Çağlar Toklu on Programming

Compiling cx_Oracle for Python from Source on Solaris

2011-07-01T17:48:00.000+03:00

We needed to use cx_Oracle on Solaris. cx_Oracle is a Python driver for Oracle. It is mentioned in Oracle FAQ.

In each version, the binaries for Windows and Enterprise Linux are released, but there are no pre-built binary packages for Solaris.

But you can easily download the source package and compile for your system. Its README file mentions that it compiles on Solaris and even they had being informed about successful compilation on Mac OS X.

This post assumes that Oracle was already installed on the system, as in my case.

I have downloaded the "Source Code only" package. For version 5.1, find it here. Download and extract the file, and open a terminal to the directory containing "setup.py".

As its README file says, use the following commands to build (become "root" first):

python setup.py build 
python setup.py install

After the compilation, you need to do something unrecommended, setting "LD_LIBRARY_PATH", which is labeled as "bad".

Note that using Oracle requires you to use the account "oracle", so we will be using its ".profile" file.

If you "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" is not defined in the profile, you can add the following to the end of the file ".profile".

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/:$ORACLE_HOME/lib32/ 
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

If you have already defined "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" you can add the following code instead:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/lib32/ 
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

If everything went well, you can use it in Python:

import cx_Oracle

Note that the "oracle" user should be used, not "root".

I have accomplished this using Python 2.4.4 and cx_Oracle 5.1.

To see your Solaris version use the following command:

cat /etc/release 
# Solaris 10 5/09 
# Copyright 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved. 
# Use is subject to license terms. 
# Assembled 30 March 2009

Some Customizations on the Blog for Displaying and Printing, Vim Helps

2011-06-27T19:04:00.002+03:00

I have made some theme customizations and modified two previous posts targeting less JavaScript requirements, shorter load time and some aesthetic.

I save web pages. I always do. I do not bookmark everything, but I print pages in PDF format. This way I can read them later, without making my bookmarks fat. They are already fat enough. I see my readings as my data, and I want to store them. And I go angry against unprintable, very very long pages. I also use ScreenGrab to store the screen-shot of a web page, but it can get stuck with the long web pages.

And I was thinking, my simple blog should be easily printable too. But it was not. Sadly, it seems that Blogger pages(may be not Blogger, but all the themes I have ever used in Blogger) can not be completely printed. Also I am a PasteBin user, and I have used its feature of embedding code pieces to the blog. But that made printing much more difficult. Without PasteBin code embedding, a great site, PrintFriendly, was able to print, but with embedded code from PasteBin, even PrintFriendly could not print the pages. So, I have decided to modify the blog, and make it printable as much as possible.

The first was to remove the embedded code from PasteBin and directly putting the code inside the blog post body. This way I could also control the colors.

As I am a Vim user, it is not difficult to find a cool Vim plugin, ScreenShot.vim to convert code pieces to HTML. By this way, I can easily convert a portion of code to HTML. The output of ScreenShot.vim is different from the built-in "TOhtml" command. ScreenShot.vim provides 3 commands essentially.

Screenshot : Just like it says, it takes the screenshot of the Vim window.
Its output looks like this:

 31 # This is only the file name:
 32 db_name = "our_db.sqlite"
 33 
 34 # The protocol and full path to our database
 35 db = DAL('sqlite://' + db_name, folder=modul

 36 
 37 # Define the table "genre", note that the fi
 38 db.define_table("genre",
 39         Field("name"))

 40 db.genre.name.requires = IS_NOT_EMPTY()
 41 
 42 # Define the table "band", note that the fie
 43 # band.genre_id references to genre.id field
 44 db.define_table("band",

 45         Field("name"), 
raw.py                        40,1           42%

Second command, Text2Html, converts the selected text to HTML. Looks like the built-in TOhtml command, but, TOhtml command creates a page with <html>, <head> etc. On the other hand, Text2Html command creates a portion of an HTML page, starting with a <table> and ending with a </table>, ready to embed in the blog post body or somewhere else. See a modified, previous blog post to have an idea on how it looks like. This is the command I will be using frequently from now on.

And the third command, Diff2Html is used to display two files comparing with differences highlighted.

Also there had been some color inconsistencies in this blog, but finally there will be no more. I will be using Molokai color scheme for Vim, based on Monokai for TextMate, since I like it much and goes very well with the current dark theme of the blog.

