OK, I officially love Subversion. I’ve got the Subversion repository working great, and just installed the WebSVN web interface to it. It’s got RSS feeds all over the place! Now, I can keep up to date on all commits to all files in all projects managed by the source repository - in my RSS reader! This is too cool ;-)
WebSVN gives a very cool interface to browse source code trees, viewing aggregate lists of commit comments for all files in that section of the tree. Very handy. Keep up to date from 10,000 feet by viewing comments on / - or keep up to date on just a particular file by looking at just that file.
The smoke from the British Columbia and Alaska forest fires has been pouring down the Bow River valley over the last few days. It’s so thick that it looks like a pervasive fog - except that it doesn’t get burned off by noon. We took a drive just down the highway to Cochrane last night, and couldn’t even see downtown Calgary from there (usually a nice view of the skyline).
I’m having a hard time imagining the sheer scale of the fires that must be burning to spew this much smoke. A campfire, that I can visualize. Something large enough to fill the huge Bow River valley, I just can’t picture it. Here’s hoping there’s nobody in the way of these fires…
After getting Subversion running, I have to say how nice it is to work with. I’d missed versioning from my previous attempt with CVS - it’s great to be able to diff against the latest version of a file, or to track changes in general. And FileMerge rocks for visual diff-ing of files.
It would be nice, though, if XCode didn’t need to commit the .pbxuser file every time I open a project… (I know - ignore the update request, but it’s sitting there with that little “M”, silently nagging for an update…
My Big Task for the morning is installing a Subversion server for management of APOLLO and Pachyderm source code. I’ll be installing it onto a shiny new XServe running MacOSX 10.3.5 (just installing the latest patches now…).
Here’s a list of resources I’ll be drawing on today:
This looks like the perfect traveling companion for an iPod! It has a built-in FM Transmitter, charger, and cradle, in a single unit. And leaves the top of the iPod open for use with accessories like the remote control.
Time to start returning those Coke bottles for the deposit, to save up for the $79.99US fee. Good thing is, I’ve got until September to save up…
The iTrip is less-than-ideal for me, since it doesn’t charge, and blocks the remote. RoadTrip looks pretty darned sweet (and uses the dock connection for audio, so it’s higher quality line-level output)
I’d played with Indy Jr. before. It’s a very cool Flash app that reads an XML file listing a bunch of places, and the date you were there. Then, it renders a map, with dots on the locations, and optionally draws transit lines between the dots. Kinda like the Indiana Jones movie effect - hence the name Indy Jr.
Thanks to a post by Alan Levine, I’ve grabbed the latest version and updated my locations file.
Adam Bosworth has a good post on architecture/design and the KISS principle (thanks to Tim Bray for the pointer). I have to reflect that the most successful software I’ve been involved with has followed this, and the least successful has not. Coincidence? Possibly. I think there’s more to it than that, though…
KISS has lots of deep ramifications. Simple systems are easier to build. There is less to maintain. Less pieces to go wrong. It’s also easier for other folks to jump in and play - they don’t have to learn a whole new universe to get started, they just go.
Getting ready to take off for the weekend, and on Monday we’re heading down to Sonoma to have some Pachyderm development meetings. Should be a great week - the Pachyderm folks are all awesome to work with, and we’ve got a metric tonne of stuff to do.
We’ll be heading through the city but won’t have time to stay this time. It will be my first time over the Golden Gate Bridge (renting a car and driving from SFO to the hotel and from there to CDL for the meetings).
Apple released Xcode v1.5 today. Some really nice new features in there, but the 2 that will likely affect me the most are:
CodeSense Autocompletion for java code (yay!)
Subversion SCM integration
The CodeSense Autocompletion is so totally helpful for me, since I don’t seem to keep the entire java class library in my head, so being prompted is a nice way to skip the JavaDocs (or even Google - yes, I am a Google-enabled developer ;-) )
Well, retired may be an overstatement - it’s already inactive, and I just moved it from it’s previous location into a section of my own weblog for archival purposes. It just got hit by a comment spammer, and I figure it’s easier for me to maintain crap removal for one weblog rather than two…
The new home of the Decentralists’ Weblog is: http://commons.ucalgary.ca/weblogs/dnorman/projects/nmc2004/decentralists/index.html
There is also an RSS Feed, but that’s probably not too useful, since it’s now pretty inactive…
I just finished an initial test deployment of APOLLO, including all frameworks and a sample searching application, on a Solaris server for use by the folks in BC. The install of our stuff was really quite simple - just copy some stuff into the right directories and add a new WebObjects application. Done.
There were only 2 small snags:
Frameworks need to be installed into $ NEXT_ROOT/Local/Library/Frameworks/ - I had been putting them into the MacOSX-ish $ NEXT_ROOT/Library/Frameworks/. Once I figured out the problem, it took all of 5 seconds to fix.
The shell in Solaris handles the backspace key differently than on MacOSX - so if I messed up while entering a command (like copying a directory or something), I’d have to control+c and start that one over again. King just suggested setting the “Delete Key Sends Backspace” preference in Terminal.app - that works perfectly. If only I’d have realized that an hour or two earlier… ;-)
It’s good to know that the APOLLO stuff really is portable. It wasn’t too difficult to install on a platform that had never seen APOLLO before, and that’s comforting :-)
Some casino spambot pigsucker decided to spam the hell out of my weblog again tonight. Instead of entering into a battle of wits with the script kiddie moron, I’ve cleaned their crap from my home, and temporarily turned off accepting new comments. Casino spambot script kiddie, if you’re reading this: PFO!
I’ll try to tighten commenting up a bit to prevent scum like that from trashing things. Until then, please email me if you have any comments/questions/whatever.
