AltME groups: search

It was for programmatic control. You can read and write cells and 
ranges, etc.

I just looked over comlib but looks like you gotta know comlib functions 
already and the documentation was a bit lacking for me.

I pitched the idea and now I gotta make it work.  LOL.

We have access to other scripting tools but not allowed on this project 
because I said I would only be using REBOL and the application (EXCEL)

I'm looking at MSDN in the COM section and browing thru - I look 
days away from learning how to do this.

It looks like it is supposed to automate opening an Excel doc and 
then converting it to save it as a tab-deliminated file which would 
be perfect for me to then use REBOL to parse that file.  However, 
I tried saving this data in file with a .vbs extension but it gives 
me an error after the first line which says "Expected End of Statement". 
 I have no clue how to fix it as this code came off the net.

Two things I've done--mention before I believe. One is an Excel control 
dialect. It doesn't let you control everything, and requires a non-REBOL 
DLL I wrote, which is free to use. The other is a send-keys dialect 
that lets you pump keystrokes to apps. You should be able to do the 
above process with that.

I actually have another script (its at work) and it uses ADO.  But 
it gives me an error but does seem to out put the data.  I also think 
I have another route which is to record a macro in excel save the 
macro to another workbook and then modify the macro to launch on 
open.  I haven't figured out the code to launch a macro on open of 
the workbook but did find out how to launch a message on open.  So 
I think I'm close.

If I go the macro route then I can use the call command to call excel 
and the macro workbook which will perform actions on the other excel 
file.

what about  a microsoft tool called Log Parser?  It allows command 
line access to files and can also do things like file format conversions 
and simple manipulations etc.   http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/tools/logparser/default.mspx

A closer look and no it does not.  I got some of the input and output 
formats confussed.  I thought it could read from a SQL/ODBC data 
source but appears that is only an output format.  There is a COM 
api, but that might be more complex than is worth.

What I mean is, does it support

Dim xlApp
Dim xlApp As Object
Dim xlApp As Object = CreateObject("Excel.Application")


The first is just a declaration, the second adds a type to it (rather 
than making everything a Variant), and the third adds inline assignment 
to the declared variable.

and to answer Gregg's question, it appears to support

	dim app
	set app = createobject("Excel.Application")

Thanks Peterwood.  Those seems helpful if I need to just call and 
interact with Excel but I need to actually retrieve rows in an automated 
fashion and be able to parse them in a tab-delimited manner.

I have another fantasy football league that is seeking another member. 
 This is USA Football which is different then european football which 
we call soccer.  The fantasy football league is ran via Yahoo.  The 
league fee is only $35 bucks.  Great for those wanting to start their 
first time.  All newcomers draft last but it is a snake order draft 
which means the last person goes first in the every other round. 
   The draft is currently scheduled for Sat Aug 23 9:30am CDT.  Gonna 
be a blast - this is my third year in this league and it is very 
active.  Lots of smack talk in this league but lots of fun.  Serious 
takers only please.  Even if you submit this opening might get filled. 
 I still have the REBOLers league which is wide open.

Were at 12 now and we are considering going to 14 but only if we 
can get 14 before draft day.  We had 14 last year and it was ver 
competative due to the lack of player talent to choose from.

I removed most people from the USA and Pro-USA groups. If you want 
to join them, they are now opt-in, rather than opt-out. Let someone 
know, and you can be added.

This world is hosted by REBOL Technologies, and we are all guests 
here. When you create groups, please consider if they belong on this 
world. This should be mainly a technical world, focusing on REBOL. 
If you create a non-technical group, make it private and allow people 
to opt in.


Social and chat groups are welcome, this is our community after all, 
but please keep the signal-to-noise ratio high. 


If you are abusive or excessivevly confrontational, you may be removed 
from the world.

Happy REBOLing!

Try going to your user profile and unchecking the associated checkbox.

I'll remove you. You can bring up your profile and uncheck that group 
as well.

I wish to track vaccinations for children.  Vaccines have unique 
identifiers provided by the CDC and have to be given at certain time 
frames.

I don't wish to create a unique identifier for each vaccine and due 
date ... any other way?

I'm going to just use rules .... and each rule will consume one of 
the vaccinations.

if there is a rule and no vaccination to consume, then there is a 
vaccination that needs to be done.

