Xah Programing Blog Archive 2013-03
wow, Richard Stallman got into a quarrel with Linus on stage in FOSS'13 London and a riot started.
am very happy, that i've settled on this Unicode symbol ⁖ to represent “e.g.” or “example”. The name of that symbol in Unicode is THREE DOT PUNCTUATION. See bottom: Unicode Symbol for “e.g.” (exempli gratia)
updated.
Language Syntax: Brackets vs Begin/End
A nice essay: Programming Languages Have Social Mores Not Idioms. Added the link to the bottom of Why Idioms Are Bad .
on its own page. Python Libs for Scientists
Voice Input for Programing 📺 (year 2013)
Summary of My Typing and RSI Experience 1992 to 2013
slight facelift. Java Tutorial
new. Apache HTTP Server Tutorial
3 articles on the statet of the onion. Perl is not dead, but is dead end.
[Texinfo 5.0 in Perl By Dave Cross. At http://perlhacks.com/2013/02/texinfo-5-0-in-perl/ , accessed on 2013-03-24 ]
[Perl is not Dead, it is a Dead End By Stevan Little. At https://speakerdeck.com/stevan_little/perl-is-not-dead-it-is-a-dead-end , accessed on 2013-03-24 ]
[Goodnight, Parrot By Chromatic. At http://www.modernperlbooks.com/mt/2013/02/goodnight-parrot.html , accessed on 2013-02-14 ]
Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Keyboard. Space bar is now split into a Backspace ⌫ key.
more words added to the idiotic aspell. Go github at bottom to grab it. aspell sucks: Dismal Vocabulary Size
Tech Humor: Apache vs Node.js vs NGINX 📺
hot from the oven. learn ngnix in 1 hour!
added a photo of Commodore 64 keyboard. Keyboard: Control vs Capslock Position
Open Source Rewrites History: Why is Apache Named “Apache”?
MERCURY ☿ VENUS ♀ EARTH ♁ ⊕ MARS ♂ JUPITER ♃ SATURN ♄ URANUS ♅ ⛢ NEPTUNE ♆ PLUTO ♇. Added some interesting notes about these symbols, see bottom. Unicode: Astrology Symbols 🌛 (you might need to refresh the page)
new collection. documentation idiocy collection
facelifted. Python Documentation Problems
updated. How to Improve Python Doc; Notes on Rewriting Python Regex Doc
After 8 years, Python doc haven't improved much. There are complaints about Python doc about every year in Python mailing list, and Python doc wiki constantly crop up, but the Python priests always flame and turn it down.
learned a new linux command. man lsmod. It shows the status of Linux kernel modules. Basically pretty print /proc/modules
eureka, i just found the name of my lang. laputa!
PS Gulliver's Travels. PART III. A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, LUGGNAGG, GLUBBDUBDRIB, AND JAPAN.
How to Diagnose Computer Networking Problems
on its own page. Invisible Character from Twitter
on its own page. USB3 Drive Speed (year 2012)
Docstring Convention: Python vs Emacs Lisp
updated on how to fix. Fix Defective Keys in Comfort Curve Keyboard
Tiny Space Bar on Japanese Keyboards
ASCII Jam Problem: HTML Entities
much more info about the OMeta lang at bottom: Proliferation of Programing Languages
started to work on Linux firewall tutorial. Linux: iptables Basics
another keyboard layout. qwpr Keyboard Layout. Also, the Workman layout has a much improved home page, with a active forum. See bottom: Computer Keyboard Layouts: Dvorak vs Colemak vs Workman
lol. Perl added a say in v5.10 . It's like print but adds newline at the end. But you have to use v5.10; first. Quote from perldoc -f say.
say FILEHANDLE LIST
say FILEHANDLE
say LIST
say Just like "print", but implicitly appends a newline. "say LIST"
is simply an abbreviation for "{ local $\ = "\n"; print LIST }".
To use FILEHANDLE without a LIST to print the contents of $_ to
it, you must use a real filehandle like "FH", not an indirect
one like $fh.
