magnum blog

Posto la trascrizione di cio’ che ho detto in una conversazione Skype che ho avuto con Duccio di Extendi, così non devo riscrivere ciò che tra altre cose, mi “tedia” ultimamente, fannullone eh ? Magari qualcuno ha qualche consiglio da darmi o qualche nota da fare…

ora mi sto guardando molto in giro per capire cosa posso tirar fuori come soluzioni cms da rails..

mi manca solo tantissimo l’introspezione… uso textmate.. carino si .. ma un RAD serve eh …

aptana mi sembra un mastodonte…

avevo fatto certe clasi per la gestione delle immagini in .net che mi mancano proprio .. roba di cropping automatici con mille opzioni ecc. ore a peedere tempo per migliorare la qualit� , capire le tipologie di interpolazione ecc ecc… insomma in parole povere mi manca un cms… per ora per i progetti piccoli riesco ad ottenere buoni risultati utilizzando wordpress… fa te, se ci metti le mani fai veramente tutto …

le cose che servono a me per far tutto in un cms sono:

• possibilita� di definire i template di contenuto, cioè prodotto = codice, descrizione, prezzo ; news = titolo,abstract e testo ecc ecc
• possibilit� di definire tipi di allegati in modo da poterli estrarre semplicemente poi a gruppi , tipo el immagini di una news, tutti gli allegati generici di una news, tutti i .pdf di una news ecc..

le cose sopra citate si potrebbero aver anche con un buon sistema di tag..

• e poi internazionalizzazione… possibilit� di decire quali campi son traducibili e quali no e automaticamente uguali per ogni lingua… tipo il prezzo di un prodotto, il codice ecc
• poi la templatizzazione me la faccio io … chi se ne frega.. tanto i siti son snelli da fare con xhtml e buon css, insomma tutte ste cose ce le avevo nella mia soluzione precederente in .net… e anche di + …

ma i problemi erano:

• ero da solo, o lo rilascio opensource e qualcuno mi da una mano oppure che casino aggiungere nuove funzionalit� e testarle ecc… e poi alcune librerie e componenti proprietari non andavano d’accordo con l’opensource mentre io si…
• e poi .net ? va solo per ora bene su piattaforme windows, mono sì, va, ma mi sembra stia in piedi con le stampelle.. e poi la comunit� opensource comincia ad odiarlo per troppa ingerenza di Microsoft su Novell
• per sviluppare bene in .net serve Visual Studio, costa molto anche se è un buon ambiente di sviluppo, impareggiabile per .net

Ultimamente, al lavoro e anche in forma “personale” mi sto guardando un po’ in giro, un po’ deluso imbolsito stanco dall’approccio che l’utilizzo del solo framework .NET obbliga ad avere, tra i “disguidi” posso citare:

• obbligo ad utilizzare spesso codice proprietario (framework e componenti/controli avanzati)
• perfetta integrazione con i sistemi windows, ma solo con quelli
• necessit� di utilizzare ambienti di sviluppo mastodontic (Visual Studio, Sql Express et similia)
• non ultimo una preoccupante ombra Microsoft+Novell sullo sviluppo del Framework Mono, unico spiraglio per utilizzare .net non solo su piattaforme Win*

Conscio che una maggiora apertura e un utilizzo di diversi strumenti non possa che giovare, tra le varie letture riporto quindi parti di un interessantissimo articolo apparso su Lullabot :

ASP.Net faces a couple of key disadvantages.

