Software development

Demonstration Code–mixing objects of different types in a Boost.python list In Python, a list is allowed to contain objects of various types. Using Python’s introspection capabilities, it’s easy to process a mixed list because you can just test each list member to see what kind it is, using isinstance(objectA, TypeB). This creates a problem when […]

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has launched a trial program to subject software patents to peer review online.  Naturally, the big software companies aren’t exactly publicizing this.  We all know that a lot of stupid patents get issued.  Well, stop complaining and start reviewing!  Let’s make this trial successful!

The documentation for the Boost.Python extractor class is not terribly enlightening for a new user. The examples given in the tutorial are code fragments, and it’s never clear exactly what the context is or what they are supposed to accomplish. That’s a shame, because the extractor classes are really cool and easy to use, so

The Dapper-to-Edgy upgrade was surprisingly smooth, once I figured out how to do it. Unfortunately, the new version overwrote my “/boot/grub/menu.lst” so I could not boot Windows. I have enough experience with Linux that this was a five-minute fix, but it could be pretty scary for an inexperienced person. Who knows what else got over-written

When it comes to Linux, I’m a Gentoo guy. Go ahead, make fun of me and call me a ricer. Then go try to do something difficult on Redhat or Ubuntu, and come back and tell me what you think. I needed a Linux development environment at work, so I took my Windows machine and

I got it working a while ago, but I haven’t had a chance to update my eager audience.  I built a simple simple simulation tool using this crazy combination of languages.  It’s a library written in C++ that uses the finite volume method to simulate diffusion in one dimenstion. What’s cool is that it’s designed

I spent part of the afternoon wrestling with LAPACK integration in a C++ program, using the unofficial Boost bindings. I learned a couple of interesting things. test.C is a file that demonstrates them. 1. You need to create column-major matrices to pass to LAPACK. The subtle part about this is that the matrices are internally

Today I was reminded again of the need for a new kind of technical drawing software.  Here is the problem I am facing: I want to create a vector drawing of a three dimensional structure.  Right now, I can either create it in CAD and export a bitmap, or I can manually draw a 3-D

I spent today organizing my personal finances in GnuCash. I also spent a few hours customizing a report, which unfortunately means hacking in Scheme, a “dialect” of LISP. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like LISP/Scheme quite a bit. What I don’t like is writing code in “normal” languages, like C++ and Python, all week