This week I set a goal to get my next generation of editorial tools to a level where I could use them for almost everything I do online. Not yet for others to use, this is how I develop stuff. I do more than eat the dog food, think of it this way — I am the dog. “;->

For those of us who build tools for our own use: has it ever been better said? Never.

Woof!

NoSQL: Distributed and Scalable Non-Relational Database Systems

Non-SQL oriented distributed databases are all the rage in some circles. They’re designed to scale from day 1 and offer reliability in the face of failures.

Woops! I called it NoQL, but the real term is "NoSQL". Yes, folks, there are read-only applications that don't call for transactions or even updates. The NoSQL db's have them, though.

Commands operating on lists

• RPUSH key value Append an element to the tail of the List value at key
• LPUSH key value Append an element to the head of the List value at key
• LLEN key Return the length of the List value at key
• LRANGE key start end Return a range of elements from the List at key
• LTRIM key start end Trim the list at key to the specified range of elements
• LINDEX key index Return the element at index position from the List at key
• LSET key index value Set a new value as the element at index position of the List at key
• LREM key count value Remove the first-N, last-N, or all the elements matching value from the List at key
• LPOP key Return and remove (atomically) the first element of the List at key
• RPOP key Return and remove (atomically) the last element of the List at key
• RPOPLPUSH srckey dstkey Return and remove (atomically) the last element of the source List stored at _srckey_ and push the same element to the destination List stored at _dstkey_

Redis is a memory-only entry in the collection of key-value pair databases known as NoQL. It seems a faster reader than Tokyo Cabinet & memcachdb and has all kinds of bindings -- I noticed (in alphabetical order) Erlang, Java, Lua, Python, Ruby and Scala.

Redis, written in C for Posix, is not multi-core happening, as the Berkeley DB Oracle person noted. Never mind. It's simple. People have written a couple of VERY SIMPLE twitter clones, one in PHP, one in Ruby. Also, not binary-capable, it's all text. Under the right circumstance, that could be a good thing.

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z
A3 — Static property in class org.alivepdf.layout.Size
	Constants representing the various paper sizes.
A4 — Static property in class org.alivepdf.layout.Size
A5 — Static property in class org.alivepdf.layout.Size
addBookmark(text, level, y, color:org.alivepdf.colors:RGBColor) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Lets you add a bookmark
addCell(width, height, text, border, ln, align, fill, link) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Add a cell with some text to the current page
added — Event in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Dispatched when a page has been added to the PDF.
ADDED — Constant static property in class org.alivepdf.events.PageEvent
addEventListener(type, listener, useCapture, priority, useWeakReference) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
addImage(displayObject, x, y, width, height, imageFormat, quality, alpha, resizeMode, blendMode, keepTransformation, link) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	The addImage method takes an incoming DisplayObject.
addImageStream(imageBytes, x, y, width, height, alpha, resizeMode, blendMode, keepTransformation, link) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	The addImageStream method takes an incoming image as a ByteArray.
addLink(x, y, width, height, link, highlight) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Lets you add clickable link to a specific position
addMultiCell(width, height, text, border, align, filled) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Add a multicell with some text to the current page
addPage(page:org.alivepdf.pages:Page) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Lets you add a page to the current PDF
addText(text, x, y) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Lets you set some text to any position on the page
addTextNote(x, y, width, height, text) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Lets you add a text annotation to the current page
addTransition(style, duration, dimension, motionDirection, transitionDirection) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pages.Page
addTransition(style, duration, dimension, motionDirection, transitionDirection) — Method in class org.alivepdf.pdf.PDF
	Lets you add a transition between each PDF page Note : PDF must be shown in fullscreen to see the transitions, use the setDisplayMode method with the PageMode.FULL_SCREEN parameter
AnnotationHighlight — Final class in package org.alivepdf.annotations
annotations — Property in class org.alivepdf.pages.Page
APPROVED — Constant static property in class org.alivepdf.annotations.StampStyle
ARIAL — Constant static property in class org.alivepdf.fonts.FontFamily
AS_IS — Constant static property in class org.alivepdf.annotations.StampStyle
ATTACHMENT — Constant static property in class org.alivepdf.saving.Download

Finally found a good looking index to AlivePDF. Didn't even come close to exploring A-pdf in the last couple of days, but maybe I can look through the "add()s" tomorrow. At least some of them. addTransition() to show transitions between PDF pages? Who cares about this one? Maybe a slide show with one slide per page, but oy.

I don’t like loosing time. So what do we need? Ultra-rapid development after my official Nascom working hours. If that great idea in my head, isn’t quickly translated in a working application, I’m loosing that vibe. After some days I just don’t open the project anymore. (Another unfinished project)

So here’s where I’m hoping Mate will change things. I’ve read some great reviews from Tony Hillerson, Rapture in Venice, FusionCube, Explorers Club and Richard Lord from Flash On The Beach. There’s some buzz going arround (Adobe Max PDF). And the joy factor seams to be there.

Theoretically it should be easy to make the switch between 2 different frameworks. If you did follow the MVC pattern as strictly as possible.

It’s curious, coming from Cairngorm, transfered to PureMVC, then Multicore and Pipes and now on to Mate… I must be crazy thinking I will find the time to re-factor all these classes again.

Rien Verbrugghe -- planning the switch to Mate for 2010. Mate is one of the top 20 libes to look at -- number 15 in fact -- so, assuming we look at one library every three or four days, this definitely puts Mate into the 2010 timeframe. Especially leaving gaps for catching up with people over the holidays and catching up with the missed writing days of Pragprowrimo

I don't want to compile it, just give me the program!

Current build is not yet ready for production. If you're curious enough though, check the Downloads section and try the thing on your computer.

Oups, you're on windows! Not so bad, you can run a virtual machine. We prepared a remastered Debian installer together with a virtual machine emulator (QEmu) that will run under XP or Vista without the need to install anything on your OS. It will produce a Debian with ModAS installed. You have 2 bat files and a README in the zip.

These guys have got delivery-of-value taped before the value is complete. Particularly intriguing is the ability to grab a complete Debian with ModAS that will run on your windows, without installing anything into Vista or whatever.

The project, software that enables AS3 active web pages in Apache, could be a keeper. So many libes so little time.

Introduction

Flash MiniBuilder is a lightweight IDE created for developing programs written in ActionScript 3.

Flash MiniBuilder is itself written in ActionScript

Two of the main raison d'etre of MiniBuilder are

• provide a completely free and cross platform alternative for developing ActionScript projects.
• provide an editor with a small footprint that would eventually run on smaller computers like netbooks or even pocket-size devices.

Extending, changing (and even integrating MiniBuilder with other software) is easy: MiniBuilder is itself written in your favourite language, AS3!

This looks like a kind of fun thing to look at early next year -- or now if you have time.