Fox/FXRuby/Leopard, Part the Second

As a follow-on to my previous post, I discovered that there's a little more work to be done to actually be able to use my freshly installed FXRuby. I tried using the listexample.rb program from the aforementioned Pragmatic Programmers book, and promptly found that the 'fox16' library couldn't be required. Grumble.

Fortunately, this post on the fxruby-users mailing list (again, courtesy of Lyle Johnson, lead programmer of FXRuby and author of the PragBook) was able to get me going:

a workaround is to use the "gem env" command to identify your Gems installation directory (usually something like /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8) and switch to the "gems/fxruby-[version]/ext/fox16" directory underneath that:

cd /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/fxruby-1.6.0/ext/fox16

and then type:

make

Note: Since RubyGems comes installed with Leopard, your gem installation directory is more likely to be something like "/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8", at least if you did a fresh install as I did. YMMV.

But here I encountered the same architecture problem I referenced in my previous post. This time I ended up editing the Makefile and deleting all references to "-arch ppc"; setting the ARCHFLAGS environment variable before running make didn't cut it for me.

Once you've re-made the gem, you should be able to verify your installation in irb:

>> require 'fox16'
=> true

Two final caveats:

• I had to modify the PragExample with the line "require 'rubygems'" at the top of the file, right before the "require 'fox16'" line. This was because I haven't yet set my RUBYOPT environment variable in Leopard to require rubygems automatically for me.
• The example program worked fine for me after all this (try holding the shift button to do multiple selections), until I quit, at which point I got:

  X Fatal Error.
  Abort trap

So this FXRuby thing is not an exact science yet. Sigh.

Installing Fox and FXRuby on Mac OS X Leopard (Intel)

I'm planning to start playing with some of the GUI toolkits available for Ruby, and I know there's a Pragmatic Programmers book (currently in beta) for FXRuby, so I thought I'd get the fixin's in place to be able to play with it. Unfortunately, the standard sudo gem install fxruby alone didn't get the job done for me. Even using MacPorts to install Fox first (sudo port install fox) let me down. Here's what (eventually) did work:

• Download and Install Fox:
  
  
  
  • Download the source. I picked the current stable version from the "Downloads" section, "Linux/Unix" subsection.
  
  
  • Set the LDFLAGS environment variable as described in Lyle Johnson's (author of FXRuby and the book) very helpful post:

    export LDFLAGS="-dylib_file \
    /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib:\
    /System/Library/Frameworks/OpenGL.framework/Versions/A/Libraries/libGL.dylib"

    Note: There's a typo in Lyle's instructions that will trip you up if you just cut and paste from there; there should be a space between the "-dylib_file" and the first "/System/Library/...". And, in case you're cutting and pasting from here, there should be no space between the colon and the second "/System/Library/...".
  
  
  • cd to the expanded Fox source folder.
  
  
  • ./configure, with whatever options you would normally use. I didn't specify anything in particular.
  
  
  • sudo make install, again with your typical options. The vanilla command worked for me.
  
  
  
  


• Install the FXRuby gem:
  
  
  
  • sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install fxruby
  
  
  • The extra bits about the ARCHFLAGS are a workaround for a problem in ld (and/or lipo) trying to build this gem for both PPC and Intel architectures. As you might guess, this will work for you only if you're on an Intel Mac.
  
  
  • From the Credit-Where-Credit-Is-Due department: I cribbed the "env ARCHFLAGS" trick from the most excellent Hivelogic website, specifically this post.
  
  
  
  


• Write a cool GUI! (Haven't gotten that far on this item yet...)

Oh, and I'll be looking at Shoes too. No weird Unix/Linux project dependencies for that one, thank goodness. Just a regular .dmg to download and install. Nice.

Required Reading: The Role of the Study of Programming Languages...

Via the always excellent Patrick Logan -- Daniel Friedman: The Role of the Study of Programming Languages in the Education of a Programmer.

Some key quotes:

• On the lack of tail call support in Java:

  Guy Steele...was promised back in 1997 that this flaw would be fixed. Here it is 2001 and there is still no resolution of this problem on the horizon.

  Emphasis mine. The more things change...


