ones zeros majors and minors

Leafy Chat

2009-07-10T00:00:00-07:00

A few weeks ago I competed in the Django Dash along with Alex Gaynor and Leah Culver. Our team ended up placing second.

We made a comet powered, web based IRC client called Leafy Chat. In fact, we just launched a redesign.

Check it out.

Forking, Continued

2009-01-21T00:00:00-08:00

David Welton has posted a thoughtful reply to my comment. Unfortunately, he missed my point. I can only assume this is due to a lack of clarity on my part. (My comment was very brief.)

I mentioned the Network Graph and Fork Queue but David mentioned neither. I think he doesn’t know what they are, probably because I didn’t explain what they are :)

So, in an effort to be more clear, let me propose an alternate workflow to David’s. He says, “Here’s a concrete example of how things might go wrong.” I see his example and think, “That’s a concrete example of how things have gone right.”

(I’m going to make this visual so you don’t have to take my word for it or keep jumping between here and GitHub to try it out.)

The Network Graph

root@fortrock:~# gem1.8 search -r actionwebservice

*** REMOTE GEMS ***

actionwebservice (1.2.6)
datanoise-actionwebservice (2.2.2)
dougbarth-actionwebservice (2.1.1)
nmeans-actionwebservice (2.1.1)

The problem is obvious: which actionwebservice should we use?

Well, we know three of those gems are on GitHub. And all three of the GitHub gems have higher versions than the Rubyforge gem. So let’s check GitHub first.

I go to http://github.com/search and search for actionwebservice. (Actually I do this from my LaunchBar template, but you get the idea.)

In the results, I see that the first actionwebservice appearing has the most forks and watchers, and was the most recently active.

We could stop right here and choose @datanoise@’s fork. But let’s be sure.

I click on the repo and arrive at http://github.com/datanoise/actionwebservice. I click on the Network tab.

I arrive at http://github.com/datanoise/actionwebservice/network and glance at the graph.

There are commits unique to certain forks, but datanoise has the most activity and the most recent commits.

At this point, there’s no doubt: datanoise is the most recent, most active version of actionwebservice. Will it always be? Who knows. But for now, this is the best choice.

The Fork Queue

We can take it a step further, too. We see there are unmerged commits – changes people have made which have not been pulled into datanoise. We can examine them straight from the Network Graph, or we can attempt to merge them into actionwebservice.

I fork @datanoise@’s actionwebservice using the ‘fork’ button, still on the Network Graph’s page:

Now I have my own version of actionwebservice.

Time to visit the Fork Queue. (Only people with write access to the repository see this tab.)

Okay, so it looks like a lot of the changes made will not apply cleanly.

If any of these commits had a green background, we’d be able to apply them right there on the site (as explained by the legend). But we can’t.

Pull Requests

Since we can’t apply the commits, we could send datanoise a message asking him to check over his Fork Queue and merge in the changes that look promising. We could do it ourselves, too, by resolving the conflicts. All we’d need is to clone our repository, add one of the others as a remote, then merge and fix the conflicts before pushing back to our version. After that we could even send datanoise a pull request, since we’ve done the work for him. Or just wait for him to check his Fork Queue and see that our changes are green.

I’m just going to delete my fork, though.

Keeping Current

Even ignoring the forking and the Fork Queue, the point is this: it’s not hard to see which project is the most active. Yes, we (GitHub) need to make it more clear. We want to say “this is the fork you’re looking for” on the first page you see. And we want that to change as the most active, latest fork changes. But, for the time being, you can figure that all out with a single click.

What happens when it does change, though? Perhaps datanoise will lose interest and someone else will take up development. That’s the beautiful part, and that’s why you just can’t do GitHub without Git (or any equally powerful DVCS): switching the remote and pulling in changes from the new repository is trivial. Git doesn’t care where you pull from. It is not married to a remote URL in the same way a centralized VCS like Subversion is.

Imagine hitting the datanoise repository and being informed “this may not be the most active repository in the network. Check Person X’s.” Switch your remote to the new one, pull, and you’re up to date. This is the type of information the Network Graph makes available, we just need to make it more visible and plain. (Heck, maybe that message could be printed out when you git pull from an inactive remote.)

For instance, hitting @dougbarth@’s actionwebservice fork and checking the Network Graph makes it obvious that datanoise is the repo we want:

If we were previously using @dougbarth@’s fork it would be clear that @datanoise@’s is the one to watch in the future.

Moving Forward

It may seem strange, and perhaps even like a lot of work. “Why should I have to check to see which is the most current? In the old model, there’s always a canonical repository.”

