w a r p e d r e a l i t y

Movable Type + Catalyst

2009-10-29T19:14:20Z

a few months ago, I blogged about my 'solution' to running Movable Type with Catalyst. I have put my 'app', mtcatalyst, on github.

something witty goes here

2009-10-29T05:19:30Z

I have been very remiss in the upkeep of this blog, as my last entry is somewhere in the vicinity of 2 months old. At the very least, I have involved myself in the time-suck that is Twitter. While my followers do not top 5000, like some, I have managed 36 ~~suckers~~ followers to date. Twitter seems easier to update and keep up-to-date with, as it is real-time and you receive real-time feedback.

That said, there are a few improvements I'd like to make to my blog, mainly implementing nothingmuch's 'graceful degrading of gists' (and its subsequent follow-up). From there, I'd like to get a barebones Catalyst+KiokuDB blog up to at least take my old posts and render it to static HTML, working on the admin interface as necessary.

I also plan to make improvements to twirssi and create a 'fbirssi' for Facebook updates.

We'll see how much free time I have once I start my new job November 10th. Leaving my current position means I may cease contributing to SNMP-Info & netdisco (and also rendering my netdiscoX / snmp-infoX github projects moot), if for no other reason than I won't be doing network programming any longer and won't have a test bed (or a vested interest). I am still trudging through SQLT2 (from GSoC), attempting to get it to pass SQLT1 tests.

it's as easy as ADD, one two three

2009-08-01T18:47:09Z

This post is more ~~writing~~ typing my ADD thoughts down somewhere. There are many 'projects' I'd like to do, if had the time and/or [self-]motivation to do them. I've created github repos for most of them. I'm also posting these ideas to get feedback and/or receive help from others.

rewrite netdisco [github]

currently, it uses Parallel::ForkManager (back-end), HTML-Mason (front-end) and its own quasi-orm. I'd like to rewrite it using Moose, POE, Catalyst (with TT or HTML-Mason) and DBIx::Class

rewrite SNMP-Info [github]

currently, it uses AUTOLOAD and various other 'old' perl OO. I'd like to rewrite it using Moose and potentially POE::Component::SNMP, as I'd like to be able to use callbacks

create a Movable Type 'clone' [github]

I currently use Movable Type to power my blog. I like it, but not it's CGI nor its mish-mash of SSI, PHP, etc. I'd like to create a Catalyst blog engine, similar to Movable Type. I originally started hacking on Angerwhale, but per the advice of its original author, I stopped.

I'm sure I'll get asked why I want to rewrite all these tools that function already and do the job they were intended to do. Part of the answer is, all of them don't do something I want in one way or another or are difficult to expand upon. Another part is that it'd be nice to bring them into enlightened perl. And, as I'm sure for any other developer, there is a certain amount of NIH and wanting to create something to put your name on.

blogging for bloggings sake

2009-07-31T23:01:51Z

I know, it's been a while since I last posted and my avid reader is upset. I'd like to say I've been busy with work, family and school, but I think we can all agree, we're all busy in our own different ways, so that's not an excuse. I'm not sure what led up to my lack of posting, but whatever it was, hopefully it won't happen again.

I found something dhoss said on IRC to be thought provoking,

it's interesting (to me) that someone would perceive me as getting a lot done. At the end of the day, I always feel like I'm scrambling to finish something. I guess my ADD (this ADD, not this one) plays into all of this, as I'm everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

I'd also like to stake claim to IDD, or Idiot Driven Development. I don't follow the mantra of TDD by any stretch of the imagination. Take a look at my SQL::Translator repo. (I'll wait, it is on github after all). Notice anything? Sure, it's not complete yet (what software ever is), but there are absolutely no tests. I'm anti-test, in that I don't enjoy writing them, but ever since I've become involved with Catalyst, DBIx::Class, Moose, etc, I've come to value their existence. IDD's ideology (methodology?) stems from hammering on the keyboard until you meet your end result. How do you know it meets your end result? It does what you wanted it to do. Then I'd write tests. Perhaps this puts me into writing tests that potentially concede to my already written horrible code, but it works for me. Just today through my many, many, many revisions of SQLT, I found a caveat for MooseX::Declare,

Sure, you shouldn't be doing 'sub foo' while using MooseX::Declare, you should be using 'method foo', but when you're throwing stuff together, some things fall through the cracks. (I did write a failing test for this earlier)

All in all, as I said in my JFDI post, do what works for you. I know what works for various other perl folk I interact with does not work for me. But yet, I still manage to keep up the appearance that I get things done.