• On Friedman's own background and educational goals:

  Later, I wanted to be able to implement a language per week.

  Followed later by:

  I want the student to be able to implement (perhaps crudely) every language that they study...

  Now that's Thinking Different.


• Friedman quoting Jonathan Sobel, a former student who successfully used (uses?) these concepts in practice:

  Efficiency comes from elegant solutions, not optimized programs. Optimization is just a few correctness-preserving transformations away.



• Finally, and perhaps my favorite, Patrick Logan's cogent take:

  Probably programming in C itself (or Java or Scala) is a kind of premature optimization.

WARNING: Refers to -- and poses some examples in -- the lambda calculus. Implementations in Scheme. Don't let either of those put you off, though. I don't understand every line of code (yet), but I've seen enough to be inspired to figure it out.

Challenge yourself.

Java Generics Broken? We Report, You Decide.

Since I've been taken to task in the past for my cogent observations of Java's, um, shall we say "unintuitive" behavior, particularly in the era of generics and autoboxing, I'm just going to put this one out there without making any (public (explicit)) value judgments.

So it seems that if you define a method thusly (note: requires Java 5 ("Gangly Geek") or better greater having a numerically higher version number):

public void doSomethingGenerically(Collection<Supertype>){...}

and you attempt to call it thusly:

List<SubtypeOfSupertype> bogus = new ArrayList<SubtypeOfSupertype>();
doSomethingGenerically(bogus);

you get a compiler error saying you can't call that method with those arguments.

So my question here is: why the heck not?

Inheritance 101: a List isa Collection, right? A SubtypeOfSupertype isa Supertype, right? So why am I being told that an instance of type List<SubtypeOfSupertype> isn'ta Collection<Supertype>?

Paging Dr. Liskov...

Blast From the Past: HP 11C

Whilst doing some major cleaning up / throwing away of some of my accumulated junk this weekend, I came across my scientific calculator from college.


"Big deal", you say? Maybe so. But this thing is 23-24 years old, which is about 2400 in computer years, which puts it close to the technical definition of "antique". (Author's Note: We won't get into what that makes me...)


Still not impressed? The thing still works. With the original batteries.

You read that right. After a year or so of use, every time I turned the thing on I would wonder if this was the day I was going to have to change the batteries. Nearly 25 years later, that day still hasn't come. Now granted, for the past several years I wasn't even sure I still had it. But when I came across it in my junk-cleaning I couldn't resist the temptation to try it out. I suppose I should've been surprised, but I wasn't really.

I'm telling you, this is the Calculator That Time Forgot. This is the Calculator of Dorian Gray. I'm going to have to hold some kind of ceremony when it finally does give up the electronic ghost. But I'm not holding my breath.

Strike!

Dear Striking Writers Guild of America People,

First off, let me just say that I in no way want to impede your constitutionally protected right to effectively quit your jobs and be guaranteed that you'll get them back once your demands are met. That is some constitutionally protected right, right there. Anyways, God love you and I hope you get your residuals. Power to the proletariat, and all that.

But I do have a favor to ask. You see, the only new thing on TV for a while is going to be news footage of your picketing, and I think you owe it to yourselves (not to us, don't get me wrong here; you're on strike, I get that) to punch up your picketing chants a little. Maybe it's just me, but I kind of expect your strike chants to be more...I don't know...pithy? Trenchant? Heart-wrenchingly but ultimately stirringly observational of the Human Condition?

I mean (this is an actual WGA picket line chant): "Why make the viewers wait? Why won't you negotiate?". Really? That's the best the WGA -- the WGA! -- could come up with? I realize you're doing what you do best -- rehash old material -- but come on. You have so much better old material to work with. Some suggestions:

We won't write another role! *bleep* you, *bleep*hole!

More new films for Jean-Claude Van Damme? Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!

Did Tony Soprano's family get whacked? We won't tell you, 'cause we're so hacked!

No more Die Hard on Blu-Ray! Mother *bleep*er, yippie-ki-yay!

Won't give us the money we lack?! Then the Terminator will never be back!

