Category Archives: Writing Software

Java class file version numbering

http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~leif/opensource/bcver/BcVerApp.html This page has a list which shows how java class version numbers relate to java platform version numbering. It’s useful if you get one of those UnsupportedClassVersionError errors. This relates to the Java ClassFile structure which defines how classes … Continue reading

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Linux autologin

I use a collection of virtual machines in parallels for a number of things, like testing SQLEditor and running web apps that would otherwise require lots of software dependencies. However I’ve been getting tired of logging in to my linux … Continue reading

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MacFuse released – userspace Mac OS X file systems

I just noticed this announcement on the google mac blog. Amit Singh has released a mac version of Fuse, which is way for people to write interesting extensions to the file system without writing kernel code. The way it works … Continue reading

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Writing Unit tests for Cocoa

I realized something interesting today. I use unit testing to (hopefully) improve the quality of my code. With Java I use JUnit. With native Mac stuff I use OCUnit. One really clever thing about OCUnit that I realized today is … Continue reading

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Crash with WSMethodInvocationInvoke and malformed XML

I’ve been doing some stuff recently with XMLRPC for both SQLEditor and an unannounced new product. One of the key parts of XMLRPC in cocoa is the Apple web services Core. It provides almost everything you need to use web … Continue reading

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Forum for malcolmhardie.com

Following the suggestions in this article, I’ve been considering forum software recently to offer customers (and others) somewhere to discuss SQLEditor. Currently I’m considering PunBB, because it seems to be simple, fast and well received by reviewers and users. PhpBB … Continue reading

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flyspray subversion integration

Somebody asked me to post a link to the script that integrates flyspray and subversion: Script is Attached to Bug 301

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DocBook and Apple Help

One of the key tools I’ve been using recently is Docbook. Docbook is an xml-schema which can be used to write documentation for things. This can then be converted via the wonders of XSL, XML and XML-FO processors into PDF, … Continue reading

Posted in Macintosh, Writing Software | 2 Comments

SQLEditor released!

After a rather over-extended development cycle SQLEditor version 1.0 has now been released. Which is a great relief to me. I’ve been working on it for so long now that I can’t quite remember not working on it, which is … Continue reading

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Writing Documentation

I’m currently in the middle of writing user documentation of SQLEditor. I finally settled on docbook as the format of choice since it seems the most compatible with other things. I’m using this tutorial to build the stuff although saxon … Continue reading

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Integrate flyspray with CVSWeb

Currently I’m using flyspray for bug tracking. I use cvsweb to view the cvs tree online. One thing that I really wanted was to be able to click one bug numbers in the cvs log reports and see the bug … Continue reading

Posted in Internet Stuff, Writing Software | 1 Comment

Java FileWriter, XML and UTF-8

Oddly enough the java.io.FileWriter class doesn’t use UTF-8 by default. I’m not exactly sure what the default encoding is (possibly ISO-8859-1 or US-ASCII?) but it doesn’t seem to be UTF-8, which is odd given that java strings are supposed to … Continue reading

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Cocoa#

I’ve been playing around a bit recently with mono and cocoa#. There also seems to be an experimental build of Mono-develop. I begin to think that .net and mono are going to be excellent java competitors. I also think that … Continue reading

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Online Store

I’ve been working recently on integrating a registration system into SQLEditor (sorry). Unfortunately I kind of need to make some money out of my software and so people have to pay for it. I really wish this wasn’t the case … Continue reading

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Serial Number Systems

I’ve recently been trying to write a serial number system for SQLEditor. I’m also looking for a new name for it. It was pointed out that the current name is generic and difficulty to pronounce, plus there is already at … Continue reading

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NSLog

I just realised that NSLog allows parameters. I’d previously been using NSLog([NSString stringWithFormat:@”%d”,randomVar]) … But now I realise that the I don’t really need to do this. A simple call to NSLog will work as well. NSLog(@”%d”,randomVar); It still isn’t … Continue reading

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Shareware and Serial Numbers

Not much posting recently. But I’ve been working getting SQLEditor ready for release. The big things recently have been bug fixes and developing a serial number system. It’s extremely annoying to have to spend any time at all working on … Continue reading

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Cross Platform Applications

With the announcement of Dashboard in Mac OS X 10.4 Apple, like many other companies, seems to have gone for a standards based approach. Dashboard is said to be based on HTML, CSS and javascript. A webpage in all but … Continue reading

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Definitions in spellchecker?

There have been lots of articles today in newspapers because the Oxford English Dictionary publishers have claimed that people are confused and choosing words incorrectly. For example “pouring” instead of “poring”. The problem being that people are basing the word … Continue reading

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New day, new thoughts

Well, I feel much better today. I’ve thought about it a bit more and I realise how very lucky I was that I found about the bug before the thing got a public release. I’m already working on some ideas … Continue reading

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