Reason

Testing Korin

2012-03-10T13:40:00.000-05:00

Korin is a project I'm working on to bring Google Music to your GNOME and Linux desktop. Korin will let you play and manage your songs on Google Music without the need for a web browser, like Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome.

I'm still working on its graphic user interface, but the command line interface is usable for testing and feedback. I'll show you some of the things you can do with kgmp, Korin's command line app.

Before we begin, install Korin. I assume you have a Google Music account. If not I highly recommend you get one. You can store up to 20000 songs on it for free!

Starting Korin

kgmp --start

This command starts Korin and signs you into your Google Music account. The first time you run Korin, it'll ask you for your Gmail address and password. Type the required information to have Korin sign into Google Music. You'll not be asked for this information again.

Quiting Korin

kgmp --stop

This command quits Korin.

Your Library

kgmp --library

This command lists all your songs.

Searching for Songs

kgmp --search "query string"

This command searches for songs that matches the query. The query can be the name of a song, artist or album. Make sure you put the query between quotes.

Playing Songs

kgmp --play "song name" "another song name" "yet another song" ...

This command allows you to play one of more songs. Make sure the song names are place between quotes. Punctuation and case don't matter when typing song names.

Once you have Korin playing a list of songs, you can perform the following actions.

kgmp --pause [to pause the currently playing song]
kgmp --resume [to resume the currently paused song]
kgmp --next [to play the next song in the list]
kgmp --previous [to play the previous song in the list]
kgmp --first [ to play the first song in a list]
kgmp --last [to play the last song in a list]

Repeating and Shuffling Songs

kgmp --repeat-single

This command repeats the current song indefinitely.

kgmp --repeat-all

This command repeats all the songs in a playlist indefinitely.

kgmp --repeat-off

This command turns off repeating songs.

kgmp --shuffle-on

This command shuffles songs in a playlist.

kgmp --shuffle-off

This command unshuffles a shuffled playlist.

Get Currently Playing Song

kgmp --current-song

This command shows the title and artist of the currently playing song.

Get More Information about a Song

kgmp --song-metadata "song name"

This command show all kinds of information about a song.

Playlist Management

kgmp --get-playlists

This command get all the your playlists on Google Music

kgmp --songs-in-playlist "playlist name"

This command lists all the songs in a playlist.

kgmp --playlist "playlist name"

This command plays "playlist name". Make sure the playlist name is between quotes

kgmp --create-playlist "new playlist name"

This command creates a new playlist.

kgmp --delete-playlist "playlist name"

This command deletes a playlist

kgmp --rename-playlist "old playlist name" "new playlist name"

This command renames a playlist

kgmp --add-to-playlist "playlist name" "song1" "song2" "song3" ...

This command adds songs to a playlist

kgmp --remove-from-playlist "playlist name" "song1" "song2"

This command removes songs from a playlist

Downloading Songs

Google Music allows you to download a song ONLY TWICE. So please use this feature with caution.

kgmp --download "song name"

Uploading Songs

Google Music only recognizes MP3 audio files.

kgmp --add "mp3_filename1" "mp3_filename2" ...

Other Commands

kgmp -h

This commands list all the commands available in Korin for you to test and play with.

Graphic User Interface

I'll update you with the progress I'm making with the graphic user interface. It'll probably take a couple of weeks before it's ready.

So please test and provide your feedback.

INSTALL KORIN

KORIN PROJECT PAGE

Installing Korin

2012-03-10T11:57:00.001-05:00

You need the following packages for Korin to install and work properly.

GObject Instropection (the latest version)
GTK 3.2 or better
Gstreamer Plugins Ugly (to play mp3 files)
Gst Python
Python 2.7 (Python 3 is not supported)
Python Decorator
Python Mechanize
Python Mutagen
Python Protobuf

On binary based distros, like Ubuntu, Debian or Fedora, also make sure you have the development version of the packages above installed.

One you have the above packages installed, enter the following at a terminal:

bzr branch lp:korin

./autogen.sh

make

sudo make install

Korin is now installed. At the moment, only the command line interface works. I'm still working on the graphic user interface. kgmp is the name of the command line program. See

kgmp -h

for more information.

I don't intend to package Korin. So Package Maintainers, please write your packages to pull from the branch as described above.

Korin Project Page

Enable Zram in Fedora

2011-10-03T00:52:00.000-04:00

zram compresses swap partitions in RAM for performance.

What follows are instructions on how to enable zram for Fedora. You need Linux kernel version 2.6.37.1 or better with zram compiled as a module.

Run the following command to see if you have zram available as a module in your kernel.
modprobe zram

If the above command runs without errors, you have zram available as a module in your kernel. If not, you need to rebuild your kernel to have zram compiled as a module. Refer to these instructions, here, to learn how to compile a custom kernel for fedora.

There are 3 files you need to enable zram for Fedora. They are:

zramstart (Bash Script)
zramstop (Bash Script)
zram.service (Systemd Service File)

Get these files from here.

Place zramstart and zramstop in the following folder.
/usr/bin

Place zram.service in the following folder.
/etc/systemd/system

As root, run the following commands to enable zram for Fedora.
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable zram.service
systemctl start zram.service

Run the following command to make sure the zram service started properly.
systemctl status zram.service

The output should look like this.
zram.service - Enable compressed swap in memory using zram
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/zram.service; enabled)
Active: active (exited) since Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:46:31 -0400; 44min ago
Process: 942 ExecStart=/usr/bin/zramstart (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/zram.service

Congratulations, you now have zram enabled in Fedora.