So, a HIB vaccine ( haemophilus influenzae ) needs to be given at 
2, 4, 6 and 12 months = 4 rules

I'm not clear on the exact need, from a code and data design perspective.

with only the date of a vaccination and the vaccine type known to 
the rule

oh , and the child's dob

sorry but have 2 Installed Altme under wine on mandriva and it crashed 
only way 2 synch

see system/standard/compress and the error given by open [scheme: 
'compress]

I saw a little of a cartoon tv series some time ago, that I can't 
remember the name of. I think, it was called "Afterlife" or something 
like that. It was mostly still pictures with very little animation, 
but lots of atmosphere. The story was kind of confusing but something 
like after a nuclear war (maybe), and we followed this guy, who was 
on a run and met some strange people maybe in the countryside in 
USA. One was kind of a hunter. Anyone knows, what I'm talking about?

A voice was telling the story, and then we followed this guy in the 
nature. He met a hunter, who learned him to handle a weapon and how 
to survive. (I think, only saw a little of it.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_apocalyptic_and_post-apocalyptic_fiction

It comes and goes. It is now one free license per email address, 
not per person :)

Yeah, I got those first thing in the morning. I notice that the requests 
for serial numbers are now split into Mac and Linux - I wonder what 
that means for the earlier requests where they didn't make that distinction? 
The offer seems to be the same number of days here, no change.

Anyone know of a markup language that outputs flow charts?  

Something like:

(Start) -> [Get input] -> (End)

And this would out put a smartly laid out flow chart.

Sunanda, yes, cool, this is more what I'm talking about.  Price is 
not an issue for me, although I always prefer things to be based 
on standards, so there are free products, and for sale products.

Yeah, seems so, and they have a split window, which solves a lot 
of issues.  Thank you very much...

Reichart - there is probably plenty of tools, I usually search DVD 
to AVI, and it is often also directly name of some tools. As for 
ripping, I use the combo form Slysoft - CloneDVD, AnyDVD

If it is an unencrypted DVD, try to make an ISO, then mount it with 
Clonedrive. From there on, I tend to use Nero and encode to MPEG-4 
- greatly reduces size and is almost universal, especially on mobile 
devices. Quicktime also support MPEG-4

AnyDVD is cool little tool, which removes all protections .... not 
sure how it is legal and that the company was not sued yet, but it 
is different problem ...

Two things:

= The subtle question = 


We have played with a lot of software, and ALL of them (that we have 
tried) have failed to produce a final product that works.  Meaning, 
all players (WMplayer, WinAmp, VLC, etc.) do not allow skipping, 
and, again, keep in mind, this is using Windows tools to Rip, and 
then encode (usually two products have to be used ).


I make this clear because I'm not questioning that this can be done 
correctly from Linux (or perhaps Mac even).


So my question is really "[are you sure] from windows you can produce 
a 700m avi from a DVD that allows skipping [keyframes] on Windows?"


Our search of forums tells us others have the same problem, and people 
eventually give up and go to linux.

(Warning, rant ahead) :)

= The law = 


First, we all have to recognize the laws are slightly different in 
each country.  Part of what makes this confusing is that America 
tends to set the "tone" for the rest of the world (since it makes 
the most profitable media in the first place.  Not the most media 
keep in mind, for example Iceland makes more books per person for 
example).  And what makes this really confusing is that America has 
state and local laws, which can conflict but will still be overruled 
by federal law.  Marijuana is a good example.  Some states say YES, 
and the Feds say NO.  So you are still committing a Fed crime if 
you use this stuff.


However in the case of copyright, it is the other way around.  Organizations 
say NO, and the Feds say YES!


But the REAL trick here is that software that cracks DVDs is illegal, 
but having the resultant backup is not.  How is that for confusing?


Bottom line, there is a fair use act, which stands, but another law 
that makes getting that fair use to work for you that is illegal. 
 I should probably blog this since I could not find a good example 
of this clear statement on the web. 


However, the best thing I could find was just the simple Wikipedia 
entry for the judge herself that both made the heavy blow, but also 
defended the other individual rights.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Illston


Personally, she symbolizes to me the scariest type of person in power. 
 Which is, she became myopic and decided to just solve the one problem 
in front of her, as opposed to requiring that the issues be solved 
correctly higher up so that this small problem could be handled.