The ScreenShot.vim plugin is configurable. Read its script page for more options. Here are my settings from my vimrc targeting saving the maximum screen space:

let g:ScreenShot = { 
    \ 'Title' : 0, 
    \ 'Icon' : 0, 
    \ 'Credits' : 0, 
    \}

Note that I have deleted the line numbers in the code above using Vim, it has no configuration in ScreenShot.vim it seems, but was a piece of cake using Vim's columnar editing.

Want to see it on PrintFriendly.com? Click here. It will remove the gadgets and other giggling things, and you will see clean, printable version of this blog post. I highly recommend PrintFriendly by the way.

After this modifications, the blog site is faster, more accessible, has more width in the layout, will display anyway if you use a JavaScript blocker like NoScript and it looks better. Have an advice? You are welcome.

Standalone Usage of web2py's DAL, gluon

2011-06-24T19:04:00.002+03:00

For a web project, I had to use the model of the MVC pattern outside the web server. I could do without it, but why to drop it if I could use the model without repeating myself? What I need, is to have a conventional web server serving a conventional web application. So far so good. But I also need to access the database from some other servers which has nothing to do with the web interface.

There are many many web frameworks existing for Python. Among them, both Django and web2py are innovative, great ones. Of course I am not a user of all the frameworks in Python, but these two are the ones that I am focusing on. Both Django and web2py are full-stack web frameworks, that means they provide all the layers of the MVC pattern without using extensions. They are both candidate for the job.

I had some constraints for this project.

The system should have an easy install. As I will use it in more than one server, I should not repeat myself in each update.
The model layer of the framework must run outside a web server.
Database Migration is preferred, but it should be controlled.
When I update the model, the others should not migrate, if they do, they would revert the database to the previous state. Only one migration is required. Somehow I must be able to stop them.
I should be able to reach my Python libraries installed in site-packages.

Both Django(provides an ORM) and web2py(provides a DAL) seems capable for my task. Django is more explicit, web2py is more automagic. Django supports database migrations using extensions like Django-South, web2py supports migrations by default.

I have attacked the problem using web2py.
Please note that this is not a introductory tutorial for web2py, if it were, would not be better than the official web2py book.

I am using Ubuntu 11.04 Natty amd_64, and the commands will be fully compatible with it, but there is no reason not to work for other operating systems too.

Downloading and installing web2py
This is a great advantage of web2py, it has no configuration nor installation. It works out of the box. I have downloaded the source distribution. And just unzipped it, that's it.

Adding the standalone module
Just created a directory, called "alone" in the web2py directory. This is not a "web2py application", actually it can be anywhere. Added a file "single_stuff.py" inside the directory. Overview of the directory and file structure, is this:

You know what, the DAL of web2py, it can handle all my needs and constraints:

The installation is.. There is not even an installation, this constraint is already done.
After adding the root folder of web2py to PYTHON_PATH, only some of the modules that are related with gluon can be imported. See how to do it in the source code. Done.
Migrations are automatic in web2py but we can fine tune it, we can disabled migrations for some objects. Done, very done.
The last constraint, accessing other modules, sure it works, we did nothing unconventional. Run it as "python single_stuff.py" as usual and do whatever you like.

web2py is now the choice for me in this project, for its simple yet powerful database abstraction layer, gluon.

Here is the source of the "single_stuff.py" with inline comments:

Or you can directly jump to see the code on Pastebin.
You can also download whole the code from Pastebin.

"""
An example to use only gluon, which is the name of
web2py's data abstraction layer.
"""

import os
import sys

# web2py is distributed and deployed with zero configuration.
# Let us follow the same approach.
# To do this, I have opened a directory called "alone" inside
# the web2py directory, next to applications.

# I want to distribute the whole web2py directory.
# So, I want to make sure that the gluon is automatically found.

sys.path.append("../")
# print sys.path

from gluon.sql import DAL, Field
from gluon.validators import *

# For simplicity, we will be using SQLite.
# First, determine the path for the database file.
# We are headed for portability, so let us open the database
# file in the same directory with this module.

module_path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
# print module_path # => /home/alex/Projects/web2py/alone

# This is only the file name:
db_name = "our_db.sqlite"

# The protocol and full path to our database file.
db = DAL('sqlite://' + db_name, folder=module_path)

# Define the table "genre", note that the field "id" is automatic.
db.define_table("genre",
        Field("name"))
db.genre.name.requires = IS_NOT_EMPTY()

# Define the table "band", note that the field "id" is automatic.
# band.genre_id references to genre.id field.
db.define_table("band",
        Field("name"),
        Field("origin"),
        Field("genre_id", db.genre))
db.band.name.requires = IS_NOT_EMPTY()
db.band.genre_id.requires = IS_IN_DB(db, db.genre.id, '%(name)s')
db.band.genre_id.writable = False
db.band.genre_id.readable = False

# Let us insert some data for table "genre".
# Each insert statement returns the unique_id.
id_rock = db.genre.insert(name="rock")
id_metal = db.genre.insert(name="metal")
id_grunge = db.genre.insert(name="grunge")  # we will use the ID.
id_jazz = db.genre.insert(name="jazz")

# The data will be stored only after a commit.
db.commit()

# We can also do a rollback, before a commit.
print db.genre.insert(name="banana")
# It will print 5 to the screen.
db.rollback()
# But it will not be stored in the database.

# Let us insert some data for table "band".
db.band.insert(name="Nirvana", origin="Aberdeen", genre_id=id_grunge)
# Do not forget to commit.
db.commit()

# A simple select.
for row in db(db.band.name == 'Nirvana').select():
    print row.name, row.origin
    #prints Nirvana Aberdeen

# We can also take the last query.
print db._lastsql
# It will print this:
# SELECT  band.id, band.name, band.origin, band.genre_id FROM band
# WHERE (band.name = 'Nirvana');

# We can use free, raw SQL queries too.
print db.executesql('SELECT * FROM genre;')
# [(1, u'rock'), (2, u'metal'), (3, u'grunge'), (4, u'jazz')]

Exploring the database
If you want to look into the database using a graphical manager, you can use SQLite Database Browser, which can already be found in Ubuntu repositories, or SQLite Manager, which is a Mozilla Firefox extension and works anywhere.

Here are some screenshots after opening the database created and manipulated by "single_stuff.py":

As a result, web2py is too good to be true, but it is a fact that it is so.

Using Google Docs to Convert Files

2011-06-19T16:11:00.000+03:00

I am a LibreOffice user. That is already too much for me, I can do anything with it. Since I am an Ubuntu user, I do not have to even install that, just I am just adding some of its extensions like PDFImport and LibreOffice base, all from Ubuntu repository. I can open, edit and save all the well known documentation formats. But this is not the case for some people:

Let us say, you are an Microsoft Office 2003 user. And somebody keeps sending you .odt or .docx documents. Some of these people are even using OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice but most probably because of their principles, they are sending you .odt documents which you can not open with Microsoft Office 2003. The people who use Microsoft Office 2007 and keep sending .docx documents to Microsoft Office 2003 users are another story, I will try to keep calm, at least for now.

If you are not able to change or educate the sender, and do not want to install another office productivity suite to your system, there is also another solution : Google Docs.

You can upload the document there, and download in another format you can edit. Here is how to do it:

All you need to use Google Docs is a Gmail account. Login to Google Docs, and upload the document.

You can keep the format or let it to be converted to Google Docs format. Do not worry, it does not hurt, you can do both. Here I have had it converted.

Open the document you just uploaded in Google Docs.

Now you can download the file in a format of your choice using the upper-left File menu, as in the following figure:

Mister must-send-in-docx-so-that-nobody-can-open-my-files-but-i-send-them-anyway Microsoft Office 2007 user, sorry, we can edit your files. May be you think that sending .docx files is a kind of encryption, but it is not. We can open them. Come up with something better.

A Reference on Yum, Yellowdog Updater, Modified

2011-06-14T16:54:00.003+03:00

Recently, I had to mess with yum a lot. It is a powerful command line package management tool for RPM packages, and if you want to do automatic mass installations and updates, as in my case, GUI is not an option. I have collected the commands I have used among others, and created a reference.

All these commands have been tested on Scientific Linux 6.0 x86_64.
The version of yum I have used is 3.2.27.