Sergey Davidoff of Elementary OS wrote the zram Bash scripts.
Fedora Zram Github Repository
Official Zram Project Page
Enable Zram in Ubuntu
Building a custom kernel for Fedora

Scribes: Side Pane File Browser

2011-07-05T17:16:00.004-04:00

Hossam Saraya wrote a side pane file browser plugin for Scribes. I've spent the past few days testing it and adding some usability enhancements. It's now available in build 976 of Scribes.

What is it?

It allows you to navigate your file system and open files. Think of it as a leaner version of the default GTK file chooser.

Usage

Press F4 to show or hide the side pane file browser
Press Escape to hide the side pane file browser
Press F6 to switch focus between the side pane file browser and the editing area
Press Enter to open selected files or show the contents of a folder
Press alt+Left_Arrow to show contents of previously visited folder
Press alt+Up_Arrow to show contents of parent folder
Press alt+Home to show contents of home folder
Press ctrl+h to show or hide hidden files

Installation

Make sure you have the "dev" packages needed to build from source code installed.

bzr branch lp:scribes

cd scribes

./autogen.sh

make

sudo make install

Update: Ubuntu users can install Scribes via the official PPA.

A few users requested this feature in the past. I did not implement it because it duplicates the functions of the default GTK file chooser. I don't like using my time to duplicate existing functions.

So kudos to Hossam for learning Python and GTK just to implement the side pane file browser.

Support Scribes

See Scribes in Action

schedtool and chrt on Fedora 15

2011-05-01T16:24:00.000-04:00

schedtool and chrt are used to change the realtime priority of a process.

On Fedora 15, if you get an "operation not permitted" error when you use these tools, even as root, here's a fix for it.

Run the following command at a shell terminal.

sudo sysctl -w kernel.sched_rt_runtime_us=-1

You can add the command to /etc/rc.local to run automatically on reboot.

Or, you can also add the following to /etc/sysctl.conf.

kernel.sched_rt_runtime_us=-1

nirik on #fedora on IRC helped me out with this. Thanks to him/her.

Installing Scribes on Fedora and RPM-Based Distros

2011-04-25T14:12:00.001-04:00

Here's how to install Scribes on Fedora. I'm using Fedora 15 Beta. I'm
sure the same applies to Fedora 14 and perhaps other RPM-based distros.

First we need to install some packages using yum so Scribes can
compile properly.

yum install gnome-common autoconf automake intltool glib2-devel rarian-compat bzr gnome-doc-utils gnome-python2-gtkspell pygtksourceview

Update:

On OpenSUSE, according to ab5tract, you'll need the following packages in addition:

python-pyxdg python-gtksourceview python-gtksourceview-devel gtksourceview-devel gtksourceview-lang gnome-doc-utils-devel

Then we compile and install Scribes

bzr branch lp:scribes
cd scribes
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

Now you have the most latest version of Scribes.

If you already have Scribes installed using the method discussed
above, to get new updates just do the following

cd scribes
bzr pull
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

That's it!

There's also an RPM maintained by Matej available on the download page.

Emotional Engineering Vs Software Engineering

2011-04-18T14:35:00.000-04:00

"In the grand scheme of the universe, your individual preferences don't matter."

In a culture where the amount of choices, preferences and options you can latch onto a square inch of pixel screen is heralded as the symbol of power and "eliteness", the preceding paragraph will certainly be perceived as arrogant, presumptuous and down right offensive by many Free Software users and developers.

The argument, as it goes, is what right do I have to take away "choice" and "freedom" from users. Users have the right to work however they see fit and it is my job, as a software developer, to bend to their whims. It is my job to make sure that users are "happy" by catering to all their preferences, all 10 million of them.

The argument goes that software should adapt and bend to users preferences and not the other way round. As such, "good" and "powerful" software should be configurable and littered with plentiful options to accommodate all known and unforeseen needs of users.

Sadly enough, too many developers cave into this demand. After all, nobody wants to be seen as that jerk who takes away users' "choice" and "freedom." The argument is powerful, emotional and effective, but it's flawed.

How come these standards don't apply to other design and engineering endeavours? I mean, when was the last time you went to your town's civil engineer and said, "You know what, that bridge over there is not configurable enough for my taste. First of all, I'm scared of heights and the bridge is 30ft high. It'll be nice if we can add an option to adjust the bridge's height so that when I'm walking over it I can reduce the height to, say, 5 ft. Bonus points if it automatically detects me a mile ahead and proceeds to lower itself. The brigde should adapt and bend to my needs, not the other way round."

My attempt at humor may be lousy, yet this is what we routinely do with software. My point is, for many of the devices, appliances, infrastructures and machines we use, we are ultimately stuck with the solutions their designers and engineers come up with. Most of these devices have very limited configuration options. Shockingly almost nobody whines about the lack of choice and freedom when using them. Instead, they do what all humans have evolved to do exceedingly well, adapt!

I'm going to get controversial so brace yourself. Software designers and engineers have been battered into believing their job is to cater to individual preferences of users. It is not! Software is not a digital butler, despite what your favorite Sci-Fi television series says.

