What scripting language has both ec2 library & easy to use ncurses api? - api

I'm looking to write a cli replacement for elasticfox.
Would be nice to use python / ruby / bash or something alike.
This is a side project to make our Ubuntu environment a bit more fun, so as much abstraction as possible - I'm loving it :).

If you like Python, there's:
Several 3rd party EC2 modules: http://pypi.python.org/pypi?:action=search&term=ec2&submit=search
A built-in ncurses library: http://docs.python.org/library/curses.html#module-curses
A nice and powerful ncurses alternative called 'urwid': http://excess.org/urwid/

You could also use bash and a curses based dialog program like whiptail or dialog. The dialog program also has an X equivalent, Xdialog.
This can be useful for very simple, quick and dirty, or POC work.

Or use Perl.
EC2: https://metacpan.org/pod/Net::Amazon::EC2
Curses: http://search.cpan.org/search?query=curses&mode=module (plenty of modules with different grades of abstraction)

Related

Cygwin & OCaml: OPAM + Batteries

I extensively use Cygwin on a Windows 8 environment (I do not want to go ahead and boot/load Linux directly on the machine). I use the OCamlIDE plug-in for Eclipse and have experienced relatively no problems using this workflow setup.
However, I would like to use Batteries so that I may make use of use of its dynamic arrays among a few other interesting features that will speed up my development process.
I have tried this method: http://ocaml.org/install.html, but I get the following error:
$ sh ./opam_installer.sh /usr/local/bin
No file yet for i686:CYGWIN_NT-6.2-WOW64
What am I missing and how would I configure Cygwin so that it can accept the Opam installer? When I tried yet a different way of building Opam, I got:
'i686-w64-mingw32-gcc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
as a Makefile error and reason for building failure. It seems something is wrong related to mingw32-gcc, what do I need to install and/or configure for my Cygwin to get it to compile/build things properly. I have wget and curl installed as well.
My overall question: What is the best way to get Batteries installed on my system with the minimum of time spent tracing all of its dependencies by hand? Is there a way I can just build the library module, such as BatDynArray and the includes:
include BatEnum.Enumerable
include BatInterfaces.Mappable
That way I can just call them directly in my code with open...;; and/or include...;;;
OCaml works beautifully on Windows with WODI, which is a Cygwin-based distribution that includes Batteries and tons of other useful packages (which are a pain to install manually on Windows).
I urge you to take a shot at WODI, which I believe to be an indispensable tool for the
rest of us, the forgotten souls, who have to deal with Windows.
First of all, include does not do what you think it does. open Batteries should be exactly what you're looking for. OPAM is not yet solid on windows (maybe Thomas could give an update on where things stand).
Frankly, I would recommend to install a linux on a VM, you should be able to get started with OPAM instantly then. Otherwise, take a look at this package manager for OCaml which focuses on cross platform support: http://yypkg.forge.ocamlcore.org/. I've never tried it myself however. The last package manger you could try is GODI, I'm not sure about its windows support though.
Finally, if none of these options work then it should be possible to install batteries from the source. All you need is OCaml and make. And if there are problems with this approach then you should definitely follow up on them either here or on the bug tracker because batteries does intend to support windows AFAIK.

How to integrate OpenNI, NITE libraries in CodeBlocks or Geany

I installed the OpenNI+NITE+kinect on ubuntu 12.10 today and the samples are working fine. (Ran NITE samples and they work like charm)
I want to start developing in Linux and I like to work with IDE. For ubuntu I have always used Geany or Codeblocks and i was wondering if there was a way to integrate OpenNI,NITE libraries to the IDE's so that I can write, execute, debug the code easily from the IDE itself.
I tried to add the libraries myself in geany but all my attempts failed. :/
Also, when I do make for Sample examples in OpenNI, I get *.d and *.o files but I dont seem to get the executable *.out . So i am not sure how to run the programs.
I am a novice programmer, just starting to learn, So please excuse the noobness in
questions.
Appreciate the Help.
Thanks
Generally if you're doing something non-trivial with Geany you will need to provide your own build system (even simple GNU Make files will do). Geany is intentionally build system agnostic and allows you to run arbitrary build commands which are described in the manual as well as in a helpful article on the wiki.
If you describe in more detail the errors/problems you referred to as "attempts failed" it will likely be possible to provide more concrete solutions.

