| << July 2007 | September 2007 >> |
Here's the latest in what's becoming the tradional August Arabica release. It packages a number of incremental improvements, together with a major chunk of new code.
- Code
- This release includes the first drop of Mangle, the Arabica XSLT engine. It covers most common cases (at least in my experience), although there are omissions and misfeatures, and it shouldn't be considered production safe. Development is tracked against the OASIS XSLT Conformance test cases.
- There are a number of new SAX filters for whitespace stripping, tracking namespace declarations, tracking xml:base, and buffering multiple character(...) callbacks into a single callback.
- Build
- Further improvements to the Autotools build. The test cases can now be built and run using 'make check'. Wide string detection has been further tweaked, as has finding libxml2. Thanks to Bob Wilkinson for that.
- Solution and project files for Visual Studio 2005 are now included.
- Visual Studio builds now produce distinct debug and release versions of the library. Thanks to Timo Geusch and David Grigsby who separately suggested that.
This release has been built on a variety of platforms. Additional build reports are very welcome, particularly fon non-i386 platforms and/or non-GCC compilers.
Source tar.bz2
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/arabica/arabica-Aug2007.tar.bz2
Source tar.gz
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/arabica/arabica-Aug2007.tar.gz
Source zip
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/arabica/arabica-Aug2007.zip
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The Arabica August 2007 release has been build on the following platforms, with Expat 2.0.0 and Boost 1.33.1:
- FreeBSD 6.1, i386-unknown-freebsd6.1, using GCC 3.4.4
- DragonflyBSD 1.6.0, i386-unknown-dragonfly1.6.0, using GCC 3.4.5 (no Boost)
- Cygwin on XP Professional, i686-pc-cygwin, using GCC 4.1.0
- Mingw MSys on XP Professional, i686-pc-mingw32, using GCC 3.4.2
- Ubuntu Linux 6.1.0, i686-pc-linux-gnu, using GCC 4.0.3
- Intel Mac Tiger, i686-apple-darwin8, using GCC 4.0.1 and boost HEAD. (Thanks Alex Ott)
- Windows XP Professional using Visual Studio 7.1/2003, with both Expat and MSXML
- Windows XP Professional using Visual Studio 2005, with both Expat and MSXML
Additional build reports are very welcome, particularly on non-i386 platforms and/or non-GCC compilers.
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My Ubuntu Linux installation has just announced it has updates available for both emacs and vi.
Coincidence?
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Went out with my chum Steve to see Nine Inch Nails. My, they do a good show. I saw them back in March and they were super. Since then, they've been touring more or less non-stop, and so I wouldn't have been surprised if they sounded a bit haggard. Not a bit of it, though. They sounded terrific, playing with lively aggression. Trent Reznor was engaged with the audience, positively chatty even. I did enjoy myself.
I know NIN don't appear high up on your list of top bands Russ, but you may be cheered by their opinion of the Academy ...
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My ongoing XSLT development uses the OASIS XSLT Conformance test cases. I found creating meaningful XPath tests hard enough, but XSLT is a magnitude or two above that and I just didn't fancy it. There's also the danger, of course, that you construct the test case according to your reading of the spec, rather than to the meaning of the spec. Whichever way round, I couldn't have done without them.
The test cases are in two large chunks, one provided by Xalan/IBM/Lotus, the other by Microsoft. Those chunks are then further subdivided. I'm currently running the Xalan tests, for no particular reason than they're listed first in the catalogue. The results, using this morning's Subversion head, are as follows :
| attribvaltemplate | Run: 12 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 1 |
| axes | Run: 130 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 2 |
| boolean | Run: 90 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 1 |
| conditional | Run: 23 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| conflictres | Run: 35 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 1 |
| copy | Run: 62 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 8 |
| dflt | Run: 4 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| expression | Run: 6 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 6 |
| extend | Run: 4 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 4 |
| impincl | Run: 29 | Failures: 6 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 2 |
| lre | Run: 22 | Failures: 11 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| match | Run: 32 | Failures: 14 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 1 |
| math | Run: 107 | Failures: 1 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| mdocs | Run: 18 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 7 |
| message | Run: 16 | Failures: 2 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 2 |
| modes | Run: 17 | Failures: 1 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| namedtemplate | Run: 19 | Failures: 2 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 1 |
| namespace | Run: 133 | Failures: 39 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| node | Run: 21 | Failures: 2 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| output | Run: 108 | Failures: 78 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 1 |
| position | Run: 111 | Failures: 7 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 15 |
| predicate | Run: 58 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| processorinfo | Run: 1 | Failures: 1 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| reluri | Run: 11 | Failures: 9 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 2 |
| select | Run: 85 | Failures: 2 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 6 |
| sort | Run: 37 | Failures: 7 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 10 |
| string | Run: 133 | Failures: 4 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 8 |
| variable | Run: 70 | Failures: 7 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 0 |
| ver | Run: 5 | Failures: 0 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 4 |
| whitespace | Run: 22 | Failures: 1 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 10 |
| Total: | Run: 1421 | Failures: 194 | Errors: 0 | Skips: 92 |
In total, 1329 tests run with 194 failures, for a success rate of 85.4% (or fail rate of 14.6% if you prefer).