# A reference to Yum, Yellowdog Updater, Modified
# http://caglartoklu.blogspot.com

# Yum is a command line package manager for
# RPM-compatible Linux operating systems.

Note that these commands requires root privileges.

# _____ Updates

# Check for availability package updates.
yum check-update

# Update all installed packages.
yum update

# Update a specific package.
yum update package_name
# Example:
yum update mc



# _____ Searching and finding about what to install

# List the depencies of a package.
yum deplist package_name
# Example:
yum deplist emacs

# Search a string in the metadata of packages.
# This metadata includes: name, summary,
# description, url.
yum search ri

# Let's say you want the command 'ri' but
# do not know which package is providing it. Type:
yum provides ri
# and you will see that 'ruby-ri-1.8.7.299....'
# package os providing it.

# Information about a package.
# Note that the package does not have to be
# installed on your system, it will display
# the information anyway.
yum info package_name
# Example:
yum info mc

# Install a package or packages.
yum install package_name
yum install package_name1 package_name2
# Example: yum install mc

# List the packages.
yum list all
yum list available
yum list updates
yum list installed
yum list extra
yum list obsoletes
yum list recent



# _____ Installing and removing packages

# Remove a package or packages from your system.
yum remove package_name
yum remove package_name1 package_name2
# erase command can also be used.
yum erase package_name
yum erase package_name1 package_name2

# Install a package or packages.
yum install package_name1 package_name2
# Example:
yum install mc emacs

# You can also install a package for a specific
# architecture like this:
yum install package_name.architecture
# See 'Specifying package names' in this document.
# Architecture can be x86_64 or i386.
# Example:
yum install mc.x86_64

# Install a local RPM.
yum localinstall package_name

# Update the distro using the RPMs saved locally.
# cd to the directory you saved your rpms, and type:
yum localupdate *.rpm



# _____ Downloading packages

# Download a package (current directory by default)
yumdownloader package_name
# If you do not have the yumdownloader,
# install yum-utils using:
yum install yum-utils



# _____ Groups

# See the list of groups installed:
yum grouplist
# This command will first list the installed groups,
# then the available ones.

# After seeing the list, see the information about.
# about a group. If the group name includes a space,
# enclose the group name with ' character.
yum groupinfo group_name
# Example:
yum groupinfo 'FTP server'

# Install packages of a group. Note that default
# and mandatory ones will be installed.
yum groupinstall group_name
# Example:
yum groupinstall 'FTP server'

# Update packages of a group.
yum groupupdate group_name
# Example:
yum groupupdate 'FTP server'

# Remove all packages of a group.
yum groupremove group_name
# Example:
yum groupremove 'FTP server'



# _____ Specifying package names

# A package can be referred to for install, update,
# list, remove etc with any of the following:
name
name.arch
name-ver
name-ver-rel
name-ver-rel.arch
name-epoch:ver-rel.arch
epoch:name-ver-rel.arch


# _____ Shell

# To start the interactive shell, type:
yum shell


# _____ References

http://www.linuxcommand.org/man_pages/yum8.html
http://yum.baseurl.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowdog_Updater,_Modified

If you do not see the code, you may be running a JavaScript blocker. Then you can directly jump to the source of the code on Pastebin: http://pastebin.com/dbCHYEh0

Enabling Caching Yum Downloads on Linux

2011-06-14T14:44:00.000+03:00

I needed to copy the packages and updates performed on a Scientific Linux 6.0 x86_64 (call it A, connected to Internet) to another server(call it B). This second server has no Internet connection, and can not access to repositories but it is the main server in a project. So, I am keeping the server A as "mirror" of the server B. By this way, I can copy the updates as RPM files from server A to the unconnected server B.

Here is what I did to perform it using Yum:
First, make sure that the downloaded packages are cached in server A, that is, they are not deleted after the installation. To do that become root and type

vi /etc/yum.conf

And edit the line starting with keepcache, make sure that it is like this:

keepcache=1

Note your cachedir there.
It is defined as

cachedir=/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever

It is expanded in my system as:

/var/cache/yum/x86_64/6.0/sl/packages

Now, whenever you use yum from command line or GUI, the downloaded packages can be found there and copied freely.

Testing ScribeFire

2011-05-29T17:49:00.001+03:00

There is still hope when everything seems to be lost.
Kidding, I was not that desperate but I would be happy if I found a feasible blogging client.
After trying Drivel, which has less features, BloGTK, which requires python-gtkhtml2 which is not found in Ubuntu repositories and Blogilo, a feature complete blogging client for KDE which experienced me crashes on my Ubuntu 11.04, I am now using ScribeFire, and this will be my first post, if everything goes well.

ScribeFire, is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox Web browser, Google Chrome Web browser, Opera Web Browser, and Apple Safari Web browser that allows you to easily post to all of your blogs.

Since it is an extension, I can easily use it on my several computers without compatibility problems. The text is also being spell checked in my browser. It easily grabbed my previous tags (called labels in Blogspot). I can see my previous posts too.

Its default shortcut is F8. I have made a small configuration in settings since I want to see it in full screen, so I have chosen "new tab" option. Now I can see my text.

The only thing bugs me, is uploading an image. I am not a Picasa user, may be I will switch to Flicker for pictures. We will see what happens.

Now it is time to post this.

Started Using Twitter

2011-05-05T19:09:00.003+03:00

I have started using Twitter a while ago.
You can follow me on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/caglartoklu

Since code posting to blogs (formatting them to HTML, etc) is time consuming, I have also created a Pastebin account here:
http://pastebin.com/u/caglartoklu

Running Vim from Eclipse IDE

2011-03-31T15:36:00.012+03:00

I needed to jump from Eclipse to Vim sometimes.

Although there are lots of ways to do this, my way is simple, I will just add a menu item to Eclipse to open the current file/resource in Vim, save it in Vim, and see the effect in Eclipse.

You can find some links to alternative methods and programs at the end of this blog according to your needs. By using these more powerful solutions, you will be able to emulate Vim in Eclipse, or you will have the Vi keys in Eclipse or even you can contain the Vim itself in Eclipse.

By the time, my Eclipse version is Helios Service Release 1 and I'm using the gVimPortable from PortableApps.

Now it is time to launch Eclipse. Eclipse has an external tools feature which we will be using. First, click Run and then External Tools and External Tools Configurations... as in the following figure.

This will open a dialog titled External Tools Configurations. Since we will be adding a new program configuration, choose Program and then click on the icon of New launch configuration at the top left as in the following figure.

Now, give a descriptive Name for the task. Here, I will use the name "Open with Vim". Also we need to indicate the Location which is the path to the executable. In my system, it was "C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\gVimPortable\gVimPortable.exe", but it can be different on your system. Set the Working Directory to "${container_loc}" and Arguments to "${resource_loc}". You can also have the same effect of changing working directory by using "set autochdir" in your vimrc. Sadly, I could not find a way to send the line number of the cursor from Eclipse. If I could, Vim could directly jump to that line like in my blog entry Running Vim from Lazarus IDE. The tab Main should look like as follows:

By the way, clicking on Variables will give you more options as follows. Keep in mind that you can use all of these options.

Now, jump to the tab Refresh and activate the option Refresh resources upon completion.. This way, you can also open other files of the project in Vim and Eclipse will refresh them. I also recommend to keep the option Recursively include sub-folders activated like this:

Now, apply and close the External Tools Configurations dialog. Open a file from your workspace, and click Run and Open with Vim (or whatever you have named it) to open your file in Vim as in the following figures:

This is a very very simple way to connect Eclipse and Vim. There are more approaches here:

Eclim

The primary goal of eclim is to bring Eclipse functionality to the Vim editor. The initial goal was to provide Eclipse’s java functionality in vim, but support for various other languages (c/c++, php, python, ruby, css, html, xml, etc.) have been added and several more are planned. That is where eclim comes into play. Instead of trying to write an IDE in Vim or a Vim editor in Eclipse, eclim provides an Eclipse plug-in that exposes Eclipse features through a server interface, and a set of Vim plug-ins that communicate with Eclipse over that interface.

Vimplugin

Vimplugin is an attempt to use the vim editor inside the eclipse IDE. This is handy especially for longtime vim users. But other users (say occasional vim users) can also profit: macros, regexes, syntax-highlighting for 1001 languages etcpp.

Vrapper - Vim-like editing in Eclipse

Vrapper is an eclipse plugin which acts as a wrapper for eclipse text editors to provide a Vim-like input scheme for moving around and editing text. Unlike other plugins which embed Vim in Eclipse, Vrapper imitates the behaviour of Vim while still using whatever editor you have opened in the workbench. The goal is to have the comfort and ease which comes with the different modes, complex commands and count/operator/motion combinations which are the key features behind editing with Vim, while preserving the powerful features of the different Eclipse text editors, like code generation and refactoring.

Running Vim from Lazarus IDE

2010-03-10T19:06:00.007+02:00

I would like to edit my program both in Lazarus IDE and Vim. Lazarus IDE is good, but Vim is faster for hard core text processing. Thanks to both of them, this task is easy.

First step is to launch Lazarus IDE, and selecting "Configure external tools ..." from the "Tools" menu.

Next step is trivial, just adding a new entry by clicking "Add".

In the final step, type the following information into specified fields.

Title: Edit with Vim

Program File Name: C:\PortableApps\PortableApps\gVimPortable\gVimPortable.exe

Parameters: +$Row() "$EdFile()"

Working Directory: $Path()

+$Row() allows Vim to directly locate the cursor when the file is opened so that you can keep going on, very useful for large files.

"$EdFile()" is the full path to the file. Note that this will work even though you have a single file on Lazarus, not a project. (If you want that, there are options for that too.)

$Path() is the working directory of the file. It will be useful to locate that directory so that you can easily open more files from Vim.

After all, your final screen should look like this:

You can now open a file from Lazarus IDE in Vim as follows:

Note that you should have a file opened it must be saved to appear in Vim.

Using CPython modules from IronPython

2009-12-27T19:24:00.009+02:00

I have IronPython 2.6 and Python 2.6.4 installed on a Windows box.

IronPython's interpreter ipy.exe is not installed on a directory on path, just unzipped in an arbitrary folder.
Python 2.6.4 is installed in C:\Python26 directory.

You can import pure CPython modules from IronPython as follows:

C:\Users\dude\Documents\SharpDevelop Projects\Faman5>ipy
IronPython 2.6 (2.6.10920.0) on .NET 2.0.50727.4927
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> # Try to import the os module.
>>> import os
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 1, in
ImportError: No module named os
>>> # OK, we are sure that the module is can not be imported.
>>> # Now we need to import the sys module to achive our goal.
>>> import sys
>>> # sys.path is the list of directories to look for when importing modules.
>>> sys.path
['.', '.', 'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5', 'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5\\Lib', 'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5\\DLLs', 'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5']
>>> # Add the Cpython path to the sys.path as follows:
>>> sys.path.append("C:\Python26\Lib")
>>> sys.path
['.', '.', 'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5', 'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5\\Lib', 'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5\\DLLs', 'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5', 'C:\\Python26\\Lib']
>>> # Now we are sure that 'C:\\Python26\\Lib' is added.
>>> # Let us try to import the os module again.
>>> import os
>>> os.getcwd()
'C:\\Users\\dude\\Documents\\SharpDevelop Projects\\Faman5'
>>> # Success!

SNMP OID translator plugin for Vim

2009-12-03T16:42:00.005+02:00

I have written an SNMP OID translator plugin for Vim.
By using this plugin, one can translate OIDs directly within Vim without exiting from the editor.
I find it useful for discovering the MIB files, and translating while reading them.

Note that you have to have Net-SNMP installed on your system.
http://www.net-snmp.org/

You can see the detais and download the plugin from the following link:

http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2881

Here is a screenshot of the plugin.

FORTRAN valid line length plugin for Vim

2009-12-03T16:16:00.005+02:00

I have written a Vim plugin to help my FORTRAN coding in Vim.

According to the file extension of a FORTRAN source file, this plugin sets a valid line length. Any characters occurring after this column are considered as error, and are matched so by highlighting.

This plugin is run automatically. But, if you want to use any other valid size for some reason, the commands are available.

You can download the plugin from the following link.
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2868

The following commands are available after installing this plugin.

:FORTRANLengthAccordingToExtension
Sets the valid line length according to the file extension.
This command is applied by default.
:FORTRANStandardLength72
The columns occurring after the 72nd character are marked.
:FORTRANCardImageLength80
The columns occurring after the 80th character are marked.
:FORTRANExtendedLength132
The columns occurring after the 132nd character are marked.
:FORTRANRemoveMatching
Removes the matching set by this plugin.

