Mono 1.2.5 is out.

So, the necessary changes to support the DLR at all are in place.

Alas, it still has some limitations -- (bug 82650)

	import clr
	clr.AddReference("System.Windows.Forms")
	from System.Windows.Forms import *
	print dir()

view raw gistfile1.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

fails in the import statement with

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File __main__, line unknown, in Initialize
  File WinUI, line unknown, in Initialize
TypeError: Argument cannot be null.
Parameter name: type

which is not quite "at the first hurdle", but does make it useful to keep the WinForms import in a single file, so if I need to explicitly enumerate, I only have to do it once.

A pity that Python isn't quite as malleable as Ruby so far as stringname-to-symbol matching goes. The next best thing, this

	import clr
	clr.AddReference("System.Windows.Forms")
	import System.Windows.Forms
	_f = None
	for _x in dir(System.Windows.Forms):
	try:
	_f = System.Windows.Forms.__dict__[_x]
	if callable(_f):
	globals()[_x] = _f
	except:
	pass
	del _x
	del _f

view raw gistfile1.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

doesn't fare any better. *sigh*

Links for 31-Aug

Ruby Superators -- Always wanted a "-~+~-" or "===~-+~++" operator? Now it's within your grasp!

Anonymous functions inside JavaScript functions

Primary and Secondary actions on web forms

Links for 30-Aug

Resource Releases Resource -- an RAII-like idiom for managed languages

JavaScript Tips for Novices, Acolytes and Gurus -- as it says

Scheme on the JVM -- compiling to bytecode

Links for 29-Aug

Nua -- Lua joins the DLR bandwagon

More Silverlight -- scripting, resources, video...

Using System.IdentityModel outside of WCF -- .Net 3.0 extends claims-based authentication

Autumn

Yesterday I did my usual August Bank Holiday cycle ride, ambling along country lanes near the Herts/Essex border. And though the sun was shining, the air was chill, almost raw, in a persistent northerly breeze.

This morning, under leaden skies again, there was a distinctly autumnal feel to the air; and it's still August.

The rain last week did not help the plum harvest, such as it was. We got enough for a pie, after discarding the thoroughly wasp-eaten ones (about half the crop). We have more of last year's still in the freezer than we got this year.

Links for 28-Aug

Ruby Sadist -- "The time has come to show your code who’s boss."

Certificate-based authentication in WCF - Message Security; Transport Security; Mode Independent -- 4 articles

Towards more bottom-up programming with JavaScript

Links for 24-Aug

Holding a program in your head. -- what's your project's score out of 8?

How many products make a project? -- what feature-based development really means.

Why add syntax when you have Ruby? -- what meta-programming is for.

Links for 23-Aug

Accessible JavaScript -- being input device agnostic

Block-structured JavaScript -- putting closures into real use

the iPhone, good, bad & ugly -- designing web apps for the new generation handhelds

Links for 22-Aug

The controlled-release Module Pattern -- selective exports to the global JavaScript namespace.

IronLisp makes its debut.

The C# duck-typing project.

Links for 21-Aug

Leading by Example -- when making change, eat your own dog-food

Software is not made of bricks -- why project planning and staffing are difficult

User and Password management -- recommendations 

Links for 20-Aug

JVM Language Runtime Project -- an emergent DLR for the JVM

What is JRuby -- presentation (pdf)

Measuring font legibility 

Links for 17-Aug

JRuby-in-a-jar -- code in one jar, add jruby-complete.jar and get a better deployment model. Jython's -jar <jar with a __run__.py> is OK but leaves .class file litter; and IronPython doesn't yet have zipimport…

9 JavaScript Gotchas

Blueprint CSS -- Google Code CSS framework

IE JavaScript console -- because it needs one

Links for 16-Aug

Security and modern type systems

jQuery -- selector-based JavaScript DOM library

Discipline makes strong developers

Links for 15-Aug

Extra Double operators for Ruby -- it being a wonderfully malleable language

Useful tip for WCF debugging

Custom Principals in WCF

Building Non-HTTP WCF services in IIS 7.0

Can we fix it?

So, all that was left above the gum-line of the tooth that went yesterday was the large (2/3 of the tooth), old, amalgam filling of great antiquity. Plastic has been applied to make it tooth-shaped again, but now I'm in line for 2 crowns this autumn.

Those old-time 1970's dentists sure knew how to set themselves up with work for the future.

Links for 14-Aug

CSS Vertical Centring of known height blocks

C# extension methods -- asymptotically approaching JavaScript?

Who is the customer for an Enterprise product?

Cheese is hazardous

For the second time in 10 days, half a tooth has become detached while I was eating some soft cheese. Camembert the first time, and now brie. You don't expect that.

AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

Links for 13-Aug

A better Symbol#to_proc -- iterating and refining collections with less "yellow code"

JVM languages group -- Virtualisation works at the code level, too.

Python IDE in the browser -- Silverlight proof of concept

JavaScript debugging in Orcas -- work on client-side code in your server pages

Psychic Felines

When I came downstairs this morning, Jemima was lying sprawled on the picnic table, in that half melted dead cat basking position they take up, blissed out expression on her face. So I snuck back upstairs and got the camera.

And returned to find no sign of a cat anywhere.

Links for 10-Aug

Ruby is Hard -- agreement and letting the IDE take the strain.

Automated CSS Sprites

Catalogs of Data Visualisation

Links for 9-Aug

August is a slow month…

6 keys to CSS Layouts

Resources, concurrency and local reasoning

Checking your vertical rhythm

Erlang, the next Java? -- not that I'd burden any language with that mixed blessing

Teeth

Oh qualified joy! Oh modified rapture!

An hour in the dentist's chair today. A few minutes cleaning up the surface where the tooth broke at the weekend, and slapping some Fuji-9 temporary on.

And the rest going from looking at a sore patch on the gum opposite to spotting that the tooth that had been root-canalled six months ago, and had had the filling patched once already, had cracked, thus inflaming the gum.

Tons of epoxy later, it's sort-of glued back together, and I can eat something more demanding than soup or runny porridge so long as I take things carefully especially on the latter side. But now I have a series of appointments for getting crowns.

Le *sigh*

The 21st century and I can't even get new teeth either by subtlety (coercing new buds to appear and shedding the old) or brute force (by A-gate or equivalent nanoscale rebuild). What is the future coming to?

Crazy or what

After all the wet weather, a couple of days of hot summer weather. And after only a week or so since the last heavy rains, already the agricultural sprinklers were out in some of the fields I cycled past -- despite comments on the news about the moistness of the soil encouraging bumper truffle crops.

Also, another tooth has fallen apart, so first thing tomorrow, to the dentist. *sigh*.

Links for 1-Aug

Yahoo UI library 2.3.0 release

Abbreviation, Accidental Complexity, and Abstraction

Software Imprinting