Their job is an engineering problem not an emotional one. Their job has absolutely nothing to do with your preferences, choices, feelings or freedom. Their job is to study, research and design the most efficient and effective workflows to accomplish a given task in software regardless of how you feel about it.

Whether or not you like the workflow designed is irrelevant. That's an emotional question not an engineering one. Whether it's to your taste and preferences is again irrelevant.

The only relevant questions are, does the software work? Does it allow me to accomplish tasks efficiently and effectively? Are there kinks in the workflow that prevent me from accomplishing tasks? Are there better, simpler, easier ways of accomplishing these tasks? These are the relevant questions. And these questions are centered on the tasks and workflows, not on preferences.

Human preferences are affected by too many variables most of which are subjective, cultural and emotional. In contrast, the most efficient and effective way to accomplish a task is a purely engineering feat. It is measurable, quantifiable and observable. Somehow, many people have missed this important point.

For example, I've had a user tell me this. "Yes, I know your way is 1000 times better. It's faster. It's more efficient. It makes a lot of sense. But I've been doing it my way for so long now and I'm used to it. So please provide an option to do it my way. You shouldn't force me to do things your way. I just like my way better! Linux is all about choice and freedom..."

Why? Why should I or anyone in their right mind waste time creating a workflow that inefficiently accomplishes a task? The answer is almost always ridden with emotional and guilt trips about pleasing users. When GNOME 3 landed I had too many deja vu moments due to responses from users similar to the one above. Many of whom, by the way, hadn't even used GNOME 3 yet.

Anyway, I digress. Of course, there are valid reasons to provide options and preferences. However, these reasons should hive around usability and accessibility and again not individual preferences.

This is why I subconsciously tune out users who start talking about preferences and options. Don't take it personally. I'm just not concerned about your preferences, or mine for that matter. My goal is to design efficient workflows that everyone benefits from. If you want to capture my interest start talking about creative, well-designed efficient workflows that demand no configuration, twiddling or tweaking. Allow me to yawn when you start talking about how you "prefer" to work and bore me to death about how there should be a configuration option just to cater to your uniqueness.

Providing configuration options to make "everyone happy" is emotional engineering not software engineering. And when we do that we've failed as users and developers. In particular, we've failed to do 2 things:

to properly identify and analyse the problem space in a critical manner; and
to correctly identify and analyse workflows thoroughly.

Wait, let me put on my asbestos flame repellent suit. Okay, I'm ready. I welcome feedback.

P.S. This is required reading before you file a bug report to add yet another configuration option.

Dear GNOME Shell and Unity Developers

2011-02-25T01:05:00.000-05:00

I'd like to commend you guys on your valiant efforts to take the Linux desktop in a completely new direction. Kudos to you for what you've accomplished so far. You should be proud of yourselves.

Allow me to point out areas I feel will improve the experience of using your respective shells.

The biggest flaw with your shells is that they eat my screen real estate. My screen space belongs to me, not the shell. For instance, when I maximize a window, I expect to see nothing but the window and its content. Isn't this reasonable? Tragically, this is not the case with your shells.

Your shells demand that I make peace with a statically positioned menubar at the top of my screen. This ugly bar is always visible. My question is, why is something that's virtually useless taking up about 10% of my screen real estate? There's only so much the menubar does for it to warrant such a presence. Most of the time, it just sits there doing nothing and looking cute. That space could be put to better use by something more important and dear to me and most users, our desktop applications!

As an evolutionary step, it'll be nice if the menubar and sidebar, for shells that have one, dynamically hide and reveal themselves as needed using an "intellihide" algorithm. This way maximized windows appropriately use the whole screen as opposed to competing with shell components for screen space. I'm willing to wager 100 percent of your users will appreciate this. Especially users with netbooks or computers with small screen sizes.

As a revolutionary step, can we get rid of the statically positioned menubar? It's 2011 and the menubar hasn't died yet. That's depressing. How about something dynamic and smart as opposed to static and ugly? I'm thinking about a fluid dock system. The dock system will consist of a dock bar that houses dock objects. Dock objects could be launcher objects, notification objects, application specific objects, shell specific objects or whatever. In fact, I can see a huge community of dock object developers and designers if you get the API and architecture right.

My focus however is the dock bar. The dock bar's behaviour should center around a very smart "intellihide" algorithm. The algorithm should ensure that the dock bar is never in the way and never has a presence or visibility priority higher than the window or application the user is currently using. This should be priority number one for any shell component. The dock bar(s) should hide and reveal themselves intelligently and appropriately. This is not science fiction. This works fantastically well today in dock systems like Avant Window Navigator.

What we can't have, absolutely under no circumstance, is any shell component statically taking up any amount of screen space and never giving it up. That's just cold and egregious!

In the same vein, empower your users and developers. Allow them to create multiple dock bars easily and as often as they want. Allow them to move or drag dock bars around the same way they do for windows. Allow them to position dock bars anywhere they see fit. Allow them to change the properties of the dock bars. The same rules apply to dock objects. Allow your users to move dock objects between and within bars. Empowering experiences make users feel in control. And the ultimate user experience is the most empowering user experience.

Currently, I don't feel empowered when I use GNOME Shell or Unity. I feel castrated. I feel as if I'm a shackled slave in a bondage and discipline role gone awry. I feel frustrated. The new shells are beautiful, but they are not empowering. The icons look slick and effects are jaw-dropping, but the shell components insist on being in your face, ostentatious, static and limited.

The shell should be transparent and subtle in its function and behavior. It should be available only when users need it. It should never be the center of attention. Most importantly, it should never steal my screen space. Blessed is the day GNOME Shell and Unity give me my screen space back.

Sincerely

obisidian gtksourceview2 theme

2011-02-14T04:43:00.000-05:00

Good high quality dark buffer themes are hard to find. That's why I made obisidian for Scribes, Gedit and your favorite gtksourceview2 text editors.

obisidian is biased towards Python source code. However, it looks good with source code of other languages.

You need to install my lang files to have operators and non-whitespace delimiters highlighted. Just place the lang files at the following location.

~/.local/share/gtksourceview-2.0/language-specs/

To install obisidian, place the obisidian.xml file at the following location.

~/.local/share/gtksourceview-2.0/styles/

If neither of these folder exist, create them yourself.

download obisidian theme

download lang files

SUPPORT SCRIBES

INSTALL SCRIBES

SEE SCRIBES IN ACTION

Scribes Update: 0.4 Development build 849

2011-02-09T00:00:00.002-05:00

What's new in this release?

automatic bracket indentation and formating
more static analysis in Python source code with pychecker
improve performance and fix bugs in the word completion system
move a few configuration file formats from gdb to sqlite
massive performance improvements
general bug fixes, enhancements and polish

File change monitoring is disabled in this release for stability reasons. It'll be enabled in a future release.

Support Scribes

Install Scribes

See Scribes in Action

Scribes Update: 0.4 Development build 799

2011-01-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

This release smashed bugs that crashed Scribes. If you experienced random crashes lately, this release is for you.

Support Scribes

Install Scribes

See Scribes in Action

Scribes Update: 0.4 Development build 796

2011-01-24T07:03:00.000-05:00

Let's see what's new in this release of Scribes.

Well Behaved Automatic Word Completion
This release focused on spanking some sense into the automatic word completion system. It should be well behaved now. If it gets antsy. Just shut it up by pressing ctrl+alt+shift+c. Press the key binding again to enable it.

Bling Bling: Widget Transparency
So you fancy now? You want transparent bling in Scribes. No worries. Check "Enable widget transparency" in the "Advanced Configuration" window. Put on your shades and restart Scribes. You're now flossing, transparently, "gangsta" style. No one can touch your swagger. Your desktop and GTK+ theme needs to support widget transparency for this to work.

Toggle Comments in More Files
Add c, cpp and php to the list of files Scribes can toggle comments for. Press alt+c to toggle comments.

Taking Names And Squashing Bugs
Bugs hate me. That's okay. The feeling is mutual. There were 70 of those despicable elements wondering around aimlessly and rebelliously on launchpad. Today, there are 20 cowering in fear. What happened to the other 50? That's G14 classified information. If I told you, I'd have to kill you. I have 4 words for the other suckers. "I'm coming for you."

What are you waiting for? Go play with it!

Support Scribes

Install Scribes

See Scribes in Action

Create Your Own Buffer Themes for Scribes and Gedit

2011-01-15T04:33:00.000-05:00

Abdulrahman Alshawaiee (aka Saanina) created an online theme generator for Scribes, Gedit and GTKSourceView2 text editors. As you create themes the preview area on the web page updates in real time. Neat! The themes generated are minimalist. Create your own themes!

Online Theme Generator
Support Scribes
Install Scribes
See Scribes in Action

Look Ma! No Tabs! (Youtube Video)

2010-12-29T01:23:00.000-05:00

Document Management in Scribes

It's no news that casual observers are skeptical of Scribes' "many-windows" approach to editing. They may wonder how it's possible to manage many documents opened in Scribes. Images of a poor soul furiously "Alt + Tabing", irksomely flashes through their minds.

In reality, Scribes' document management system is ridiculously simple. A window lists all documents opened in Scribes. Users then use this window to navigate to and focus documents. The list can also be searched making document management not only scalable but quick and efficient too.

Unlike the restrictiveness and inflexibility of tab based applications, you can open documents across several workspaces, desktops and even monitors, and have Scribes focus any of them "on-demand."

So, you're worried about cluttering your desktop with scores of windows. That's understandable. No, actually it's not. When was the last time you starred at your desktop while working on a project? And how did your starring contest impact your productivity. All I'm saying, friend, is that your concern for an uncluttered desktop is a misplaced priority.

I don't miss tabs at all. I do miss good document management when I use other editors and applications though.

Support Scribes

Install Scribes

See Scribes in Action

Zencoding and Sparkup in Scribes (Youtube Video)

2010-12-21T14:58:00.000-05:00

I hadn't heard of Sparkup until a few days ago when a user requested it for Scribes. Sparkup uses the same syntax as Zencoding. However, I prefer Sparkup because it integrates seamlessly into Scribes. The Sparkup library is also significantly easier to use than Zencoding's. Bruno also uncovered some bugs in Zencoding when using languages with accent characters. So I recommend Sparkup over Zencoding in Scribes.

I updated Scribes' media page with more videos. I'll make and add more screencasts to the page as time permits.

