gnu

Replacing man with info

GNU info is lightyears ahead of man in terms of features, with sub-pages, clickable links, topic-spanning search, clean html- and latex-export and efficient interactive navigation.

But man pages are still the de-facto standard for getting quick information on a GNU/Linux system.

This guide intends to help you change that for your system. It needs GNU texinfo >= 6.1.

Update: If you prefer vi-keys, adjust the function below to call info --vi-keys instead of plain info. You could then call that function iv

Conveniently merge a NEWS file without conflicts

Writing a NEWS file (a list of changes per version, targeted at end-users) significantly reduces the effort for doing a release: To write your release notes, just copy the latest entries from the NEWS file into a message. It is one of the gems in the GNU coding standards: Simple yet extremely useful. (For a detailed realization, refer to the Perl Specification for CPAN Changes files.)

However when you’re developing features in parallel, for example by using a pull-request workflow and requiring contributors to update the NEWS file, you will often run into merge conflicts. Resolving these takes time, though the resolution is trivial: Just use the lines from both heads.

To resolve the problem, you can set your version tracking system to use union-merge for NEWS files.

How to run your own GNU Hurd (in 140 letters)

Don’t want to rely on other’s opinions about the Hurd? How to run your own GNU Hurd, in 140 letters:

wget http://people.debian.org/~sthibault/hurd-i386/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz; tar xf de*hu*gz; qemu-system-x86_64 -hda de*hu*g -m 1G

This is the GNU Hurd

BY-SA and GPL: creativecommons closed the chasm in the sharealike/copyleft community

This is the biggest news item for free culture and free software in the past 5 years: The creativecommons attribution sharealike license is now one-way compatible to the GPL — see the message from creativecommons and from the Free Software Foundation.

Some license compatibility legalese might sound small, but the impact of this is hard to overestimate.

Using Guile Scheme Wisp for low ceremony embedded languages

Update 2020: In Dryads Wake I am starting a game using the way presented here to write dialogue-focused games with minimal ceremony. Demo: https://dryads-wake.1w6.org

Update 2018: Bitbucket is dead to me. You can find the source at https://hg.sr.ht/~arnebab/ews

Update 2017: A matured version of the work shown here was presented at FOSDEM 2017 as Natural script writing with Guile. There is also a video of the presentation (held by Chris Allan Webber; more info…). Happy Hacking!

Programming languages allow expressing ideas in non-ambiguous ways. Let’s do a play.

say Yes, I do!
Yes, I do!

Exact Math to the rescue - with Guile Scheme

I needed to calculate the probability that for every freenet user there are at least 70 others in a distance of at most 0.01. That needs binomial coefficients with n and k on the order of 4000. My old Python script failed me with an OverflowError: integer division result too large for a float. So I turned to Guile Scheme and exact math.

Manipulation in Fremdbestimmter Kommunikation

Kommentar zum BeHaind Video Soziale Massenmanipulation - Politiker flippt aus - Sailor Moon

Ganz klar, es gibt Manipulation. Und die wird es immer geben, wenn die Kommunikation von anderen kontrolliert wird.

Ich verwende deswegen zusätzlich zu Twitter und G+ auch GNU social und Sone.

Schick mir eine verschlüsselte E-Mail

Eine verschlüsselte E-Mail zu schicken ist einfach. Hier will ich dir in 3 Schritten zeigen, wie du mich erreichen kannst. Ich zeige die Schritte für eine Reihe verschiedener Programme, sowohl für Windows als auch für OSX und GNU/Linux.

Das Programm dafür ist GnuPG: Frei lizensiert und der langjährige Standard für sichere Verschlüsselung von E-Mails.

Reproduzierbare Veröffentlichungen

Für verlässliche Wissenschaft sind reproduzierbare Veröffentlichungen essenziell - aber oft sind sie nicht gegeben12. Dieser 5-Minuten-Vortrag motiviert, wieso Reproduzierbarkeit so wichtig ist, und zeigt eine Lösung zum wirklich reproduzierbaren Veröffentlichen - die er auch selbst nutzt. Ich habe ihn in einem Seminar zum wissenschaftlichen Präsentieren gehalten.

Einen praktischen Leitfaden für entsprechende Veröffentlichungen, den ich auch selbst genutzt habe, liefert das Tutorial: Writing scientific papers for ACP using emacs org-mode.

