Archive for the 'programming' Category


Finally! I can use FileMerge with subversion

Posted September 18, 2007 * Comments(0)

TextMate_screenshot.pngThese days I pretty much always use Subversion — I have come to rely on it to save me when I manage to mangle, delete, or otherwise befoul previously working code. I have also come to rely on FileMerge, Apple’s graphical diff tool. Mmmm, shiny. Unfortunately, FileMerge doesn’t conform to the interface of the long-standard diff and diff3, so even though svn can accept external diff tools, FileMerge couldn’t be used.

I figured there was a way to overcome this problem, but my initial pokes and prods weren’t fruitful and so I abandoned my attempt. This seems to have been a good idea, because in the meantime someone else has solved the problem for me. Bruno De Fraine has posted wrapper scripts which make FileMerge svn-compatible: fmdiff, fmdiff3, and fmresolve.

By the way, I found out about fmdiff because for some reason my installation of TextMate isn’t correctly picking up my PATH variable, so it can’t see that I have subversion installed. TextMate’s documentation says that it gets its environment from the Finder.

Do any of you know how to fix this?

links for 2007-06-23

Posted June 22, 2007 * Comments(1)

The modern version of Cruel Shoes

Posted May 31, 2007 * Comments(0)

Now you can get vi behavior in OS X text windows with viAllOver. Still in beta. As if that’s the only reason to avoid it.

vi was written…on a Lear-Siegler ADM3A terminal. On this machine, the Escape key was where the Tab key is nowadays, thus enabling users to very efficiently switch modes. Also, the keys hjkl had arrows, thus explaining the usage of these keys for moving around.

Wikipedia

Aha! So Vi was designed for an arcane entry system no longer in use.

boots.jpg

photo by Andre Nantel

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Updating perl 5.8.8 on OS X

Posted May 23, 2007 * Comments(0)

382039671_67a744fb4d_m.jpgDespite what I’ve read before, installing the current stable version under OS X is no longer a big deal. By default, everything is installed under /usr/local/ so it won’t clobber Apple’s perl 5.8.6, which can be found in /usr/. And it compiles cleanly, too.

The included instructions are pretty straightforward but long, so to cut to the chase:

1. Download perl 5.8.8. Unpack as usual and enter that directory.

	% tar zxf perl-5.8.8.tar.gz
	% cd perl-5.8.8

2. Run the included configuration script with a bunch of flags. Hint: swipe each line separately, building one long command line, rather than grabbing all 6 lines in one go.

	% ./Configure -Accflags="-nostdinc
	-B/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/include/gcc
	-B/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/lib/gcc
	-isystem/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/usr/include
	-F/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk/System/Library/Frameworks"
	-Aldflags="-Wl,-syslibroot,/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.4u.sdk" -de

3. Take a quick peek at the resulting settings to make sure everything’s kosher. I just scrolled up in my terminal window, but you can look in config.sh, too.

4. make, make test, make install as usual.

5. That’s it — you’re done! You can verify that your new installation is now your default perl.

	% which perl
	/usr/local/bin/perl
	% perl --version

	This is perl, v5.8.8 built for darwin-2level
	[...etc...]

If your results are different, make sure that /usr/local/bin is before /usr/bin in your path.

Photo by Laughing Squid

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