Am Freitag, 9. Dezember 2005 habe ich - nach kurzer vorheriger Testphase (inkl. Trail & Error) und Rückfragen bei Entwicklern - die Umstellung von Kategorien auf Kennzeichnungen (engl. tags) durchgeführt.

Das Problem der Kategorien besteht darin, dass jeder Beitrag genau (und nur) einer Kategorie zugeordnet werden kann/muss. Die Lösung besteht darin, dass jedem Eintrag nun Kennzeichnungen in Form von Schlagworten mit auf den Weg gegeben werden. In der automatischen Auswertung ergeben sich so indirekt Kategorien, das sind diejenigen Schlagworte, die entsprechend ihrer Häufigkeit in einer sogenannten »Wolke« (siehe linke Spalte oben) angezeigt werden.

Darüber hinaus können mit einem einfachen Algorithmus zu jedem Beitrag die Beiträge als ähnlich angezeigt werden, die bzgl. der Kennzeichnungen möglichst »gut« zusammenpassen (also viele Übereinstimmungen aufweisen).

Mittel, die zur Realisierung eingesetzt werden

Um das Unterfangen im laufenden Betrieb einzusetzen, sind alle Beiträge initial mittels eines Scripts mit der Kennzeichung alte Kategorie versehen worden. Anschließend habe ich etliche Beiträge um zusätzliche Kennzeichungen erweitert, so dass auch die Verbindungen zwischen den Beiträgen inzwischen angezeigt werden.

I have a vncrec output and I need to encode a film out of it.

transcode won't work: tried everything, googled a lot: either it exits right away, or I use the dvd delay option and it shows an error from vncrec and does nothing.

vncrec can generate xpm files, one per frame. However, imagemagick won't grok them complaining they have an illegal header. And xpmtoppm will complain that there is a line inside the file which is too long. The only thing that can load them is gimp.

So, let's script gimp. I came up with this python script that kinda does the trick:

 
from gimpfu import * 
def process (file): 
    img=pdb.file_xpm_load('/home/enrico/tmp/cazzeggio/'+file+'.xpm', file+'.xpm') 
    pdb.file_png_save_defaults(img, img.active_layer, '/home/enrico/tmp/cazzeggio/'+file+'.png', file+'.png') 
    # (update) added to dispose of the image to avoid gimp swap to 
    grow pdb.gimp_image_delete(img) 
for i in range(1, 10000): 
    process('img_%05d'%i) 

Tested in the gimp python-fu console, it works, with the save and load progress bar popping up all the time grabbing the focus from whatever I was doing.

There is a run_mode that can be passed to those file_xpm_load and file_png_save_defaults, however python-fu is happy to let me know that I don't need to bother about it. I searched, searched searched and I found out that this really means that there's no findable way to tell Gimp functions to STFU with python-fu.

Now, how do I run that script AND be still able to use my computer?

gimp has a nice --batch commandline option, from which it seems to only understand scheme. It has a --batch-interpreter option, but I couldn't find out any possible value that could make --batch understand python.

So, it seems that the only way to run python is to either register a plugin, or type it in the python console. And no STFU.

So I tried Xnest, so that I could at least iconise the whole thing out of my way. But it seems that xnest is denying connection from all clients I try to run in it.

So I've run a VNC server. In the VNC server I run Gimp. Then I fire up the Python console inside that Gimp. Then I paste the script in the Python console. Then it starts working and I close the VNC client to get rid of the popups.

Finally, this script helps me delete the big XPM files after they've been converted to PNG:

 
#!/bin/sh 
for i in *.xpm 
do 
    if [ -e `basename $i .xpm`.png ]
    then 
        echo rm $i 
        rm $i 
    fi 
done 

If there were easier ways to do what I did, please mail me and I'll document them: no matter how I searched, I couldn't find any.

Update: it seems that in the Gimp python script, the image doesn't get automatically garbage collected. As a result, the file ~/.gimp-2.2/gimpswap.whatever keeps inflating, so space is not really saved by converting the XPM files to PNG, unless I restart Gimp from time to time.

Update: I found a function to deallocate the image: maybe that avoids the growth of the Gimp swap.

Python is the perfect language to start learning programming with and this tutorial takes you through making a basic Qt based program. ... also shows how pyuic from PyKDE Extensions makes it possible to use Qt Designer with Python. Some wise words to new programmers from the tutorial, "use the examples and try to change things, play around with them, this is the best way to get comfortable".

Python module dependency analysis tool

Builds Mac OS X installer packages from distutils

Bruce the Presentation Tool is for Python programmers who are tired of fighting with presentation tools. In its basic form it allows text, code or image pages and even interactive Python sessions. It uses PyGame and is easily extensible to add new page types.

Der Schockwellenreiter teilt mit: