds an image of each image from a specific folder. It then outputs an echo string where each image has the class of "bggallery_images". PHP snippet looks like this: <?php $dirname = "img"; $images = scandir($dirname); $ignore = Array(".", ".."); foreach($images as $file) { if(!in_array($file, $ignore)) { echo "<img class=\"bggallery_images\" src=\"$dirname/$file\" />"; }; } ?> This all generates the html markup that looks like this for each image: <img src="img/WhitePattern6.gif" class="bggallery_images"> What is happening here? Here's the rendered output from FireBug: <div id="gallery_lightbox" style="height: 215px; z-index: 4; display: block;"> <div id="close"></div> <h2><cufon class="cufon cufon-canvas" alt="Velg " style="width: 39px; height: 20px;"><canvas width="49" height="23" style="width: 49px; height: 23px; top: -4px; left: 0px;"></canvas><cufontext>Velg </cufontext></cufon><cufon class="cufon cufon-canvas" alt="bakgrunnsbilde" style="width: 123px; height: 20px;"><canvas width="129" height="23" style="width: 129px; height: 23px; top: -4px; left: 0px;"></canvas><cufontext>bakgrunnsbilde</cufontext></cufon></h2> <div class="bggallery_images">testererererer</div> <img src="img/Bakgrunner/4462-v4.jpg" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/5922.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/BluePattern.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/Brown1.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/Brown2Pattern.jpg" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/BrownPattern.jpg" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/Brownn.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/GrayPattern.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/GreenPattern3.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/OrangePattern.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/PurplePattern.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/PurplePattern2.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/RedPattern3.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/RedPattern4.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/RedPattern5.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/Tiled_Wallpaper__Green_Texture_by_knitetgantt.png" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/WhitePattern4.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/WhitePattern5.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/WhitePattern6.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/WhitePattern7.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/WhitePurple.jpg" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/YellowPattern.gif" class="bggallery_images"><img src="img/Bakgrunner/vintage-wallpaper.jpg" class="bggallery_images"> </div>

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• The best cross platform (portable) arbitrary precision math library

  - by Siu Ching Pong - Asuka Kenji

  Dear ninjas / hackers / wizards, I'm looking for a good arbitrary precision math library in C or C++. Could you please give me some advices / suggestions? The primary requirements: It MUST handle arbitrarily big integers (my primary interest is on integers). In case that you don't know what the word arbitrarily big means, imagine something like 100000! (the factorial of 100000). The precision MUST NOT NEED to be specified during library initialization / object creation. The precision should ONLY be constrained by the available resources of the system. It SHOULD utilize the full power of the platform, and should handle "small" numbers natively. That means on a 64-bit platform, calculating 2^33 + 2^32 should use the available 64-bit CPU instructions. The library SHOULD NOT calculate this in the same way as it does with 2^66 + 2^65 on the same platform. It MUST handle addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), integer division (/), remainder (%), power (**), increment (++), decrement (--), gcd(), factorial(), and other common integer arithmetic calculations efficiently. Ability to handle functions like sqrt() (square root), log() (logarithm) that do not produce integer results is a plus. Ability to handle symbolic computations is even better. Here are what I found so far: Java's BigInteger and BigDecimal class: I have been using these so far. I have read the source code, but I don't understand the math underneath. It may be based on theories / algorithms that I have never learnt. The built-in integer type or in core libraries of bc / Python / Ruby / Haskell / Lisp / Erlang / OCaml / PHP / some other languages: I have ever used some of these, but I have no idea on which library they are using, or which kind of implementation they are using. What I have already known: Using a char as a decimal digit, and a char* as a decimal string and do calculations on the digits using a for-loop. Using an int (or a long int, or a long long) as a basic "unit" and an array of it as an arbitrary long integer, and do calculations on the elements using a for-loop. Booth's multiplication algorithm What I don't know: Printing the binary array mentioned above in decimal without using naive methods. Example of a naive method: (1) add the bits from the lowest to the highest: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, ... (2) use a char* string mentioned above to store the intermediate decimal results). What I appreciate: Good comparisons on GMP, MPFR, decNumber (or other libraries that are good in your opinion). Good suggestions on books / articles that I should read. For example, an illustration with figures on how a un-naive arbitrarily long binary to decimal conversion algorithm works is good. Any help. Please DO NOT answer this question if: you think using a double (or a long double, or a long long double) can solve this problem easily. If you do think so, it means that you don't understand the issue under discussion. you have no experience on arbitrary precision mathematics. Thank you in advance! Asuka Kenji

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• CSS: Labels in table columns

  - by hello

  Hello. BACKGROUND: I would like to have small labels in columns of a table. I'm using some implemented parts of HTML5/CSS3 in my project, and this section specifically is for mobile devices. While both facts are not necessarily relevant, the bottom line is that I don't have to support Internet Explorer or even Firefox for that matter (just WebKit). THE PROBLEM With my current CSS approach, the vertical padding of the cell comes from the <span element (set to display: block with top/bottom margins), which contains the "value" of the column. As a result there's no padding when the <span> is empty or missing (no value) and the label is not in place. The "full" coulmns should give you the idea of where I want the labels to be, even if there's no value, and the <span> is not there. I realize that I could use "non-breaking-space", but I would really like to avoid it. I wonder if any of you have a fix / better way to do this? current code is below. Thank you for any help. <!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>ah</title> <style> body { width: 320px; } /* TABLE */ table { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial; } th, td { border: 1px solid #ccc; border-width: 0px 0px 1px 1px; } th:last-child, td:last-child { border-right-width: 1px; } tr:first-child th { border-top-width: 1px; background: #efefef; } /* RELEVANT STUFF */ td { padding: 3px; } td sup { display: block; } td span { display: block; margin: 3px 0px; text-align: center; } </style> </head> <body> <table> <tr> <th colspan="3">something</th> </tr> <tr> <td>^{some label}<span>any content</span></td> <td>^{some label}<span>any content</span></td> <td>^{some label}<span></span></td><!-- No content, just a label --> </tr> </table> </body> </html>

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• Inherited variables are not reading correctly when using bitwise comparisons

  - by Shawn B

  Hey, I have a few classes set up for a game, with XMapObject as the base, and XEntity, XEnviron, and XItem inheriting it. MapObjects have a number of flags, one of them being MAPOBJECT_SOLID. My problem is that XEntity is the only class that correctly detects MAPOBJECT_SOLID. Both Items are Environs are always considered solid by the game, regardless of the flag's state. What is important is that Environs and Item should almost never be solid. Here are the relevent code samples: XMapObject: class XMapObject : public XObject { public: Uint8 MapObjectType,Location[2],MapObjectFlags; XMapObject *NextMapObject,*PrevMapObject; XMapObject(); void CreateMapObject(Uint8 MapObjectType); void SpawnMapObject(Uint8 MapObjectLocation[2]); void RemoveMapObject(); void DeleteMapObject(); void MapObjectSetLocation(Uint8 Y,Uint8 X); void MapObjectMapLink(); void MapObjectMapUnlink(); }; XEntity: class XEntity : public XMapObject { public: Uint8 Health,EntityFlags; float Speed,Time; XEntity *NextEntity,*PrevEntity; XItem *IventoryList; XEntity(); void CreateEntity(Uint8 EntityType,Uint8 EntityLocation[2]); void DeleteEntity(); void EntityLink(); void EntityUnlink(); Uint8 MoveEntity(Uint8 YOffset,Uint8 XOffset); }; XEnviron: class XEnviron : public XMapObject { public: Uint8 Effect,TimeOut; void CreateEnviron(Uint8 Type,Uint8 Y,Uint8 X,Uint8 TimeOut); }; XItem: class XItem : public XMapObject { public: void CreateItem(Uint8 Type,Uint8 Y,Uint8 X); }; And lastly, the entity move code. Only entities are capable of moving themselves. Uint8 XEntity::MoveEntity(Uint8 YOffset,Uint8 XOffset) { Uint8 NewY = Location[0] + YOffset, NewX = Location[1] + XOffset; if((NewY >= 0 && NewY < MAPY) && (NewX >= 0 && NewX < MAPX)) { XTile *Tile = GetTile(NewY,NewX); if(Tile->MapList != NULL) { XMapObject *MapObject = Tile->MapList; while(MapObject != NULL) { if(MapObject->MapObjectFlags & MAPOBJECT_SOLID) { printf("solid\n"); return 0; } MapObject = MapObject->NextMapObject; } } if(Tile->Flags & TILE_SOLID && EntityFlags & ENTITY_CLIPPING) { return 0; } this->MapObjectSetLocation(NewY,NewX); return 1; } return 0; } What is wierd, is that the bitwise operator always returns true when the MapObject is an Environ or an Item, but it works correctly for Entities. For debug I am using the printf "Solid", and also a printf containing the value of the flag for both Environs and Items. Any help is greatly appreciated, as this is a major bug for the small game I am working on.

