Occasionally I run across a source file with tabs in it.

There are many ways to remove tabs. I prefer to use perl from the command line.

Replace all tabs with two spaces in a command line perl script:

perl -pe 's/\t/  /g' -i myFile.cpp

And, with bash, do it for all files in a directory that have a tab

for f in $(grep -l '\t' *.h *.cpp);do
  perl -pe 's/\t/  /g' -i $f;
done

Cool news.

Drupal Association: Portland here we come

Oregonian: Drupal Association chooses Portland for its long-term home

Nice to see any tech move to PDX.

Matt Mullenweg quotes Brent Simmons and Anne Lamott on Programming and Writing.

I couldn’t agree more.

I always tell newer programmers that they should spend a lot of time reading code.
Read other peoples code.
Read open source code.
Read your own code!

I’m using ‘cleartool describe’.
Passing in a format of ‘%l’ to just grab labels.
The sed portions strip off the parentheses and all but the first label.
Labels are ordered newest to oldest.

cleartool describe -fmt '%l' my_file_name.txt | sed 's/,.*//;s/(//;s/)//;'

This is the first of a series of simple posts highlighting programming idioms in several languages.

One of the perils of programming in multiple languages regularly is that I sometimes forget simple things about a language.

This series is intended as a reference for myself and others when switching back and forth between languages.

There are fancy ways to grab options and such in all of these languages.

However, this is the basics.

• Parsing command line arguments in C/C++
• Parsing command line arguments in Perl
• Parsing command line arguments in Python
• Parsing command line arguments in Bash

Parsing command line arguments in c/c++

For c/c++, the first parameter to ‘main()’ is the number of arguments including the program name.

The second parameter is an array with valid indices o to argc-1.

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  cout << "argc: " << argc << "\n";
  for (int i = 0; i < argc; i++)
  {
    cout << "argv[" << i << "]: " << argv[i] << "\n";
  }
  return 0;
}

output:

bash> g++ -o commandLineArguments.exe commandLineArguments.cpp
bash> commandLineArguments.exe
argc: 1
argv[0]: commandLineArguments
bash> commandLineArguments.exe a b c -d -e -fgh "ijk lmn op"
argc: 8
argv[0]: commandLineArguments
argv[1]: a
argv[2]: b
argv[3]: c
argv[4]: -d
argv[5]: -e
argv[6]: -fgh
argv[7]: ijk lmn op

Parsing command line arguments in Perl

Perl stores all parameters in an array named ‘ARGV’. Be aware that $#ARGV will be -1 when there are no parameters.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

print "\$#ARGV: $#ARGV \n";
foreach $argnum (0 .. $#ARGV) {
  print "\$ARGV[$argnum]: $ARGV[$argnum]\n";
}

output:

bash> perl commandLineArguments.pl
$#ARGV: -1
bash> perl commandLineArguments.pl a b c -d -e -fgh "ijk lmn op"
$#ARGV: 6
$ARGV[0]: a
$ARGV[1]: b
$ARGV[2]: c
$ARGV[3]: -d
$ARGV[4]: -e
$ARGV[5]: -fgh
$ARGV[6]: ijk lmn op

Parsing command line arguments in Python

Python stuffs all the parameters, including the script name, into an argv array.

import sys

print('number of arguments:%d' % len(sys.argv))
print('using loop')
i=0
for x in sys.argv:
    print("%d:%s" % (i,x))
    i += 1

print('')
print('using index')
for i in range(0, len(sys.argv)):
    print("%d:%s" % (i,sys.argv[i]))

output:

bash> python commandLineArguments.py
number of arguments:1
using loop
0:commandLineArguments.py

using index
0:commandLineArguments.py
bash> python commandLineArguments.py "abc def" g h i j
number of arguments:6
using loop
0:commandLineArguments.py
1:abc def
2:g
3:h
4:i
5:j

using index
0:commandLineArguments.py
1:abc def
2:g
3:h
4:i
5:j

Parsing command line arguments in Bash

Of course, there are many conventional ways to pull off parameters in bash.
Here are just a few.
Note that ‘$*’ and ‘$#’ don’t work well with parameters that contain spaces.

echo 'number of arguments'
echo "\$#: $#"
echo ''

echo 'using $num'
echo "\$0: $0"
if [ $# -ge 1 ];then echo "\$1: $1"; fi
if [ $# -ge 2 ];then echo "\$2: $2"; fi
if [ $# -ge 3 ];then echo "\$3: $3"; fi
if [ $# -ge 4 ];then echo "\$4: $4"; fi
if [ $# -ge 5 ];then echo "\$5: $5"; fi
echo ''

echo 'using $@'
let i=1
for x in $@; do
  echo "$i: $x"
  let i=$i+1
done
echo ''

echo 'using $*'
let i=1
for x in $*; do
  echo "$i: $x"
  let i=$i+1
done
echo ''

let i=1
echo 'using shift'
while [ $# -gt 0 ]
do
    echo "$i: $1"
    let i=$i+1
    shift
done

output:

bash> commandLineArguments.bash
number of arguments
$#: 0

using $num
$0: ./commandLineArguments.bash

using $@

using $*

using shift
bash> commandLineArguments.bash  "abc def" g h i j
number of arguments
$#: 5

using $num
$0: ./commandLineArguments.bash
$1: abc def
$2: g
$3: h
$4: i
$5: j

using $@
1: abc
2: def
3: g
4: h
5: i
6: j

using $*
1: abc
2: def
3: g
4: h
5: i
6: j

using shift
1: abc def
2: g
3: h
4: i
5: j

I’ve got a wxPython application with a text control.

I want to attach a function to run when someone clicks on a line of
text in the wxTextCtrl widget.

I want to grab the line of text they clicked on and use it for
something.

Specifically, this is part of a log file viewer that only shows
part of the log, and double clicking is intended to open the full
log file in an editor (Vim, for example), at the line number of the
string the person clicked on.

However, finding the actual line of text is not well documented,
in my opinion.

Here is a short example of how to do it.

Run this, type some junk into the window, and then try left double
clicking on some text.

It will print out the text clicked on.

# wxPython example:
#   How to convert mouse clicks to the text clicked on
#
# Author: Brian Okken
#

import wx

class TextCtrlFrame(wx.Frame):

def __init__(self, parent):
    wx.Frame.__init__(self, parent)
    self.text = wx.TextCtrl(self, -1, "", style=wx.TE_MULTILINE)
    self.text.Bind(wx.EVT_LEFT_DCLICK, self.on_left)

def on_left(self, evt):
    position      = evt.GetPosition()
    (res,hitpos)  = self.text.HitTestPos(position)
    (col,line)    = self.text.PositionToXY(hitpos)
    the_line      = self.text.GetLineText(line)
    print('on_left:%s' % the_line)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    APP = wx.App(False)
    FRAME = TextCtrlFrame(None)
    FRAME.Show()
    APP.MainLoop()

I love Vim.

I use Python (love/hate relationship).

Vim folding with python code is a bit tricky due to the indent-crazy nature of python.

Solution: python_editing.vim ftplugin, works like a dream.

I know I’m a little late to the game here.
I recently read Rands articles on NADD and the Nerd Handbook.

I was talking to some folks in the office, and was thinking about how to tell if someone is a geek/nerd.

I think my litmus test is quite simple.

Ask someone the question: What is your favorite text editor?

If they have an answer, any answer, then they qualify.

Unless, of course, their answer is Word!

This is related to finding clearcase checkins since a given date.
Find all of the checkins between two labels.

ct find . -name '*' -version 'version(\main\LATEST) && !lbtype(FIRST_LABEL) && lbtype(SECOND_LABEL)' -print