Meet Django

I think i’ve found my perfect python web framework! Meet Django.

What you get? (quoted from the official site)

Object-relational mapper - define your data models entirely in Python. You get a rich, dynamic database-access API for free

URLDispatcher - design pretty URLs with no framework-specific limitations. Be as flexible as you like.

Template system - Use Django’s powerful and extensible template language to separate design, content and Python code.

Cache system - Hook into memcached or other cache frameworks for super caching – as granularly as you need.

Automatic admin interface -Save yourself the tedious work of creating interfaces for people to add and update content. Django does that automatically.

Give it a try, read the overview and go through the tutorial. I was impressed :)

Exams, Exams, Exams

That time of year is slowly approaching.. What time of year, you may ask? Well, since last October, i am back to university (this time i am really finishing my BCS degree, honest) and the exams are round the corner :) I am actually enjoying studying more than i did years ago.. and (this sounds kinda scary, i know) i am kind of looking forward to the exams :))

Anyway, the point of the post was something else: finally, after more than a year of thinking about it, i actually took the time to go and pass the Sun Java Programmer Certification exam… yes, i passed! w00t! (scored 83%) So, here’s another certification to add to the collection: Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform 1.4. Next, please… ;)

Flash Is Bigger Than Ever

It’s been ages since my last post but these things are big enough that woke me up and made me blog about them:

1) You can compile actionscript 2 files into swf without the Flash IDE. I just installed MTASC (Motion-Twin Actionscript2 Compiler) on my linux box and compiled my first swf movie, how cool is that?! The compiler is opensource and free, it is a command line compiler so you can integrate it with your fav editor, it is actually quite simple to install (for win there is no installation whatsoever, for linux you just need to make sure that you have OCaml installed) and according to the official page, it is faster than the MM compiler. The least you can do is try it out ;) (via JD on MX)

2) There is a new kind of generic documentation generator in the hood: Naturaldocs Aral from Flashant has started a campaign to bring support for Actionscrip 2 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE into Naturaldocs. Read more deatils here.

3) Actually, this has been news for some time now, but i find it extremelly important for rich application development (and i haven’t blogged about it when it was fresh news) so i am goin to point it out here too: The great guys and gals from Ariaware have released ARP, an open-source pattern-based framewrok for Flash and Flex RIA development.

Is Flash bigger than ever or what? ;)

Time to Say MT Goodbye

For some time now i’ve been thinking of changing my blog engine (currently it is Movable Type) to something else. Why? .. well, i don’t like the way you edit templates in MT and the comment-spammers are really annoying and i don’t think Todd will ever upgrade the current MT version (and, don’t worry Todd, i don’t even want to ;)) So, while waiting for Todd to finish up his CF blogging system (and then pass it on to me ;)) I have narrowed down my choice to two options: Textpattern and PyBlosxom.

I like Textpattern for its ease of use and configuration and being very flexible. On the other hand, PyBlosxom is written in Python and as such very appealing (oportunity to learn more Python! :D) Does any of you know of other (possibly Python) blog systems worth taking a look?

Macromedia Goodies

Thank you Macromedia for the very nice gift! :) The Timbuk2 Laptop Messenger bag is great and my laptop fits perfectly :) … and it came just on time, as if MM knew that i have school starting in a week and was looking for a nice bag to carry my laptop around :D Thank you also for the nice “Go to And Play” tshirt, the UI flash cards and the personaly signed letter from Mike Chambers.

The Fedex box arrived on Wednesday (unfortunatelly i had to pay 60 euros of taxes), but i wasn’t able to open it and see what’s inside till this Friday (i was away).

I would also like to thank Christian Cantrell for sending me the letter about Central 1.5 release.

I am not sure what i did to turn up on Macromedia “gift list” (this is not the first time i recieve a gift from MM) but i feel happy and honoured and glad :) Thank you again!

CSS Classes Case Sensitive?

I didn’t know this before: It appears that css classes are case sensitive, but you must declare a proper doctype in your html document for this to work (html 4.01 and above).

For example, this stylesheet:

// myStyle.css

.myclass{
    background-color: Aqua;
    width: 50px;
    height: 50px;
}

.MyClass{
    background-color: Fuchsia;
    width: 100px;
    height: 100px;
}

whit this html document:

//test.html





    Test
    




              
 

              
 

will apply to each div the proper class. If you test this in Mozilla Firefox or Netscape 7.1 it works stright away. If you take out the xml declaration it works even in IE6. But if you delete the doctype declaration, then both divs will take the style of the latter class (MyClass in this example). I should probably note, that this has been only tested on my local PC, so i don’t know if this is true for the Mac as well…