1. Cost. A solid .NET development setup for a team of three or four, plus the licenses for all the server-side software you’ll need to run things, can probably buy you half a man-year of developer time. This isn’t a HUGE issue if you’re launching a startup with funding, but quite a few of the groundbreaking sites out there started out as experimental skunk-works projects. You can cut costs by using free development tools (the C# compiler, after all, is a free download) but you lose a lot of the benefits that come with the platform.
2. Fewer hackers. This is very close to the first point, but it’s a bit different. The barrier for entry for most of the ‘hot’ languages on the *NIX side is low, closer to old-school ASP than the heavy-duty stuff of ASP.NET. That means a smaller pool of hobbyists-turned-coders to feed the project mill. While you probably don’t mind the higher barrier for entry if you’re hiring a team to develop some enterprise software, most startups don’t happen that way. This isn’t even a .Net specific issue — it’s more about the changing view of ’scripting languages’ when compared to ‘real languages’ like C, Java, C#, C++, and… well. Whatever flavor of C you can think of.
3. Not the best fit for web RAD. .NET is an amazing platform for developing Windows applications. Truly awesome. Unfortunately, ASP.NET tends to err on the side of ‘making the web work like WinForms’. When it comes time to web-enable your .NET based client/server application, you’ll thank your lucky stars for ASP.NET’s familiarity. When you’re trying to pound out a prototype of a new social networking site, however, you’ll feel like you’re dragging a Volvo uphill. It just doesn’t make as much sense.
4. The people are the platform. It’s obviously not universal, but the GPL/MIT/Creative Commons influence that permeates the non-corporate *NIX side of the development world affects a lot more than just the software itself. Rapid dissemination of best practices, novel tools, and open-sourced solutions to common problems are standard operating procedure in the *NIX side of the fence. Ultimately, this is far more important than the details of the specific software platform. The Open Source world is a ‘gift economy’ — you gain karma and status by giving people things of value. Whether that’s a new caching API, patches for bugs in an existing framework, or hard-won knowledge about esoteric optimization issues, sharing is built into that development community’s fabric. This makes life hell if you’re trying to figure out how to sell boxed software, but if you’re trying to implement a cool idea and launch a startup in your spare time, the difference is night and day.

… e in un commento al suddetto articolo, alcune condivisibili considerazioni sugli standard aperti:

Basically the biggest reasons have been:
a) Wanting freedom of choice and self determination instead of being beholden to vendors and meekly taking what they offer and getting lumped with their changing plans etc. We don’t want to be stuck having to use an entire integrated stack - we want to be able to choose and swap individual layers of the stack in and out when necessary. Basically we got sick of vendors directly or indirectly affecting our destiny.

b) Agility and cost. Having to go back to vendors for more licenses every time you get a new developer or need a new server is a major PITA for a growing company. Managing licenses is an unwelcome distraction. Open source lets you install what you want when you want without extra costs and hassles.

c) Community. We have had far more success getting obscure bugs noticed and fixed on open source platforms than we had with the commercial ones. You can talk with open source developers directly. What little community exists around commercial platforms seems less open and more mercenary.

Noto con piacere che finalmente è stata rilasciata la nuova versione di SCPlugin, applicazione che permette di utilizzare repository Subversion (svn per gli amici) direttamente dal menù contestuale del finder di Macosx. La versione precedente in effetti c’era ma era, secondo me, decisamente inutilizzabile, presentando dei grossi problemi con repository che necessitavano autenticazione. Sotto Windows esite invece da tempo l’impareggiabile TortoiseSVN che svolge egregiamente il compito. In attesa dell’annunciato Versions, che dovrebbe essere un innovativo client sotto macosx, non ci resta che usare i suddetti, o andar di shell …

from Scene Completion Using Millions of Photographs

What can you do with a million images? In this paper we present a new image completion algorithm powered by a huge database of photographs gathered from the Web. The algorithm patches up holes in images by finding similar image regions in the database that are not only seamless but also semantically valid. Our chief insight is that while the space of images is effectively infinite, the space of semantically differentiable scenes is actually not that large. For many image completion tasks we are able to find similar scenes which contain image fragments that will convincingly complete the image. Our algorithm is entirely data-driven, requiring no annotations or labelling by the user. Unlike existing image completion methods, our algorithm can generate a diverse set of image completions and we allow users to select among them. We demonstrate the superiority of our algorithm over existing image completion approaches.

