The reason why it’s useful at all are documented in Stub for markdown.py.

However, it occurred to me that as it stands now, it might be the lamest, most useless project on GitHub right now.

Hopefully it won’t remain useless and lame, if course.

The post The lamest GitHub project appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

To get integration between Vim and ClearCase, I’m using the ccase.vim plugin.

However, I need to make a couple of changes to the default to get it to work.

1. In my _vimrc file, add this: set shell=C:/cygwin/bin/bash
2. In ccase.vim, replace all of the lines that look like this:
   let l:file = resolve (expand("%:p"))
   to:
   let l:file = resolve (expand("%:p:gs?\\?/?"))

I didn’t have to do that on the XP machine I was using before.
I don’t know what’s different.
But the above steps fix it.

The post Clearcase checkout from vim on windows with cygwin appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

The post Stop Sucking appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

But it’s all happening over at PythonTesting.net.

So head on over there, and check it out.

The post Functional Testing, Python, and Markdown. Oh My! appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

Boolean logic is just part of the job as a programmer.

However, language writers have  made our life complicated.

We don’t just have 0 and 1 for true and false.

We have types such as bool, Bool, boolean, Boolean.

We have true, True, TRUE, false, False, FALSE, 0, 1, non-zero, non-empty, NULL, … AARRG!!!!

It’s really not a big deal if you just program in one language. But who does that anymore?

I’m often programming in C++, C, perl, python, bash, javaScript, and PHP all in one day.

So what’s a person to do.

Personally, I set up vim colorization based on file extension such that the correct types get colored. And if I mess it up, it doesn’t get colored.

However, it’s still frustrating.

Anyone out there got a simple cheat sheet or mnemonic to keep it all straight?

The post true && false appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

Trial and error gets me to these steps that seem to work.

1. download py
2. unpack it to directory py147 (whatever you want to name it)
3. download pytest
4.  unpack it to directory pytest223 (again, whatever you want to name it)
5. install py (see below)
6. install pytest (see below)

In this example, I’ve got a symbolic link in my path called python27 that links to my python 2.7 executable.

[bash]
> cd py147
> python27 setup.py install
> cd ../pytest223
> python27 setup.py install

# now test it by running one of the pytest included scripts
> cd testing
> python27 -m pytest test_python.py
[/bash]

Splendid.
Now getting on to the task of examining it to see if it’s functionality meets my needs.

Update 4-June-2012:

I just tried this in a new machine and ran into an issue that distribute wasn’t installed.

This is fixed simply by downloading and installing  it and trying the rest again.

1. download distribute
2. unpack it to directory dist (whatever you want to name it)
3. cd dist
4. python27 setup.py install
5. go back up to installing py and py.test (see above)

The post py.test from behind a firewall appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

Right now, I’m doing two things.
1. Writing my own framework.
2. Investigating pytest.

Hopefully I will have some results from both experiences to share.

The post Testing in Python appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

However, what if you want to zero pad the number.

Well, that’s where iomanip comes in handy.

[code language="cpp"]
#include <iomanip> // for setw, setfill
#include <iostream> // for cout
#include <sstream> // for ostringstream
#include <string> // for string

using namespace std;

int main ()
{
int i = 1;

ostringstream ss;
ss << setw( 3 ) << setfill( '0' ) << i;
string s = ss.str();

cout << "i: " << i << endl;
cout << "s: " << s << endl;
return 0;
}

[/code]

output:
[bash]
i: 1
s: 001
[/bash]

The post C++ zero padded string from int appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

A confusion arises sometimes, especially with those new to C++ rules, as to the variables at the top of a for loop.

In a for loop, such as for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++) { ... }, does the int i belong to the outer scope or the scope within the for loop.

The answer is that it belongs to the inner loop, and hides any outer variables, if they exist.
Of course, this is best shown with an example.

Three variables: i, j, k
Variable i is defined both in the outer scope and as a loop index variable defined in the top of the for statement.
Variable j is defined both in the outer scope and within the curly brackets of the for loop.
Variable k is only defined in the outer scope.

The treatment of i is the same as j. It’s as if all of the statements at the top of the for loop are inside the curly brackets of the for loop.

Sample Code:
[code lang="cpp"]
#include
using namespace std;

void report(string label, int i, int j, int k)
{
cout << label << " i:" << i << " j: " << j << " k: " << k << endl;
}

int main ()
{
int i = 123;
int j = 456;
int k = 789;

report("before loop", i, j, k);
cout << endl;

// inner scope i hides outer scope i
for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
// inner scope j hides outer scope j
// outer scope k not hidden
int j = i;
report("in for loop", i, j, k);
}
cout << endl;
report("after loop ", i, j, k);
return 0;
}
[/code]

output:

[bash] > g++ -Wall -o scope for_loop_scope.cpp
> ./scope
before loop i:123 j: 456 k: 789

in for loop i:0 j: 0 k: 789
in for loop i:1 j: 1 k: 789

after loop i:123 j: 456 k: 789
[/bash]

Please leave a comment if you feel I’ve gotten something wrong here.
If your compiler does something different, I want to hear about it.

The post C++ variable scope and the for loop appeared first on Varied Thoughts.

However, I occasionally have an idea that I’d like to test out by itself, isolated from the rest of the code.
My usual solution is to write a small test program and compile it on the command line, debugging with writes to the output stream.

As an example, I recently wanted to refresh my memory about how string::find works.
I saw an example program at cplusplus.com

So to start, I just grabbed the example and saved it to string_find.cpp.

Now to compile it.
Hmmm.
First attempt:

[bash]
gcc -o string_find string_find.cpp
… massive list of errors omitted …
[/bash]

Well, that wasn’t it.

Look it up somewhere, can’t remember where, probably on stackoverflow.

Here’s what I want:

[bash]
g++ -Wall -o string_find string_find.cpp
> ./string_find.exe
first ‘needle’ found at: 14
second ‘needle’ found at: 44
‘haystack’ also found at: 30
Period found at: 51
There are two prepositions in this haystack with needles.
[/bash]

Awesome.
Now, post this to the blog so I don’t have to look it up again.
Whew!

Turns out that the gcc command will try to compile c++ code, but doesn’t link the standard library.
However, g++ does include the standard library, so stuff like are available.

The post Compiling C++ code on the command line appeared first on Varied Thoughts.