Here is the screenshot of the plugin. (Colorscheme is Molokai).

Vim compiler plugin for FreeBASIC

2009-06-29T11:14:00.012+03:00

I have uploaded a Vim compiler plugin for FreeBASIC.
You can download the fbc.vim at
http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=2691

For the following code:

the

:make

command produces an output as follows:

Traditonally, you can see the all error messages with

:cl

you can jump to next error with

:cn

and you can jump to the previous error message with

:cp

To install it, copy the script into your compiler folder. Assuming standart installations, it should be

C:\Program Files\Vim\vimfiles\compiler\

in Microsoft Windows, and

$HOME/.vim/compiler

in Linux operating systems.

In Vim, the compiler plugins are not automatically triggered unlike file type plugins. To set it whenever you need, use the command

1 :compiler fbc

To set it once and for all if a .bas file is edited, type the following into your VIMRC file:

1 autocmd BufNewFile,BufRead *.bas compiler fbc

If you need a syntax file for the upcoming FreeBASIC 0.21, you can download a syntax file at http://cubaxd.net/?en&p=syntaxfile.

Delphi Pascal/Object Pascal editing in Vim

2009-06-05T17:18:00.014+03:00

Here are a few Vim plugins for Pascal editing.

Compiler
fpc.vim : "Free Pascal Compiler" compiler plugin
It can already be bundled in your Vim. If it is not, you can download it. After opening a .pas file, type

:compiler fpc

Compiler plugins are not loaded automatically in Vim. You'll have to load them explicitly.

Syntax
Syntax file for Borlands Delphi/Kylix
Vim 7 is already bundled with Pascal syntax plugin. But Object Pascal is more than that. To colorize the keywords of Object Pascal, you can use this plugin which is derived from the original Pascal syntax plugin.

Note that although this plugin is a syntax file, if you look in the script, you will see that it also contains color codes. That is why you will not see the color scheme you selected if you have this plugin. To overcome this issue, you can delete the following lines from the delphi.vim :

hi pascalObject          ctermfg=white         guifg=white         gui=italic
hi pascalFunction        ctermfg=LightRed      guifg=Orange        gui=NONE
hi pascalStatement       ctermfg=Green         guifg=Green         gui=NONE
hi pascalNumber          ctermfg=LightBlue     guifg=LightBlue     gui=NONE
hi pascalByte            ctermfg=LightRed      guifg=LightRed      gui=bold
hi pascalString          ctermfg=LightBlue     guifg=LightBlue     gui=NONE
hi pascalMatrixDelimiter ctermfg=lightred      guifg=lightred      gui=NONE
hi pascalConditional     ctermfg=Green         guifg=Green         gui=NONE
hi pascalConstant        ctermfg=white         guifg=white         gui=NONE
hi pascalModifier        ctermfg=Green         guifg=Green         gui=NONE
hi pascalType            ctermfg=white         guifg=white         gui=NONE
hi pascalStructure       ctermfg=Green         guifg=Green         gui=NONE
hi pascalRepeat          ctermfg=Green         guifg=Green         gui=NONE
hi pascalOperator        ctermfg=Green         guifg=Green         gui=NONE
hi pascalAssignment      ctermfg=Magenta       guifg=Magenta       gui=NONE
hi pascalComment         ctermfg=LightBlue     guifg=#00A0A0       gui=italic
hi pascalLabel           ctermfg=Green         guifg=Green         gui=NONE
hi pascalDelimiter       ctermfg=Yellow        guifg=Yellow        gui=NONE
hi pascalComparator      ctermfg=Yellow        guifg=Yellow        gui=NONE

I should remind you that the colors are not bad though. Delete them if you want to use the color scheme selected; otherwise leave it as it is, it just works.
If you are curious, here is the screenshot of the colors provided by the syntax plugin:

Also the author of this plugin provides some code to be put on your .vimrc and it is quite useful.
This is the code to be put on your .vimrc:

 1 " Pascal / Delphi
     2 if (1==1) "change to 1==0 to use original syntax
     3   au BufNewFile,BufRead *.pas,*.PAS set ft=delphi
     4 else
     5   au BufNewFile,BufRead *.pas,*.PAS set ft=pascal
     6 endif
     7 " Delphi project file
     8 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.dpr,*.DPR set ft=delphi
     9 " Delphi form file
    10 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.dfm,*.DFM set ft=delphi
    11 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.xfm,*.XFM set ft=delphi
    12 " Delphi package file
    13 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.dpk,*.DPK set ft=delphi
    14 " Delphi .DOF file = INI file for MSDOS
    15 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.dof,*.DOF set ft=dosini
    16 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.kof,*.KOF set ft=dosini
    17 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.dsk,*.DSK set ft=dosini
    18 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.desk,*.DESK set ft=dosini
    19 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.dti,*.DTI set ft=dosini
    20 " Delphi .BPG = Makefile
    21 au BufNewFile,BufRead *.bpg,*.BPG set ft=make|setlocal makeprg=make\ -f\ %

Color Schemes
Delphi color scheme

Turbo color scheme

Borland color scheme

IronPython and C#, Hosting/Embedding, Part I

2009-06-04T20:03:00.001+03:00

As IronPython improves, the way to embed it in other applications is changed too. It is constantly becoming easier and more general. When the C# 4.0 is released, it will be even more easier and useful.

I have written a simple hosting example for the current stable version. I have used IronPython 2.0.1, Visual Studio 2005 SP1, and .NET Framework 2.0 SP2. This example has not been tested with IronPython 2.6 Beta 1 nor IronPython 2.6 for .NET 4.0 Beta 1.

The example code can be seen as follows:

 namespace IronPythonHostingExample
 {
     using System;
     using IronPython.Hosting;
     using Microsoft.Scripting.Hosting;

     public class IronPythonStatementHostingExample
     {
         public static void ShowDemo()
        {
            ScriptRuntimeSetup setup = Python.CreateRuntimeSetup(null);
            ScriptRuntime runtime = new ScriptRuntime(setup);
            ScriptEngine engine = Python.GetEngine(runtime);
            ScriptScope scope = engine.CreateScope();
            ScriptSource source;
            string sourceCode = string.Empty;
            sourceCode += "def factorial(n):" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "    f = 1" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "    i = 1" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "    if (i > n):" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "        return -1" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "    while (i < n):" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "        f = f * i" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "        i = i + 1" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "    return f" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "def add_two_numbers(n1, n2):" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "    return n1+n2" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "for i in range(5):" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "    print i" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "print factorial(5)" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "print factorial(-4)" + Environment.NewLine;
            sourceCode += "print add_two_numbers(1, 2)" + Environment.NewLine;
            source = scope.Engine.CreateScriptSourceFromString(sourceCode, Microsoft.Scripting.SourceCodeKind.Statements);
            source.Execute(scope);
        }
    }
}

To compile it as a project, you need the following DLLs to be added to your project:
The DLL files can be found in the directory
"C:\Program Files\IronPython 2.0.1".

Vim and Visual Studio

2009-05-16T10:26:00.000+03:00

There is a VIM script, visual_studio.vim which can be found at http://code.google.com/p/vim-visual-studio/. It uses the Python Extensions for Windows to integrate VIM and Visual Studio. It can get the files, solutions and its projects from Visual Studio. You can directly compile the solution from within VIM and you can obviously use the "quickfix". It is not an emulation mode for Visual Studio unlike ViEmu, you will be using VIM again.

The page on vim.org says that you need to have Python 2.4. On my Windows box, I have Visual Studio 2008 and GVIM 7.2, which has been compiled with Python 2.4 support. But, the Python interpreter I am using is Python 2.5, which I keep compatible with the Python interpreter on a production machine. As a result, I had no chance to uninstall Python 2.5 for Python 2.4 and no intention to uninstall GVIM 7.2 for GVIM 7.0.

So, I have found Vim binaries compiled for Python 2.5 and Python 2.6. I have downloaded the zip file and overwritten the executables in my Vim directory. If I type

:version

in Vim, I get the following screens:

Which shows that I have finally a Python 2.5 compatible Vim.

By the way, do not forget to install Python Extensions for Windows if you did not installed yet.

If we make a summary
- We have Visual Studio 2008
- We have Python 2.5
- We have Python Extensions for Windows
- We have GVIM 7.2
- We have Python 2.5 binaries for GVIM
- We have the visual_studio.vim

And finally, I have been able to see and use the following menu: