Linoleum

A Guide Through The Linux Sound API Jungle

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 08:36:00 +1100

0pointer.de have published a fantastic guide to sound coding under Linux, which provides advice on which Linux sound API you should use in a number of given situations (for example, within media-players or within games), and has a good rundown of the merits of the APIs available.

Many of the reader comments are very informative, too.

Offline Ajax with Apache Derby

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 10:26:00 +1000

Developerworks have published a comprehensive tutorial on writing Ajax applications that can be used when offline, using Apache's embedded Derby database.

Displaying two-dimensional data with GtkDatabox

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:50:00 +1000

Linux.com have published a short tutorial on using GtkDatabox, an add-on widget for GTK+, which displays numerical data on axes, much like gnuplot, but with the ability to quickly update graphs to show changing datasets live.

Tracing Ajax/Java Applications with DTrace

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 09:09:00 +1000

SDN are running a fantastic piece on using Sun's DTrace tool to trace Java applications.

Note that DTrace runs on Solaris, not Linux.

Writing Qt and KDE apps in Mono Visual Basic

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 08:56:00 +1000

Yes, that headline made me do a double-take, too, but Richard Dale's blog post on KDE, Qt and Mono Visual Basic is indeed referring to coding under Linux. My question is, however, would anyone really want to do this?

Writing plugins in python.

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:30:00 +1000

Developerworks are running a great article on writing plugins in python, using lambda callbacks.

Writing an mp3 crawler with WWW::Mechanize

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 09:26:00 +1000

Stefan Petrea has published a great introduction to the perl WWW::Mechanise module on Google's code blogs website, and has used it to create an mp3 webcrawler.

Using Embedded Java DB

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 08:58:00 +1000

Sun's Developer Network blog has published a good walk-through tutorial demonstrating how to use Java DB to build a personal data storage application with NetBeans.

If nothing else, this guide shows just how quickly a basic application can be put together, when using a powerful IDE - no code needs to be written at all for the demonstration application to function.

Aliases and functions in shells

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 08:38:00 +1000

Linux.com is running a piece on using aliases and functions within the bash shell. Fairly simple stuff, but useful to know.

Django Roundup

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:32:00 +1000

It's been a big month for Django, the python-based web-framework, with the first official production release (1.0). The release notes are here, and the team have also published a guide for porting your applications from version 0.96 to 1.0.

If you're planning on writing a new application, you'd be well advised to switch to version 1.0, although it's worth noting that few Linux distributions yet carry the production release. Ubuntu's current stable version, 8.04, ships Django 0.96; Debian's stable release (which was released 18 months ago) ships an even older version, Django 0.95. Django is not available at all in Redhat, Fedora, OpenSuSE or SLES, and therefore must be installed from source on those platforms.

Probably the best platforms for developers keen to use version 1.0 would be either the upcoming releases of Debian Lenny or Ubuntu Intrepid, both of which are scheduled to go live within a month or so. Both distributions are currently usable and are unlikely to change significantly between now and their final release.

In other Django related news, HowToForge has an article on installing Django on Mandriva Linux and Linux Magazine (Europe) has a video workshop on using Django to write a music management website.

Reading native Excel files in Perl

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 08:31:17 +1000

Linux Journal is running an article that shows how to use Perl to read Excel files, using the Spreadsheet::ParseExcel module.

Rapid prototyping with Apache Derby and JRuby on Rails

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:41:21 +1000

IBM Developerworks have published a tutorial on using JRuby on Rails in conjunction with Apache Derby, an embedded Java relational database system.

The article covers application creation, Rails scaffolding, generators and finishes off with a brief look at using IDEs to build these projects.

Developing Web 2.0 Apps with the Google Web Toolkit

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:39:00 +1000

If you've ever wanted to write Web 2.0 applications, but have baulked at the idea of having to maintain a Javascript codebase, then it might be worth having a look at the Google Web Toolkit.

The GWT lets you write your application in Java, and the compiler will convert this to Javascript, when complete.

Linux Magazine have published a two part guide which explains more about how the GWT works, and how to get started with it:

Date manipulation in Dojo

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:35:00 +1000

The latest entry in O'Reilly's continuing series on Dojo - an AJAX library - looks into the dojo.date module.

The Seductions of Scala

nospam@example.com (Paul) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:20:00 +1000

Dean Wampler, of the Object Mentor blog, has written a three part series examining the Scala, an object-oriented functional programming language which runs on the Java virtual machine.

Part one gives a brief rundown of the language, and provides some code comparisons with Java; Part two looks at Scala's functional programming side (and includes a short introduction to functional programming); and Part three details Scala's Actor concurrency model.