plasticular inscriptor » plasticware

Applescript Show Track in Finder

plains — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:44:13 +0000

Space has been tight lately on my laptop and I’ve been too lazy to thoroughly go through and clean up. I keep regular backups, however, so I wrote this script so that when I hear a track that I don’t care so much about in iTunes on random, I can go to the folder and kill the track or the album, or heck, all tracks by that artist, quickly. You can put this file in your iTunes scripts folder and trigger it from Quicksilver as well for easy access.

PlasticWare Downloadable ::
Show Track in Finder (Mar. 11, 2008)
Download (~3,146 bytes) :: ShowTrackInFinder.zip

Happy Birthday Karel Čapek (and robots)

plains — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 17:58:30 +0000

Today is the birthday of Karel Čapek, who is attributed with popularizing the term “robot,” which he introduced in his 1921 play “Rossum’s Universal Robots” (or R.U.R.). He gives credit to his brother Josef for inventing the word, which has its roots in the Slovak word robota which translates literally to “serf labor.” Čapek is a fairly well known science fiction writer. Of note is one of my favorites, War with the Newts, in which a species of intelligent newts are enslaved by the humans but eventually rebel and take over the world (I always thought Vonnegut had to have read that one). Happy birthday robots everywhere!

Textmate (Revisited) vs. TextWrangler

plains — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 19:31:44 +0000

PlasticWare Downloadable ::
PlasticCodeWrap TextMate Syntax Theme Version 1.0 (Jul. 18, 2006)
Download (~1400 bytes) :: PlasticCodeWrap.zip

So, now that I have moved on to working for a software company, I’ve moved on also to actually coding more javascript for work. For some quick and dirty (well, actually not so dirty, but outside the realm of a set up project environment in Eclipse) javascript coding, I decided to give a couple of old favorites another look-see. I opted to run some tests with TextWrangler, the freeware barebones.com software offering in leiu of BBEdit, and with TextMate from macromates.com.

In the past and recent past in fact, I’ve opted to use TextWrangler for many tasks that I couldn’t find a way to do otherwise. Both BBEdit and TextWrangler have superior capabilities in single and multi-file grep searches for some seriously powerful search and replace functionality, and some other really nice features that are pretty handy for the code junkie. The multi-file search allows you to search any folder of files that your computer can access, while TextMate I believe only supports searching all files in a “project.” You can also use any BBEdit plug-ins for TextWrangler, although there aren’t that many out there these days that I haven’t been able to live without. From an appearance standpoint, the interface is clean and easy to use, albeit somewhat limited in the way that one can customize it.

Textmate, while I have read some not-so-glowing reviews about its search capabilities (I know, I’m sorry, but I really dig BBEdit/TextWrangler for searches) and diff functionality, I have to say that from an interface standpoint, its just much more comfortable to use. There are a few wonky things (such as the fact that the setting for tab stops is at the bottom of the window in a drop down), but the total gui package is just more a pleasure to use. In addition, I like the scheme for syntax coloring in TextMate better. Its more intuitive and extensible to the mid-level user, and there are already quite a few syntax “themes” out there (none of which I absolutely loved, but more on that later). TextMate also features easy to use macro editing and the “Bundle Editor” which allows the user to go crazy adding code snippets and macros to the already extensive set of “bundles” that support every code language I’ve ever wanted to use, with the ability also to integrate these macros with shell scripting.

SO, I have to say, I’m sticking with TextMate again, although I will undoubtedly use TextWrangler for search and replace functions at some point. TextMate’s ability to let the user build code snippets (that are accessible using short key combinations with the TAB key) and nice syntax coloring features did it for me. Strangely enough, both are pretty code junkie friendly, but both default to black text on white background. There are several syntax themes out there for both (see UserSubmittedThemes at the macromates wiki). I didn’t absolutely love any of the ones I found, so I used the theme in TextMate called “Slate” and munged (Mason’s favorite word) it together with Ruby Blue, Blackboard, and Mac Classic (which is white background as well). Its called PlasticCodeWrap and it can be downloaded above.

Flickr.Contactr Pre-pre-alpha

plains — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:27:03 +0000

FlickrContactr PRE-PRE-alpha
Originally uploaded by intafon.

