Qt 4.4 released + plans for summer

Qt 4.4 framework was recently released. Hopefully PyQT 4.4 soon follows. Qt just rocks. =) Having been working with Java Swing (*cough*h o r r i b l e*cough*) these last four months, Qt 4.4 brings some light to the end of the tunnel..

Now that that's out of the table, I can talk a little about a project I'm perhaps going to do next summer. It's about remaking CSSTint. While I think the current Windows version of CSSTint is quite nice, it's still... well, Windows-only. While I am using wxWidgets, it's still doesn't work in Linux properly - I have tried. I'm doing some nasty, ugly hacks in the code, so no wonder. All this could probably be fixed, but for the sake of learning and for an interesting experience, I've been thinking of rewriting the whole shebang.

I'm sure I will use Qt for the job, but I'm still undecided between C++ and Python. Learning Python has been interesting for me, as I've blogged before. Python version would also work on Windows as is, which won't hurt even if the original is also for Windows. On the other hand I could reuse some of my non-GUI CSSTint code if I went with C++.. Decisions, decisions...

Anyway, that's my current plan - things might still change. :)

My adventures with Python / PyQT

First of all, let me just say that Python + PyQt just rocks.

I've been recently learning Python. Just for fun, basically. Additional benefit is that now I have a better understanding on how to cope with Zope/Plone at my work. Anyway, apart from the Zope/Plone stuff the first thing I did in Python was a command-line script that allows creation and handling of .mpk files that I've used in a couple of my games. MPK or MPak is a simple WAD-like format that stores all the game files in a single package file. I had a C++ CLI application that did the job, but it was really a piece of crap..

So I deciced to write a replacement for that app, in Python. The finished script (mpak.py) is much nicer to use and works better. I wrote it in Linux and it worked as is in Windows too - neat.

Then, I wanted to try GUI stuff and went with PyQt. I had a simple DVD collection management software called MyDVDCollection that I had written in .NET using C#. It worked, but was not too good either. So I began hacking away with PyQt and now I have PyDVDCollection (pretty clever names, huh? ;)) that I use for maintaining my collection. It has less code and more features than its .NET counterpart. It works in Linux, naturally, and also beautifully in Vista.

As you can probably tell, I'm very impressed with PyQt and the Python language, and I'll be using them in the future as well. =)

I Have No Delete Key

Ubuntu 8.04 LTS aka Hardy Heron was released yesterday. I had previously installed 7.10 aka Gutsy Gibbon on my new laptop, and upgraded to Hardy last night. The update process went quite nicely, except for one strange thing: my delete key no longer works! O.o

When I press delete, the laptops WLAN led goes on - nothing else happens. When I press it again, the led goes off. [Homer impression:]"Led goes on, led goes off, led goes on, led goes off...". (sorry about that - just when they're going to release the season 11 on dvd!?)

On this laptop (Acer Extensa 5220) the WLAN led is always inverted in Ubuntu; when the WLAN is in use, the led is off. That doesn't bother me at all. However, I would like to get my delete key to work again. I use that one quite a lot in typing/programming, and well, in deleting things...

I made a thread about this on the Ubuntu forums, but so far the problem remains a mystery. Other than this little annoyance, Hardy seems very nice. And it works quite well in this laptop.

Update: Turned out it was a known bug. It works now. :)