In the old model, actionwebservice wouldn’t have made it past 1.2.6. Welcome to distributed version control.

Linux vs Classic Dev Style

2009-01-20T00:00:00-08:00

I tried to leave this as a comment on “Developer > Project, or Project > Developer(s)?”:http://journal.dedasys.com/2009/01/10/developer-project-or-project-developer-s but the form errored and I couldn’t find a contact email address. Here it is:

GitHub lets you do Linux-style fork development, or classic SourceForge style development. The difference is you have the choice.

Using the Network graph you can easily see which fork in a Linux-style network has the most recent activity. It’s one click away from any repository’s home page, but we’re working on better surfacing and summarizing the information.

As for lazy developers not requesting you pull in changes, the Fork Queue lets you see unmerged changes in forks and even lets you merge them in from the web interface.

We’re constantly working to improve our tools and the ways you can manage your projects, as well.

TextMate Minor Mode

2008-12-02T00:00:00-08:00

TextMate Minor Mode is an
Emacs minor mode that emulates some awesome TextMate features.

Like ⌘T (find file in project).

And ⇧⌘T (go to symbol in file).

And more! Really, the
README
says it all.

Installation:

$ cd ~/.emacs.d/vendor
$ git clone git://github.com/defunkt/textmate.el.git

In your emacs config:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/vendor/textmate.el")
(require 'textmate)
(textmate-mode)

Or just grab the elisp: textmate.el

TextMate Minor Mode was written for Aquamacs
but works great on console Emacs, CVS Emacs.app and Carbon Emacs. Try
it today!

Why Lisp Failed

2008-12-01T00:00:00-08:00

Emacs.

Writing Lisp without Emacs is just too painful. If your language
depends on specific features of a specific editor, you better be a big
company like Sun or Microsoft with the mad moneys. Otherwise forget it.

Learning Your Editor

2008-11-19T00:00:00-08:00

Text editors should take a lesson from video games. In many games, you have access to subset of total weapons, powers, whatever. As you advance and master the basic weapons, more weapons become available to you. By the end of the game you have direct experience with all or most of the weapons – from basic to advanced.

How many times have you done something cool or strange in Vim only to think, “How did I do that?” video-game-mode would be a fun way to learn an editor: start with the basic commands and unlock more as you progress.

Singin' Singletons

2008-11-18T00:00:00-08:00

There’s stuff I just don’t understand. David Bowie, for instance. Or the Southern Hemisphere. But nothing quite boggles my mind like Ruby’s Singleton. Because really, it’s totally unnecessary.

Here’s what they want you to do with your code:

require 'net/http'

# first you setup your singleton
class Cheat
  include Singleton
  
  def initialize
    @host = 'http://cheat.errtheblog.com/'
    @http = Net::HTTP.start(URI.parse(@host).host)
  end
  
  def sheet(name)
    @http.get("/s/#{name}").body
  end
end

# then you use it
Cheat.instance.sheet 'migrations'
Cheat.instance.sheet 'yahoo_ceo'

But that’s crazy. Fight the power.

require 'net/http'

# here's how we roll
module Cheat
  extend self

  def host
    @host ||= 'http://cheat.errtheblog.com/'
  end

  def http
    @http ||= Net::HTTP.start(URI.parse(host).host)
  end

  def sheet(name)
    http.get("/s/#{name}").body
  end
end

# then you use it
Cheat.sheet 'migrations'
Cheat.sheet 'singletons'

Any why not? The API is more concise, the code is easier to test, mock, and stub, and it’s still dead simple to convert into a proper class should the need arise.

Pretty Fixtures

2008-11-18T00:00:00-08:00

# in whatever test helper you use
class Test::Unit::TestCase
  def defunkt
    users(:defunkt)
  end
  
  def github
    repositories(:github)
  end
end

# in your tests
context "A user" do
  test "belongs to a repository" do
    assert_equal defunkt, github.user
  end
end

Somethin’ like that.

Sugar

2008-10-30T00:00:00-07:00

The console is part of your app. Treat yourself right.

$ ./console
Loading production environment (Rails 2.0.2)
>> me = User / :defunkt
=> #<User id: 2, … >
>> repo = User / :defunkt / :gist
=> #<Repository id: 61713, … >

User.instance_eval do
def /(name)
find_by_login(name.to_s)
end
end

Repository.instance_eval do
def /(name)
find_by_name(name.to_s)
end
end

Good Homes Found

2008-10-29T00:00:00-07:00

After putting out the call, a few developers interested in taking up sad, abandoned projects of mine stepped forward.