Started working yesterday on my FlickrContactr application which can be found at my other domain, www.intafon.com. It’s kind of fun to play with so I went ahead and made it public, although it is still pretty seriously in a pre-alpha state. I don’t think it will blow up your computer, but I suppose there is the possibility that it could crash your browser. Anyhow, I’ll be posting updates to it pretty frequently in the next week or so, until I get a good bit of the functionality that I want to put in there implemented. Right now, its just a fun way to quickly view your contacts (and their contacts, and theirs, etc.). See it here :: http://www.intafon.com/flickrcontactr/index.php

Testing Syntax Coloring/ Drawing Class

plains — Wed, 31 May 2006 16:08:08 +0000

The following is a drawing class that I've used for the past year or so. I'm kind of using this article to test out various ways of doing syntax coloring in this blog. I use MoveableType, and I'm currently looking for some plug-in that will allow me to automatically publish code in the blog and have it look correct. Unfortunately, the only one I've found so far MTColorer, I wasn't able to get working. There are a few that my friend Mason and I have looked at for WordPress that work pretty well and (like many WordPress things) are easily configurable/hackable and free. The code that I've included below (as well as the other code so far in this blog) is colored using the Actionscript HIghlighter featured on Arul's Blog, which allows you to paste in your code and hit a button to get the styled text. Arul's code does a great job, but you have to visit his site to style your code, and then also provide a download link to the text file of your code if you want to provide just a plain text version. But hey, it works. He notes on the site that there is the possibility of releasing the code once he cleans it up, so maybe there will be something one can post on their own site sometime soon.

As for the code below, it is a simple drawing class that allows you to easily draw a generic box, a hairline box, and a filled rectangle. The main reason, however, that I created the class, is for those occasions where you may need a box that is not filled and is not made up of flash lines. If you've used Flash enough, you know that if you draw a 3 pixel line box, the corners are often rounded looking, which doesn't fly unless that is what you want in your design. I have worked on several projects that were to use photos that needed a "frame" of a certain width. The drawing class drawFrame method basically draws 4 filled boxes to create a rectangular "frame" of a certain thickness, made entirely of "fill" rather than lines, so the corners are nice and sharp. Of the instances where I have used this class, I have used the drawFrame method 90% of the time. Enjoy.

View as Plain Text

Actionscript:

/**
* Drawing
* @author - Ryan Todd
*
* PlasticStare PlasticWare Codebase Project (PWCB)
* This code is part of the PlasticStare PlasticWare codebase project. This work is Copyright (c) 2005 Ryan Todd, all rights reserved.
* Prior permission of the author is required in order to redistribute the source code or algorithms in a commercial product in any
* form -- original or derivative, in any programming language. The source code of the equations may be distributed as part of a
* non-commercial product, provided that redistributions contain the copyright notice:
*
* This Code is Copyright (c) 2005 Ryan Todd, all rights reserved.
* This work is subject to the terms in http://www.plasticstare.com/codebase_terms_of_use.html.
*
*
* AUTHOR :: Ryan Todd
* AUTHOR SITE :: http://www.plasticstare.com/
* CREATED :: 2005/10/15
*
* Drawing - this can be used to draw boxes and sometime in the future, other shapes
*
* Version :: v.1.0.5.20051015 for Actionscript 2.0
*/
class com.plasticstare.utils.Drawing{
public function Drawing() {
}
// drawHairlineBox - draws a box at in the specified movieclip with the specified rect and color. the line
// of the box is of hairline thickness
public static function drawHairlineBox(_mc:MovieClip,_color:String, _rectArray:Array):Void {
_mc.lineStyle( 0, Number(_color), 100 );
Drawing.drawBox(_mc,_color, _rectArray);
}
// drawBox
public static function drawBox(_mc:MovieClip,_color:String, _rectArray:Array):Void {
_mc.moveTo( _rectArray[0], _rectArray[1] );
_mc.lineTo( _rectArray[2],_rectArray[1] );
_mc.lineTo( _rectArray[2],_rectArray[3] );
_mc.lineTo( _rectArray[0],_rectArray[3] );
_mc.lineTo( _rectArray[0],_rectArray[1] );
}
// drawFilledBox
public static function drawFilledBox(_mc:MovieClip,_color:String,_alpha:Number,_rectArray:Array):Void {
_mc.lineStyle(0,0x000000,0);
_mc.beginFill (Number(_color),_alpha);
//
_mc.moveTo( _rectArray[0],_rectArray[1] );
_mc.lineTo( _rectArray[2],_rectArray[1] );
_mc.lineTo( _rectArray[2],_rectArray[3] );
_mc.lineTo( _rectArray[0],_rectArray[3] );
_mc.lineTo( _rectArray[0],_rectArray[1] );
//
_mc.endFill();
}
// drawFrame - essentially draws 4 boxes inside the specified rect of the color specified. these boxes
// align along the inside of the top, bottom, left, and right of the rect and have the thickness (from the
// rect border to the inner side of the box) specified
public static function drawFrame(_mc:MovieClip,_color:String, _rectArray:Array, _thickness):Void {
var topb:Array = [_rectArray[0],_rectArray[1],_rectArray[2],_rectArray[1]+_thickness];
var botb:Array = [_rectArray[0],_rectArray[3]-_thickness,_rectArray[2],_rectArray[3]];
var lftb:Array = [_rectArray[0],_rectArray[1],_rectArray[0]+_thickness,_rectArray[3]];
var rgtb:Array = [_rectArray[2]-_thickness,_rectArray[1],_rectArray[2],_rectArray[3]];
_mc.lineStyle( 0, Number(_color), 0 );
_mc.moveTo(topb[0],topb[1]);
_mc.beginFill(Number(_color),100);
Drawing.drawBox(_mc,_color, topb);
_mc.endFill(Number(_color),100);
_mc.moveTo(botb[0],botb[1]);
_mc.beginFill(Number(_color),100);
Drawing.drawBox(_mc,_color, botb);
_mc.endFill(Number(_color),100);
_mc.moveTo(lftb[0],lftb[1]);
_mc.beginFill(Number(_color),100);
Drawing.drawBox(_mc,_color, lftb);
_mc.endFill(Number(_color),100);
_mc.moveTo(rgtb[0],rgtb[1]);
_mc.beginFill(Number(_color),100);
Drawing.drawBox(_mc,_color, rgtb);
_mc.endFill(Number(_color),100);
}
}

