Config file parser

I'm learning to use Python. In Transformer, i need to parse the xml config file using the available expat xml parser. I was struggling first to use python. I thought, it would be better to use C. But later, i finished the parser and came to a conclusion, Python is a cool language. Still am learning a lot :).
Now am learning how to write a module for python in C to call a subroutine, in a plugin written in . Hope i finish that today.

Is this O.K.

I just started to design the UI with Glade and use the glade file in PyGtk. Here is the screen shot of the Main UI.
The left frame shows the info of the File Selected and Right frame shows the info of the Output Format being selected. File selector button can be used to select the file. Combo box in the right will show possible type convertions for the selected file depending on the available plugins. Click on Convert to convert the file.
And some more issues has to be discussed.

Bindings for Python

Python is so cool and lots of libraries and languages have bindings to be written in Python. Python/C API reference shows a list of C bindings for Python. We can create our own module in C and import in Python. Similarly, PyGtk, PyScilab, PyGimp, PyGst, Python Java Bindings, and lot more. Thanks to all the developers who have spent their time and written these bindings. I also hope to write one such bindings ;), if any developer has left any for me.

After learning the Python/C API Reference, i started with PyGtk today and now its very simpler to write Gtk programs in Python than in C. Though writing Gtk programs in C must be more flexible. (Am not sure. I have to explore python to learn its capabilities, and only then i can decide)
PyGtk is going on well now and hope to finish it quickly and start programming my transformer-gui module.

Me and Wiki setup

I wanted to have a wiki at the Fosta site. I saw a module in Drupal called Wiki, so thought that drupal had support for Wiki. But that was only a text filter, that can be used while creating the content.
I was searching about Wiki in Google. I got the a Wikipedia site - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.
First i didnt notice about the software that this site used (Media Wiki). When i checked out a list of Wiki Softwares, i found that TWiki was mostly used by all so downloaded it.
Twiki has the complete information about Installation, but lots of procedures are involved to install it. Somehow, i managed to install it.
Then i got two more wiki softwares. One was SourceForge Wiki software, and Media Wiki. Since i'm hosting the site at SourceForge.net, i wanted to use SFWiki. Seems, there is no developer developing it. The package is very simple and small. Followed the description and found that some of the files were missing. :(
Then, i wanted to test Media Wiki. I extracted it and read the INSTALL file. Media Wiki is relatively easy to install when compared to other packages. I did have some difficulties with permissions. Even after giving write permission to a subdirectory under ServerRoot, the webserver was not able to write to that dir :(. I didnt know the reason.
I had to hack a bit to make it work. I removed the permission check, and now, the database was successsfully created. Media Wiki was clever enough to print the output to the screen, even if it wasnt able to write to that sub directory. It asked me to copy the output to a file. And after that, it worked well :)
Nice experience today.

Wiki at FOSTA.sf.net

Learnt how to set up a Wiki and added a link to fosta.sf.net
First i tried TWiki, then sfWiki and atlast settled with MediaWiki.
Media Wiki is very nice and has a good interface.

First tarball is a FLOP

I created a first tarball release in my life. Everything went on fine in my side. When i gave the tarball to Vincent, he wasnt able to build it :(
But thats a bug. Ronald figured it out and fixed it in CVS. Though my first attempt was a FLOP, that wasnt my mistake and i learned something new. :)

Working on FOSTA site

Yesterday, i was working on the FOSTA Website the whole day. :) Added the LOGO to the site.
Altered the Footer logos and still designing. Got to add contents to the site now.

Transformer-0.1.1 released

I made another release of the Transformer module today. Check out the project website for the additions and changes. My next plan is to write Transformer-gui probably by using PyGtk. Also, to create the documentation using docbook.

