Code Snakes

SCSNI, Netbeans Dream Team and other news

2008-12-26T11:00:00.006-06:00

There has been a couple of news items with me lately.

First I was just checking the sun certification database, and it was there. The status of the Netbeans certification test took in October is passed. So Now I am a Sun Certified Specialist on the Netbeans IDE.

Secondly, I am now a part of the Netbeans Dream Team. Which means that i will be more heavily involved with the Netbeans community.

More to Come
Happy Coding don't let the snakes bite.

Python comes to Netbeans today.

2008-11-18T13:59:00.002-06:00

The time has come. Python support is available for Netbeans.
Download it, Have fun with it.
http://download.netbeans.org/netbeans/6.5/python/ea/

Now I need to look forward to version 7 and getting it final.
I will create a video developing a django project with Netbeans shortly

Thanks for all your support,
Allan

Python in Netbeans is a go!!!!

2008-11-12T17:32:00.000-06:00

After a 6 months of development. nbPython has been given the green light to be release as the official python build for Netbeans. The EA release will be released with Netbeans6.5. This feels like a real achievement for us. I would like to thank all the people who made this possable:

Ted Leung
Tor Norbye
Frank Wierzbicki
Jean-Yves Mengant
Amit Saha
The rest of the nbPython Development team
Netbeans QA Team

Most of all the user community, With out you this would have been all for nothing.

Netbeans turns 10

2008-10-22T22:15:00.001-05:00

Man I can't believe Netbeans is turning 10 now. It feels like just yesterday I downloaded version 3.3(which i still have on CD by the way). Back then you could only do web and standard java development. Those days were some very interesting projects back then. It has come a very long way.

Now I am working to provide support for python support in Netbeans. I feel like i am finally giving back to the community that has given so much to me. This has been the chance for me to grow and work with some of the best engineers in the community.
Now All I can say is Happy Birthday Netbeans!!!!

nbPython m6 is released

2008-08-13T09:19:00.001-05:00

I am pleased to announce nbPython Milestone 6 is out.
Some of the new features include:

The python console has been rewritten to work with windows.
New Python package support
Python run commands are now intergrated with the standard netbeans run commands
New Project main file
Platform selection per project
Color change of the default platform in the platform manager
And much more...

Milestone 6 works with Netbeans 6.5 beta.
It can be downloaded here https://nbpython.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=9716&expandFolder=9716&folderID=0

So go get the bits and have fun
Keep watching I will produce a new video very soon
Alley

Netbeans 6.5 Beta is out

2008-08-13T09:16:00.000-05:00

This is cool. Netbeans 6.5 beta is out. Now we can really have fun testing it.
If you want to play with the code check out http://download.netbeans.org/netbeans/6.5/beta/

Thanks
Alley

This Just Sucks

2008-08-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

My Blog has been detected as a Spam Blog. This is funny. Here I am the lead developer on a open source project and just trying to get the word out about the work my team does. Apparently this constitutes spam. Thanks Google!!!

Alley

nbPython Milestone 5 is out

2008-07-28T09:52:00.004-05:00

I have posted milestone 5. You can get it here(https://nbpython.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=9641&expandFolder=9641&folderID=0)

Just a note, Milestone 5 has a completely new project system. so any project created before Milestone 5 will not open. My recomendation is that you create the project with a new name and then copy the files from the old source directory to the new source directory. Then everything will be ok.

Thanks,
Alley
http://nbpython.dev.java.net

Building netbeans with python

2008-07-18T22:30:00.002-05:00

I was playing around with trying to automate the process of checking out and building my development netbeans. First I thought i would write a shell script. Thats when it hit me, Can I preform the whole process using python.
Prerequisites:

Mecurial (http://www.selenic.com/mercurial/wiki/index.cgi/Mercurial)
Ant 1.7.0 or higher
JDK 1.5 or higher
Python

Steps:

Open the script
change the antpath variable to where you have ant installed
run the script

