My amateur PHP developer toolset
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
I am not a developer, but I enjoy coding sometimes for hacking pleasure. I toyed with Ruby (Rails), Python (Django), exotic scripting languages (WebDNA) but nowadays I mostly tweak PHP, HTML, JavaScript, CSS code and some Bash. As an long time Apple user, I run only MacOS X on my Macintoshes, so over time I have selected my software tools of choice.
As text editor I use Coda for its well designed interface, integrated FTP browser, grep integration, CSS editor, DOM inspector, integrated terminal and ability to share live code over Bonjour using the Subetha engine, with better developpers than me at Emakina.
Unfortunately Coda can’t grep through a bunch of files, so I still have to use BBedit for massive re-factoring.
I tested SubEthaEdit, the free TextWrangler and ForgEdit. All of them are great text editors too, but lack some polish in their interfaces.
I also use Transmit from Panic as my main FTP software. It’s strong at syncing a whole sites with my servers and just well integrated in MacOS X. It syncs FTP bookmarks over .Mac which is practical when you work nightshift from the office to home 
Forklift is cool too, especially it’s FTP to FTP feature and integration of Amazon S3.
I experiment a lot of Open Source PHPware, so I download the latest trunk version of my favorite projects from their subversion repository. After using svn X (free but ugly) for years I have recently switched to Version. The current beta 4 is very stable and it’s interface matches perfectly with Coda. I like the way it present the recents changes in a Timeline, that you can unfold to click every file for a quick diff. Juxtapose Folders is also useful and free. But the diff presentation of CornerStone are by far superior. CornerStone is another Mac OS X style Subversion client and I’m still wondering if I’ll buy Version at the end of the beta or go for CornerStone.
But to integrate update of Open Source software I have modified, I use Changes, a stronger diff tool which allow me to compare a whole project then integrate code changes bits by bits into my version. Previously I used DiffMerge (free but ugly), but I was tired of having false positive because of Mac OS X / Windows linebreak differences.
On my development servers, after using Mac OS X Server since the beta version to 10.3, I switched to Tenon iTools. They have great support, keep updating their Apache, PHP and MySQL packages and are a three clicks install on a brand new Mac mini. Its web based remote administration interface allow me to control my servers from anywhere, anytime, even on a Windows machine. When developing offline (during holidays in remote locations) I use MAMP on my MacBook Air.
To edit MySQL databases I currently use phpMyAdmin like everybody, but I just stumbled upon Navicat. If you know some better MacOS X native MySQL editor, let me know in the comments below.
Nouvelle campagne Rendez-Vous.be
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
Major update on ContactOffice beta !
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
ContactOffice is a collaborative and messaging platform offered in Software as a Service. It is used daily by more more than 350.000 users of which 250.000 paying users !
It’s new beta version is an AJAX enhanced interface developed using Google Web Toolkit. ContactOffice developers have added numerous features to GWT (drag and drop, marquee selection, contextual menus, sortable columns, resizable panels, …) and are showcasing what is - according to Google engineers - the most advanced web application built using their java based revolutionary AJAX web application development framework.
The latest beta version of ContactOffice (release 1.2.002) contains numerous fix and is very close to being the best in his class of applications. It is finally fully compatible with Safari, in addition to its outstanding Internet Explorer and Firefox/Mozilla support. The new beta also features numerous new functionalities and enhancements :
- Wiki
- Info panels
- Threading for emails (only for paying subscriptions)
- Categories on docs, notes, contacts, bookmarks, …
- Right click or Ctrl click for Mac users to access contextual menus
- View document as PDF (.doc .ppt .xls .txt + openOffice extensions)
- Import Google contacts
- Account backup now includes the notes
- Details panel fro emails and contacts can now be collapsed or expanded as well email headers
- ‘Print contact’ is now available
- Some drop-down menus were not displayed for FireFox/Mac users
- Better interface color contrast
- Tons of UI enhancements and bug fixes
If you are in web development, you really have to test this web application to have an idea of what is the state-of-the-art today in a web interface!
If you are a java / ajax developer, you should try working for this company.
If you are looking for a solution to manage your group online collaboration needs, you have just found the best on the web.