Reproduzierbare Veröffentlichungen

PDF-version (for printing)

Release (to download)

orgmode-version (for editing)

repository (for forking)

Falscher Anreiz

  • Die Versuchung
    • „Haben Sie einmal ein Paper mit per Skript erstellten Grafiken veröffentlicht?“
    • „Haben Sie Skripte und Daten veröffentlicht?“
    • „Warum erfinden Sie die Daten nicht? Das wäre weniger Arbeit…“

    „Niemals! Das verbietet die wissenschaftliche Integrität!“

  • Doch es passiert - leider
    • Einstieg: „passte ich den Untersuchungsentwurf an“.
    • Dietrich Stapel: „Es war grau und es war üblich“.
    • Sturz: „erfindet die Daten“.
    • „Forscher gratulieren“.
    • „Drei [seiner] Doktoranden sind Ungereimtheiten […] aufgefallen“.

    [Quarks & Co., 2013-06-04]


  1. Gerade haben Biologen gezeigt3, dass die Verfügbarkeit der Rohdaten von alten Veröffentlichungen jedes Jahr um 17% fällt. Das heißt, schon nach 4 Jahren gibt es für die Hälfte der Veröffentlichungen keine Daten mehr. Die hier gezeigte Methode macht es sehr einfach sicherzustellen, dass alle für die Veröffentlichung notwendigen Daten mitveröffentlicht werden - und erzeugt automatisch eine Archivdatei dafür. 

  2. Leider ist die durch die politisch gesetzten Rahmenbedingungen erzwungene Konkurrenzsituation für reproduzierbare Veröffentlichungen hinderlich, denn wer seine Daten und Skripte veröffentlicht - eigentlich alle Programme, die er oder sie nutzte - verspielt die Möglichkeit, sich ein Monopol auf die Daten aufzubauen, das die nächsten Veröffentlichungen sichern könnte. Sobald die Daten draußen sind, können andere damit arbeiten - und nur die schnellsten können veröffentlichen (ja, das System ist dumm…). Zusätzlich stehen sauberer Veröffentlichung oft „IP“-Regeln entgegen - also der Wunsch der Uni, ihre Ergebnisse zu monopolisieren. Zum Glück gibt es mit Open Access inzwischen eine Bewegung gegen solche schädlichen Regelungen - aber der Kampf wird wohl noch lange andauern. Immerhin stehen hier Misstrauen, Gier und leider berechtigte Sorgen um die eigene Zukunft gegen wissenschaftliche Integrität. 

  3. The Availability of Research Data Declines Rapidly with Article Age - Zeitungsartikel dazu: The Vast Majority of Raw Data From Old Scientific Studies May Now Be Missing

Installing GNU Guix 0.6, easily

Org-Source (for editing)

PDF (for printing)

“Got a power-outage while updating?
No problem: Everything still works”

GNU Guix is the new functional package manager from the GNU Project which complements the Nix-Store with a nice Guile Scheme based package definition format.

What sold it to me was “Got a power-outage while updating? No problem: Everything still works” from the Guix talk of Ludovico at the GNU Hacker Meeting 2013. My son once found the on-off-button of our power-connector while I was updating my Gentoo box. It took me 3 evenings to get it completely functional again. This would not have happened with Guix.

Update (2014-05-17): Thanks to zerwas from IRC @ freenode for the patch to guix 0.6 and nice cleanup!

Intro

Installation of GNU Guix is straightforward, except if you follow the docs, but it’s not as if we’re not used to that from other GNU utilities, which often terribly short-sell their quality with overly general documentation ☺

So I want to provide a short guide how to setup and run GNU Guix with ease. My system natively runs Gentoo, My system natively runs Gentoo, so some details might vary for you. If you use Gentoo, you can simply copy the commands here into the shell, but better copy them to a text-file first to ensure that I do not try to trick you into doing evil things with the root access you need.