OK Programming language from USB stick with no installation

I'm looking for a compiler or interpreter for a language with basic math support and File IO which can be executed directly from a memorystick in either Linux or Windows. Built in functionality for basic datastructures and sorting/searching would be a plus.
(I've read about movable python, but it only supports windows)
Thank you
Not sure what are the issues there for the other languages, but I am pretty sure that Lua will work fine on such environment.
It is perfect for your requirements: basic I/O, math functions, excellent data structures (all based on numeric and associative array, with any kind of key/values, allowing the most complex operations).
Bonus: very simple to learn (for the bases, at least), readable, and powerful when you start to dig. And it starts to have a number of useful libraries, sockets, regexes and parsers, GUI, etc.
It is just a single binary file, no install at all, no registry access, no file access (beyond reading the binary and script!) if not requested, totally transparent: it is often used in embedded system, often memory constrained, on Roms, etc.
There is a python distribution called Movable Python which is designed to do exactly that. It might do what you want. Also, MinGW/MSYS will run on Windows with no registry entries or other installation beyond placing the files in a directory tree - all you need to do is set up the relevant directories in the path, which can be done in a batch file.
The Java JDK easily fits on a stick, and does not require installation; You can install it to a PC first and then just copy the install directory to the stick. I presume you can do the same for the Linux JDK.
And there's a ton of good text editors that don't require installation.
Not sure if it still applies to current versions, but I have an ancient perl.exe (version 5.001, from 1994 or 1995) that still works perfectly fine as a no-installation single executable.
If you can tolerate TCL, it's hard to beat a tclkit
TCC (the Tiny C Compiler) is a full implementation of C in a really small package. You can even write shell scripts in C:
#!/usr/local/bin/tcc -run
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
printf("Hello World\n");
return 0;
}
TCC is available for any Unix-like platform, and also for Windows.
I've done exactly that with Ruby. Worked well.
I'm way late for this party, but I thought I'd weigh in anyway.
I currently have a Windows-usable USB stick with the following installed on it (for Windows):
Languages
Java
Erlang
Fantom
Groovy
Haskell
jacl (JVM-based Tcl)
JavaFX
JRuby (JVM-based Ruby)
Jython (JVM-based Python)
NASM
nice
pnuts
Rexx
Scala
SISC (JVM-based Scheme)
Sleep
Tcl
Prolog
gawk (via GnuWin32 and MinGW/MSys)
jawk (JVM-based AWK)
ANTLR
Clojure
JBasic (JVM-based BASIC)
Tuprolog (JVM-based Prolog)
Rhino (JVM-based Javascript)
YASM
Lua
Kahlua (JVM-based Lua)
C (via GnuWin32 and MinGW/MSys)
C++ (via GnuWin32 and MinGW/MSys)
Fortran77 (via GnuWin32 and MinGW/MSys)
Ada (via GnuWin32 and MinGW/MSys)
Programming Tools
jEdit (JVM-based programmer's editor)
Ant (JVM-based build tool)
Maven 2 (JVM-based build tool)
vi (via GnuWin32 and MinGW/MSys)
Vim
CMake
gmake (via GnuWin32 and MinGW/MSys)
Leiningen
Subversion
Fossil
ANTLRworks
ctags/etags
Geek Toys
All SIMH emulators, with networking if available
Several operating systems, utilities, etc. for same
And a cast of dozens in key libraries, plus the Geronimo application server.
Yes, this is a single USB stick, and I probably missed an item here or there while making this list. It's amazing what you can run off of a USB stick these days.
http://smallbasic.sourceforge.net/
Runs anywhere (even mobiles) and has everything you need.
You could use DevCpp, it comes with Mingw 3.x or CodeLite (Mingw 4.x) for C/C++. For Pascal you can use DevPas, for Python web development try InstantDjango or better yet Web2py (very nice indeed!), for Ruby you have InstanRails, for Perl you got a complete enviroment (even a C compiler!) with StrawberryPerl. You could install cygwin on the USB drive. There are a lot more options out there. Interested in a LISP like portable/cross-platform and little language? Try newlisp (its a gem!). Also you could run almost anything (linux or windows based) on a portable VM under Portable VirtualBox/VMplayer or QEmu with a performance tax ;).
Why not C++? You can statically link in any external librarys assuming there lisence allows it, and you won't have any external dependencies.

How to write a cross-platform program?

Greetings,
I want to write a small cross-platform utility program with GUI in it. What language/GUI-library should I stick to? Is it possible whatsoever?
This is gonna be a small program, so I don't want to make people download JVM or .NET Framework. Is it possible to develop it natively?
Update 1.
By "natively" I mean that the end result will be native code without intermediate layers like Java Virtual Machine or .NET Common Language Runtime
Update 2.
A FREE solution is preferable ;)
If you know C or C++ the first cross platform GUI framework I can think of are:
QT (C++, proprietary but free with the LGPL licensing)
wxWidgets (C++, the most complete and stable but also huge)
FLTK (C++)
FOX (C++)
IUP (C, simpler and cleaner than the ones above)
If you know Pascal, you can try freepascal+Lazarus. I've never used it, though.
The problem is: If you do not want to have a GUI but you do not want to ask the user to download an eternal API, Framework or virtual machine to run it in, be it TCL/TK, Java or QT etc. then you get lost pretty fast.
The reason is: You would have to rebuild all the (GUI) functionality those APIs, frameworks and virtual machines provide you with to be platform independent. And that's a whole lot of work to do... .
On the other side: The Java virtual machine is installed on nearly any operating system from scratch, why not give this one a shot?
You want to develop a cross-platform program natively? Uh...I don't think that'll work, mainly because that phrase is a paradox. If you write native code, it by its very nature will only run on the platform you programmed it for. ;-) That's what the Frameworks are all about.
So what you should do instead is use a very slim framework if your program is going to be so small. itsmatt's idea of Qt is a possibility.
WxWindows? Oh, it's called WxWidgets now: http://www.wxwidgets.org/
wxWidgets has bindings to all sorts of languages - python for instance, if your app is small enough.
Lazarus is great. GTK2 on Linux, win32/64 on Windows, WINCE on euh, Wince. It even uses Carbon on Mac (working on COCOA). Also easy to sell to your boss (the code is Delphi compatible)
How about Python using Qt or Wx and then using PythonToExe to make a 'distributable'
Thought will have to giving to the development to ensure that no native functionality is used (i.e. registry etc.) Also things like line breaks in text files will have different escape characters so will need to be handled
Which OS's do you have in mind when you say cross-platform?
As Epaga correctly points out, native and cross-platform are mutually exclusive. You can either write multiple versions that run natively on multiple platforms, or you need to use some cross-platform framework.
In the case of the cross-platform framework approach, there will always be extra installs required. For example, many here suggest using Python and one of its frameworks. This would necessitate instructing people to install python - and potentially the framework - first.
If you are aiming at Windows and OS X (and are prepared to experiment with alpha-release code for Linux if support for that OS is required), I'd highly recommend you take a look at using Adobe AIR for cross-platform GUI applications.
I agree with Georgi, Java is the way to go. With a bit of work, you can make your desktop application work as a Java applet too (so that users do not need to actively download anything at all). See http://www.geogebra.org as an example of an application with runs smoothly as a cross-platform Java application AND has a simple port to a web applet.
Two other advantages to using Java are:
They have extensive libraries for building the UI, including UI component builders.
The Java runtime framework is generally updated automatically for the user.
One disadvantage:
The version of Java installed on your end users computer may not be totally compatible with your application, requiring you to code to the lowest likely denominator.
Try RealBasic. Visual Basic-like syntax, targets Win32, OS X and Linux. I don't know any details about targetting Linux, but for any cross-platform development I've done between Win32 and OS X its been a dream.
http://www.realbasic.com
Edit: Generates native executables. There is a small cost - $100.
Have you looked at Qt?
Flash? It's installed pretty much everywhere.
If it "HAS" to be Desktop use Qt. Nothing beats it right now.
However personally I gave up on desktop and any UI based project I do is normally Browser/Server based. You can easily write a little custom server that listens to some port so the program can run locally with no need for your users to install Apache or have access to the net. I have a small Lua, Python and C++ framework I made for that purpose (Want to add Javascript for the backend with V8 :)
If you're going to look at Qt and WxWidgets, don't forget to also check out GTK+ !
I agree with David Wees and Georgi,
Java is cross-platformness par excellence. You literally write once and run everywhere. With no need of compiling your code for each target OS or bitness, no worries about linking against anything, etc.
Only thing is, as you pointed out, that a JRE must be installed, but it's quick and straightforward to do even for novice end-users (it's a matter of clicking "Next>" a few times in the installer).
And with Java Web Start deployment gets even easier: the user just clicks the launch button on a webpage and the application runs (if the proper JVM is installed according to what specified in the JNLP descriptor) or the user gets redirected to the Java download page (if no suitable JVM is found).