Thanks to the following for giving these projects good homes:

dustin for taking over mofo
gaustin for taking over Choice
postmodern for taking over Sake
bpauly for taking over cache_fu

Good Homes Wanted

2008-10-22T00:00:00-07:00

The following projects need a good home. Interested in taking over?
Let me know.

When GitHub goes down...

2008-10-08T00:00:00-07:00

What if my GitHub repository is corrupted or deleted?

Don’t Panic! Because of the distributed nature of git, everyone always has a local full copy of the repository, complete with history. Any of your repositories, assuming they have been kept up to date, can be uploaded to the GitHub repository with no loss of data.

If the universe is conspiring against you and all copies of your repository are unaccessible, just email support@github.com – we keep offsite, encrypted backups of all repositories.

How can I share my repository if GitHub goes down?

Luckily, git has a built in server for sharing git repositories. If you have several repositories in your Code directory:

/Users/Matt/Documents/Code/
  rbvimeo/
  rubyzilla/

You can serve all of these with the following command:

git daemon --base-path=/Users/Matt/Documents/Code/ --export-all

The repositories can then be cloned using the address of your computer

git clone git://127.0.0.1/rbvimeo
git clone git://127.0.0.1/rubyzilla

Note: The default port git uses is 9418. Make sure that your firewall is set up to handle this.

How can I get a quick web interface?

You can run git instaweb to quickly start a network-accessible gitweb interface, for example:

git instaweb --httpd=webrick

How do I deploy my application with Capistrano when GitHub is down?

There are quite a few ways to deploy without github… ah the wonders of git!

Deploy from a local git server

Set up your repositories to be shared using git-daemon as detailed above. Set your capistrano config files to point the repository to your local repository:

set :repository, "git://YOUR_IP/rails-app"

You can now deploy your repository as normal.

Push over ssh

Another handy trick is to push the repo to your deploy server over ssh, then deploy using the local path. For this to work, you need ssh access to your deploy server, of course.

git remote add deployserver ssh://myuser@myserver.com/~/myrepo
git push deployserver master

Assuming your users are stored in /home…

set :repository, "/home/myuser/myrepo"

Java in Ruby

2008-07-24T00:00:00-07:00

Witness as Ruby dons the fake mustache and bifocals of burly Java:

Twitter Images

2008-07-23T00:00:00-07:00

I wanted an easy way to share tweets in Campfire. @shayarnett delivered.

Check out http://twictur.es/.

GitHub is Running Erlang

2008-07-14T00:00:00-07:00

It’s true. Read the blog post – we now serve all public git repos via Erlang. We’re trying hard to fit as many buzzwords as possible into our architecture.

_why on GitHub

2008-07-13T00:00:00-07:00

The Poignant Guide is how I learned Ruby. RedHanded made me want to start blogging. Projects like Shoes inspire me to keep hacking for hacking’s sake.

The lucky stiff has been on GitHub for a while, but just yesterday added all his projects. Check it: http://github.com/why.

Hardcore.

Classic Metronome

2008-07-02T00:00:00-07:00

No batteries required. Awesome.

He's such a great blogger

2008-06-28T00:00:00-07:00

We must be careful to not confuse the prolific with the profound.

Queerer Than We Can Suppose

2008-06-25T00:00:00-07:00

By far my favorite TED talk. Worth watching every few months to remind us how unique this experience we all share really is.

Mac Software I Bought

2008-06-23T00:00:00-07:00

I really wish I could pay for Skitch.

The Power of the Toe-Dip

2008-06-19T00:00:00-07:00

jQuery has jQuery.noConflict(). Just slip jQuery into your existing project and try it out – dip your toe in. There’s no obligation. You can always remove it and go back to Prototype.

Git has git-svn. Just start using Git with your existing SVN repository and try it out – dip your toe in. There’s no obligation. You can always go back to raw SVN.

While not the only cool feature these projects possess, the toe-dip factor is undeniably huge. I started with both jQuery.noConflict() and git-svn. I bet most converts did, too.

Profiling jQuery Apps

2008-06-16T00:00:00-07:00

Again, John Resig is the man. Even cooler that his example uses GitHub. Sorry about my crappy JS – now I have no excuse not to optimize it.

Here’s the GitHub example. Run jQuery.displayProfile() in Firebug to see it in action.

Two programmers walk into a bar...

2008-06-12T00:00:00-07:00

One of them says, “My framework couldn’t do what I wanted, so I extended it.”

The other says, “My framework couldn’t do what I wanted, so I implemented the feature in app code.”

Get it?

Should?

2008-06-12T00:00:00-07:00

test "should ping a user" do
  ping user
end

test "pings a user" do
  ping user
end

Tell, don’t ask.