A fail means the output Arabica::XSLT generated didn't match the expected output. An error means Arabica::XSLT threw an exception somewhere, didn't compile the stylesheet, or didn't produce any output for some other reason. A skip means that the test wasn't run for some reason - either it was marked not compilable, as compilable but not executable, or just not even touched. A test that's expected not to compile but does, or not to run but does is actually flagged as a fail. (It makes sense if you think about it :)).
The majority of the skips are because of unimplemented XSLT elements or functions (xsl:number, xsl:strip-space, xsl:preserve-space, xsl:key, key(), id()), or because the test output is HTML which Arabica:XSLT doesn't support. The biggest set of fails is the output tests (78 out of 108 tests fail), mainly because the output is text rather than XML. The test harness can't actually handle text output cases yet, so tests which generate text output will always appear as failures.
I haven't added these numbers up for a while. I've got to say I'm pleased.
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Bargain! And how much for my granny? Would you like to take my kids to the park? No, sir, my wife is not on the menu, although I am, of course, flattered that you asked.
Might be a bit tough on the dogs though? [added 28th Aug 2007]
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Tim Bray is rescued from a potentially horrible type error by just downloaded refactoring IDE support.
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Uncle Bob has fear.
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What if I could combine the functional convenience of the SatNav with an iconic, universally adored star of stage and screen who is the very personification of drama, of bathos, of passion? What if those instructions were delivered with a fierce intensity and subject to random feats of tempo modulation? In short, what if I invented a SatNav that sounded like William Shatner?
When inspiration strikes chum Tom, it strikes hard.
Tom's MySpace handle, Zeppotom, is of course a reference to the Soviet lighter of the late 40s. Created on Stalin's orders as a Democratic Communist alternative to its Capitalist Imperialist counterpart, it was a cornerstone of the Fourth Five Year plan. Manufactured in Lighter Factory Number 1 (formerly Tank Works Number 3) in the heroic city of Tula, the Zeppo featured a number of design improvements over the US original. Not only was it wind proof, it actually didn't blow out at all. Each lighter was a tiny beacon, symbolising the perpetual and ongoing nature of the Revolution. Samizdat pamphlets of the time suggest that these lighters caused a number of pocket-fires, but there are no surviving eyewitnesses to corroborate these stories.
The popular success of Zeppo was brought up short, unfortunately, by the failure of the Plan to include lighter fluid manufacture, which was scheduled for the subsequent Fifth Five Year Plan. The powerful symbolism of lighters across the Soviet Union sputtering and going dark could not be ignored. Stalin moved quickly to suppress the Zeppo, writing it out of the official histories. Special trains carried the now counter-revolutionary lighters to Irkutsk where they were re-educated into a variety of hand tools. Lighter Factory Number 1 was closed and left derelict for many years.
These days Tula is a popular tourist destination and the site of the Zeppo factory now houses a small pryaniki bakery, its secret past hidden beneath the aroma of gingerbread and honey.
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Describes exactly why Mango is released under the LGPL.
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Uploaded a new Mango release.
It adds a couple of new iterators. The Javadocs are up-to-date, but the web pages are lagging a little.
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Abstract of a paper I "co-authored" presented at the 25th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, held in Houston in March 1994.
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The JezUK corporate website has been redesigned in the business card image. This is JezUK's first visual identity remodelling since its founding in 1995, and provides a uniform brand presentation across web and print media.
