Doing Tabs In Emacs

     

As you may know I like using the emacs editor (I use vi too - so please no wars). In general I love the key bindings and the elegant power built into the editor. One of the things that bothers me about it though is it tries to help too much when I hit tab. When I press the tab key, I want a tab. That’s why it’s the tab key.

Howto Setup Python For Web Development on Ubuntu

     

I’ve been checking out python on and off for a while. It’s one of those languages I’ve been meaning to learn. I hear it’s great for desktop development as well as web development.

To setup Apache 2 on Ubuntu to run python scripts like PHP, CF, ASP, et al, you can do the following (this information came from a couple places mostly here and here it’s assumed you are already running apache2):

Simple MVC ASP Framework

     

One of the things I do for me treasure is create custom web applications for SMBs, and often the client already has some infrastructure in place. Often times PHP is available, but sometimes they just have a basic hosting account on a windows box somewhere so the only language available is ASP. I’ve actually had a few gigs lately that needed somewhat complex sites, and they needed to be done is ASP.

9ne 0.82 Beta Released

     

9ne is an online, syntax highlighting, text editor.

I just put the latest beta up. The main changes in this version are:

(Or you can read my poorly spelled release notes. Which is actually a change log and requires a 9ne enabled browser.)

The first one is pretty obvious. The second one is the cooler part to me. What it means is that you can just type some javascript in the editor and have it run. Say you just type “alert(‘hi’)” on any line in the editor. You can then do CTRL+X L on Mac or CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+R on Windows / Linux and it’ll evaluate that javascript and show an alert “hi”.

Javascript: String width in pixels

     

One of the hardest things about doing web development - using the browser as your GUI - is that you have to get used to, and accept, “close enough” (actually, getting your clients used to that idea is probably harder). “Close enough” is in direct conflict with many things in computer science, so it’s a difficult pill to swallow.

Keeping that in mind…

I was chatting with one of my friends, and they asked if there was anyway to get the length of a string in pixels. He needed it mostly for form layouts - to align buttons with labels. The project I am working on I have a similar issue, but not related to buttons (more of a dynamic truncation “…” kind of thing).

PIC Programming on OS X

     

Finally! I’ve been trying to setup some kind - any kind - of PIC programming environment on my OS X box. Most of them come with Windows applications and there are a few Linux tools out there, but I wanted an OS X environment.

I didn’t get a pure one however. I did have to use Apple’s X11 and most of the tools are Linux based, but I can now compile and write code to a chip. Since I am just starting out I am not too picky on what kind of chips I can write to, I just needed something to get me started. So if you are in the same boat here are some somewhat detailed steps to getting setup.

About

     

λx.x

Software Engineer interested in graphics, 3d game engines, hardware hacking, and all things +/-5v

WebXR Engine: https://meshengine.xyz/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/robrohan

HTML Site: https://robrohan.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robrohan GitLab: https://gitlab.com/robrohan GitHub: https://github.com/robrohan