In short: This guide provides the First Contact and Black Triangle for GNU Guix.

wisp: Whitespace to Lisp

New version: draketo.de/software/wisp

» I love the syntax of Python, but crave the simplicity and power of Lisp.«

display "Hello World!" ↦ (display "Hello World!")
define : factorial n     (define (factorial n)            
    if : zero? n       ↦     (if (zero? n)                
       . 1                      1                      
       * n : factorial {n - 1}  (* n (factorial {n - 1}))))

Wisp basics

»ArneBab's alternate sexp syntax is best I've seen; pythonesque, hides parens but keeps power« — Christopher Webber in twitter, in identi.ca and in his blog: Wisp: Lisp, minus the parentheses
♡ wow ♡
»Wisp allows people to see code how Lispers perceive it. Its structure becomes apparent.« — Ricardo Wurmus in IRC, paraphrasing the wisp statement from his talk at FOSDEM 2019 about Guix for reproducible science in HPC.
☺ Yay! ☺
with (open-file "with.w" "r") as port
     format #t "~a\n" : read port
Familiar with-statement in 25 lines.

 ↓ skip updates ↓

Update (2020-09-15): Wisp 1.0.3 provides a wisp binary to start a wisp repl or run wisp files, builds with Guile 3, and moved to sourcehut for libre hosting: hg.sr.ht/~arnebab/wisp.
After installation, just run wisp to enter a wisp-shell (REPL).
This release also ships wisp-mode 0.2.6 (fewer autoloads), ob-wisp 0.1 (initial support for org-babel), and additional examples. New auxiliary projects include wispserve for experiments with streaming and download-mesh via Guile and wisp in conf:
conf new -l wisp PROJNAME creates an autotools project with wisp while conf new -l wisp-enter PROJAME creates a project with natural script writing and guile doctests set up. Both also install a script to run your project with minimal start time: I see 25ms to 130ms for hello world (36ms on average). The name of the script is the name of your project.
For more info about Wisp 1.0.3, see the NEWS file.
To test wisp v1.0.3, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:

wget https://www.draketo.de/files/wisp-1.0.3.tar_.gz;
tar xf wisp-1.0.3.tar_.gz ; cd wisp-1.0.3/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123

If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
If you have additional questions, see the Frequently asked Questions (FAQ) and chat in #guile at freenode.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!

Update (2019-07-16): wisp-mode 0.2.5 now provides proper indentation support in Emacs: Tab increases indentation and cycles back to zero. Shift-tab decreases indentation via previously defined indentation levels. Return preserves the indentation level (hit tab twice to go to zero indentation).
Update (2019-06-16): In c programming the uncommon way, specifically c-indent, tantalum is experimenting with combining wisp and sph-sc, which compiles scheme-like s-expressions to c. The result is a program written like this:
pre-include "stdio.h"

define (main argc argv) : int int char**
  declare i int
  printf "the number of arguments is %d\n" argc
  for : (set i 0) (< i argc) (set+ i 1)
    printf "arg %d is %s\n" (+ i 1) (array-get argv i)
  return 0 ;; code-snippet under GPLv3+
To me that looks so close to C that it took me a moment to realize that it isn’t just using a parser which allows omitting some special syntax of C, but actually an implementation of a C-generator in Scheme (similar in spirit to cython, which generates C from Python), which results in code that looks like a more regular version of C without superfluous parens. Wisp really completes the round-trip from C over Scheme to something that looks like C but has all the regularity of Scheme, because all things considered, the code example is regular wisp-code. And it is awesome to see tantalum take up the tool I created and use it to experiment with ways to program that I never even imagined! ♡
TLDR: tantalum uses wisp for code that looks like C and compiles to C but has the regularity of Scheme!
Update (2019-06-02): The repository at https://www.draketo.de/proj/wisp/ is stale at the moment, because the staticsite extension I use to update it was broken by API changes and I currently don’t have the time to fix it. Therefore until I get it fixed, the canonical repository for wisp is https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/. I’m sorry for that. I would prefer to self-host it again, but the time to read up what i have to adjust blocks that right now (typically the actual fix only needs a few lines). A pull-request which fixes the staticsite extension for modern Mercurial would be much appreciated!
Update (2019-02-08): wisp v1.0 released as announced at FOSDEM. Wisp the language is complete:
display "Hello World!"
↦ (display "Hello World!")

And it achieves its goal:
“Wisp allows people to see code how Lispers perceive it. Its structure becomes apparent.” — Ricardo Wurmus at FOSDEM
Tooling, documentation, and porting of wisp are still work in progress, but before I go on, I want thank the people from the readable lisp project. Without our initial shared path, and without their encouragement, wisp would not be here today. Thank you! You’re awesome!
With this release it is time to put wisp to use. To start your own project, see the tutorial Starting a wisp project and the wisp tutorial. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test wisp v1.0, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-1.0.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-1.0.tar.gz ; cd wisp-1.0/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
If you have additional questions, see the Frequently asked Questions (FAQ) and chat in #guile at freenode.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2019-01-27): wisp v0.9.9.1 released which includes the emacs support files missed in v0.9.9, but excludes unnecessary files which increased the release size from 500k to 9 MiB (it's now back at about 500k). To start your own wisp-project, see the tutorial Starting a wisp project and the wisp tutorial. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test wisp v0.9.9.1, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.9.9.1.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.9.9.1.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.9.9.1/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2019-01-22): wisp v0.9.9 released with support for literal arrays in Guile (needed for doctests), example start times below 100ms, ob-wisp.el for emacs org-mode babel and work on examples: network, securepassword, and downloadmesh. To start your own wisp-project, see the tutorial Starting a wisp project and the wisp tutorial. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test wisp v0.9.9, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.9.9.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.9.9.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.9.9/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2018-06-26): There is now a wisp tutorial for beginning programmers: “In this tutorial you will learn to write programs with wisp. It requires no prior knowledge of programming.”Learn to program with Wisp, published in With Guise and Guile
Update (2017-11-10): wisp v0.9.8 released with installation fixes (thanks to benq!). To start your own wisp-project, see the tutorial Starting a wisp project. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test wisp v0.9.8, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.9.8.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.9.8.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.9.8/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2017-10-17): wisp v0.9.7 released with bugfixes. To start your own wisp-project, see the tutorial Starting a wisp project. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test wisp v0.9.7, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.9.7.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.9.7.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.9.7/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2017-10-08): wisp v0.9.6 released with compatibility for tests on OSX and old autotools, installation to guile/site/(guile version)/language/wisp for cleaner installation, debugging and warning when using not yet defined lower indentation levels, and with wisp-scheme.scm moved to language/wisp.scm. This allows creating a wisp project by simply copying language/. A short tutorial for creating a wisp project is available at Starting a wisp project as part of With Guise and Guile. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test wisp v0.9.6, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.9.6.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.9.6.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.9.6/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2017-08-19): Thanks to tantalum, wisp is now available as package for Arch Linux: from the Arch User Repository (AUR) as guile-wisp-hg! Instructions for installing the package are provided on the AUR page in the Arch Linux wiki. Thank you, tantalum!
Update (2017-08-20): wisp v0.9.2 released with many additional examples including the proof-of-concept for a minimum ceremony dialog-based game duel.w and the datatype benchmarks in benchmark.w. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test it, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.9.2.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.9.2.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.9.2/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2017-03-18): I removed the link to Gozala’s wisp, because it was put in maintenance mode. Quite the opposite of Guile which is taking up speed and just released Guile version 2.2.0, fully compatible with wisp (though wisp helped to find and fix one compiler bug, which is something I’m really happy about ☺).
Update (2017-02-05): Allan C. Webber presented my talk Natural script writing with Guile in the Guile devroom at FOSDEM. The talk was awesome — and recorded! Enjoy Natural script writing with Guile by "pretend Arne" ☺

presentation (pdf, 16 slides) and its source (org).
Have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2016-07-12): wisp v0.9.1 released with a fix for multiline strings and many additional examples. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test it, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.9.1.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.9.1.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.9.1/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2016-01-30): I presented Wisp in the Guile devroom at FOSDEM. The reception was unexpectedly positive — given some of the backlash the readable project got I expected an exceptionally sceptical audience, but people rather asked about ways to put Wisp to good use, for example in templates, whether it works in the REPL (yes, it does) and whether it could help people start into Scheme. The atmosphere in the Guile devroom was very constructive and friendly during all talks, and I’m happy I could meet the Hackers there in person. I’m definitely taking good memories with me. Sadly the video did not make it, but the schedule-page includes the presentation (pdf, 10 slides) and its source (org).
Have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2016-01-04): Wisp is available in GNU Guix! Thanks to the package from Christopher Webber you can try Wisp easily on top of any distribution:
guix package -i guile guile-wisp
guile --language=wisp
This already gives you Wisp at the REPL (take care to follow all instructions for installing Guix on top of another distro, especially the locales).
Have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2015-10-01): wisp v0.9.0 released which no longer depends on Python for bootstrapping releases (but ./configure still asks for it — a fix for another day). And thanks to Christopher Webber there is now a patch to install wisp within GNU Guix. For more info, see the NEWS file. To test it, install Guile 2.0.11 or later and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.9.0.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.9.0.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.9.0/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2015-09-12): wisp v0.8.6 released with fixed macros in interpreted code, chunking by top-level forms, : . parsed as nothing, ending chunks with a trailing period, updated example evolve and added examples newbase60, cli, cholesky decomposition, closure and hoist in loop. For more info, see the NEWS file.To test it, install Guile 2.0.x or 2.2.x and Python 3 and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.8.6.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.8.6.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.8.6/;
./configure; make check;
examples/newbase60.w 123
If it prints 23 (123 in NewBase60), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax! And a happy time together for the ones who merge their paths today ☺
Update (2015-04-10): wisp v0.8.3 released with line information in backtraces. For more info, see the NEWS file.To test it, install Guile 2.0.x or 2.2.x and Python 3 and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.8.3.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.8.3.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.8.3/;
./configure; make check;
guile -L . --language=wisp tests/factorial.w; echo
If it prints 120120 (two times 120, the factorial of 5), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2015-03-18): wisp v0.8.2 released with reader bugfixes, new examples and an updated draft for SRFI 119 (wisp). For more info, see the NEWS file.To test it, install Guile 2.0.x or 2.2.x and Python 3 and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.8.2.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.8.2.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.8.2/;
./configure; make check;
guile -L . --language=wisp tests/factorial.w; echo
If it prints 120120 (two times 120, the factorial of 5), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2015-02-03): The wisp SRFI just got into draft state: SRFI-119 — on its way to an official Scheme Request For Implementation!
Update (2014-11-19): wisp v0.8.1 released with reader bugfixes. To test it, install Guile 2.0.x and Python 3 and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.8.1.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.8.1.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.8.1/;
./configure; make check;
guile -L . --language=wisp tests/factorial.w; echo
If it prints 120120 (two times 120, the factorial of 5), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
Update (2014-11-06): wisp v0.8.0 released! The new parser now passes the testsuite and wisp files can be executed directly. For more details, see the NEWS file. To test it, install Guile 2.0.x and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.8.0.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.8.0.tar.gz ; cd wisp-0.8.0/;
./configure; make check;
guile -L . --language=wisp tests/factorial.w;
echo
If it prints 120120 (two times 120, the factorial of 5), your wisp is fully operational.
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax!
On a personal note: It’s mindboggling that I could get this far! This is actually a fully bootstrapped indentation sensitive programming language with all the power of Scheme underneath, and it’s a one-person when-my-wife-and-children-sleep sideproject. The extensibility of Guile is awesome!
Update (2014-10-17): wisp v0.6.6 has a new implementation of the parser which now uses the scheme read function. `wisp-scheme.w` parses directly to a scheme syntax-tree instead of a scheme file to be more suitable to an SRFI. For more details, see the NEWS file. To test it, install Guile 2.0.x and bootstrap wisp:
wget https://bitbucket.org/ArneBab/wisp/downloads/wisp-0.6.6.tar.gz;
tar xf wisp-0.6.6.tar.gz; cd wisp-0.6.6;
./configure; make;
guile -L . --language=wisp
That’s it - have fun with wisp syntax at the REPL!
Caveat: It does not support the ' prefix yet (syntax point 4).
Update (2014-01-04): Resolved the name-clash together with Steve Purcell und Kris Jenkins: the javascript wisp-mode was renamed to wispjs-mode and wisp.el is called wisp-mode 0.1.5 again. It provides syntax highlighting for Emacs and minimal indentation support via tab. You can install it with `M-x package-install wisp-mode`
Update (2014-01-03): wisp-mode.el was renamed to wisp 0.1.4 to avoid a name clash with wisp-mode for the javascript-based wisp.
Update (2013-09-13): Wisp now has a REPL! Thanks go to GNU Guile and especially Mark Weaver, who guided me through the process (along with nalaginrut who answered my first clueless questions…).
To test the REPL, get the current code snapshot, unpack it, run ./bootstrap.sh, start guile with $ guile -L . (requires guile 2.x) and enter ,language wisp.
Example usage:
display "Hello World!\n"
then hit enter thrice.
Voilà, you have wisp at the REPL!
Caveeat: the wisp-parser is still experimental and contains known bugs. Use it for testing, but please do not rely on it for important stuff, yet.
Update (2013-09-10): wisp-guile.w can now parse itself! Bootstrapping: The magical feeling of seeing a language (dialect) grow up to live by itself: python3 wisp.py wisp-guile.w > 1 && guile 1 wisp-guile.w > 2 && guile 2 wisp-guile.w > 3 && diff 2 3. Starting today, wisp is implemented in wisp.
Update (2013-08-08): Wisp 0.3.1 released (Changelog).