Deyel PHP Photogallery Updated

plains — Tue, 29 Nov 2005 01:44:53 +0000

I finally got around to making some changes to the Deyel PHP photogallery. Using the template.inc class/script from the open-source PHPLib project, Deyel now utilizes templates to display its data, further moving the presentation part of the code away from the data part. In addition, the code has also been updated to utilize part of the image file names as a way of displaying the device used to take the photo, in addition to the date on which it was taken. (The gallery now features photos taken using the Sony-Ericsson T300, the Samsung SCH-a670, and the Palm Zire 71.) A few other under-the-hood improvements were also made. The random photo on the index page of this blog was generated using the Deyel application. The next requested feature is the ability to annotate individual images (possibly in the upcoming month or so...).

Applescript Date/Time File Renamer Folder Action

plains — Thu, 24 Nov 2005 20:58:18 +0000

This is version 1.0 of the renameToDateTimeAndMoveToDateFolder Applescript Folder Action. I created it in order to rename photos taken using a Palm Zire 71, which doesn't have very configurable file naming conventions for the photos taken. The Deyel photo gallery engine that I created in PHP reads jpg photos from directories named with the day that the photo was taken, and the file names must reflect the date/time stamp. So, I wrote this Folder Action to do the job of renaming them appropriately.

Place this applescript in the _root/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/ directory. Then apply it to a folder of your choice by command clicking on the folder and choosing Attach Folder Action (you must have folder actions enabled).

When the action has been applied to a folder, the script will take any files matching the extension list or the type list and rename them according to the creation date using the format "YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.EXT" and will place them in a folder (create it if necessary) for the day the file was created with the format "YYYY-MM-DD" inside the folder to which the action is applied.

This is handy for organizing digital photos, since most digital cameras give the photos non-meaningful names. This script does NOT use the jpeg EXIF metadata tag. The name is created using the creation date assigned to the file, which may or may not be passed to the file when syncing with the desktop machine. (This was originally created to rename photos synced from the Palm Zire 71). Use at your own risk.

Version 1.0 (Nov. 24, 2005)

Download :: renameToDateTimeAndMoveToDateFolder.zip

AS 1.0 MovieClip Extensions

plains — Sat, 19 Mar 2005 05:48:59 +0000

I decided to re-release this list of prototype functions for actionscript 1.0 that augment the feature set of the MovieClip class. To use, simply add #include "as/MovieClipExtensions.as" (if you are keeping the ".as' files in a directory called "as") to the actionscript on frame 1 of your movie. They are a bit rough and not so commented, but they work none-the-less. I have since replaced/updated them with newer AS 2.0 classes and methods. Notable methods included are ::

MovieClip.prototype.setPos :: handy for setting the position to an x,y coordinate
MovieClip.prototype.hideMe
MovieClip.prototype.showMe
MovieClip.prototype.loadWithFade :: for loading jpgs and fading them in
MovieClip.prototype.crossFadeTo :: for crossfading clips
MovieClip.prototype.roundCoords :: for use with pixel fonts - rounds to nearest integer coords
MovieClip.prototype.linearAnimate :: for doing linear animations of clip properties

Version 1.5

Download :: movieClipExtensions.zip