Setting up an Erlang development environment

I'm interested in looking at Erlang and want to follow the path of least resistance in getting up and running.
At present, I'm planning on installing Erlang R12B-3 and Erlide (Eclipse plugin). This is largely a Google-result-based decision. Initially this will be on a Windows XP system, though I am likely to reproduce the environment on Ubuntu shortly after.
Is there a significantly better choice? Even if it is tied to one platform.
Please share your experiences.
I highly recommend the Erlang mode shipped with the standard Erlang distribution. I've put together a "works out of the box" Emacs configuration which includes:
Syntax highlighting & context-sensitive indentation
Dynamic compilation with on-the-fly error highlighting
Integrated Erlang shell
And more....
You can browse my GitHub repo here:
http://github.com/kevsmith/hl-emacs
I've only done a small bit of coding in Erlang but I found the most useful method was just to write the code in a text editor and have a terminal open ready to build my code as I need to (this was in Linux, but a similar idea would work in Windows, I'm sure).
Your question didn't mention it, but if you're looking for a good book on Erlang, try this one by O'Reilly.
You could also try NetBeans there's a very nice Erlang module available: ErlyBird
Install Erlang: sudo aptitude install erlang
Install a recent JDK: sudo aptitute install sun-java6-jdk
Download and install (the smallest) NetBeans edition (e.g. the PHP one): www.netbeans.org/downloads
download the erlang module ErlyBird: sourceforge.net/projects/erlybird
manually install the modules via NetBeans
ErlyBird features:
syntax checking
syntax highlighting
auto-completion
pretty formatter
occurrences mark
brace matching
indentation
code folding
function navigator
go to declaration
project management
Erlang shell console
I'm using Erlang in a few production systems personally as well at the office. For client side testing, documentation and development I use a MacBook Pro as the OS/platform and TextMate with the Erlang bundle as an editor.
For sever side development and deployment we use RHEL 4.x/5.x in production and for editing I use VIM. Personally, I've got 4 machines (slices on slicehost.com) running Debian using Erlang for a few websites and jobs.
I try to go with the smallest 'engineering environment possible', usually the one with the fewest dependencies from apt or yum.
To add to the Emacs suggestions, I would also recommend that you look at the advantages of distel when running the Emacs erlang-mode.
I've seen answers suggesting TextMate here, so I wanted to add another good Mac OSX tool:
ErlangXCode plugin to XCode.
I've been using this since I started with Erlang and really do like it.
The download link on his blog is broken, here's the real download:
http://github.com/JonGretar/erlangxcode/tree/master
You could also try a virtual server on demand service like this one from CohesiveFT
Select the components you want (e.g. erlangrb12 + yaws + MySQL + erlyweb) and it will build a vm image for you to download or to put onto ec2.
Rolling you own locally is quite straightforward too if you follow the instructions in the pragmatic programmers book Programming Erlang
Just a quick note:
The Erlang "compiling" process described in Ciaran's post (described for Ubuntu 6.10 btw) can be easily skipped using apt command in any Debian based distro:
apt-get install erlang
Do not forget to install these packages if you see it fit:
erlang-doc-html - Erlang HTML document pages
erlang-examples - Some application examples
erlang-manpages - Erlang MAN pages
erlang-mode - editing mode for Emacs
Good Luck!
I like Justin's suggestion, but I'll add to it: this solution is great for learning a language. If you don't rely on something like code-completion, then it forces you to learn the language better. (If you are working with something with a huge API, like Java or Cocoa, then you'll want the code completion, however!)