Love Bank of America

2008-06-04T00:00:00-07:00

Here’s the story:

I opened a new Bank of America account and, naturally, ordered checks. They never arrived. I went into the bank and asked them for more, and if they could cancel the MIA block. Nope. They can only cancel checks for a certain amount of time, not indefinitely. I needed to open a new bank account.

Okay, that’s fine. But my rent is almost due. If I open the new account today, can I immediately cut a check? “Yes!” Okay, great. As long as my check doesn’t bounce. I love my landlord and would hate to pull a stunt like that.

New account opened, new temporary checks received, and hey, I even get to keep my old check card. Score. I drop off my rent check on time and all is well.

Two days later, I decide to deposit a check I just received. The nice teller asks, “Which account would you like this deposited in?” Well, I only have one account. “Actually, you have three.” What? Okay, put it in the one with all the money in it. I’ll talk to a personal banker and make sure the others are being closed.

Except, nothing is being closed. And no money was transferred. The account with all the money in it is my OLD account. The new account is empty. And no, there’s no transaction pending – the money WAS transferred, then was transferred back. What the hell? (Thanks for the email or phone call letting me know.) The personal banker has no idea why.

I go home and transfer the money online. It’s supposedly instant. Let’s hope the rent doesn’t bounce.

(As far as distributing money goes, I do in fact have a second checking account, but I just emptied that sucker paying taxes. Emptied, of course, because I never had checks for the new Bank of America account.)

So yeah, Bank of America sucks. I think I may be moving back to Wamu or using Patelco, Charles Schwab, or eTrade – all of these were recommended
today. I moved away from Wamu because there is no branch near my apartment, but I think not hating my bank outweighs proximity.

The Bang

2008-05-26T00:00:00-07:00

I was checking out Ryan Lowe’s save_or_raise project today and stumbled upon this quote:

Ruby methods that end with an exclamation point are a signal that they change the object they operate on.

This is not true. A common misconception.

The Ruby stdlib uses bang methods to identify a more dangerous version of a non-bang method. For example, Hash#merge! is the ‘dangerous’ version of Hash#merge – the former affects the receiver while the latter does not.

Hash#update, the bangless alias for Hash#merge!, illustrates the other side of this idiom. No counterpart, no bang.

Cocoa Proggin' in Nu

2008-05-26T00:00:00-07:00

Tim Burks continues to make it easy to dip your toe into Nu via his brilliant guerilla tactics. Case in point: the new Cocoa Programming with Nu repository on GitHub.

For this project, Tim (and the Nu community) has taken Objective-C examples from Aaron Hillegass’ Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X and translated them into Nu.

What’s Nu? It’s an object oriented LISP implemented in Objective-C. As such, simply integrates into your Cocoa apps. Check some of the code to see Nu in action.

I’ve already purchased Hillegass’ book and will be trying out both the Obj-C and Nu examples when I have time. Can’t wait.

Brutalism

2008-05-26T00:00:00-07:00

Erb Eval

2008-05-21T00:00:00-07:00

Because I always forget how to do it:

require 'erb'

name = 'bob'
template = 'whatever, <%= name %>'
puts ERB.new(template).result(binding)

Useful for sticking Ruby into config files:

config = YAML.load(ERB.new(IO.read(config_file)).result)

How are rubies cut?

2008-05-08T00:00:00-07:00

Master Rubyist Charles Nutter recently posted an entry titled The Rubyists are wrong. Wrong about the way rubies featured in our Ruby logos are cut.

My father has worked in the jewelry business for over 30 years. As soon as I read Charles’ article, I wondered what Pop would think. So, I emailed him.

Here is his response:

[Charles] is close, but he missed it. The diamond part is correct. But in my
experience and having worked with diamonds and color all over the world
there is one common thread in the cutting of any color stone. Diamonds are
cut for brilliance and yield. Any color stone is cut into a shape which will
bring out the color to its upmost beauty and at the same time maximize the
yield of the rough. That is why you see more cushion shapes and ovals in
rubies. But you usually only see those in larger stones. The majority of
the small stones are round. So, I would have to say the round cut is cut the
most. Also, the round cut is different from the diamond brilliant cut.
Faceting is done to bring out the color in the color stones. So, there
really isn’t a facet count on round color like a diamond would have.
Also, all of the Ruby logos are correct. If that was the best way to cut the
rough to maximize the color than it’s possible a cutter would use any of the
shapes, including the JRuby logo. Yes, a lot of color stones are cut off
center or in a nonsymmetrical shape.

Thanks Dad.