KDE … I’ve been mostly quiet on the KDE development side. The only patch I made the whole period was to add a label at the top of Konsole tabs in Konversation, similar to the topic label at the top of chat windows. The label’s text syncs with your Konsole profile’s settings for window titles. Of course there’s a handy button beside it that lets you conveniently call the profile management dialog right then and there.

School … Most of my time has been spent (besides procrastinating and playing caregiver/nurse) with school work. Or rather, cramming/rushing school work. This semester I’ve been blessed/cursed with two subjects that are completely new to me: “Data Communications and Networking” and “Database Management Systems”. Let me just say, in all honesty and humility, that I suck at networking. At least as it was presented in our textbook. It was very low-level, theory-laded, and computation-centric, almost engineering-like. I guess that’s “computer science” (or computer math?). On the other hand, I was really into DBMS. Probably because it’s more practical to me, being used almost anywhere, but specially for the Web. Fundamentals of Database Systems by Elmasri and Navathe has so far been a good read.

Events … In contrast to my inactivity, the past months have been buzzing with activity. July saw the first ever joint GNOME and KDE annual conferences in sunny(?) Gran Canaria. Of course, I wasn’t there The videos this year were so superbly done, so make sure to grab your favorite talks if you still haven’t. Then, KDE released 4.3.0, showing off the maturity of the KDE Desktop and the Development Platform. The good news is that it doesn’t stop there. 4.4 is just a few months away!

Gadget lust … Nokia/Qt has also been quite busy, with one announcement/release/blog post after another. Most controversial probably are Pyside, the LGPL Python bindings for Qt, and a slightly vague post about a new multimedia framework in the works for Qt. But probably most talked about and most hyped is the much anticipated (but probably belated) announcement of the N900 and Maemo 5. No, it’s not yet the much dreamed of (by Qt/KDE fans at least) Qt-based Maemo and is not yet the “finished” device in Nokia’s long-term strategy, but it still has me drooling over it. Sure it has some hardware and software bad points (still not Qt , but it will at least let me enjoy the best of both (of my) worlds, allowing me to finally have one device in my pocket instead of two. But damn it’s really expensive! Let’s see how it pans out in the coming weeks when it’s actually released.

The future … The next quarter will be fun-filled, starting off with two “meets”. Maemo Summit is the more “grassroots” gathering for Nokia Internet Tablet and Maemo communities (compared to Nokia World where the N900 was demoed, which was more “suit”-ish). I’m excited about it because of potential news and discussion about the N900 and the future of Maemo (which will be Qt-based . But I’m equally hyped about the Developer Sprint happening on that same weekend(!), this time about the Future of KDE Game Development. Being a wannabe/frustrated game developer/designer, of course I find this something to look forward too.

Exciting times ahead. Unfortunately, I don’t know I’ll be around to enjoy and participate, even virtually. I’ve decided to take a self-prescribed/imposed sabbatical, for personal reasons (mostly to preserve my sanity and, consequently, my life). But with all this buzz going on, how can anyone stay away and still stay sane?

I could probably say that half of the busy-ness of November was devoted to personal matters: birthdays, church/community activities, and health problems. I got a very big wake up call regarding my physical status, so I need to put a lot of effort into losing weight and staying fit. I’m not sure if the hacker’s diet is something that I can apply, given culture and situation considerations, but I’ll give it a try. In the meantime, I’ve taken some preventive measures and have declared war on all forms of soda/pop/soft drinks/whatever-you-call-them-in-your-country which started three weeks ago. That means (sniff) farewell to Mountain Dew.

But I’ve also been busy with the tech side of life. School has started again next month, and this time my subjects are more interesting and challenging (and the books equally incompetent) than last semester: Data Structures and Algorithms and Computer Structure and Organization. I’m really starting to feel that I’ve enrolled in a Computer Science course.

I was also finally able to finish (technically) a major web-related project that has been going on (very slowly) for months. It was my first attempt at using Textpattern, which probably gives me enough experience to start migrating my whole site over to it. Sure it’s not as simple as WordPress, where you can just install it (or have it installed) and blog away. But it isn’t that complicated. Understanding how it’s basic presentation components work together is the key. The hardest part for me was actually “translating” the plain XHTML/CSS to Textpattern, complete with dynamic content and such. In a way, it’s a lot like programming with a library (TXP Tags), which I actually found appealing.