FOSTA Registered

FOSTA got registered at Sourceforge.net. Thanks to them for approving the group. I have uploaded the drupal site, and a database has been created at Sourceforge.net by them. Drupal uses the database (MySQL). The site had some problem initially. But i deleted the contents and copied it again to the Document Root and now its working fine. The design phase of the site is goin on and it'll soon be released. :)

Gnome-media Release

Ronald was busy with his work and was asking someone to roll out the tarball. I volunteered. It was my first time and i didnt know how to release it. I checked out the like http://developer.gnome.org/dotplan/for_maintainers.html
Also Ronald asked me to change the version number and run autogen.sh and them make distcheck. I did that and it took around half an hour in my system to create a tarball. (It was compiling to check for any failures)
I didnt make any changes to ChangeLog and NEWS as Ronald didnt ask me to do so. I asked Vincent and he told that ChangeLog has to be changed. so i changed it and again took half an hour to make the tar file and sent the link to him. Hope he got that and added to the ftp server. There were other things that need to be done before releasing. But i dont know if i have to do that too. Just waiting for Vincent. ;)

FOSTA @ sourceforge

I got a mail from Joe Steeve in Glug-madurai list and came to know that glug-madurai is registered as a user group at Sourceforge.net and can get free Webspace. So, just registered a User Group names FOSTA (Free and Open Source Technology Association) and waiting for the approval.
I have decided to create the site using Drupal and will upload it as soon as the project gets approved :)

First Debian Conference at IIIT, Banglore

I have never used Debian and so didnt know much about it. I went to the Debian Conference held at Indian Institute of Information Technology, Banglore (IIITB). It was organised by IIITB students. The only two debian developers from India shared their Experiences. I was so happy when i came to know that both were from Tamil Nadu. One from Chennai (Ramakrishnan) and Another from Coimbatore (R. Ganeshan) ;)
They exposed the debian to everyone and now i'm planning to switch to Debian and become a Debian developer soon. Their aim was to increase the debian developers in india from 2 to 20. Hope that is achieved. Many people doesnt know about Debian and the target can be achieved, if we are able to spread a word about Debian.
To become a debian developer is not a simple and easy task. We need to learn the Debian Free Software Policy and it might take more than a year to get the GPG key to access the repository.
Check out this article for more details,. :)
http://lwn.net/Articles/147360/

Trip to my Native place

Suddenly decided to leave with my cousin to my native, :). Didnt get ticket to go to the place directly, so took ticket to Tutocorin, and from there i had to take another bus, which leave at 5:15 AM. Hopefully, i reached the bus stand at 4:15 AM itself.(Vivegam is fast :)) My cousin took another bus, as he already had booked tickets. He left at 7:00 PM and i left at 10:00 PM. But we both reached home at the same time.
I stayed there for three days. Its really a cool place. A small village near Tiruchenthur. This place is a small desert. So, farmers use ground water for cultivation. I went to a temple there on the first day. Second day i went to tiruchenthur temple. Third day was the actual festival in the village. Enjoyed it and returned to coimbatore the next day.
If i have to share my experiences, i have to write a lot.. :)

Sent off TCS friends.

Yesterday, the TCS training at Coimbatore (Teknoturf) got over for my friends. So i went to meet them to send them off. Met Divi, Vijay Kumar yesterday. Today, i met Praveen, Rathna and many others. Wish them happy journey. Most of them got places at Chennai.

Get-together

Today, i met my class mates,. Varun, Senthil Raja, Bala, Kosu, Maami, Paapa and so on,. We had lunch and had a nice time. After that, i went to meet Murugesh anna, and we went to Then-Tirupathy. It was a nice and different temple, 35 Kms from Coimbatore.
Also, After a long time, i talked with Koundan (Vignesh, Infosys). Happy to know that he got placed at B'lore. I'm just trying to swap with someone and get banglore.