from RobinGood

Un nuovo algoritmo sviluppato da James Hayes e Alexei A. Efros della Carnegie Mellon University permette di riempire le parti sfocate o che non gradisci di una foto confrontandole con gli enormi database di immagini disponbili sul web. Gli sviluppatori del progetto ne parlano in maniera entusiasta e sottolineano come il loro intento fosse quello soprattutto di dare la possibilit� di riparare …

Leggendo un post di Joshua Davis, conosciuto anche come Praystation, mi son sentito di condividere quello che dice riguardo alla programmazione Actionscript e in particolare sul fatto che la nuova versione di un linguaggio non sia per forza meglio della vecchia, bisgona contestualizzare insomma e il discorso mi sembra calzare perfettamente anche in ambito web (.net, php, ruby ecc).

Da workshop.joshuadavis.com

Soon the industry will get Flash CS3 with Actionscript 3.0, and while there are great advances in Actionscript 2.0 and in Actionscript 3.0, I still am a huge advocate for Actionscript 1.0 components. Even though they have some wonky residue pulled from the old smartclip days, I find the totally self contained AS1.0 component structure extremely elegant and useful even today.

#initclip

randomCanvasClass = function () {

// the constructor

}

randomCanvasClass.prototype = new MovieClip();

Object.registerClass(”randomCanvas”, randomCanvasClass);

#endinitclip

It does however, have its pros and cons.

Ok, so we need to conform to the deadly prototype. However, you may think that having the Object and Class self-contained within the component clip a good thing and/or a bad thing. I actually like the idea of not having to port over .as files as we need to do with AS2.0 Classes.

I have though, been porting all my AS1.0 components to an AS2.0 structure because creating super classes – like an environment that mixes random generation with other animation algorithms to create new super animations is a headache in AS1.0. It is possible… but you have to keep nesting components within components… a randomCanvas component, which nests a fade component, which nests an elasticity component, which nests a SIN/COS swarm animation component, certainly gets really messy and hard to manage.

AS2.0 solves all of this, a behavior can be self contained in a .as file as a class that a canvas clip can inherent. Metaphorically, these self contained .as classes act as legos. The kinds of legos that you snap on to the base board inherit the behavior of said lego.

But lets remember, just because it’s new, doesn’t mean you have to completely abandoned deprecated structures. Don’t get me wrong I have huge admiration for the engineers involved in evolving Flash and Actionscript… yet some of my greatest memories were in Flash 5. F5 was about being as creative as you could with a limited set toys (syntax) in a very small sandbox. As Flash and Actionscript evolved many things we’re added and changed in order to make a lot of different people, with different needs, happy.

So… with that being said, AS3.0 is here… but I’ll still write AS1.0 components.

Following this introduction I’ll document my AS1.0 components for visual reference — to be used in conjunction with the files we write and distribute in my workshop classes.

E questa qui, è la programmatrice principale di Pownce, sviluppa in Django e probabilmente in 12 altri framework meglio di un indiano e un bulgaro messi insieme: conosco colleghi che per la prima volta nella loro vita hanno sentito vacillare il loro matrimonio :-)…. e guardate cosa si fa “tatuare” sul portatile� !

Consiglio vivamente la lettura di questo post su CodingHorror e cito solo alcune parti:

I’ve spent the bulk of the last fifteen years developing some amount of reputation and expertise in the Microsoft universe, having published dozens of books and hundreds of articles, worked as an editor and consultant, written (as a subcontractor) parts of various Microsoft products, and so on. I’m also the editor of the Larkware site, which tracks news in the Microsoft software world for developers.Unfortunately, over that time I’ve also come to the conclusion that, even though it is staffed largely by smart and ethical people, Microsoft itself represents a grave threat to the future of software development through its increasing inclination to stifle competition through legal shenanigans. Its recent attempt to claim that no one can implement a user interface that looks anything like the Office 2007 ribbon without licensing some nebulous piece of intellectual property represents a new low in this regard.