JezUK remains committed to combining development expertise with constructive laziness to deliver high quality bespoke software and process consultancy services.
The logo was commissioned from Ken Davidson, Intelligent Graphic Design, who probably wants no part of this silliness.
- I especially like the VAT number, never know when your going to need that in a hurry :) [added 17th Aug 2007]
"Did you mean: B13 9HD "
Why would I? [added 17th Aug 2007]
John: It's a post code just along the road. If you search for B13 9HD it doesn't say "Did you mean: B13 9HD", so I need to raise the corporate profile another notch or two. [added 17th Aug 2007]
As far as being part of any silliness - I detect no silliness ;) [added 17th Aug 2007]
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Yea, yea. Still thinking rather hard about pitching something though :)
Related: Elliotte Rusty Harold's Talks I Want To See At SD
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Even though Chanfra Wickramasinghe occasionally sounds like a loon, I do find panspermia a jolly attractive idea.
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Intriguing bit early computer games history. I'm amused to note that those games I played as a child are no longer adventure games, but 'interactive fiction'. Hmm. If it looks like a game and smells like a game, it's a game.
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Opening scene of The Invisibles movie anyone? It was optioned by BBC Scotland, you know ...
Nah, That'll never get made now, not only did The Matrix killit, time is obviously running out. What with the world coming to and on December 22 2012, and all. [added 14th Aug 2007]
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If gpg starts throwing gpg: buffer shorter than subpacket errors around try
gpg --delete-keys 0xCA57AD7Cand then verify with
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Recently checked in a set of solution and project files for Visual Studio 2005/VS8/whatever-you-want-to-call-it. Apart from a bump in version number, the actual text itself looks identical to the VS7 ones which makes me wonder if I can generate one from the other.
I've built everything through using libXML2 and MSXML, and one compiler bug workaround aside, everything seems to be in order.
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Java big boy Neal Gafter on adding internal iterators to Java.
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Everytime I read an abstract like this I have to suppress my "uh-oh! Lisp-bigot" gag reflex. Even so, I've yet to be convinced that external iteration is somehow inherently flawed, and that internal iteration and mapping are the answer to the world's ills. I have, for example, a piece of code which I'm reasonably sure would be more difficult without external iteration. I also think it's important to seperate the concept/idea/fact of an iterator and the range it traverses from solely being a mechanism to walk through a collection. An iterator and its range - a sequence - are a useful thing on its own account.
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And article about it fails to give the correct address ... doh!
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Madness. And yet ...
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When I was eight, Miss Beale, old and grumpy with white curly hair, taught me how to write stories, good and clear, which would earn me house points.
"Good stories," she articulated, slowly and clearly, "Must have lots of unusual, vivid describing words, including adjectives, which come before naming-words, and adverbs, which come after doing-words."
...
I think that children like the Harry Potter books because they are written in the style in which bad teachers tell conformist children constitutes "good writing". Eight-year-olds read J.K Rowling and think "I could do that too."
Mr Rilstone goes on rather longer than strictly necessary, but rather saves me the trouble of bothering to write down why I find it rather incredible that actual grown-up adults think Harry Potter is so fantastic. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why children like it either. I'm fairly sure that Harry Potter won't hook Daniel in the way, for example, Fergus Crane, The Scarecrow and His Servant, or The Boy, The Wolf, The Sheep, and The Lettuce have.
I think that's the second best review anyone's ever done of my writing. (My favorite was a link to a multi-part essay on "Star Wars" with the single comment: "Possibly taking it all a bit too seriously") I may print it at the top of my blog...
Glad you found the piece meaningful
Andrew [added 13th Aug 2007]
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if(getNodeId<string_adaptor>(node) != impl::Literal_id) // not sure if this is always safe
I'd had a feeling that this line might be dereferencing an off-the-end iterator but in the absence of anything blowing up never went back to check all the corner cases.
Started building Arabica with Visual Studio 2005 this morning. It's shiny new debugging Standard Library immediate caught that it absolutely is being naughty.
Oops.
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It's becoming something of a cliche, but the old guys have still got what brought them to the dance in the first place.
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Clever use of Java annotations aside, this covers exactly the same kind of ground as Mango
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| << July 2007 | September 2007 >> |