Script:
download script
#! /usr/bin/python

import os
# set ant path here
antpath = "/home/alley/app/ant1.7.0"

hgpull = "hg pull -u"
hgclone = "hg clone http://hg.netbeans.org/main"
if(os.path.isdir("netbeans"):
os.rmdir("netbeans")
if(os.path.isdir("main")):
os.chdir("main")
os.system(hgpull)
else:
os.system(hgclone)
os.chdir("main")

os.putenv("ANT_OPTS", "-Xmx196m")
f = open("nbbuild/user.build.properties", "w")
f.write("build.compiler=extJavac\n")
f.write("javac.compilerargs=-J-Xmx512m")
f.close()
os.system(antpath + "/bin/ant -f nbbuild/build.xml")

os.system("cp -R nbbuild/netbeans " + os.getcdw())

os.system(antpath + "/bin/ant -f nbbuild/build.xml clean")

nbPython demos have been posted to netbeans.tv

2008-07-15T12:23:00.002-05:00

The nbpython m4.2 demo videos have been posted on netbeans.tv

These videos cover configuration, console, code generation and code templets

Thanks,
Alley

nbpython M4.2 video part 2

2008-07-13T14:43:00.002-05:00

I had to split the demo into two parts. Here is the second part of the demo below.
This covers the code generators and templates

nbpython M4.2 video part 1

2008-07-13T14:23:00.003-05:00

I have published the first part of the nbpython m4 demo
It can be view below

nbPython m4.2 released

2008-07-12T21:12:00.006-05:00

We have released Milestone 4.2 of nbPython. With this release the console has been fixed. If you want to open the console select window-> Python console from the menu bar.

You can download the new release from https://nbpython.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=9581&expandFolder=9581&folderID=0

I will publish a video shortly

Alley

Netbeans RCP shell scripts permissions

2008-07-12T15:16:00.006-05:00

Sometimes when you are building an RCP application, You need to include some shell scripts. What i have found that if you are using Linux, the build zip command drops the executable permission off the scripts. Here is a simple way to fix that. In the Suites build.xml file override the build-zip command with this.

<target name="build-zip" depends="build,build-launchers" description="Builds a ZIP distribution of the suite, launchers, and selected modules from the platform.">
<mkdir dir="${dist.dir}"/>
<zip destfile="${dist.dir}/${app.name}.zip">
<zipfileset dir="${build.launcher.dir}/bin/" filemode="755" prefix="${app.name}/bin"/>
<zipfileset dir="${build.launcher.dir}/etc/" prefix="${app.name}/etc"/>
<zipfileset dir="${netbeans.dest.dir}" filemode="755" prefix="${app.name}">
<include name="**/lib/nbexec*"/>
</zipfileset>
<zipfileset dir="${netbeans.dest.dir}" prefix="${app.name}">
<and>
<not>
<filename name="**/lib/nbexec*"/>
</not>
<selector refid="zip.platform.included.files"/>
</and>
</zipfileset>


<zipfileset dir="${cluster}" prefix="${app.name}/${app.name}" filemode="755">
<exclude name="config/Modules/*.xml_hidden"/>
</zipfileset>
</zip>
</target>

nbPython has a console

2008-07-12T00:27:00.003-05:00

I have finally got the python console working. As you can see in the picture, I can even run ipython as my interactive console.

More on this later
Thanks
Alley

Netbeans to support Python, It's offical

2008-07-08T17:40:00.001-05:00

Today at EuroPython 2008, Ted Leung (Dynamic Languages & Tools Architect, Sun Microsystems) and Frank Wierzbicki (Jython Project Lead, Sun Microsystems) announced that the NetBeans IDE will be supporting Python and Jython in future releases. At the core of bringing Python/Jython support to the NetBeans IDE, is the formation of the NBPython Project, led by community member Allan Davis.

For more information, visit the NBPython Project page and request membership to the project. For developers wishing to contribute, sign up for the development mailing list.

In addition, the Sun Developer Network (SDN) is also launching the Python Developer Center and is planning to feature Python/Jython technologies in future Sun Tech Days events, a 15-city world tour designed to educate developers in local markets on various technologies. Python runtime support is already available in OpenSolaris 2008.05, via the pkg.opensolaris.org repository, as well as with Cool Stack on Solaris 10-based systems.

