This morning I saw the tweet that MarsEdit 3.2.1 was out with a few nice little fixes. I hadn't been having any issues, but it's still nice to see Danile make progress. I'm still waiting for that BBEdit/Vim/SubEthaEdit editor in MarsEdit. I think it could really use it.
Another late night trying to get what Joseph calls my Impossible Project done on time. I've finally been able to let the Broker sit for a while, and I'm on to getting the database abstraction layer for the static data we'll need in the greek engine working. I've got a good start on it, and SQLAPI++ really helps, but I wasn't able to really get it nailed down before I had to run for the train.
It's getting a little old - these sprints for the train. But hey... it's part of the job these days. I know it's a nearly impossible timeline, but it's what they've asked for, and I'll do my best to deliver it to them as they asked. That's the deal we all make in a business.
I've got about another hour left on this guy and then my first database table will be done and I can hand it off to someone else for them to work in all the other tables that need to be included in the interface. Once I have all this stabilized, I'll work with the static data vendor group and see about converting these into more generally usable Broker-based data services.
Just for right now, it's enough to get them loaded from the database. We can get the rest done later.
I've been working on the conversion of my Broker code to the new replica set-compatible erlmongo driver. It's not horrible, but the worst part is what the worst part always was - getting the data in and out figured out so I can write the correct matches in the code.
They store the arrays differently, and they don't like the long binary-data strings that I've been using, but after I figured out all the gotchas, it's working again. It's just not easy.
Plus... this is more than half a day shot on something that I didn't need to have done had they not switched the database clustering... and I'm on a week-and-a-half deadline. Not ideal at all.
But it's done.
This morning my newly re-written Broker was not working. Hmmm... so I look at the logs, and it's not too hard to see that there are timeouts on the emongo driver. This was the driver that I used to get from erlang to (and from) the mongo database. Now all of a sudden, it's giving me timeouts. I had no idea.
When the guys that handle the mongo DB arrived today they said that they reconfigured the mongo DB I was using from a single server to a replica set. This is a fault-tolerant mongo DB setup, and in general, I'm a fan of things like this.
But that's not how today went.
Oh no... turns out the API into a mongo replica set is not the same as a single server, and moreover, the emongo driver doesn't support the replica sets. Fantastic!
So now all the work I just finished has to be re-examined in light of a new erlang-to-mongo driver: erlmongo. This guy is capable of dealing with the single server and replica sets modes of mongo DB. This is good, but the API is very different, and most importantly to me, there are no connection pools. If you want to talk to a database, you have to open a connection to the database and then hold onto it.
Given the realities of erlang and persistent state, this isn't really a possibility. We need to have a module that's a connection pooler, and then be able to set that guy up and let him deal with opening the connections, etc.
So here I am, fixing code I just wrote because some other group decided to change the database into an incompatible format. Lovely. It's unavoidable, as it's their group, and their database, but it's a real pain - right on the heels of just getting it done.
This morning I saw that Google Chrome dev 12.0.725.0 was out and the release notes say it all:
All
- Updated V8 - 3.2.6.0
- Spring cleaning in the code, lots of code cleanup and refactoring under the covers
It's nice to see the clean-out of old code. I'm sure there's a lot that's sitting there - like maybe the H.264 decoder... OK, enough of that. In any case, at least they got the icon back. Baby steps.
I finally finished the erlang services for The Broker. I was able to get my ticker plants hitting it and all was running. It's been a lot of work, and not a lot of "new stuff" - face it, it's a re-write, but in the end, we have something that's a lot better than the old, and it's going to be paying benefits long into the future.
Good work.
Today I made some real progress on The Broker. It's still the login service and the configuration service, but I'm getting things together. It's all skeletoned out, so I know what I need to do, and what I need to make it work - in a minimal sense.
Things are looking a lot better today.
This afternoon, Angelina wanted to be able to print from her iPad to the printers in the house. Since AirPrint was not enabled in Mac OS X 10.6.6+, I knew I had a few options open to me: hacking the system to enable it (it was enabled in a pre-release version of OS X), or buying one of the sub-$10 apps that allowed you to share all your printers on a Mac OS X desktop with AirPrint clients. I'm not a fan of the hacking, so I decided to give the apps a try.
When I was going through all the apps for this, I noticed AirPrint Activator. This guy used to be a hack, but now the author says this about the app:
Apple requested that I take down the AirPrintHacktivator page as they stipulate that the application is distributing copyrighted source code and/or software. AirPrint Activator is now replacing the defunct AirPrint Hacktivator application. It provide the same functionality without the use of any Apple files.
You can use AirPrint Activator as a replacement of the previous generation Hacktivator application. If present, it will take care of cleaning any Apple files installed by the previous generation Hacktivator when you “deactivate” AirPrint. It will only inject a single line in a CUPS configuration when you select to “activate” AirPrint.
I really liked that it only injects a single line int he CUPS config file. That's the kind of change I can deal with. Sure, it's liable to be broken in the next release of OS X - or even on an update to CUPS in a subsequent security update. But for now, it's possible, and if I need to learn what this change is, I can, and then I'll be able to update it myself in the future.
The next wrinkle turned out to be that my Mac Mini was sharing a printer that wasn't being shared via LPD any more. Seems Snow Leopard turned off the LDP sharing by default. Well, I found this hint and simply enabled LPD sharing again:
cupsctl 'BrowseLocalProtocols="cups dnssd lpd"'
As soon as I did that, my old LPD-based sharing machines found the printer again, and all was well. With these two things, I have AirPrint working perfectly in the house now. I even printed out a few pictures from my iPhone for Marie who needed them for school.
Very nice.
It's been another long day of meetings and trying to get work done. For the most part, I've been working on the new Broker, and it's login and configuration services. The trick is currently the mongo-to-erlang interface, and it's proving to be powerful, but not entirely easy to use or well-documented. But it is workable, and that's enough.
Lots of work, but not a lot of code. But I'm getting better at erlang, and that's a big plus.