Feedback is welcomed.

Support Scribes
Install Scribes
Scribes in Action

TextMate's Filter Through Command in Scribes (Video)

2010-12-12T21:49:00.012-05:00

A little background on this feature. I don't know how I landed on an OS X versus Linux blog. Okay, I lied. I do. I find those blogs pointlessly entertaining. Especially, the ones that rant about how Linux doesn't do something that it actually does. I digress.

So the author of the blog, an obvious TextMate fan, raves about how TextMate is the best thing since microwave popcorn. He goes on listing his gripes about what he loves so much about TextMate that is absent in other text editors on Linux. You know, the usual fan script.

I look closely at the features he listed and realize Scribes does most of them. With the exception of the Emacs keybindings. So I gently suggested Scribes to him. He politely responds saying while Scribes looks "pretty", he was not looking for a text editor in the "Notepad" and "Nano" category.

Oh, okay, that's fine. Wait...what! Really! Is that the first impression Scribes gives off! A "Nano" and "Notepad" rip off! Oh no he didn't! So I modestly disagree with him pointing to some cool Scribes features well above the pay grade of "Nano" and "Notepad". At which point he demands screencasts. I guess it's hard to picture a simple looking text editor doing almighty TextMatey Kung Fu stuff. Then it hit me. Scribes doesn't have nearly enough screencasts to set it apart from *gasp*, "Nano" and "Notepad!"

I didn't have any good production quality screencasts to show. I found a few decent ones on Youtube. However, they didn't really show off Scribes latent powers the way I thought was impressive. The official screencasts on the website is old. In short, I wasn't helping the author's skepticism.

The discussions get deeper. He starts raving about 2 features he loves so much about TextMate. And how much he misses them since they're lacking in text editors on Linux. It's highly doubtful that TM does anything that hasn't already been done on Linux editors, I think to myself. So what are these features he misses? Input/output redirection and pipe processing. He shows off videos of TM doing pipe processing through the command line. I'm chuckling hard at this point. Really! Is that it? We've only been doing that since the 70s I respond. Yes, but he wants to this processing not on the whole document but on selections inside the document. At this point, I conceded he had a point.

My ego eventually gives way, and I blurt out "I can implement them in 30 mins!" Wait, why did I just say that? Now I have to put my money where my mouth it is. And prove that I'm not all talk. If that's what it takes to defend Scribes' honor and shame the skeptics, so be it!

Yesterday, I had free time. So I implemented both the input/output redirection thingy (which I like) and the pipe processing thingy (which I'm still on the fence about).

Input/Output Redirection Thingy:

You can do something like this

diff -u text1 text2 | scribes -

echo "i/o redirection thingy" | scribes -

The Pipe Processing Thingy:
It's discussed in the video. It's just using external commands to do text transformations on documents in Scribes. If you have an exotic, esoteric and rare text transormation you need to do, Unix probably has a command line application that can do it for you. So you can use the application through Scribes to do the transormation. In other words, the feature bridges the gap between your extremely powerful command line shell environment and Scribes.

Oh, and there's a long list text editors that already do this. Gedit, Jedit, Geany, Snaked, Scite, VIM, Emacs are the ones I can list of the top of my head.

Finally, I'd like to apologize for the production quality of the screencasts. It was an unrehearsed first take and I did absolutely no editing. Sorry!

Update 1: Fixed some grammatical errors. I'm sure there's many more. Reminder, don't write when you're sleepy.

Update 2: The venerable Matej has an unofficial RPM of Scribes available.

Support Scribes
Install Scribes

Scribes: Build 733 Available

2010-12-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

There was a bug in quick open that turned Scribes into a zombie. It's been fixed in build 733. Please upgrade.

Support Scribes
Install Scribes

Scribes: Ubuntu PPA Update (build 730)

2010-12-08T18:15:00.000-05:00

Build 730 of Scribes is now available in Ubuntu's PPA. It contains performance improvements, fixes and polish based on user feedback, new scripts for plugin development (scribesmodule, scribesplugin), and a few new features.

Changelog

  * Mostly performance improvements and polish
  * scribesmodule new script for plugin development
  * scribesplugin new script for plugin development
  * ctrl+alt+q restores last session if you closed sesssion with ctrl+q
  * alt+Left/Right is now used for indentation
  * ctrl+backspace should work now for people having problems.
  * shift+F2 toggles between syntax and full python error checking
  * ctrl+PageUp/PageDown for switching between scribes windows
  * ctrl+Up/Down is now used for paragraph navigation
  * and more...

Support Scribes
Install Scribes
Install Scribes on Ubuntu

Scribes: Plugins In 60 Seconds

2010-12-03T01:23:00.002-05:00

Your time is precious. I will not waste it. You want to write a plugin for Scribes in 60 secs. And you want to do it without making sense of pixels on your screen, blinking aimlessly at source code or, God forbid, attempting to code. Congratulations, you've hit gold. Welcome to writing plugins for Scribes, quick and dirty edition.

Download scribesplugin
Update: The scribesplugin script now ships with Scribes. There's no need to download the tarball.
Download this tarball to your computer and untar it. It contains a Python script named scribesplugin. The script generates a working Scribes plugin.

wget http://scribes.sf.net/scribesplugin.tar.bz2
tar xjvf scribesplugin.tar.bzr

scribesplugin Usage
Open your favorite terminal and change to the directory scribesplugin is located. Now type the following command at the terminal.