Going from a simple Makefile to Autotools

Table of Contents

Links

Intro

I recently started looking into Autotools, to make it easier to run my code on multiple platforms.

Naturally you can use cmake or scons or waf or ninja or tup, all of which are interesting in there own respect. But none of them has seen the amount of testing which went into autotools, and none of them have the amount of tweaks needed to support about every system under the sun. And I recently found pyconfigure which allows using autotools with python and offers detection of library features.

Warning 2016: Contains some cargo-cult-programming — my current setup is cleaner thanks to using AC_CONFIG_LINKS in configure.ac.

Meine Neo-Tastatur - Mit GNU, Plussy und Infinite Hands

Dank dem GNU Head redrawn und Neo-Tastatur.de habe ich eine Tastatur, die meine Begeisterung für freie Software zeigt: Mit GNU, Plussy und Infinite Hands. Außerdem enthält sie die für wissenschaftliches Schreiben praktischen mathematischen und griechischen Zeichen, die Neo bietet. Aber genug geschrieben: Geben wir der Tastatur das Rampenlicht, das sie verdient ;-)

Tastatur

Some technical advantages of the Hurd

→ An answer to just accept it, truth hurds, where Flameeyes told his reasons for not liking the Hurd and asked for technical advantages (and claimed, that the Hurd does not offer a concept which got incorporated into other free software, contributing to other projects). Note: These are the points I see. Very likely there are more technical advantages which I don’t see well enough to explain them.

The translator system in the Hurd is a simple concept that makes many tasks easy, which are complex with Linux (like init, network transparency, new filesystems, …). Additionally there are capabilities (give programs only the access they need - adjusted at runtime), subhurds and (academic) memory management.

Information for potential testers: The Hurd is already usable, but it is not yet in production state. It progressed a lot during the recent years, though. Have a look at the status report if you want to see if it’s already interesting for you. See running the Hurd for testing it yourself.

Table of Contents:

Influence on other systems: FUSE in Linux and limited translators in NetBSD

Firstoff: FUSE is essentially an implementation of parts of the translator system (which is the main building block of the Hurd) to Linux, and NetBSD recently got a port of the translators system of the Hurd. That’s the main contribution to other projects that I see.

As an update in 2015: A pretty interesting development in the past few years is that the systemd developers have been bolting features onto Linux which the Hurd already provided 15 years ago. Examples: socket-activation provides on-demand startup like passive translators, but as crude hack piggybacked on dbus which can only be used by dbus-aware programs while passive translators can be used by any program which can access the filesystem, calling priviledged programs via systemd provides jailed priviledge escalation like adding capabilities at runtime, but as crude hack piggybacked on dbus and specialized services.

That means, there is a need for the features of the Hurd, but instead of just using the Hurd, where they are cleanly integrated, these features are bolted onto a system where they do not fit and suffer from bad performance due to requiring lots of unnecessary cruft to circumvent limitations of the base system. The clean solution would be to just set 2-3 full-time developers onto the task of resolving the last few blockers (mainly sound and USB) and then just using the Hurd.

translator-based filesystem

On the bare technical side, the translator-based filesystem stands out: The filesystem allows for making arbitrary programs responsible for displaying a given node (which can also be a directory tree) and to start these programs on demand. To make them persistent over reboots, you only need to add them to the filesystem node (for which you need the right to change that node). Also you can start translators on any node without having to change the node itself, but then they are not persistent and only affect your view of the filesystem without affecting other users. These translators are called active, and you don’t need write permissions on a node to add them.