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• PROJECT HELP NEEDED. SOME BASIC CONCEPTS GREAT CONFUSION BECAUSE OF LACK OF PROPER MATERIAL PLEASE H

  - by user287745

  Task ATTENDENCE RECORDER AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENT ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Example implementation needed. a main server in each lab where the operator punches in the attendence of the student. =========================================================== scenerio:- a college, 10 departments, all departments have a computer lab with 60-100 computers, the computers within each lab are interconnected and all computers in any department have to dail to a particular number (THE NUMBER GIVEN BY THE COLLEGE INTERNET DEPARTMENT) to get connected to the internet. therefore safe to assume that there is a central location to which all the computers in the college are connected to. there is a 'students attendence portal' which can be accessed using internet explorer, students enter there id and get the particular attendence record regarding to the labs only. a description of the working is like:- 1) the user will select which department, which year has arrived to the lab 2) the selection will give the user a return of all the students name and there roll numbers belonging to that department; 'with a check box to "TICK MARK IF THE STUDENT IS PRESENT" ' 3) A SUBMIT BUTTON when pressed reads the 'id' of the checkbox to determine the "particular count number of the student" from that an id of the student is constructed and that id is inserted with a present. (there is also date and time and much more to normalize the db and to avoid conflicts and keep historic records etc but that you will have to assume) steps taken till this date:- ( please note we are not computer students, we are to select something of some other line as a project!, as you will read in my many post 'i" have designed small websites just out of liking. have never ever done any thing official to implement like this.) * have made the database fully normalized. * have made the website which does the functions required on the database. Testing :- deployed the db and site on a free aspspider server and it worked. tested from several computers. Now the problem please help thank youuuuuuuu a practical demonstration has to be done within the college network. no internet! we have been assigned a lab - 60 computers- to demonstrate. (please dont give replies as 60 computers only! is not a big deal one CPU can manage it. i know that; IT IS A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION WHERE WE ASSUME THAT 60 IS NOT 60 BUT ITS LIKE 60,000 COMPUTERS) 1a) make a web server, yes iis and put files in www folder and configure server to run aspx files- although a link to a step by step guide will be appreciated)\ ? which version of windows should i ask for xp or win server 2000 something? 2a) make a database server. ( well yes install sql server 2005, okay but then what? just put the database file on a pc share it and append the connection string to the share? ) 3a) make the site accessible from the remaining computers ? http://localhost/sitename ? all users "being operators of the particular lab" have the right to edit, write or delete(in dispute), thereby any "users" who hate our program can make the database inconsistent by accessing te same record and doing different edits and then complaining? so how to prevent this? you know something like when the db table is being written to others can only read but not write.. one big confusion:- IN DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENT "how to implement this" where does "distributed environment" come in! meaning :- alright the labs are in different departments but the "database server will be one" the "web server will be one" so whats distributed!?

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• python: what are efficient techniques to deal with deeply nested data in a flexible manner?

  - by AlexandreS

  My question is not about a specific code snippet but more general, so please bear with me: How should I organize the data I'm analyzing, and which tools should I use to manage it? I'm using python and numpy to analyse data. Because the python documentation indicates that dictionaries are very optimized in python, and also due to the fact that the data itself is very structured, I stored it in a deeply nested dictionary. Here is a skeleton of the dictionary: the position in the hierarchy defines the nature of the element, and each new line defines the contents of a key in the precedent level: [AS091209M02] [AS091209M01] [AS090901M06] ... [100113] [100211] [100128] [100121] [R16] [R17] [R03] [R15] [R05] [R04] [R07] ... [1263399103] ... [ImageSize] [FilePath] [Trials] [Depth] [Frames] [Responses] ... [N01] [N04] ... [Sequential] [Randomized] [Ch1] [Ch2] Edit: To explain a bit better my data set: [individual] ex: [AS091209M02] [imaging session (date string)] ex: [100113] [Region imaged] ex: [R16] [timestamp of file] ex [1263399103] [properties of file] ex: [Responses] [regions of interest in image ] ex [N01] [format of data] ex [Sequential] [channel of acquisition: this key indexes an array of values] ex [Ch1] The type of operations I perform is for instance to compute properties of the arrays (listed under Ch1, Ch2), pick up arrays to make a new collection, for instance analyze responses of N01 from region 16 (R16) of a given individual at different time points, etc. This structure works well for me and is very fast, as promised. I can analyze the full data set pretty quickly (and the dictionary is far too small to fill up my computer's ram : half a gig). My problem comes from the cumbersome manner in which I need to program the operations of the dictionary. I often have stretches of code that go like this: for mk in dic.keys(): for rgk in dic[mk].keys(): for nk in dic[mk][rgk].keys(): for ik in dic[mk][rgk][nk].keys(): for ek in dic[mk][rgk][nk][ik].keys(): #do something which is ugly, cumbersome, non reusable, and brittle (need to recode it for any variant of the dictionary). I tried using recursive functions, but apart from the simplest applications, I ran into some very nasty bugs and bizarre behaviors that caused a big waste of time (it does not help that I don't manage to debug with pdb in ipython when I'm dealing with deeply nested recursive functions). In the end the only recursive function I use regularly is the following: def dicExplorer(dic, depth = -1, stp = 0): '''prints the hierarchy of a dictionary. if depth not specified, will explore all the dictionary ''' if depth - stp == 0: return try : list_keys = dic.keys() except AttributeError: return stp += 1 for key in list_keys: else: print '+%s> [\'%s\']' %(stp * '---', key) dicExplorer(dic[key], depth, stp) I know I'm doing this wrong, because my code is long, noodly and non-reusable. I need to either use better techniques to flexibly manipulate the dictionaries, or to put the data in some database format (sqlite?). My problem is that since I'm (badly) self-taught in regards to programming, I lack practical experience and background knowledge to appreciate the options available. I'm ready to learn new tools (SQL, object oriented programming), whatever it takes to get the job done, but I am reluctant to invest my time and efforts into something that will be a dead end for my needs. So what are your suggestions to tackle this issue, and be able to code my tools in a more brief, flexible and re-usable manner?

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• WPF Xaml Custom Styling Selected Item Style in a ListBox

  - by John Batdorf

  I have a list box that scrolls images horizontally. I have the following XAML I used blend to create it. It originally had a x:Key on the Style TaregetType line, MSDN said to remove it, as I was getting errors on that. Now I'm getting this error: Error 3 Operation is not valid while ItemsSource is in use. Access and modify elements with ItemsControl.ItemsSource instead. I don't understand how to apply all of this junk that way, I've tried several thing, nothing is working. My goal is to have the selected item's background be white, not blue. Seems like a lot of work for something so small! Thanks. <ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Source={StaticResource WPFApparelCollection}}" Grid.Row="1" Margin="2,26,2,104" ScrollViewer.VerticalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden" ScrollViewer.HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Hidden" SelectionMode="Single" x:Name="list1" MouseLeave="List1_MouseLeave" MouseMove="List1_MouseMove" Style="{DynamicResource ListBoxStyle1}" > <Style TargetType="{x:Type ListBoxItem}"> <Setter Property="Background" Value="Transparent"/> <Setter Property="HorizontalContentAlignment" Value="{Binding Path=HorizontalContentAlignment, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type ItemsControl}}}"/> <Setter Property="VerticalContentAlignment" Value="{Binding Path=VerticalContentAlignment, RelativeSource={RelativeSource AncestorType={x:Type ItemsControl}}}"/> <Setter Property="Padding" Value="2,0,0,0"/> <Setter Property="Template"> <Setter.Value> <ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type ListBoxItem}"> <Border x:Name="Bd" SnapsToDevicePixels="true" Background="{TemplateBinding Background}" BorderBrush="{TemplateBinding BorderBrush}" BorderThickness="{TemplateBinding BorderThickness}" Padding="{TemplateBinding Padding}"> <ContentPresenter HorizontalAlignment="{TemplateBinding HorizontalContentAlignment}" VerticalAlignment="{TemplateBinding VerticalContentAlignment}" SnapsToDevicePixels="{TemplateBinding SnapsToDevicePixels}"/> </Border> <ControlTemplate.Triggers> <Trigger Property="IsSelected" Value="true"> <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.HighlightTextBrushKey}}"/> <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="Bd" Value="#FFFFFFFF"/> </Trigger> <MultiTrigger> <MultiTrigger.Conditions> <Condition Property="IsSelected" Value="true"/> <Condition Property="Selector.IsSelectionActive" Value="false"/> </MultiTrigger.Conditions> <Setter Property="Background" TargetName="Bd" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlBrushKey}}"/> <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.ControlTextBrushKey}}"/> </MultiTrigger> <Trigger Property="IsEnabled" Value="false"> <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="{DynamicResource {x:Static SystemColors.GrayTextBrushKey}}"/> </Trigger> </ControlTemplate.Triggers> </ControlTemplate> </Setter.Value> </Setter> </Style> <ListBox.ItemsPanel> <ItemsPanelTemplate> <VirtualizingStackPanel Orientation="Horizontal" IsItemsHost="True" /> </ItemsPanelTemplate> </ListBox.ItemsPanel> <ListBox.ItemTemplate> <DataTemplate> <Image Source="{Binding Image}" /> </DataTemplate> </ListBox.ItemTemplate> </ListBox>