Last, but definitely not the least, I managed to cram my way through my Qt book finally. Although I have to admit that skipped on a few chapters that either didn’t interest me or were well beyond my current areas (databases, threading, OpenGL, embedded). I focused mostly on the beginning chapters, which is IMHO the minimal Qt necessary to start KDE hacking. Just for fun, I put together this very simple, crude, and primitive “web browser”:

(P.S. This made an early college Windows fantasy of mine come true. But I have no intentions of going beyond that). The book, by the way, is available for free (legally) at the Qt documentation pages (unfortunately, only the first edition is available for free, which is a bit dated now).

But more than actually finishing a book that I bought a year ago, this milestone practically means that I’m ready for real KDE coding, which has been the ultimate goal for the past 2 years. I might be able to blog about the many KDE tutorials as I go along (but knowing my own blogging discipline, or lack of it, I won’t hold my own breath). Now I’m really excited.

Cheers to an eventful November and here’s to an even busier December!

The Philips SA3225/97 player is really just a simple device. A bit too simple even. One of those devices that does one thing (or a few things) does them well (hopefully): music (MP3, FM Radio) and video (in a proprietary SMV format) player, text reader, recorder, picture viewer. That’s it. You will have to manage those files, specially your music, elsewhere. No problems connecting to GNU/Linux and KDE it’s simply seen as a removable USB device. Oh, and of course, it can’t play Ogg Vorbis.

Now my other toy is a whole different story. It’s a ZTC (or CECT) C2000, more known locally as “one of those China phones”. Quite sad that quite a number of these phones (some of which are actually good), are being re-branded and marketed as cheap Nokia and iPhone clones (although some do seem to be iPhone-inspired). But that’s another story. This is one good phone that has a lot of features that I want: of course, calls, SMS/MMS, GPRS (sadly.. no 3G), music player (MP3, FM Radio, Voice recorder), Videos (3GP, MP4, TV receiver), games (NES emulator), and a big touchscreen. And the best part of it was that I only spent US$ 120 (roughly converted from Philippine Peso) for such a great phone! Ok, I really only spent $75, the rest was from my mom.

I bought this phone, and made sure it was an inexpensive one, for two reasons. The most “urgent” would be that I needed and wanted a new phone, and with the nice set of features and nice price tag, it was a great deal (although I was actually planning on buying another phone which looked a lot like an iPhone ). But my ultimate goal is really to be able to hack and play with it, perhaps even install Qt and/or KDE on it, which is why the “cheap” price tag was an important factor (so that if I brick it, I won’t cry… much…). Of course, the biggest problem would be the fact that this is not your regular Linux-friendly phone, and it’s not that well documented for Linux hacking. However, since I have found instructions on how to upgrade/flash the device’s firmware (OS?), I’m hoping that it will be possible to do something with it. If not, I hope to at least be able to install Qtopia on it. That would be one major step forward. Now all I have to figure out is where to get started, since this (mobile/embedded development) is a totally new and alien frontier for me.

Of course, I’m still hoping to buy a Nokia N810 (actually I prefer the N800) and am taking steps to earning around $450 for one.

1. Symbolic logic is a bit like math, specially algebra. You get one symbol, just one sign, wrong, and you get a whole bunch of stuff wrong. So when your logic book has lots of typographical errors, specially in rules or principles that are supposed to be the foundation of all other stuff, then you know you’re in a world of hurt. And like algebra again, it’s not simply enough to leave the student with the rules and one or two examples. For first time students, you need to explain how and why an answer was reached. Unfortunately for me, I lost the logic book I had in college years ago, and I can’t find it again on sale (not that I’d want to invest on such a big book for only 2-3 chapters in my subject). So more online research for me. Yay! Not…

2. I wish that web designing would be as easy as using QLayout. When I started learning HTML way back late 90’s, I was a big fan of frames. Then I soon learned that it would be deprecated and that layout using tables was the way to go. And then comes CSS, where structure/content and appearance are separated. The separation is actually very useful, and is sort of similar to MVC stuff in GUI programming. But the devil, as always, is in the details. And not only do you have to fight with flimsy “standard” CSS, you also have to wrestle with browser differences. A few years back, I was planning to do a bit of diving into web design and development, mostly just for my own site. But after this, I’m kinda hesitant to go deeper. I’ve tested the waters and it’s soooo cold.