A GNU Head, redrawn

For my new Neo-Keyboard I wanted the GNU head from GNU and the plussy from FSFE on the meta/super keys (those which often have a Fenster-Logo). Sadly the normal GNU head did not work very well with the Laser from Schubi, so I grabbed my tablet, fired up mypaint and created a new one, building on the old, but adding more contrast and stronger lines. I hope you like it!

A GNU head, redrawn

A GNU head, redrawn

No, it ain’t “forever” (GNU Hurd code_swarm from 1991 to 2010)

If the video doesn’t show, you can also download it as Ogg Theora & Vorbis “.ogv” or find it on youtube.

Emacs

Emacs ist ein freies Textbearbeitungsprogramm, das sowohl in der Konsole als auch mit grafischer Oberfläche genutzt werden kann, weitreichende Anpassung via Lisp ermöglicht1 (lisp lernen) und am Anfang der freie Software Bewegung stand (info).


  1. Das beinhaltet Dinge wie ein Mailprogramm oder Webbrowser, transparentes bearbeiten von verschlüsselten Dateien (wie in meinem Tagebuch), Integration von Versionsverwaltungssystemen, Hervorhebung und Vervollständigung von Quellcode und vieles mehr; alles vom Benutzer aktivierbar (teils über die zahlreichen Erweiterungen im Emacs-Wiki), wenn er es braucht, und trotzdem relativ schlank (im Vergleich zu vielen heutigen Texteditoren), 

Emacs als Tagebuch

Ich verwende nun seit einiger Zeit Emacs als Tagebuchprogramm. Mit ihm komme ich zum ersten Mal wirklich zum schreiben.

Der Aufruf bei mir ist schlicht

tagebuch

Den Grund, dass es für mich mit Emacs funktioniert, sehe ich darin, dass er mir genau das bietet, was ich brauche – und dabei verdammt schnell ist. Was ich brauche:

  • Verschlüsselung ohne Aufwand (epa-file integriert transparentes GnuPG, also wirklich sichere Verschlüsselung).

  • Sofort schreiben können (ist direkt bei der Zeile, bei der ich aufgehört habe).

  • Schnell. Ich will nicht warten müssen, bevor ich tippen kann (geht über eine eigene Initfile, die Codevervollständigung und so rauslässt).

  • Datum zum Eintrag (geht dank miniscript über „M-x datum“).

  • (Auch) Auf der (Text-)Konsole. Wenn ich am Systembasteln bin, will ich trotzdem Schreiben können.

  • Optional Versionsverwaltung (nur für backups; wenn es ein Mercurial repository gibt, speichere ich einen Schnappschuss via C-x v v).

Fehlinfos zum Hurd

-> Geschrieben zu einem Artikel der Computerwoche.

Sehr geehrter Herr Hülsbömer,

Ihre Information zum GNU Hurd ist leider falsch, daher möchte ich sie bitten, sie zu berichtigen.

Der GNU Hurd funktioniert (wenn auch nicht perfekt) und ein GNU/Hurd System kann auf etwa 76% der in Debian vertretenen Pakete zurückgreifen, inklusive Xorg und GNUstep.

GNU Hurd

"Mit dem GNU Hurd können Nutzer alles in ihrem System ändern, das niemand anderen beeinträchtigt."

Und das ist eine Möglichkeit, Freiheit in einer Gemeinschaft zu definieren: "Mach was du willst, solange du damit niemand anderem schadest."

Im Gegensatz dazu benötigen die meisten aktuellen Systeme (GNU/Linux, MacOSX, Windows, ...) root Zugang um z.B. ein neues Dateisystem zu installieren.

A tale of foxes and freedom

Singing the songs of creation to shape a free world.

One day the silver kit asked the grey one:

“Who made the light, which brightens our singing place?”

The grey one looked at it lovingly and asked the kit to sit with him, for she would tell a story from the old days when the tribe was young.

“Once there was a time, when the world was light and happiness. During the day the sun shone on the savannah, and at night the moon cast the grass in a silver sheen.

Inhalt abgleichen
Willkommen im Weltenwald!
((λ()'Dr.ArneBab))



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