Posts in tools Category

Jun 1, 2009

uzbl - The Stripped Down Browser

I am trying out the uzbl browser for last couple of days. It follows the unix philosophy to strip down a browser of everything else other than visiting the web sites. Everything else, even the management of cookies, bookmarks, history and downloads is outsourced to external scripts. [Continue]

Apr 18, 2009

Microsoft Open Sources Common Compiler Infrastructure

Microsoft has open sourced the Common Compiler Infrastructure (CCI) via CCI: Metadata and CCI: Code and AST components. Like other Microsoft’s open source entries, these two are offered under the Microsoft Public License. The metadata and code components together can write CLR assemblies and debug (PDB) files. [Continue]

Apr 10, 2009

Power Tools Are Terrible Clones

I have been saying this for Linux, but I guess it applies for all the power tools. Power tools are terrible clones, they serve you the best when you use them as themselves. I have heard innumerable complaints about tools being difficult because they are different. [Continue]

Apr 9, 2009

TalkPress - Hosted bbPress

bbPress will soon power TalkPress, a hosting service for online forums. It is similar to the WordPress.com service, though it is currently not open to public. I am sure this will also bring in integration between the two hosting services. [Continue]

Apr 6, 2009

Extending Bash Auto-Completion

One of the ways of making command line more usable is by providing auto-completion. It is a non-intrusive way of freeing the user from the burden of remembering options. Bash provides something called programmable completion which can be extended for your own applications. [Continue]

Mar 20, 2009

IE8 Is Here

Microsoft IE8 is finally here, popular opinion is that it will find its users only amongst the existing IE users. IE8 is not trying to appeal to users of its competitors. However, I sincerely hope that it at least appeals to IE6 users enough to make it extinct soon. [Continue]

Mar 10, 2009

Emails Are Poor Man’s Tweets

Emails that tell me about some article or updated profile or events are nothing but poor man’s tweets. I agree that it can be the other way at times. Though it is neither because of any of the tools themselves, it is because we use the wrong tool. [Continue]

Mar 9, 2009

vi - The Interface

Most of us know about the most popular clone of vi - vim. Here are some more editors that are either vi clones or support emulations: bvi - binary text editor Yi - text editor written in Haskell with both vim and emacs goodness Kate - The vi input mode jVi - a clone which is also a plugin for NetBeans nvi - a clone distributed with BSD viper - vi emulation on top of Emacs jsvi However, vi has also inspired applications/plugins of completely different classes. Here are some examples: bash - a Unix shell has vi mode vimperator - an addon for Firefox, a Web browser, to make it behave like vim vimperopera - vimperator for Opera, another Web browser viemu - vi/vim emulator for Visual Studio, Word, Outlook and SQL Server vifm - ncurses based file manager with vi like key-bindings xzgv - image viewer mutt - text based email client apvlv - a PDF reader that behaves like vim xmonad - a tiling window manager with some vim-like key-bindings Google Reader - web based feed reader, and Gmail - a web based mail client, both borrow from vim key bindings No wonder I thought of using the familiar interface while designing an application. [Continue]

Mar 1, 2009

Got Tiled With xmonad

I have started using xmonad as my primary window manager this year. I had first tried xmonad while learning Haskell. xmonad is a tiling window manager, which means that windows on your desktop border upon each other without overlapping. [Continue]

Feb 16, 2009

Will Google Chrome Be Late?

Google Chrome have decided to go with Gtk+ for the Linux version. However you still see mentions of Qt in the developers mailing list. I too had wondered the same after Qt went LGPL. [Continue]