This keyword is available only when the "say" feature is
enabled; see feature. Alternately, include a "use v5.10" or
later to the current scope.
these days, Perl monger remnants try to revive Perl from death bed, and talk about “modern perl”. LOL. the very name is funny. Am guessing the next step would be post-modern Perl? or should it be post-post-modern Perl?
learned a new Linux command: watch. For example, watch ls.
this is useful when you want to run some command regularly and itself doesn't have auto-update.
thx to [Ryuutei Sebastien BLANC https://plus.google.com/u/0/117590349706006853689/posts]
see also Linux: Most Frequently Used Shell Commands
learning notes. Linux: What's Netfilter, iptables, Their Differences?
Linux networking. iptables man page.
ACCEPT means to let the packet through. DROP means to drop the packet on the floor.
Note that we drop it to the floor, not, river or lake, as Microsoft might.
Xah's Edu Corner of the Day
there are 2 types of firewalls. Complicated and Uncomplicated. Linux supports the uncomplicated type, called ufw, short for Uncomplicated Fire Wall. Type man ufw in terminal to read its doc.
the complicated type is related to the math concept of complex number .
PS this post is of import due to its affinity to the field of linguistics, category theory, the theory of archetype, and ontology.
and
Levetron Mech Gaming Keyboard (added a video review)
added domino tiles, mahjong tiles. Unicode: Sports Emoji ⚽
Unicode Symbols for Alt Key and Control Key
recently discovered proper symbol for the Alt key, and few others. Example:
⎇ ⌥ ✲ ⎈ ⎋
Unicode: Keyboard Symbols ⌘ ↵ ⌫
heard a new language OMeta. Home page at http://tinlizzie.org/ometa/
from a comment at Pattern Matching vs Grammar Specification
now complete. Unicode Music Symbols 𝄞 ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ 🎸 🎹 🎻 🎷
playing cards in Unicode. Unicode: Sports Emoji ⚽
Linux: View Directory as a Tree
A Emoji Tale, Good Night Gone Bad
learned today that Apple's color font, is actually color font technology, not secondary step of replacing fonts by images. See screenshots here: Unicode: Food Emoji 🍺
Symbology
Unicode is such a beast. Y'know, it encompasses all written languages, including ancient dead ones. But that's not all. When you dig into Unicode symbols, you see the thousands of math symbols, printer's symbols, forgotten punctuations, ancient astronomy symbols…, some of which we use today but don't have any clue of their origin. For example: ☤ ☧ 卐 ☥ ☯ ⚸ etc.
you might be curious, and started to read about what they are for. I started that way some 5 years ago. First due to my love with math symbols. After few years doing it casually, you realize, to really understand all the symbols, their origin, history, can take you few years to decades. Not even counting the alphabets of dead writing systems.
Unicode 6 Font for Linux
Unicode 6 added over 2k chars. 600 of them are emoticons, and many others are icons, pictographs. Unicode 6 came out in 2010, but there's still not that many fonts supporting all those pictogram. On Mac, it's most beautifully done. See screenshots at bottom of Unicode: Food Emoji 🍺. On Window, Microsoft came up with Segoe UI Symbol-12, in 2012, as part of Window update. On linux, nada, but you can download the free font Symbola, which is very high quality. See bottom here: Unicode 6 Emoticons and Supporting Fonts .
to install font on Ubuntu, just unzip it, and double click it should do.
all i ever needed to know about keyboard, i didn't learn in kindergarten. Three hundred fourty images of keyboards.
JavaScript App for Unicode
wrote a JavaScript app. Goto Unicode: Emoji 😄, hover your mouse over (or click if you are on tablet). Unicode name and char number will show.
also created the following pages.
- Unicode: Public Signs ⛔
- Unicode: Animal Emoji 🐱
- Office Emoji 📌
- Unicode: Sports Emoji ⚽
- Unicode: Astrology Symbols 🌛
- Unicode: Weather Emoji 🌧
- Unicode: Music Symbols 🎶
python tip. To get image dimension (width and height in pixels), you can do:
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*- # Python import Image print Image.open("/home/xah/pictures/cat.jpg").size
but for Python 3, the image library isn't there yet.
updated. Unicode: Keyboard Symbols, Computing Icons
“Prosody, Symbols, Idiosyncrasy” , added to Unicode Symbol for “e.g.” (exempli gratia)
Apple Keyboard Problems updated.
Kinesis has a new generation of their split keyboard, Freestyle 2. 2-Piece Split Keyboards