It's also language-agnostic, and in the case of an interpreted language, particularly one that has an interactive interpreter, you'll probably spend just as much time in the shell/interpreter typing in commands. Even in a large-ish python project, I still work in an editor and 4 or 5 terminal windows.
So, the trick is more about getting an editor which works for you. I'm not about to suggest one, as that's heading towards evangelism!
I just use Scite. Type something and press f5 to see the results.
Just wrote a guide on this on my blog, heres the abridged version:
Part 1: Download what needs to be downloaded.
Download and install the Erlang run-time.
Download and install TextPad.
Download a .syn file for Erlang and place it in the system folder of TextPad. For me, this folder was C:\Program Files\TextPad 5\system. I'm not quite sure who did this syn file (the site is in another language), but they did a good enough job.
Part 2: Set up syntax highlighting.
Open up TextPad. Ensure no files are opened. Go to the 'Configure' menu, and select 'Preferences'. In the preferences window, click 'Document Classes'. There should be a list of currently recognized languages. Click the 'New' button (it is right under the list of languages), and type 'Erlang'. Click apply.
Click the '+' button next to 'Document Classes'. This should expand the list, and Erlang should now be on it. Click Erlang. You should see a list of file extensions associated with Erlang, click 'New', and type '*.erl'.
Now click the '+' button next to 'Erlang' on the left. This should expand a list of several more menus. Click on 'Syntax'. Click the drop down menu and select erlang.syn. If erlang.syn is not there, then the .syn file was not properly placed.
Feel free to edit some other syntax options to customize TextPad to your liking.
Part 3: Compiling from TextPad.
Note: as of 12/05/08 there are severe problems with compiling in textpad. The Erlang shell somehow ignores new compilation when it is done in text pad. This is only useful for checking for errors, when you want to actually run the code, compile it in the Erlang Shell.
In the preferences menu again, click 'tools' on the left.
Click the 'Add' button and select 'Program...'. Navigate to the erl5.6.5\erts-5.6.5\bin\ folder and select erlc.exe. Select and single click the new entry in the list to rename it. Click 'Apply'.
Now click the '+' button next to Tools on the left. Select erlc, or whatever you have named the new tool (I named mine 'Compile Erlang'). The parameters field needs to read '$File', and the initial folder field should read '$FileDir'.
I have had good success with Erlide.
If you use Vim I recommend you Vimerl (http://github.com/jimenezrick/vimerl):
Features
Syntax highlighting
Code indenting
Code folding
Code omni completion
Syntax checking with quickfix support
Code skeletons for the OTP behaviours
Uses configuration from Rebar
Pathogen compatible (http://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen)
From what i've tried (and are still up to do), a good addition to an erlang dev. environment would be a virtual machine running ubuntu/yaws/erlang. Perhaps Erlyweb (erlang/yaws framework) would be nice checking out too.
Ciaran's posts (this would be the first of his "series") about his erlang install is nice, as he details the steps in setting up the server (and other stuff like xmpp with jabberlang).
Since you're switching to Ubuntu eventually anyways, I highly recommend using erlang-mode for emacs (which comes bundled with the Erlang distribution). It is officially what all the core developers use and what many other developers use because of the many features it offers you.
Installing the Erlang distribution itself should be simple :)