Exotic Programming Language #1 : Factor
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
Factor is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language whose design and implementation is led by Slava Pestov. Factor’s main influences are Joy, Forth, Lisp and Self. As of December 2007, the current version of Factor is 0.91. A 1.0 release is planned in 2008.
Factor is a general purpose, dynamically typed, stack-based programming language. The Factor implementation includes a VM together with an extensive library. The VM is written in C and provides basic runtime support and memory management. The library provides building blocks for applications. Factor is compiled to machine code, and on Mac OS X, can be used to build stand-alone native applications.
Factor began as a scripting language in a Java game project and quickly grew into a general-purpose language. While this was happening, the limitations of the Java virtual machine were making themselves apparent, and an effort to write a native Factor implementation with a minimal core in C was kicked off. The native implementation was bootstrapped from Java Factor, and soon thereafter native Factor became the de facto implementation, work on the Java implementation stopped.
Factor development is led by Slava Pestov, with extensive help from a community of contributors and testers.
iPhone + Proximus OK!
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates interview
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
New version of Google Analytics
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
Google just released a new version of the Google Analytics reporting interface.
What is new?
In the new version, reports have been redesigned for clarity, greater visibility of important metrics, and ease of use. Here are just a few of the features :
- Email and export reports: Schedule or send ad-hoc personalized report emails and export reports in PDF format.
- Custom Dashboard: No more digging through reports. Put all the information you need on a custom dashboard that you can email to others.
- Trend and Over-time Graph: Compare time periods and select date ranges without losing sight of long term trends.
- Contextual help tips: Context sensitive Help and Conversion University tips are available from every report.
The new interface has everything the previous interface had and more. In addition, links within reports make it easier to navigate related information and explore your data.
Will the web change ?
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
With 10 other belgians, I was invited to Mix07 by Microsoft in Las Vegas. The sessions were really interesting, the people very nice and the location absolutely great.
Here is a good summary to what was launched by Microsoft during that huge event.
Silverlight (WPF/E), Expression Suite, Visual Studio ‘Orca’, Live services, free video hosting (WMV only), … a lot of things at once. Some said that the web would change forever.
As a geek I will of course test the DLR and try to code some ruby/python snippets generating Silverlight eye candy (as soon as we get some doc It’s all simple XML files, better than generating binary flash files… unless you get Flex (now open source version) or OpenLaszlo.
As head of R&D at Emakina I may launch a few “proof of concept” projects for daring customers or internal tests. We have a dozen of .net developpers that will love having the opportunity to code interfaces (they are jalous of our Action Script developpers in the studio) instead of boring reliable server side applications. We will probably develop a few intranet applications for our Windows only customers, aggregating RSS, Virtual Earth, or building beautifull charts and more…
I may even develop a Silverlight version of VW Escape TV just for fun. The Expression suite seems all very playfull and cool …
… but just as even MTV gave up with full flash sites and roll back to HTML, will the market adopt another multimedia delivery platform ? Which may lock them with Microsoft software to edit their web content (unless able to write XAML by hand).
Will web agencies forget soon about 30 years of war for getting at least a few working standard ?
Will the Unix world surrender and install Vista ?
Will Macintosh users with a PowerPC processor upgrade to an Intel Mac to visit Silverlight enhanced websites ?
Let me know your opinion in comments.
Have good ideas ? Win a million dollars now !
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
Today Emakina is launching the first “meta campaign” as an interactive marketing campaign for Gottabet, a startup specialized in social betting. The “meta campaign” is a contest for viral and buzz campaigns. It is targeted especially to Emakina’ competition : interactive agencies and their creative teams from all over the world. And we have a real million dollars to give away!
So if you are a creative person, enjoy stunt, buzz, viral or guerilla marketing, win a MILLION DOLLARS now !
New : Joost Version 0.9
Posted by Brice Le Blevennec | Filed under General
It’s showtime! The latest version of Joost is now available to download for you as a beta tester - and it’s our biggest release yet.
We’ve added a load of new content, so you now have many more channels from which to choose, including some of the biggest brands in entertainment.
You’ll notice one or two other changes too, including a new login procedure which will require a unique user name. As one of our early testers you have the opportunity to choose the name that you want - well ahead of the pack, so make sure you get a good one!
As always, we hope that you enjoy the Joost viewing experience. We look forward to your feedback.
The Joost Team
(edited)