./scribesplugin --name="Foo" --shortcut="<alt>BackSpace"

Hit enter and set your timer. Nevermind, times up! Congratulations! You've just created your first Scribes plugin. You did it in less than 60 seconds!

Lets see if it works. Press ctrl+q to close all instances of Scribes. Launch Scribes and press alt+BackSpace. You should see this.

Location of Plugins
Generic plugins are placed here.

~/.config/scribes/GenericPlugins/

Language specific plugins are place here.

~/.config/scribes/LanguagePlugins/

Plugin Files and Folders
You created a generic plugin. Via your terminal go to the generic plugin folder. We'll explore every file in your plugin.

cd ~/.config/scribes/GenericPlugins; ls

Plugin Names
You named your plugin Foo. I won't tell your "comp sci 101" professor about it. I promise. But we both know that's a terrible thing to do. Next time name your plugins more sensibly. For example, "ErrorChecker", "LineDeleter", "HelpBrowser", or "XMLSyntaxChecker" are better and more descriptive names to give your plugin. Don't put spaces or esoteric characters in your plugin names either. Unix doesn't like that. Stick to alphanumeric characters only. You spend 90% of your programming career naming things. It helps to be thoughtful and diligent about it.

The Plugin Loader - PluginFoo.py
PluginFoo.py is a plugin loader. The plugin loader gives Scribes information it needs to load plugins. Plugin loaders begin with the string, "Plugin." The name you provide scribesplugin is used to generate the plugin loader. Name your plugins with unique and descriptive names.

Update the "authors" field with your name and email. Update the "short_description" and "long_description" fields to reflect the purpose of your plugin.

Main Plugin Folder - Foo
Foo contains modules that implement your plugin. Foo is generated by scribesplugin based on the name you provided it.

Keyboard Shortcut Binder - Trigger.py

Scribes uses triggers to bind keyboard shortcuts to actions. In your case, you bound alt+backspace to an action that shows an information window and a message bar. In Scribes all keyboard bindings are implemented in Trigger.py as a matter of convention. Bind all keyboard shortcuts in Trigger.py

Note, trigger.py is only created if you use the --shortcut option of scribesplugin.

Notes on Keyboard Shortcuts

Your plugin should NOT use a keyboard shortcut already in use by Scribes. Keyboard shortcuts should follow the format understood by GTK+. <alt>b, <ctrl><shift>c and <ctrl>Delete are valid formats. alt+b, ctrl-shift-c or ctrl<Delete> are not.

Message Passing System - Signals.py (IMPORTANT!)

Signals are the foundation of Scribes' architecture. Objects, in Scribes, communicate almost exclusively via signals. It's an event-based message passing system. Programmers with a strong web development background may be find this system odd or even detestable.

Event-based programming is still somewhat esoteric in the web development sphere. Ajax only became cool a few years ago. But we've been doing Ajaxy stuff on the desktop for about 20 years and counting. Wrapping your head around callback, event-based, asynchronous and timer-based programming is essential for writing desktop applications and very useful for understanding Scribes' architectural design. Lets see how it works.

Anatomy of the Signal System

It's very simple.

All objects are specialists. They specialize in performing one function, or responsibility, extremely well. Objects can broadcasts signals before, during or after their tasks are finished. Interested objects listen to these signals and react to them. A signal may be a simple message or a message accompanied by data. Design junkies will immediately recognize this as the "Observer pattern."

All objects keep to themselves. They mind their own business. They never dabble in the workings of other objects. To enforce this encapsulation, almost all objects in Scribes are private. No kiddin! They are not designed to be inherited, called, introspected, delegated, abstracted, interfaced, factorized, abridged, polymorphisized, decorated, or whatever obtuse programming technique the overzealous genius engineer in you will attempt to do.

It's a message passing system at its simplest, purest and finest form. We won't discuss the benefits and drawbacks of this system. All I can say is that this system is robust, scales very well and works for me. Scribes uses GObject for signal management.

Signals.py For Reals

Add new signals to this module as needed.

Signal Alert

You're under no obligation to use signal-based programming when writing plugins for Scribes. Use whatever programming style makes you happy.

The Mediator - Manager.py

Objects listen to and broadcast signals, but how? Simple, they use the manager object. Manager.py is called a "Mediator" in software engineering jargon. Objects that want to broadcast or listen for signals link to the manager. Manager.py is also responsible for creating these objects. Manager links to these objects during their creation. Manager is also the gateway between your plugin and the outside world, in particular the editor.

Since Manager.py is such a key figure, it's okay for it to have public methods. Afterall, the world interacts with your plugin via it. In fact, it's one of the few types of objects that has public methods. Most manager objects will have a public "destroy" and "activate" method. "destroy" should emit a signal to destroys all created objects. This is necessary for unloading plugins. For plugins that implement graphic user interfaces they may even have a "gui" attribute. If you choose to use signals for object communication initialize new objects in Manager.py. Manager.py is generated by scribesplugin.

Foo.py

Foo.py is where you do your thing. Hack new features. This tutorial is a quickie. We won't get into implementation details or design philosophies. Use your best judgment and experience. When in doubt study other plugins in Scribes or email me. Foo.py is automatically generated by scribesplugin. The name of this module depends of the name you provide scribesplugin.