For More Information:

NBPython Project Page
Sun's Python Developer Center

Interview: Allan Davis, nbPython Developer

Ted Leung's Blog
Frank Wierzbicki's Blog

nbPython Milestone 4.1 Released

2008-07-08T15:56:00.004-05:00

Sorry guys,
I had to release a patch to nbPython. I could not leave it hanging like that. I descovered a major bug after i uploaded last night. The Parser was going haywire. I have fixed that and have now released Milestone 4.1
It can be found at https://nbpython.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=9516&expandFolder=9516&folderID=0

Alley
Lead Developer, nbPython
http://nbPython.dev.java.net

nbPython M4 is released

2008-07-08T01:31:00.003-05:00

I have posted milestone 4 of nbPython. It can be downloaded at http://nbpython.dev.java.net
Please note that the nbm's can only be installed in 07/07/2008 daily build or later.
Some of the new features include are:

class and method generation (alt + insert)
Interactive console (window->other->python console)
Improved syntax highlighting

Alley
Lead Developer, nbPython
https://nbpython.dev.java.net

6.5 M1 is out

2008-07-07T15:30:00.002-05:00

Netbeans 6.5 Milestone 1 is out. it can be downloaded at http://bits.netbeans.org/download/6.5/m1/
New things include PHP support, as well as other great enhancements

to see Romen demo the php editor check out this link http://www.netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/php-editor-screencast.html?intcmp=925655

Stay tuned I will have an nbPython update very soon

Thanks,
Alley, Lead Developer
http://nbPython.dev.java.net

Interview Published

2008-06-20T18:30:00.003-05:00

Geertjan published an interview about me and nbPython today. Go and check it out at http://netbeans.dzone.com/news/interview-allan-davis-nbpython

Alley

USB Repair part 2

2008-06-17T21:50:00.003-05:00

I Did it!

I re-soldered the connections to my broken USB flash drive. Would you believe it, it worked. I used a very thin solder

Alley

USB Repair part 1

2008-06-12T08:46:00.002-05:00

Great!! What a klutz I am. I bumped into my USB jump drive today. When i did that, the connector bent to a 45 degree angle (Wonderful). With the connector bent the pins that connect the USB connector to the flash board have bent and separated from the flash board. I am going to try and re-soldering the connections long enough to see if i can get the data off the drive. I will try this tonight.

I will post more on this later (with pics) about how I fix this.

Alley

nbPython Demo on Netbeans.tv

2008-06-10T06:43:00.004-05:00

Hello again.
I have posted the m3 video on www.netbeans.tv. Some people were having a problem with youtube and some networks block that as well. So here it is again. Click here to open a new page(http://www.netbeans.tv/community/nbPython-M3-353/).

What's New in nbPython Milestone 3

2008-06-07T13:31:00.002-05:00

What i am trying to do with our development is release a milestone about every two or three weeks. With that in mind i am proud to release milestone 3 of nbPython. The release can be downloaded from the nbpython site(https://nbpython.dev.java.net). There are a couple of great new features in this release.

The first of the new features is execution of a python script. In the project window, If you right click on a python script one of the options is run. Select this option and it will be run in the output window at the bottom. Also if you have the script already open in the editor, On the menu bar select run then run python script.

The second new feature is being able to set Python interpreter in the options panel. To access the options panel, select Tools then Options from the menu bar. Once the menu bar is displayed go to nbPython button on the top. Now the nbPython options are displayed. You can set the python interpreter to your favorite python runtime. If you are using CPython then check off the native option below the interpreter command. Click ok to accept the changes
That's it for this release.
Code you later,
Alley

NbPython Video

2008-06-05T19:13:00.003-05:00

I created a video of the upcoming milestone release of nbPython. Let me know what you think

nbPython Milestone 2 has been released

2008-05-12T07:22:00.003-05:00

nbPython Milestone 2 has been released. This release includes a new syntax highlighting module. Please check it out and let me know what you think
http://nbpytyhon.dev.java.net

Alley Davis
Lead Developer - nbPython

GhostBusting

2008-04-23T10:52:00.003-05:00

My favorite part of coding is hunting down the Ghost error. This error will show up with a error message that does not mean anything. After hunting it down, you find where you think the error is. You comment out the offending code and rerun. Low and behold the error still shows up. different line number but exact same error.

My favorite example of this is the AutomationException error. This error is thrown by the java - com bridge(There are two words that should never go together). There was no error message just a stack trace of where to start the hunt. After a couple of weeks hunting this, I found out that it was a credential issue(Other developers with the keys to the kingdom had changed the password)

nbPython Milestone 1

2008-04-23T08:43:00.002-05:00

nbPython has released the first milestone. go checkout https://nbpython.dev.java.net to find out more

Alley