3. It sucks when there’s some fighting in the community. Of course, no community is perfect, but that’s not an excuse not to hope and strive for an ideal. And even if no community is perfect, it’s still saddening nonetheless. Not to mention destructive and distracting. Developers lose time and motivation and then leave. Users lose trust and patience and leave as well. Nobody wins. Both sides lose. But what’s more disheartening is that there even has to be sides. Can’t we all try to get along? (Yeah, I’m dreaming, right?) I don’t know what effect it has on other people, but as an aspiring developer and programmer, I sometimes question whether it is all worth it…

4. Now it’s my turn to suck. I suck at tutorial-based learning. Tutorials are great for quick fixes and solutions. They are great at explaining what to do, and some even have a detailed explanation on how to do them. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to last that long in my brain. Most of the time, I end up just parroting what I’ve read, without really understanding what makes it work. So what happens is that when I try to apply the tutorial to a different context and it doesn’t work, I’m practically lost. I don’t know if it’s an epistemological anomaly or a neurological disorder or what. I just think that different people learn differently, just like how some are visual learners while others are more audio. I guess I learn more when things get explained more, when the “why” is answered as much as the “what” and the “how”. So I’m off to find non-tutorial, non-”for Dummies” type of materials… which is pretty scarce if you’re talking about dead tree books around here.

Right.. now back to proving arguments using chain of reasoning (direct proof)…

Fortunately for me, that short phase seems to be over. Or rather, will seem to take on a slightly lessened and more regulated pace. For the simple reason that summer vacation’s over and my friends and online buddies are mostly back to school. This means that I should also be getting back to what I’m supposed to be doing: learning Qt and KDE programming. My list of dream apps to start is getting longer and longer. So I better start hacking. I hope to produce something really soon. Though I’m not too confident in releasing them immediately for public consumption since I haven’t envisioned on them actually being popular in the first place. And then there’s still some conceptual/theoretical Qt/KDE issues I have to resolve (such as to go cross-platform or not).

Speaking of school, my classes formally started last June 7. Unfortunately, I have no idea on what we’re supposed to be really doing and how. The course guide (sort of like a syllabus) was supposed to have been distributed last month, but I still have to see even a shadow of it. We do have our textbooks already (custom made lessons and activities) so I’ll probably just go through them. For this semester (June – October 2008), I only have two courses: Discrete Structures in Computer Science and Principles of Programming. So far, the first subject is mostly about logic, a subject I’m quite familiar with from my Philosophy degree. What’s interesting is that both these books are more than a decade old, just reprinted. While the principles of logic haven’t probably changed for the past centuries, I’m not sure how accurate a very old book on principles of programming would be. Being principles, I suspect they haven’t really changed that much, but I still have that uneasy feeling. Only one way to find out, I guess.

Time to dig in and be, erm… “productive”!

1. I suck at OOAD. (Object-oriented Analysis and Design). While I know the technical aspects of creating a class, I didn’t really know how to design one. I kept on asking myself again and again, should this be private, public, or protected, should I provide a setter/getter for this, etc. I guess one of the things lacking in my book is the integration of problem analysis and design into some of the example problems. I had this old C book (Hands-on Turbo C by Larry Joel Goldstein and Larry Gritz) that did just that. Even just the basics of designing classes would probably do a lot for a beginner to C++. In fairness, my book does have a sort of discussion about OOAD, but presented as a sort of add-on, rather than an important part of the process.

2. Nothing beats experience. Even if a book contained all the information and theory on software development, it still wouldn’t compare to the actual experience of writing code. Unfortunately, for months I leaned more towards the “I need theory first” excuse for procrastination, thinking that theory will properly equip me with the necessary arsenal to tackle any problem. Fortunately for me, Sho has always been there to knock some sense into me (I owe so much in that area that I should probably dub him as my Vox Rationis). Thing is, you need theory too, but it’s only half the story. Theory is nothing without practice, as they say. You can’t possibly learn everything through just reading programming books. At some point, you’ll need to apply that by actually writing code. Then, along the way, you’ll realize stuff that you haven’t really learned well enough or not learned at all. Then it’s time to learn about those. It’s a cycle. It’s a process. Either way, it needs to get started first.

3. KDevelop is… I really don’t know what to say about it. Touted as one of the best C++ IDE’s on Linux, I was really eager to give it a try. I didn’t use it while I was still learning because I thought it would overkill at that time, when my exercise programs spanned 3 files at most (main.cpp, Class.h, Class.cpp for example). But when Rolodeks grew to around 3 classes, I thought it was time to try it out. KDevelop is overwhelming, was my first and instant reaction. Unfortunately, it didn’t get better for me. For one, it’s Project system forced me to create C++ projects that used Autotools or CMake. I couldn’t just create a project with all files grouped together or let me use my own Makefile. In fact, KDevelop doesn’t even let you compile a single file C++ program at all. I might have missed some things though, since I haven’t read the KDevelop docs, but suffice it to say, I was pretty disappointed. Luckily, Kate is wonderful for what it is, and advanced text editor. With a few plugins, I was able to convert it to a mini-IDE, complete with a Makefile plugin. Although it’s still missing debugger plugins. Maybe I’ll have better luck next time.

Up next: Qt! And hopefully more exciting and worthwile software project.

miau

I’ve always been sort of jealous of irssi + screen users, specially with their ability to stay connected to IRC and attach to/detach from that session anywhere. This is one of the only two reasons for me to prefer using irssi over Konversation (the other is having an IRC client even without a GUI). Not that I don’t like CLI apps, but I usually prefer to use GUI, particularly KDE, solutions whenever possible. Then I heard about Quassel, a Qt IRC application that uses a client/server setup. Since it’s a Qt app, it’s the next best thing to a KDE app. But since there were no public releases (even development versions) yet, I had to wait. Fortunately for me, Sho had an alternative: IRC bouncers/proxies. I’m currently using miau (pronounced as “meow”, which I initially chose because of its affinity to cats ) and so far I’m loving it. It allows me to stay connected on IRC even when no client is running (usually because Konvi or X crashed, or I logged out), allows me to connect multiple clients to a single daemon which shows me as a single entity, replays messages I missed when no clients are connected, etc. And best of all, I can use any IRC client that’s available, whether Konversation, irssi, or Opera’s IRC client (on Windows). All I need is to connect to my desktop, and voila! Now I can enjoy Konversation anywhere, anytime (as long as it’s installed of course)!

Ordering books

I’ve always had a problem with the lack of quality computer/programming books here in the Philippines. Most of the books here are either “for Dummies” types, 21 Days/24 hours types, very Microsoft-specific, or just plain old (but are still sold as if they were brand new). Ordering through Amazon or directly from the publisher is sort of out of the question, as I don’t have my own credit card/bank account, and my mom totally doesn’t trust online transactions. After months of trying to figure out the easiest way to acquire books, I came across a Special Order Service from the biggest bookstore chain in the country. Of course the price is a bit higher than the original retail price (around US$ 15 higher), but that’s the price I’m willing to pay in exchange for convenience. Of course, it’s not 100% sure that the books I want will be available for the service and I have to check with them everytime I want to make an order. Luckily for me, two of the books that I want are available. These are “Inside the Machine: An Illustrated Introduction to Microprocessors and Computer Architecture” and danimo’s “The Book of Qt 4: The Art of Building Qt Applications”. The latter is not a priority yet since I already have the Trolltech Qt 4 book, although, looking at the detailed table of contents, it seems that danimo’s coverage is a bit more in-depth compared to what I’ve read in my Qt book so far.

At the same time, though, I’m a bit hesitant to immediately order a book, since I’m quite low on funds and I’m stilling planning to buy a Nokia N810 ASAP. Now if only I had good news about that…