Blog: Latest Postings

 

#5

Firedrop runs on Mac OS X!

I’ve got Firedrop2 running on Mac OS X! This makes the application truly portable, since with only minor tweaking, it will run on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux systems. Here’s what it looks like:

To get it running on Mac OS X, here are the steps I undertook:

  • Naturally, installed Python 2.4. (actually, Max OS X Tiger comes with Python pre-installed; just make sure it’s at least version 2.4). If you have trouble with the Apple version, try the one from http://undefined.org/python (in that case, you might need the Tiger patch mentioned there). Normally python is installed in /sw/lib/, so check to see where it gets installed. Some versions get installed in /usr/local. Later, depending on whether you run iTerm or Apple’s Terminal, you’ll get one version or another and the whole thing can get very confusing.
  • Installed wxPython 2.6.2.1 from http://wxpython.org/download. It got installed in a non-obvious place: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.4/lib/python2.4/site-packages/wx-2.6-mac-ansi. But never mind, it doesn’t matter. Test the installation by doing ‘import wx’ in a python shell, and then ‘sys.version’ to confirm that you are using the version you think you are.
  • Installed wax. I downloaded the latest version (0.3.24?), unzipped it, and copied the folder to /sw/lib/python2.4/site-packages. When I tried ‘import wax’, it failed to find the folder, so I created a file called wax.pth (with only “wax” in it) and put that in the site-packages folder.
  • Installed firedrop2 by copying the folder of the name from the MovPy distribution (you could use the normal one too, from the http://voidspace.org.uk site) to the site-packages folder.
  • Installed pythonutils by copying the folder of the same name, also from the MovPy distribution, to the site-packages folder. (configobj.py will be needed).
  • Copied over my firedrop2 data site from its location on a USB memory stick to /Users/stewartmidwinter/Documents/firedrop2
  • Edited site.ini in the firedrop folder to reflect the new location (the single line in the file now reads: sitenames = Users, stewartmidwinter, Documents, firedrop2. If you get the list of folders wrong, you may get a “Bus error” when starting the application. I’m not sure why that occurs.
  • Made a couple of edits to mainframe.py, firedrop2manager.py to deal with the different path separators used on posix systems (ie. / instead of \), but these edits will be incorporated into future versions of the code (currently 0.1.3) so you won’t have to touch the code.

Since you are reading this, I was successful in publishing my entry using the Mac OS X version of the app. BUT, there are a few bugs to be overcome:

  • Opening the Firemail plugin crashes the app
  • A few other things also would crash the app, but I made code changes and all is well now.

Posted by midtoad on 2006-02-10 22:27:26.
Categories: python

 

#4

Disappearing text with Firedrop

I completed code changes on Firedrop to allow the build.ini file to be read and written using ConfigObj, which like Firedrop itself is written by Fuzzyman. I also added functionality to have the app open a default site; naturally, the user can then edit this folder once the app opens. All is well with the app – sometimes.

When I took my USB key containing MovPy and Firedrop to my office, and ran it there (under WinXP, same as at home), the text doesn’t appear the first time any dialog is opened. It is only after I run any function that displays a file-system directory that the dialogs display their text. Strange!

Posted by midtoad on 2006-02-10 00:23:41.
Categories: python

 

#3

Hacking on Firedrop2

I’ve started poking around in the Firedrop code to see if there is anything I could work on. One of the first things I noticed was the the build.ini file was being read by home-grown method, and written back in a similar way. But the MovPy distribution that I’m using for Firedrop includes the ConfigObj toolkit created by Fuzzyman. Why not use that instead?

I made the necessary changes to the code. The method to read the .ini file dropped from 13 lines to 3 lines!

Posted by midtoad on 2006-02-07 12:38:02.
Categories: python

 

#2

Second post with Firedrop

I got some issues worked out with Firedrop2 and have successfully made a first post with it. I’m composing this post off-line, on an installation of Firedrop2 on a USB memory stick that I have handy. What this means is that I can carry the stick around with me and compose blog entries anywhere I go that has access to a computer.

Once I’ve composed a blog entry, I click one button and it’s copied up to my web server and posted there.

Still to come – work on a graphical design for the pages.

Posted by midtoad on 2006-02-07 00:35:03.
Categories: python

 

#1

First post with Firedrop2

This is the first post in my new blog, created with the Firedrop2 offline blogging tool. You can create entries using:

  • Textile
  • Sextile
  • Rest2
  • html
Title Col 1 Col 2
table are also with
entries possible this blog

You can also have some python code in your blog:

if 1: print “Hello, world!”

Headlines of various sizes are possible with Textile:

An HTML first-level heading

An HTML second-level heading

An HTML third-level heading

An HTML fourth-level heading

An HTML fifth-level heading
An HTML sixth-level heading

Tricky! we had to define a new blog2 user whose ‘home directory’ was in fact in the apache webtree.

Smilies

Smile Rolling Eyes

Posted by midtoad on 2006-02-06 20:57:24.
Categories: python