I'd also like to apologize for not including any play on Auto-Tune the News memes.

at least I'm a pro at one thing

2009-06-28T15:23:42Z

even if that one thing is crastinating. Sure, crastinating isn't a word, but I'm a pro at it (like quite a few other people, I'm sure). I'm not entirely enthused on how The Free Dictionary defines procrastinator (To put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness). I'd like to think I have potentially better things to do (read: watch TV or play Burnout Revenge with my five year old son). "You say tomato, I say tomahto". In the end, procrastination forces me to work under pressure, albeit self-induced pressure, but I find that I work that best way, so perhaps my procrastinating is not because I don't want to the actual task but because I enjoy waiting until the last minute to push myself [to the limit]

the power of JFDI

2009-06-18T19:54:34Z

or why it works for me..

I am a fan of extreme programming, without even really knowing it. I'll admit, I'm ignorant to all the buzzwords: scrum development, agile software development, etc. I don't care what you call it, it's all about getting stuff done and for me, it Just Works.

I am by no means a seasoned perl developer. confound, rafl, perigrin, ribasushi, rjbs, mst, dhoss, jayk, nothingmuch, castaway, robkinyon, Caelum, Khisanth, autarch, t0m, Sartak, jrockway, fRew and a multitude of others can attest to this. I am aware that I'm not good enough but here I am, getting paid by Google to develop a shiny new SQL::Translator. I'll freely admit, outside of the original proposal, I have no bonafide plan as to how I'm developing this. All I am going on is I know what the end needs to do. If you look at the git commit history, you'll see things added and deleted regularly. I am aware this style doesn't fit everyone, but it works for me. I'm sure there are instances where I have wasted time or duplicated effort, but more importantly for me, I'm *learning*.

If you've made it this far in the post, kudos for reading my lack of writing skills. I wouldn't even be posting these posts if it wasn't for Ironman. Aside from not being a very good perl developer, I am also by no means a blogger. I hate writing. I take that back, the only writing I enjoy is programming. But, I suppose it doesn't hurt to JFDI and blog. I am not going to say I've gotten good at it (there's no way I have) but I've at least become consistent with my posts and I'd like to think they've at least been somewhat useful to someone other than myself.

Per one of jayk's articles at catalyzed.org, I am one of those newbies and I feel I have been able to suceed (I never thought I'd ever submit patches for SQL::Abstract, DBIx::Class, Catalyst, etc, let alone be rewriting a whole module) because I decided to JFDI.

update on MT & C::C::C

2009-06-08T21:16:15Z

after I spent all that time figuring out how to run Movable Type with Catalyst::Controller::CGIBin, I have moved my blog from my linode to my Dreamhost account. No headaches, the only 'change' I made was to my .htaccess,

I also have a Google Summer of Code blog at http://gsoc.enotime.net to document my rewrite of SQL::Translator for GSoC 09.

Movable Type + Catalyst::Controller::CGIBin

2009-06-02T22:56:16Z

I have migrated my blog from Angerwhale to Movable Type. In doing so, I also hacked around to get MT to run under Catalyst::Controller::CGIBin. It was (surprisingly) mostly straightforward,

except having to add a new CGI object to lib/MT/Bootstrap.pm

much thanks to confound for helping me work all this out.

GSoC 09

2009-05-27T19:36:10Z

well, GSoC 2009 is upon us. Here are pictures of the schwag that accompanied the pre-paid Visa. Now, I have to figure out how to juggle everything else already going on to work on SQL::Translator.

some updates

2009-05-17T19:12:00Z

well, after discussion, I have decided not to patch angerwhale any further and start my own blog based on catalyst. I'll be dogfooding it here (and perhaps my other domains). This should be an interesting project to learn Moose, Catalyst, DBIx::Class and KiokuDB. Hopefully I can get this done alongside my GSoC project and my aspirations for a Moosified/POE/DBIx::Class netdisco (and eventually SNMP::Info).

angerwhale hacking

2009-05-07T16:11:00Z

so, I hacked around on angerwhale and I ported it from Crypt::OpenPGP to Crypt::GpgME. These changes are available on my github fork, specific changes are here. The fork has a few other chang es, including moving from NEXT to Class::C3 next::method and making it send text/html for IE. The IE 'patch' added another dependency, Catalyst::Plugin::Browser, which is really just a nice wrapper around HTTP::BrowserDetect. I also decided to bump the requirement for Catalyst itself to 5.8.

welcome

2009-05-05T18:07:00Z

Welcome to my blog, I am not very good at this, but I am trying since we (the perl community) were called out (more information can be found here). They should all aggregate into Planet Iron Man