You could go the nostalgic route, and remind us of everything you've done for us in the past, and what we'd be missing without you:

Star Trek! Numb3rs! Stand By Me! No Wil Wheaton on TV!

Or, and this is my favorite option, you could go beyond the traditional chant-based approach and actually stage your picket lines like the different genres you write for. You guys are writers, for pity's sake! You need to keep your chops up. Everyone who isn't actually walking a picket line at the moment could meet in the bullpen:

Fade In. Cue cutesy beginning-of-scene jingle. A group of writers are sitting around a table.

Head Writer: Okay, people, we've got a strike to write here. Who's got some ideas? Let's shoot it around the room!

Writer 1: We could get the cast of Friends to sit around on some comfy chairs on the picket line and make wisecracks about how lame it is that the producers won't give us any more money! David Spade could guest star, which will eventually get us Heather Locklear! And Jerry Stiller could walk in and start yelling his lines incoherently until Jason Alexander gets so worked up that he has to leave. Let's leave what's-his-name-the-guy-who-played-Kramer out of this one, though, huh?

Writer 2: Oooh! Crime drama! We could get David Caruso to do that thing he does in, like, every SINGLE SCENE where he has any dialogue! You know -- he stares moodily into the distance while delivering the line and then, at the very end, just when you think he's not going to, HE SWIVELS HIS HEAD to look directly at whoever he's talking to! It's brilliant, I tell you!

Smash cut. David Caruso is standing at the counter at a Starbucks.

Perky Starbucks Babe: (perkily) Can I take your order, sir?

David Caruso: (staring moodily into the distance) Yeeessssssss. I believe I'll have a (swivel) latte.

Wipe transition. We are back in the bullpen.

Other Writers: (all at once)...Caruso...brilliant...NYPD...movie "career"...hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Writer 3: How about a reality TV angle? We could have one of the picketing writers get ragged on by all the others until he snaps and puts Billy's hand in warm water while he's sleeping and then schemes with Maggie and Amber to get Chuck and Bruce voted out of the picket line only to double-cross them by "accidentally" tripping Maggie during their mambo and telling Amber she's too fat for him to marry her so she bursts into tears and can't do her Billy Idol tribute number so she runs off to build houses and stuff for the poor until she gets noticed by Donald Trump who makes her his new wigtender! Simon Cowell could be the judge!

Writer 4: I've got it! Let's get the writers for Saturday Night Live! They've been on strike for, like, eight years now, only no one told Lorne Michaels so they still get paid...

Fade out. Mercifully.

Remember now, I'm asking this favor for your sake, not mine. I'm not going to be affected one way or the other. You think you're "hunkered down for a long one"? Kid, I've got all the Harry Potters and the Lord of the Rings trilogy on DVD. Extended Director's Cut Version With Commentaries and Making-Of Featurettes. You won't be seeing me for months!

LaTeX For The Win!

Yeah, yeah -- I feel a little silly making a big deal about having just now become a convert to LaTeX. It's like wandering into a room of World-of-Warcraft-playing geeks and bragging about "this super-cool game I found; it's called 'NetHack'!"

But dang! I can't believe I made it through two-thirds of a Master's degree in computer science without even trying this brilliant tool. I mean the quality of the output (okay -- the quality of the typsetting; the actual semantic content is still GIGO) makes even the most mundane homework assignment look like something that's going to be published in some major journal any day now.

The key was in resolving to take the first step. I was dreading it, but I found that forcing myself to do that first assignment in LaTeX let me pick up probably 80% of the formatting tricks I'll ever need. Definitely worth the effort.

LaTeX strikes me as a perfect example of what Kathy Sierra used to blog about (Author's Note: Hi, Kathy! Come back! We miss you!): software that lets you (me) KICK A**! It's a software tool, but it has one key characteristic of the best physical tools as well -- it takes a modest force as input (your (my) typing), and amplifies and concentrates that force to shape an output that you (I) could not have achieved with your (my) bare hands.

Simply put: LaTeX rocks.

I just hope TeXShop -- which is the front-end I use on my Macs -- plays well with Leopard. There aren't a lot of issues I can think of that would keep me from upgrading, but losing LaTeX/TeXShop would definitely be a showstopper.