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• How should I clean up hung grandchild processes when an alarm trips in Perl?

  - by brian d foy

  I have a parallelized automation script which needs to call many other scripts, some of which hang because they (incorrectly) wait for standard input. That's not a big deal because I catch those with alarm. The trick is to shut down those hung grandchild processes when the child shuts down. I thought various incantations of SIGCHLD, waiting, and process groups could do the trick, but they all block and the grandchildren aren't reaped. My solution, which works, just doesn't seem like it is the right solution. I'm not especially interested in the Windows solution just yet, but I'll eventually need that too. Mine only works for Unix, which is fine for now. I wrote a small script that takes the number of simultaneous parallel children to run and the total number of forks: $ fork_bomb <parallel jobs> <number of forks> $ fork_bomb 8 500 This will probably hit the per-user process limit within a couple of minutes. Many solutions I've found just tell you to increase the per-user process limit, but I need this to run about 300,000 times, so that isn't going to work. Similarly, suggestions to re-exec and so on to clear the process table aren't what I need. I'd like to actually fix the problem instead of slapping duct tape over it. I crawl the process table looking for the child processes and shut down the hung processes individually in the SIGALRM handler, which needs to die because the rest of real code has no hope of success after that. The kludgey crawl through the process table doesn't bother me from a performance perspective, but I wouldn't mind not doing it: use Parallel::ForkManager; use Proc::ProcessTable; my $pm = Parallel::ForkManager->new( $ARGV[0] ); my $alarm_sub = sub { kill 9, map { $_->{pid} } grep { $_->{ppid} == $$ } @{ Proc::ProcessTable->new->table }; die "Alarm rang for $$!\n"; }; foreach ( 0 .. $ARGV[1] ) { print "."; print "\n" unless $count++ % 50; my $pid = $pm->start and next; local $SIG{ALRM} = $alarm_sub; eval { alarm( 2 ); system "$^X -le '<STDIN>'"; # this will hang alarm( 0 ); }; $pm->finish; } If you want to run out of processes, take out the kill. I thought that setting a process group would work so I could kill everything together, but that blocks: my $alarm_sub = sub { kill 9, -$$; # blocks here die "Alarm rang for $$!\n"; }; foreach ( 0 .. $ARGV[1] ) { print "."; print "\n" unless $count++ % 50; my $pid = $pm->start and next; setpgrp(0, 0); local $SIG{ALRM} = $alarm_sub; eval { alarm( 2 ); system "$^X -le '<STDIN>'"; # this will hang alarm( 0 ); }; $pm->finish; } The same thing with POSIX's setsid didn't work either, and I think that actually broke things in a different way since I'm not really daemonizing this. Curiously, Parallel::ForkManager's run_on_finish happens too late for the same clean-up code: the grandchildren are apparently already disassociated from the child processes at that point.

