August 20th, 2007
Its so frustrating when there are lots of things that you want to do but no time to do them in! I’ve got my parents in law’s garden to finish off (3 years and counting!) a bookcase in the bedroom, Java song or what ever I eventually call it and I have recently come across an application called Javacc. This app lets you define a language grammer and then generates the Java classes necessary to interpret and execute your new language. Which got me thinking, since there is an international speak like a pirate day why not create a language for pirates to program in? Consider the following Java:
if (2 > 3) {
System.out.println(“True”);
}
else {
System.out.println(“False”);
}
In Pirate this could be expressed as:
2 > 3 This be true?
Aye
Ahoy “True”
That it be
Nay
Ahoy “False”
It be not
Ok so its a bit verbose and probably has no real use but whats that got to do with it. All thats needed is to expand the syntax a bit and have a go with Javacc. Which comes back to not having any time……
Posted in Java | 4 Comments »
August 8th, 2007
…is trying to remember that you have one and that it should really be updated! I can’t believe it has been so long since I last posted but ten nothing really noteworthy has happened. Java song is still in the ideas stage, though I did get to use OpenSong in anger on Sunday. Hopefully I will be able to write some prototype code later on tonight…once the hedge has been cut and the bushes have been trimmed.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
July 13th, 2007
Well I finally took the plunge and installed Ubuntu 7.04 server onto the family computer (A Shuttle XPC SG41) and it went suprisingly well. I only had a couple of issues.
1. The server edition doesn’t come with the Gnome desktop but a quick search on Google produced some clear instructions on how to install it.
2. The bigger problem was that Grub didn’t get installed with an entry for the existing Windows XP installation. However I had previously set up 7.04 desktop on a laptop and I was able to copy the relevant bits into the Grub menu list and it worked a treat.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
July 2nd, 2007
Ok so the name needs a bit of work 
I’m just about to send an email out to some users of OpenSong to see what
changes they would like to see and I have also had some further thoughts on
what I would like to implement.
One of those thoughts is to have the code that drives the display monitor
run as a server. You could then have the control/edit code run as a client
so that you could have multiple computers controlling the display. One of
the problems is to ensure that you don’t make the set up of the system so
complicated that it needs a very experienced user to get the thing working.
Some more thought is obviously needed.
Posted in Java | No Comments »
June 29th, 2007
Currently we use OpenSong to display the lyrics of worship songs on an overhead projector and it seems to work very well. However there are some features that it is missing and the language it is written in (Real Basic) is not one that is readily available or in common usage. Therefore I propose to write a new version in Java. Why Java? Well I can program in Java and I know it has a lot of the stuff that we require already built in. It is also free!
So the first stage is to get some requirements, and here are some to start with:
1. Must support multiple monitors i.e. a control monitor and one or more display monitors.
2. Allow the editing of songs whilst displaying the same song on the display monitor. The changes made would be reflected on the display next time it was displayed.
3. Draw outline fonts i.e. have the outline of the font in one colour and the fill in another.
Actually I need to get this lot down in a document along with any other ideas that anyone may have!
Posted in Java | No Comments »