I’m in a bit of a bind. Unlike fifteen years ago, I’ve got a family, including four kids, and I can’t afford to just walk out on a career that brings in good money. But I rather desperately want to find an alternative. This blog will record some of my explorations as I hunt around in other corners of the software world, trying to decide if there’s a viable business plan for me that can include weaning myself off of Microsoft software.

e poi….

I can understand where Mike is coming from. Microsoft releases new technology at a blistering pace, and keeping up– not to mention dealing with all the obsolete baggage you’re carrying around– is half the challenge. Just take a look at the stack I have to install on my development machine to do development work in .NET 3.0:

Windows Vista
Visual Studio 2005
Visual Studio 2005 Team Explorer (source control)
Orcas Extensions for Visual Studio 2005 (WPF & WCF project templates)
SQL Server Express SP2
Visual Studio 2005 SP1
Visual Studio 2005 SP1 Update for Vista
ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX Extensions 1.0
Expression Blend

Historically, I’ve used Microsoft development environments because they made my life easier.

Dice, Scott Bellware e sottoscrivo completamente:

…it’s a social welfare program for people who have outlived their purpose and who are willing to trade society’s access to reasonable software for the their access to jobs that they no longer have either the courage or skill for.
How can anyone with a lick of sense at Redmond have ever looked at Vista and seen anything more than a collection of poorly integrated side-effects of too many obsolescing execs trying to mark their territory. What can we expect of a piece of software that isn’t much more than the result of a herd of self-interested old farts pissing on the same piece of ground?
Microsoft simply isn’t in the business of making software anymore. It’s only in the business of being in business. Pretending to be a software company is just a front.
Oh to be president of the board for just one day…
I’m trying to get a free PDF printer installed on Vista… What was I thinking? Everyone knows that this kind of functionality is only available in some distant future science fiction version of Vista… or Windows XP. I think I’m about to become a lover of antiques… or Macs.
Say your prayers Vista… your days before the XP re-install on my machine are numbered.

… e anche io sono nella stessa situazione:

months ago I bought a macbook pro and a copy of Parallels. I switched because Vista is junk. I live in OS X and work in XP inside of Parallels. I have had absolutely zero problems with developing native win32, .NET, and T-SQL with XP running on a virtual machine. It is really the best of both worlds. You should check it out.

Rilasciata al pubblico la preview di Macromedia Adobe Flash 9 Actionscript 3. Peccato che per MacOSX, a prima vista non sia ancora Universal Binary, ma che aspettano?.

Adobe Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview provides registered users of Flash Professional 8 with early access to the new ActionScript 3.0 language and the ability to publish to the newly-released Flash Player 9. ActionScript 3.0 and the new ActionScript Virtual Machine introduced with Flash Player 9 are among the most signficant advances in the history of Flash. These new advancements, made in Flash Player 9, provide a more robust programming model, achieve standards compliance, and deliver
ground-breaking performance improvements.

The Flash Professional 9 ActionScript 3.0 Preview is the only planned “preview release” of the next version of the Flash authoring tool before the final version ships in 2007. The only “new” features exposed in this very early preview of Flash 9 are those related to publishing ActionScript 3.0 content to Flash Player 9. This includes integration of the new ActionScript 3.0 compiler, the new “Document Class” feature which allows users to assign a class to the main timeline, and a new publish target for Flash Player
9. There are other useful features planned for ActionScript development but they are not being made publicly available at this time.

Non ci credevo anche perchè è da qualche mese che io, Luca e Sam stiamo tentando “il salto mortale”. Ma dopo un po’ (un bel po’) di tentativi, ore insonni e con l’utilizzo del fantastico db4objects (…fantastico almeno per ora) è possibile sviluppare in .net e utilizzare la stessa applicazione altamente strutturata ad oggetti e classi per quanto riguarda l’accesso ai dati, sia su Windows che su Mac OSX o Linux sul framework opensource Mono! evvai !!!