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• If 'Architect' is a dirty word - what's the alternative; when not everyone can actually design a goo

  - by Andras Zoltan

  Now - I'm a developer first and foremost; but whenever I sit down to work on a big project with lots of interlinking components and areas, I will forward-plan my interfaces, base classes etc as best I can - putting on my Architect hat. For a few weeks I've been doing this for a huge project - designing whole swathes of interfaces etc for a business-wide platform that we're developing. The basic structure is a couple of big projects that consists of service and data interfaces, with some basic implementations of all of these. On their own, these assemblies are useless though, as they are simply intended intended as a scaffold on which to build a business-specific implementation (we have a lot of businesses). Therefore, the design of the core platform is absolutely crucial, since consumers of the system are not intended to know which implementation they are actually using. In the past it's not worked so well, but after a few proof-of-concepts and R&D projects this new platform is now growing nicely and is already proving itself. Then somebody else gets involved in the project - he's a TDD man who sees code-level architecture as an irrelevance and is definitely from the camp that 'architect' is a dirty word - I should add that our working relationship is very good despite this :) He's open about the fact that he can't architect in advance and obviously TDD really helps him because it allows him to evolve his systems over time. That I get, and totally understand; but it means that his coding style, basically, doesn't seem to be able to honour the architecture that I've been putting in place. Now don't get me wrong - he's an awesome coder; but the other day he needed to extend one of his components (an implementation of a core interface) to bring in an extra implementation-specific dependency; and in doing so he extended the core interface as well as his implementation (he uses ReSharper), thus breaking the independence of the whole interface. When I pointed out his error to him, he was dismayed. Being test-first, all that mattered to him was that he'd made his tests pass, and just said 'well, I need that dependency, so can't we put it in?'. Of course we could put it in, but I was frustrated that he couldn't see that refactoring the generic interface to incorporate an implementation-specific feature was just wrong! But it is all very Charlie Brown to him (you know the sound the adults make when they're talking to the children) - as far as he's concerned we don't need to worry about it because we can always refactor. The problem is, the culture of test-write-refactor is all very well and good - but not when you're dealing with a platform that is going to be shared out among so many projects that you could never get them all in one place to make the refactorings work. In my opinion, sometimes you actually have to think about what you're doing, and not just let nature take its course. Am I simply fulfilling the role of Architect as a dirty word here? I believe that architecture is important and should be thought about before code gets written; unless it's a particularly small project. But when you're working in a team of people who don't think that way, or even can't think that way how can you actually get this across? Is it a case of simply making the architecture off-limits to changes by other people? I don't want to start having bloody committees just to be able to grow the system; but equally I don't want to be the only one responsible for it all. Do you think the architect role is a waste of time? Is it at odds with TDD and other practises? Can this mix of different practises be made to work, or should I just be a lot less precious (and in so doing allow a generic platform become useless!)? Or do I just lay down the law? Any ideas/experiences/views gratefully received.

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• Find optimal/good-enough strategy and AI for the game 'Proximity'?

  - by smci

  'Proximity' is a strategy game of territorial domination similar to Othello, Go and Risk. Two players, uses a 10x12 hex grid. Game invented by Brian Cable in 2007. Seems to be a worthy game for discussing a) optimal algorithm then b) how to build an AI. Strategies are going to be probabilistic or heuristic-based, due to the randomness factor, and the insane branching factor (20^120). So it will be kind of hard to compare objectively. A compute time limit of 5s per turn seems reasonable. Game: Flash version here and many copies elsewhere on the web Rules: here Object: to have control of the most armies after all tiles have been placed. Each turn you received a randomly numbered tile (value between 1 and 20 armies) to place on any vacant board space. If this tile is adjacent to any ally tiles, it will strengthen each tile's defenses +1 (up to a max value of 20). If it is adjacent to any enemy tiles, it will take control over them if its number is higher than the number on the enemy tile. Thoughts on strategy: Here are some initial thoughts; setting the computer AI to Expert will probably teach a lot: minimizing your perimeter seems to be a good strategy, to prevent flips and minimize worst-case damage like in Go, leaving holes inside your formation is lethal, only more so with the hex grid because you can lose armies on up to 6 squares in one move low-numbered tiles are a liability, so place them away from your main territory, near the board edges and scattered. You can also use low-numbered tiles to plug holes in your formation, or make small gains along the perimeter which the opponent will not tend to bother attacking. a triangle formation of three pieces is strong since they mutually reinforce, and also reduce the perimeter Each tile can be flipped at most 6 times, i.e. when its neighbor tiles are occupied. Control of a formation can flow back and forth. Sometimes you lose part of a formation and plug any holes to render that part of the board 'dead' and lock in your territory/ prevent further losses. Low-numbered tiles are obvious-but-low-valued liabilities, but high-numbered tiles can be bigger liabilities if they get flipped (which is harder). One lucky play with a 20-army tile can cause a swing of 200 (from +100 to -100 armies). So tile placement will have both offensive and defensive considerations. Comment 1,2,4 seem to resemble a minimax strategy where we minimize the maximum expected possible loss (modified by some probabilistic consideration of the value ß the opponent can get from 1..20 i.e. a structure which can only be flipped by a ß=20 tile is 'nearly impregnable'.) I'm not clear what the implications of comments 3,5,6 are for optimal strategy. Interested in comments from Go, Chess or Othello players. (The sequel ProximityHD for XBox Live, allows 4-player -cooperative or -competitive local multiplayer increases the branching factor since you now have 5 tiles in your hand at any given time, of which you can only play one. Reinforcement of ally tiles is increased to +2 per ally.)

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• How can I convert this C Calendaer Code into a Objective-C syntax and have it work with matrixes

  - by Alec Niemy

  #define TRUE 1 #define FALSE 0 int days_in_month[]={0,31,28,31,30,31,30,31,31,30,31,30,31}; char *months[]= { " ", "\n\n\nJanuary", "\n\n\nFebruary", "\n\n\nMarch", "\n\n\nApril", "\n\n\nMay", "\n\n\nJune", "\n\n\nJuly", "\n\n\nAugust", "\n\n\nSeptember", "\n\n\nOctober", "\n\n\nNovember", "\n\n\nDecember" }; int inputyear(void) { int year; printf("Please enter a year (example: 1999) : "); scanf("%d", &year); return year; } int determinedaycode(int year) { int daycode; int d1, d2, d3; d1 = (year - 1.)/ 4.0; d2 = (year - 1.)/ 100.; d3 = (year - 1.)/ 400.; daycode = (year + d1 - d2 + d3) %7; return daycode; } int determineleapyear(int year) { if(year% 4 == FALSE && year%100 != FALSE || year%400 == FALSE) { days_in_month[2] = 29; return TRUE; } else { days_in_month[2] = 28; return FALSE; } } void calendar(int year, int daycode) { int month, day; for ( month = 1; month <= 12; month++ ) { printf("%s", months[month]); printf("\n\nSun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat\n" ); // Correct the position for the first date for ( day = 1; day <= 1 + daycode * 5; day++ ) { printf(" "); } // Print all the dates for one month for ( day = 1; day <= days_in_month[month]; day++ ) { printf("%2d", day ); // Is day before Sat? Else start next line Sun. if ( ( day + daycode ) % 7 > 0 ) printf(" " ); else printf("\n " ); } // Set position for next month daycode = ( daycode + days_in_month[month] ) % 7; } } int main(void) { int year, daycode, leapyear; year = inputyear(); daycode = determinedaycode(year); determineleapyear(year); calendar(year, daycode); printf("\n"); } This code generates a calendar of the inputed year in the terminal. my question is how can i convert this into a Objective-C syntax instead of this C syntax. im sure this is simple process but im quite of a novice to objective - c and i need it for a cocoa project. this code outputs the calendar as a continuously series of strings until the last month hits. soo instead of creating the calendar in the terminal how can i input the calendar a series of NSMatrixes depend on the inputed year. hope somone can help me with this thanks or every helps (you be in the credits of the finished program) :) (the calendar is just a small part of the program i making and it is one of the important parts!!)

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• How do I explain this to potential employers?

  - by ReferencelessBob

  Backstory: TL;DR: I've gained a lot of experience working for 5 years at one startup company, but it eventually failed. The company is gone and the owner MIA. When I left sixth-form college I didn't want to start a degree straight away, so when I met this guy who knew a guy who was setting up a publishing company and needed a 'Techie' I thought why not. It was a very small operation, he sent mailings to schools, waited for orders to start arriving, then ordered a short run of the textbooks to be printed, stuck them in an envelope posted them out. I was initially going to help him set up a computerized system for recording orders and payments, printing labels, really basic stuff and I threw it together in Access in a couple of weeks. He also wanted to start taking orders online, so I set up a website and a paypal business account. While I was doing this, I was also helping to do the day-to-day running of things, taking phone orders, posting products, banking cheques, ordering textbooks, designing mailings, filing end of year accounts, hiring extra staff, putting stamps on envelopes. I learned so much about things I didn't even know I needed to learn about. Things were pretty good, when I started we sold about £10,000 worth of textbooks and by my 4th year there we sold £250,000 worth of text books. Things were looking good, but we had a problem. Our best selling product had peaked and sales started to fall sharply, we introduced add on products through the website to boost sales which helped for a while, but we had simply saturated the market. Our plan was to enter the US with our star product and follow the same, slightly modified, plan as before. We setup a 1-866 number and had the calls forwarded to our UK offices. We contracted a fulfillment company, shipped over a few thousand textbooks, had a mailing printed and mailed, then sat by the phones and waited. Needless to say, it didn't work. We tried a few other things, at home and in the US, but nothing helped. We expanded in the good times, moving into bigger offices, taking on staff to do administrative and dispatch work, but now cashflow was becoming a problem and things got tougher. We did the only thing we could and scaled things right back, the offices went, the admin staff went, I stopped taking a wage and started working from home. Nothing helped. The business was wound up about about 2 years ago. In the end it turned out that the owner had built up considerable debt at the start of business and had not paid them off during good years, which left him in a difficult position when cashflow had started to dry up. I haven't been able to contact the owner since I found out. It took me a while to get back on my feet after that, but I'm now at University and doing a Computer Science degree. How do I show the experience I have without having to get into all the gory details of what happened?

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• How do I call up values in PHP for user input in forms (radio buttons and selects)

  - by Derek

  Ok so my admin sets to edit a book which was created. I know how to bring in the values that were initially entered via a simple text field like 'bookname'. On the edit book page the book name field stores the currently assigned 'bookname' in the field (which is what I want! :) ) However I have other field types like selects and radio button entries...I'm having trouble calling in the already set value when the book was created. For example, there is a 'booklevel' field, which I have set as radio button entries as; Hard, Normal, and Easy. When the user goes to edit the book, I'm not too sure on how to have the current value drawn up (its stored as text) and the radio button being checked. I.e. 'Normal' is checked if this is what was set when the book was created. So far I have this as the code for the adding book level: <label>Book Level:</label> <label for="booklevel1" class="radio">Hard <input type="radio" name="booklevel" id="booklevel1" value="<?php echo 'Hard'; if (isset($_POST['booklevel'])); ?>"></label> <label for="booklevel2" class="radio">Medium<input type="radio" name="booklevel" id="booklevel2" value="<?php echo 'Normal'; if (isset($_POST['booklevel'])); ?>"></label> <label for="booklevel" class="radio">Low<input type="radio" name="booklevel" id="booklevel3" value="<?php echo 'Easy'; if (isset($_POST['booklevel'])); ?>"></label> This all works fine by the way when the user adds the book... But does anyone know how in my update book form, I can draw the value of what level has been set, and have the box checked?? To draw up the values in the text fields, I'm simply using: <?php echo $row['bookname']?> I also noticed a small issue when I call up the values for my Select options. I have the drop down select field display the currently set user (to read the book!), however, the drop down menu again displays the user in the list available options to select - basically meaning 2 of the same names appear in the list! Is there a way to eliminate the value of the SELECTED option? So far my setup for this is like: <select name="user_id" id="user_id"> <option value="<?php echo $row['user_id']?>" SELECTED><?php echo $row['fullname']?></option> <?php while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { ?> <option value="<?php echo $row['user_id']?>"><?php echo $row['name']?></option> <?php } ?> </select> If anyone can help me I'll be very greatful. Sorry for the incredibly long question!! :)

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