Why Qt 4.5 is a really big deal
Okay, this will be a post about software development, but I’ll try to avoid using jargon in explaining the impact of yesterday’s release of Qt 4.5. So first of all, what the hell is Qt? Well, it’s a software library that allows programmers to easily write programs that run on Mac, Windows, Linux and even cell phones. If a developer want their code to run on all these platforms without using something like Qt, it often means man-years of work, and platform-specific oddities can arise, such as Adobe not having a 64-bit version of Photoshop on the Mac (because they use Code Warrior’s PowerPlant on the Mac, which is no longer supported except as an open source project). Qt is also an extremely powerful and fast library, which is not often the case for these kinds of things. Ok, so what’s the big deal with version 4.5? Until yesterday, if you used the Qt library, you had to either:
- release your application’s source code to the public under the “Gnu Public License” (GPL), making it Free Software, or..
- pay a lot of money (thousands of dollars) annually for the Qt “commercial license”
Chandler Goodbyes
A lot of people are saying their good-byes in email to everyone. An “alumni” mailing list has been set up to keep in touch. This seems like the civilized way things end. I feel a bit guilty (but not much) because my last day is Jan 31, not today like many others. But I, too, will be moving on. Given the small world that is software development, I expect I will run across many people over the years. That’s one thing that Facebook and LinkedIn are good for — keeping in contact.Chandler layoffs
Alias get-together, and music
Lisa, me, Bob, Tom and Moira
Then today I ran across a haunting song that I’m sure I’ve heard before and like very, very much:
It’s CC licensed, which is cool, and probably why I’ve heard it before. I think it was used as the soundtrack to a YouTube video or something similar that I saw.
Way Cool Chandler T-Shirts
The Chandler team got cool new T-shirts to celebrate the 0.7 release of Chandler: |
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Enter the Reid school of design, where T-Shirts are Meant To Be Seen! Or, “how I would have designed the T-shirts”  |
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Airport Fun
Waiting at Gate 134
“Boingo”? Did Cory start up an ISP?
Wow $10 for 24 hours!
But I only want 1 hour
Conflict Notification is In
So today I landed bug 5308, which was the task “Sharing conflict notification UI”.
click for larger version
Week at OSAF last week
I spent the week last week in San Francisco, working at OSAF HQ during the week. As always, it was a lot of fun, and this time, the walk from the hotel to work was fraught with peril. I stayed at the Hotel Fusion, which is two blocks from the Apple Store on Ellis Street, off of Market (the main drag in SF). So my first hurdle is to walk past the downtown SF Apple Store without going in. Once on Market, a couple of stoplights away is CompUSA. And this CompUSA has a big Apple section. Oh, joy! And this CompUSA had a way, way bigger selection of computers, accessories and peripherals than any Future Shop, Best Buy or Compu-Smart in Toronto. At this point, I’m about ½ of the way to OSAF. But the path is not clear yet! There is a store around 2nd and Market that I think is called “Jeffrey’s” or maybe “Jeffrey’s Toys”. I remarked on it at first because I thought it was funny to see the name “Jeffrey” displayed so prominently close to OSAF because one of my OSAF buddies is Jeffrey H. But on the way back on my first work day, I decided to wander in and check it out. Bad news! From the outside it looked like it had the usual assortment of novelties and games. Yo-yo’s, frisbees, Monopoly, etc. But then I found a small section filled with .. German Boardgames. Urk! On that day, that’s as far as I got. I spent about ½ hour just delving over the assortment of games they had to see if I wanted to buy one. I managed to make my saving throw though and me and my wallet left unscathed. But I was definitely going to return. And I did, the next day, again on the way back to the hotel. But this time, I decided to explore further in. I had seen people holding magazines and I thought I would check out the magazine rack. The store goes pretty deep into the building! I walk back to the slightly darker area in behind the cashiers, only to find.. comics! Lots and lots and lots of comics!! Now, I’m a comic collector from way back. Since I was 8, in fact. Just ask Luisa about when we were house-hunting a decade ago, asking if the basement had enough room to store 43 4-foot long boxes of comics. Yes, 43. So here we have not just a few comics, like you might see in a variety store (US translation: liquor store). No, here we have all the new titles separated by publisher. DC, Marvel, and the rest. Plus a section for recently-released stuff (older than a week), and the usual boxes of back issues (roughly older than a month). My main worry once I was finished spending money was how I would fit it into my luggage to get home! I thought I had already exhausted all my extra space with all the books I had bought a block from the hotel! I should put up some pictures I took of the books and comics spread out on my hotel bed. I’m such a nerd. *sigh. Just doing my bit to help the San Francisco/US economy!Chandler 0.7alpha4 released
- PPC Mac OS X (Chandler_osx_0.7alpha4.dmg)
- Intel Mac OS X (Chandler_iosx_0.7alpha4.dmg)
- Chandler_win_0.7alpha4.exe
- Chandler_linux_0.7alpha4.tar.gz
- upgrade notes
- Report Bugs
- Official Chandler page
Going Native – iTerm 0.7.8 Intel build
Now that I’m on my Mac Pro full time, I’m on the hunt for native Intel apps. Mostly I’m finding my main tools are already Universal (a side benefit for waiting for the Mac Pro before jumping on the Intel bandwagon). However, one app I use almost 24/7 was problematic: iTerm, a terminal program. Now, iTerm has been universal (meaning it has both native PPC and Intel code) since version 0.8. However, I have found all versions after 0.7.8 to be buggy and not well-behaved. I tried downloading the latest and greatest stable version, but i started getting rendering errors (blocks of black showing up) and the main text was over-bold for some reason (I was able to tone it down by setting the colour to a very drak grey instead of black). Well, I’ve had enough. iTerm is open source, so I checked out the version of iTerm that was current as of 0.7.8 (which has a modification date of Mar 11 2004) and built it as an Intel binary (not universal – maybe later when I have copious amounts of spare time). This wasn’t rocket science – zero coding was required. Indeed, I didn’t even have to change **anything**. You can grab it here: iTerm 0.78 intel Here’s all I did:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@iterm.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/iterm co -D 2004-03-11 -P iTerm
open iTerm.xcode
build/Development” folder.
I double-clicked it and, booya, it ran fine.
Now the development version is not for distribution so, okay, I changed *one* setting:
I changed the popup that said “Development” to “Deployment”.
Another click on “Build” and there sat another iTerm in build/Deployment
I hope this is of use to someone other than me.
I’m I the only one who finds iTerm 0.8 and later frustrating?