Python in MinGW, a "FREE" purist attempt?

Ever since Python 2.5 bring msvcrt71.dll along its installer things are kind of inside M$ territory because that dll used to not bundled with Windows and distributing it means you (who compile) must legally own the product where that file came from aka MSVC++ 2003. With M$ releasing Express Edition (2005, 2008 and 2010) for free without particular restriction on its compiler (generally free compiler is restricted to provide Non-Commercial application only), this edition have rocketing MSVC as a build tool and has gaining more attention than MinGW (the open source alternative) for many open source project.

I have seen Python 2.6 being cross-compiled by opensuse in their repositories, the build system is fully automated (source is feed alongside patches) and updated at least every a couple of day (yes that's true). Though they don't provide static libraries and they also build the packages in more Linux-style in absolutely dynamic linking way of DLL. Which soon I realized will confused many Windows user who prefer more compact and portable binaries (by statically linking everything that possible). Directory structure also look ridiculous to Windows which never have the bin-etc-lib-share structure.

Proisk.ru, The Hideous Internet

Does google always find what we want? almost..
Are you a leecher? or download mania? umm or are you a pirate?

If you haven't try http://proisk.ru, you should! :)

I'm a long time user of it, formerly I just want to find an old Mahabharata movie. Then, surprise! proisk.ru reveal to me a dozen of ftp sites (mostly russian) that you won't even found in google. Some of the sites are ftp only interface and some have http (website) interface at its IP address.

Interestingly, many are actually (or maybe) a private share (among people who knows the IP of course) but get spidered by proisk.ru. I even find one that once being unprotected ftp only site but later transformed into full fledged website and no longer accessible anonymously! thinking it like someone who have just prepared materials for a website but not yet published it to the world wild web.

Porting MyPaint for Mac OSX

There is an attempt to port MyPaint for MacOSX in this forum. So far binary has been succesfully made, with some (or yet to be found) problems.


Today MyPaint team is looking for a Mac developer and/or packager. If you are interested in helping them, send an email to their mailing list use IRC (#mypaint @ irc.freenode.net). 

It will be a cool port! :)

Optimized Build GLib Gives Boost?

I've been optimizing some GTK-related library in my Gimpscape installer without having actually benchmarked them. Today I found interesting demo called "mv-scalability-demo" from goocanvas (canvas based on cairo) which really squeeze your CPU alot, the program draw hundred thousands of simple box with text inside it into ultra-huge canvas. Visually, nothing complex from its GUI though.

GLib is the underlying library of GTK and some other too, so its reasonable that optimizing it will enable other library to gain the benefit too. In my build I try to limit my setting as far as Pentium 3 compatible (mmx+sse enabled).

The result:
vanila glib binary :  4.6s
Os+p3(mtune) :  4s
O3+p3(mtune)+fastmath* :  3.5s
O2+mmx+sse :  3.2s
Os+mmx+sse :  3.4s
*) not significant
GLib version 2.23.5
CPU E2160 1.8Ghz OC'ed @ 3Ghz
RAM: 2GB

Times are averaged from 3x benchmarks. Now something odd there!, I though that setting march/mtune as pentium3 is the same as add mmmx + msse yet its yield strikingly different. O3 is considered to be the most intense optimisation but not safe, as in my test it crashed on Python GObject binding. The best and safest setting is O2 which give us not so large binary size yet very fast indeed (30% faster).

In this case optimizing GTK didn't give much effect probably due to demo's simple interface. Strangely enough, though goocanvas use cairo as rendering engine optimizing cairo also didn't give apparent advantage anyhow.

A Brief Test of GTK+ 2.20 for Windows

After bitter experience with 2.18, I check out gtk+ 2.20 which is just newly released. I really hope it fixed some apparent issue in 2.19 (I start to felt windows platform seems a bit neglected for some time).

