Category: Programming

  • IronPython 1.0 available

    Very cool.  I’ll admit that my experience with Python is limited to IronPython — but I’ve been playing with it a bit and benchmarking it against the C-based implementation of Python, and in many places, its actually faster or dead even.  See: IronPython version 1.0.  Great work by the IronPython team. –TR

  • Ruby and XML

    I’ve been doing quite a bit of programming of late in Ruby and I have to say, I’m really disappointed in Ruby’s XML support.  REXML — the built-in Ruby library, well, stinks.  I’ve been trying to use it to parse some simply MarcXML records, and what I’ve finding is that its taking the process ~0.4-0.5…

  • Saxon.NET example

    I was playing around with Saxon.NET and I like it.  Its also very well done (not suprisingly).  Benchmarking, I found that its competitive with my custom processor for XSLT 1.0 while providing 2.0 support.  I’ll be integrating this into MarcEdit, likely even this weekend, so folks can start using XSLT 2.0 in the application.  I…

  • MarcEdit 5.0 uptake

    I don’t do it very often but its now been about a year since I formally posted MarcEdit 5.0 as beta and in the 12 months, the program has now been downloaded by 10, 021 unique users.  Not bad I guess.  Hopefully, when I take the program to 5.1 when the docs are completed, I’ll see less…

  • OSCON 2006 — Presentations I attended

    There are still a couple that are not posted yet — I’ll update this post as they are added. –TR  Test-driven Development meets design-by-contract Jim Weirich, Compuware URL: http://onestepback.org/articles/TddMeetsDbc Google Ajax Search API Mark Lucovsky URL: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/presentations/os2006/lucovsky_mark.ppt Driving Rails Deep into the back office Obie Fernandez URL: (URL hasn’t been posted yet — but should be…

  • OSCON Day 3

    Just a note — The presentation notes have been posted for all the presentations now (at least as far as I can tell). I’ll post another post with direct links to all the sessions I attended after this one. KeyNotes The first few keynotes really weren’t that interesting (I thought) and I’ll admit that I…

  • Using XMLTextReader to improve XSLT processing

    One of the things that I spend a little too much time working on was how to setup a more streamlined version of resolving entities and ignoring entities.  The key has to do with avoiding a call to the XMLValidateNavigator object, and using the XMLTextReader gives you more granularity over the process.  Here’s an example:…

  • OSCON Presentation notes

    For those interested in seeing all the presentation notes from OSCON 2006, you can find all the sessions currently posted at: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/pub/w/46/presentations.html For sessions that I’ve attended and written about, I’ve placed them below.  As more sessions become available, I’ll post additional links. Building Internet Applications with Mozilla XULRunner Benjamin Smedberg URL: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/presentations/os2006/smedberg_benjamin.odp (Open Office files) Google…

  • OSCON 2006: Day 2

    Keynotes: The Zen of Free Simon Phipps, Sun “Opening” the Possibilities: APIs and Open Source Gary Lang, AutoDesk, Inc. Ugh — As good as the first day’s keynotes were — these were not.  I was nearly ready to bag the keynotes when… 5 a day Robert “rOml” Lefkowitz, Root Markets This was a fantastic keynote. …

  • OSCON: Day 1 sessions

    Test-driven development meets design-by-contract Jim Weirich, Compuware Slides: http://www.onestepback.org/articles/TddMeetsDbc I enjoyed this session partly because I’m not a big fan of Ruby’s Unit Testing and liked the idea of a contract testing method.  The session discussed a separate testing packed called rSpec (http://rspec.rubyforge.org/).  I’ve included a link to the presentation which includes sample code on…