Exceptional Handling - Exceptions.py

Put your exceptions in Exceptions.py. Exceptions.py is generated by scribesplugin. Remove this module if you don't need it.

Utility Functions - Utils.py

Global utility functions, constants and variables go in Utils.py. Utils.py is generated by scribesplugin. Remove this file if you don't need it.

The Bullshit-Free API Technology - Editor.py
If you've been around the block long enough, you've probably encountered it. Libraries and frameworks that demand you study hundreds of hours of blogs, wikis, tutorials and books to imprint "hello world" on your flat screen. And to do that, you'd need to inherit this and interface with that. Then proceed to import this from that and that from this. That's after you've created the abstract public factory, whose sole purpose for existing is just to piss you off.

Inevitably, you spend many full moons studying the code of the library or framework in question just to figure out what the hell is going on. Only to reckon, disappointingly, that relevant information is scattered all over the place. It's an exasperating and frustrating experience. I know. I've been there.

That's why I designed the "Bullshit-Free API Technology" (TM) for Scribes. And for a limited time offer you can get the ...

All jokes aside. Scribes has just one API, the "editor" object.

The editor object represents an instance of a Scribes editor. You get all the information you need about Scribes from it. You can also tell Scribes to perform common operations with it.

Examples:
editor.window - get window object
editor.update_message - show feedback message
editor.instances - a list of running editor objects
editor.new - creates a new editor
editor.focus_file - focus a particular document
editor.version - version of Scribes
editor.uri - uri of the file open

Editor.py houses all the public APIs available for Scribes. It's perhaps the only module you need to concern yourself with. Almost all modules, besides Editor.py, are implementation details and are private. Read the signals section above for why this is so. There are noticeable exceptions. I can count these exceptions in one hand. For the most part, Editor.py is essentially Scribes documentation.

Isn't that a relief? Thank God for "Bullshit-Free API Technology."

Language Specific Plugins

Language specific plugins are loaded for specific file types.

./scribesplugin --name="PythonFoo" --shortcut="BackSpace" --language="python"

Congratulations! You've just created a plugin for Python source codes.This plugin will be loaded only when you're editing Python files. Create a python file and open it in Scribes. Now press alt+shift+BackSpace. You'll see this.

Again this plugin only works for Python source code because it's language specific. Language plugins are located at:

~/.config/scribes/LanguagePlugins

scribesplugin script

scribesplugin creates a working plugins that saves you the trouble and time of setting up plugins manually. It's left to you to modify, explore, experiment and extend the plugin as you wish.

--name is the only required option for scribesplugin. It names your plugin.

--shortcut binds your plugin to a keyboard shortcut. It's optional.

--language makes your plugin language specific. It's optional.

scribesplugin will be shipped with Scribes in version 0.4

You The Man

You did well. Pat yourself on the back. You made two Scribes plugin without even blinking.

I appreciate feedback.

Support Scribes

Install Scribes

Compiz: Focus Prevention Causes Focus Problems

2010-11-16T21:29:00.001-05:00

Update: Fixed gconftool-2 command

If you use Compiz, the default on Ubuntu, you probably have "focus prevention" on by default. This prevents applications from gaining focus when they are launched.

Unfortunately, this also conflicts with applications that need to gain focus for legimate reasons. In Scribes, many dialogs won't properly gain focus if you have focus prevention on. To avoid this problem, turn focus prevention off like so.

gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/compiz/general/screen0/options/focus_prevention_level 0

Scribes Ubuntu PPA and Debian Fixes

2010-10-22T08:18:00.002-04:00

Apparently Scribes doesn't install properly on Ubuntu and Debian systems that already had it installed. Scribes' Python libraries were not being replaced properly. Of course, this leads to a host of issues. I've pushed build 627 which I hope resolves this problem. Please update your repositories and test it. Sorry for the troubles if you experienced any.

Build 627 is full of performance improvements and some new features which I'll blog about later. There's the ability to reopen the last closed file, ctrl+shift+w, or the last 5 closed files, ctrl+shift+q. Python users will be greeted with an automatic "on-the-fly" error checker for Python source code. Also, the title window now contains the path to the file among many other tweaks and bug fixes.

Enjoy!

SUPPORT SCRIBES
DOWNLOAD SCRIBES
UBUNTU PPA

Scribes: Opening Files Quickly and Efficiently

2010-10-18T23:37:00.000-04:00

An Epic Moment
I had an epiphany 9 months ago. I observed, in an editing session, that all the files I opened were old. An old file is a file that I have viewed or edited before. In that particular session, none of the files I opened in Scribes were new. A new file is a file that I have never viewed or edited. As I studied my work flow and habits over the coming months, a pattern emerged. 9 in 10 of the files I opened were old. I'm willing theorize that, over a period of editing sessions, the ratio is just as high for most users.

A Problem Looking for A Solution
You'd think the process of opening files quickly and efficiently is optimized and streamlined by now. I mean, it's the oldest and most important activity when using computers. So why wouldn't it be? Shockingly, it isn't! The folks at peepcode have well crafted rant about the direness of the situation. Last week, a series frustrating events, which I wouldn't get into, prompted me to tackle the problem of opening files quickly and efficiently in Scribes. Allow me to present one of my solutions, Recent Open for Scribes.