Had a Nice day

Today, i woke up at 10. Murugesh anna called me, and asked me if we could go for a movie. We went to two movies today. "Daas" and "Feb 14". Daas was too bad. Didnt like that movie. Feb 14th was o.k. Also, after a long time, i went to a temple :)
He took me,.. The day went on fine today :)

Learning Gstreamer

Gstreamer is a library used to write any media applications. We can also create any plugins for gstreamer. Its so cool. I started learning the manual and installed the latest Gstreamer from CVS head. Had some prob with installing the gstreamer-plugins, yet successfully installed. Now, i'm just trying out the run a simple Ogg player. But, seems "pad-added" signal is not getting emitted. :(
Still trying to figure it out. Just waiting for Ronald to help me out,. :)

Registered Linux User

Just registered myself as a Gnu/Linux User at http://counter.li.org/

Just another day

Didnt do much today. Went to Ramya's place to install Gnu/Linux, but it was a flop. Her cdrom didnt work. :( Will have to try another day, after she repairs her CDROM.
Filed two bugs in Sound-juicer. Now building Anjuta,.. Will have to try to fix bugs in other modules too.

Met Nirmal's Brothers :)

Today, i went to my buddy's place and met his 2 brothers. Was happy to see them. Spent some time with them, had lunch, and i left. It was a great time to meet them all, but sad thing is that, everyone was here, but Not Nirmal :(
It would have been great with him,. I miss him ..

Friendship Day ?

Today, first sunday of August, being the Friendship day, i had a great fun with my junior friends. But, all my close buddies are not with me. Nirmal has joined Red Hat, Vasanth is doin his project work at Instead Business School, Frankfort, France, and Vignesh (Koundan) has joined Infosys. Havent heard anything from N.K (N. Karthik), hope he is doin fine.

If they were here, then it would have been so coool,. Anyway, i did have a great time today. We went out and had a nice time.
Happy friendship day everyone,.. ;)

Free Ubuntu CDs

We can get Ubuntu CDs for free, no shipping charge and nothing. You are also free to distribute the CD to any of ur friends. http://www.ubuntulinux.org/

Fixed the bugs in GNOME-CD

After filing three bugs in LOOPMODE and SINGLEMODE, i fixed the bug and attached the patch to bugzilla. Just waiting for the patch to be reviewed by Ronald.

Good placements for the juniors

Am really happy to see that, this year the campus placements are really good. One of my junior, Santosh, got into Trilogy, Three (Sabarish, Padmanabhan, Ramachandran) into CISCO, Sankari got into DeShaw, (Aarthi Anand, and two others) got into A&Z, Aarthi Ramachandran and some got into Deoliete and many.. All these people have got place already and this is their second placements. All this are my ECE juniors and other branch juniors have also made good placements this year. Am really happy about that,. ;)

3 Bugs on Gnome-CD

I just came to know about the Repeat option and Single track option in GNOME-CD, and found some bugs in that. Filed three bugs and fixed two. Now, trying to fix the last bug. Also, one bug depends on another, so only one patch has been comitted into the CVS. Ronald was busy today, so couldnt discuss about the other bugs with him.

SKYPE

SKYPE is a cool tool for Voice chat. We can also make calls to mobile and Landline anywhere in this world, but that is charged.
Skype is available for many platforms and can be downloaded from here
If you have unlimitted download limit, then u can use this cool tool. (30 min chat ~= 25MB (both upload and download))

Learn LibXML

XML is now used widely in most applications. I'm also using XML for the transformer.config file so that user can adjust the config file. To parse the XML file, many tools are available. I prefer LibXML and the tutorial can be found here LibXML Tutorial. It contains sample codes which shows how to parse a XML document.
Hope this tutorial is useful for someone else like me,. :)

Features included in Transformer

Transformer now gives the user the flexibility to allow for any transformation. The user can alter the file transformer.config under the $HOME/.transformer directory. Also, the actions of the transformer are recorded in the transformer.log file in $HOME/.transformer. Enjoy the feature. This is only in the CVS and not yet released.

Waiting for the results

I should have got the results today,. Donno what has happened,. Still waiting for the results,.. One of the patches in Sound-juicer got comitted today.

SAP Labs test

The test was on July 31st at Christ College, Banglore. More than 2000 were called for the test, and it was help simultaneously at Hyderabad too. The test was exactly like CAT Pattern. They asked 75 questions and we were supposed to finish it in 60 minutes. Thought didnt have enought time to complete the test, the test was o.k.

The results will be put up on Wednesday, Aug 3rd. Just hoping for the best... :)