Author: grant

Using DrScheme to Edit Code for Any Distribution

I would like, or for someone else to, write a plugin for DrScheme that would allow it to easily call out to execute code on any Scheme distribution.
The reason is that DrScheme is a very nice cross-platform editor with great features that you can use on R5RS and R6RS Scheme source code.
The plugin would need to be smart enough to know how to call out to another Scheme executable and disable PLT specific features.
Based on Leppie and Eli’s conversation; it seems possible.
Am I the only one that uses DrScheme for all of my Scheme editing?
I run code on PLT, Ikarus, Ypsilon, and Iron Scheme.

Setting up QBZR on OS X

Bzr is nice to use. It is tailored for the masses (of which I am a member). It has the usual UNIX support, but it has first-class Windows support, too. It has a nice UI if you want it. The community is great, too.

A few days ago I installed it on OS X and found that there was no UI support via Qt. Fortunately there are directions for setting it up here. Here are the steps that I followed:

  1. Installed bzr 1.14.1
  2. Installed Qt for Mac OS X Cocoa, qt-mac-cocoa-opensource-4.5.1.dmg, to the default location
  3. Verified its installation by running ’qtdemo’
  4. Installed sip, sip-4.7.9.tar.gz
  5. Installed PyQt, PyQt-mac-gpl-4.4.4.tar.gz (build took a relatively long time)
  6. Tried out qlog and qdiff and they worked fine

Now I am wondering if I should have just installed this using MacPorts.

Addendum: 06/21/09

Here are the directions that I followed from that link: 

In order to install PyQt, you need to have SIP installed.
1) download and install QT4.x
2) get SIP from http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/sip/download.php
$> python configure.py -d /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages
$> make
$> sudo make install
3) get PyQT from http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt/download.php
$> python configure.py -q /bin/qmake -d /Library/Python/2.5/site-packages
$> make
$> sudo make install
Hope this helps to get qbzr working

BZR as of today works with Python 2.4 or greater. Leopard comes with both 2.3 and 2.5 installed; but defaults to 2.5.

I didn’t know where qmake was installed; and typing ’type -a qmake’ seemed to be the quickest way to find it.

A Simple PHP Class to Back Up MySQL

My web host is cutting over from allowing shell scripts to requiring scripting languages instead. I had wanted to write a script in PHP, so I figured this is a good opportunity.
Here is a simple PHP class to back up a MySQL database and blanket-delete old backups from a directory.
Continue reading “A Simple PHP Class to Back Up MySQL”