Introducing Recent Open
We know that we'll be spending most of our time opening old files. So why not create an interface to allow us open them quickly and efficiently? Well, that's exactly what I did with Recent Open! If you use Quick Open, you're already familiar with how it works.

Usage
Press ctrl+alt+r to show the recent open window. Then start typing to start searching. Like Quick Open searching is fuzzy. So if you want to list all the files you've viewed before in ~/Pooky/Storage, just type "storage" to list the results. Fuzzy searching is performed on both the name of files and their paths.

Get It
Anyway, Recent Open is now available for Scribes. It's the most relevant and efficient way of opening files in Scribes. It addresses many of the limitations of Quick Open and the default file chooser. Its own limitation is that it can't be used to open new files. But I'm thinking about combining Quick and Recent Open to address this. Test it and spread the word! Feedback is welcome.

SUPPORT SCRIBES
DOWNLOAD SCRIBES

Scribes Gets An Ubuntu PPA

2010-10-07T14:17:00.005-04:00

Update: The version of Scribes currently in Ubuntu is old and broken. Please use this PPA to install Scribes. Do not use the version already in Ubuntu.

Ubuntu User Rejoice!
As I promised on twitter, Scribes [1] now has an Ubuntu PPA! Launchpad verifies that it builds successfully on Lucid (Ubuntu 10.04) and Maverick (Ubuntu 10.10). What are you waiting for? Get it and tell your friends 'bout it!

Installation
Open a terminal (e.g gnome-terminal) and enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mystilleef/scribes-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install scribes

That's it! Now launch scribes! Henceforth, Scribes will be updated just like other packages on Ubuntu. Of course I'll also be tweeting and blogging about new build releases, features and so forth.

Social Media Gossip
Help me spread the word on your favorite social media communities. Tweet it. Digg it. Reddit it. Dzone it. Or whatever you use it! The more people test Scribes, the more feedback I'll get and the better Scribes will be on release day.

What Is Scribes? (For Newbies)
Scribes is an ultra minimalist text editor that combines simplicity with power. Imagine an experience that is devoid of distractions. An experience that makes you exponentially productive by intelligently optimizing your flow. An experience immersed in minimalism and efficiency. An experience that lets your do more by typing less. That lets your focus exclusively on the task at hand. An experience that doesn't sacrifice power, yet remains simple.

Scribes is that experience.

SUPPORT SCRIBES
INSTALL SCRIBES
SCRIBES IN ACTION

[1] Nostradamus peered into the year 3020. VIM was unheard of and Emacs had long died. What he distinctly saw, however, was Scribes walking on water! Real talk!

Scribes: New Configuration Location

2010-10-07T13:45:00.000-04:00

The latest release of Scribes[1] now places it's configuration file in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (i.e usually ~/.config) as recommended by the freedesktop.org standard. Hardened Scribes vets, don't panic. I'll show you how to migrate your configuration preferences and themes you've spent years tweaking.

Open a terminal (e.g gnome-terminal) and enter:

# Create the configuration folder if it doesn't exist.

mkdir ~/.config/scribes

# Migrate your configuration data.

cp -R ~/.gnome2/scribes/* ~/.config/scribes/

# Remove old configuration data.

rm -rf ~/.gnome2/scribes

That's it!

If you're new to Scribes or you don't care to migrate your configuration preferences, you don't need to do anything.

SUPPORT SCRIBES
INSTALL SCRIBES

[1] "You're doing everything other text editors have vowed not to do", said PoochyMouth. "Why is that a bad thing?", said Scribes.

Scribes: Bracket Selection Reloaded

2010-09-26T22:12:00.000-04:00

Scribes [1] now has a smarter bracket selection system. It's badass! You'll want it. And I'll tell you why.

"Advanced" Usage

alt+b activates bracket selection. This selects text within curly, round, square or angle brackets. Wow! Dude! That's so advanced! Okay, it's not advanced. It gets better though.

Quote Selection

In addition to brackets, text inside single or double quotes are also now selected. In other words, quotes act like brackets! Due to the algorithmic complexity of determining quotations, only quotes on the same line are selectable. Quotes spread across multiple lines are not recognized.

Incremental Selection

Wait! I'm not done. What if we want to include quotes or brackets in the selection? Easy. Just press alt+b again and enclosing quotes or brackets will be included in the selection.

Nested Smartness

In fact, just keep pressing alt+b and Scribes will incrementally select outside quotes or brackets arranged in a nested hierarchy.

Undo Goodness

With all these new selection intelligence, sooner or later you are bound accidentally perform an unintended selection. Don't worry. You're covered. Just press Esc to remove the most recent quote or bracket selection. Esc essentially undoes quote or bracket selection. Cool, huh!

Drool Alert

Okay, you can stop drooling partners. Get it. Test it. Use it. Spread it. There are bugs to be found and kittens to be skinned. Okay, I kid, there are no kittens to be skinned. They're too cute for that.

Your Feedback

And I know you have better ideas. So let me in on 'em, please! I said please!

SUPPORT SCRIBES

INSTALL SCRIBES

[1] Scribes is the text editor you've heard about that traveled back in time from the 25th century. It's ultra-minimalist, unconventional and smart.

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