Nah, from its changelog I have come to realize that this will be the same as 2.19! It is. Once I build it, I do quick test on MyPaint and GIMP. Here is some "highlights"

1.Native theme (wimp) still not working, though you could still use libwimp.dll from 2.16 if you want (will get screen corruption)
2. Peculiar interface behaviour still occured. For example, once you exploring sebmenu item (in menubar), the exposed submenu wont be disposed untill you click again from the parent menu. It used to disappear whenever you click on other window, click on titlebar or if you wish to quit the program or if you click anywhere outside the submenu infact.

PyPoppler, PDF rendering in Pythonic way

PyPoppler viewing Blender Wiki Manual PDF

Poppler Library has been used by Inkscape and GIMP to render PDF document nicely. PyPoppler is a bindings to Python using PyGTK for its user interface. It's analogue to PyWebkitGTK.

In this PDF reader screenshot, pypoppler demonstrate simple page and zoom control. In my test, rendering speed is quite responsive compared to Acrobat for pdf document with light graphics and rich text. But when handling pdf with rich layered graphics (that contain transparency), it starts to choked up though. Also it seems the demo fail to recognize page width & height (clip box?) correctly in some case, that's it drawn a smaller white rectangle like shown in 2nd shot and notice how scrollbars are missing there while inkscape correctly import the page with the same poppler.

Nonetheless this is probably the fastest way to integrate a PDF previewer or reader in your python apps rather than calling acrobat that might not installed, especially if you also using PyGTK. Or it could become a neat internal help/manual viewer (alternative to CHM eh?), hmm.. as long as it searchable :-).

Blogger Comment Deletion URL

Huh, I just realized that I lose the trash can on blogger's comment
http://www.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=xxxx&postID=yyyy
where yyyy is comment id (permalink)

Sometime Linux is the wrong forefront on OSS migration

I try to reflect this to my country where something is quite wrong (not working properly) with its OSS movement. Namely IGOS, a popular distro of indonesian Linux. The distro mainly target Internet Cafe by using its own somewhat "not user friendly" billing application that have been endorsed quite loudly by many activists. But where is migration?

Personally I never took IT/similar education in my life so my guess might be inaccurate. But I see this as the cause of self centered Linux userbase that flourished in IT institutions. They are thinking: just because they felt comfortable with Linux, so should the rest of people. The truth is: majority people didn't/not need to care about Linux's strength, thats particularly true for Indonesia where user just want their job get done. So what they need is kicking ass productivity software that works and reliable. I have tried many free OS as much as those IT guys (I think) and mostly what I do is comparing files inside etc folder across FreeBSD 4.8, some GnuLinux and QNX4 inside shell years ago. And I practically do nothing of creative work.

Still hanging on a dead OS?

Till now I still on Windows XP 32 with a lot of happiness. I still kicking on Sketchup for daily use and OSS for the rest, though I will get Win7 anyway once I buy a new netbook. What I missed then if I stayed on this venerable OS?

Win7: Easier to use and more organized. This seems the main mantra in Se7en, every user will agree including me. But don't misunderstand the meaning, it didn't mean to be faster.

Years of XP usage did give me a lot of understanding in XP's internal that remain the same as in 7. Some are:
We are still dealing with registry
There is Run command box (though hidden)
There is cmd box too
Same directory structure (there is some junction that handle compatibility if you don't know already)

Clutter, a robust animation libraries

After given review to Chrome OS, I read more that Google use clutter in some of its window manager part. Generally google always carefully choose open source component in their projects, I guess clutter is no exception. Previously, I just heard a bit about clutter from cairo website so why don't give it a try! I'm so pleased by the demos, the script is clean and the animation is smooth and sleek. Clutter and PyClutter is like GTKGLExt and PyGtkGlExt, but more general purpose (I think) with expanded animation capabilities (no wonder goggle choose it). It could use cairo too in some operation.

Overall, Clutter is one of the best OpenGL framework with python binding (the other is PyGame2) that do more than most available libraries. With good documentation this should appealing for many developer, though few project that seems use them. I wonder where do clutter implemented outside Chrome OS, from goggle I just get moblin (mobile linux) that sounds popular. Given me impression that Clutter will be more spread in embedded platform (using OpenGLES).

Visit Clutter Site