In other words, she saw a leaking toilet, and ruled that the water 
should be cut off to the bathroom.  Then turned around and said, 
but everyone has a "right" to use the bathroom.

It is people like this that allow tyrants to gain power.

(end of rant)

As for me, it is simple, I own all my CDs and DVDs. 

I simply want access to them using the technology I chose (which 
I also paid for).


I won't share them, copy them to others, etc.  Just, want to pay 
for and enjoy the material, free of the medium.

Hasn't Larry Lessig covered this territory?  Particularly the tension 
between Fair Use and DMCA?

Side post:  In Canada we pay a levy on blank media (that is taxed) 
to cover "piracy".  The CIRPA (and not-for-profit CPCC) have collected 
$100's of millions and last I heard (I could very well be misinformed 
as this levy is hidden "to avoid consumer outrage") they have not 
paid out one dime to any artists, citing that the system to ensure 
the redistribution to artists is fair hasn't been figured out yet. 
 So the bank account just gets bigger (and I assume, so do the "work" 
parties they hold for each other).

Reichart, please remember me while I'm at the ranch, and we can go 
over this together. As I said, I think that the Windows tools simply 
suck, but, I still have hope that there is some way (not an easy 
way, I bet) to make them work the way you want it.

Since we're talking about video stuff ... what's the best tool to 
convert ts files?  These are H.264 high definition tv streams that 
are transmitted by local TV transmittters .. ie. not satellite .. 

I've downloaded about 10 tools and they all choke including ffmpeg. 
 VLC manages to view a few frames before it crashes too.

Gab, yeah, you should show Jim and Mark.

Graham, try with mplayer, and if it can play them, mencoder to encode 
them (there are Windows tools that use mencoder as the backend). 
It will take quite some time I guess. ;)

you may also be able to just use mencoder to remultiplex them into 
a .mp4 or a .avi etc. (best would be .mkv) and then use your favorite 
tool to reencode them.

nah ... only displays the first frame and stops

Gab, I have found that VLC will play files Mplayer barfs on.  And 
of great interest to this conversation, it will recover from the 
lack of keyframes.  It will just play it anyway, and it will look 
like grab until enough data goes by .  Which is probably what Mplayer 
does not want to do since it looks like the player is broken for 
a momemnt.

Files saved from digital cameras often do not have keyframes.  Long 
files seem to annoy mplayer, and has no way to Rev/FF through them, 
but VLC will.

This convo reminds me of the G1.  When ever a product comes out, 
people start to complain.  There is always some obvious feature or 
bug out the gate.  And everyone has to spend their time figuring 
it out, forums fill with talk.


The G1 was released (Android), it does not have stereo Bluetooth. 
 A hardware feature that should be standard given it is a "media 
phone".


It also has no micro connector, so you need a special cable to hook 
up a standard headset.


This alone knocked me out from buying one.  I guess I will have to 
wait for the G7.b, which will only be made for one month, they will 
do everything correctly, but it will not be supported, and I will 
only be able to buy it on eBay.  This is true if it is like any other 
device I end up buying…

Mplayer is weak on some specific kind of files, and I found too that 
VLC often will play them instead... but they've been the exception 
for me (and mostly .mp4 files - that is, in general VLC has better 
support for the QT format).

yes, and power dvd 8 can play it.

And the documentation -- which includes the results of running it 
against the REBOL.org CGI scripts is here:
http://www.rebol.org/documentation.r?script=application-sizer.r

I don't include comments in my functions .. I use Leo a literate 
editor, and comments are there.  They get stripped out when the source 
is built.

Actually, the results flatter us -- they include the source (sometimes 
slightly modified) of various scavanged scripts -- like Makedoc, 
Simetrics, Skimp and other externally-sourced scripts.

They should really be excluded from the REBOL.org CGI size. I'd guess 
that'd be a 15% drop in actual size.

They're still relevant to measuring app size and complexity.  If 
they break, you still have to maintain them.

Dockimbel <Half a million functions? That's huge!>
That is huge! It's the biggest application disclosed so far!

But "function" is a technical definition that includes op! and perhaps 
other internal datatypes.....We could refine the application sizer 
to count those separately.

Thanks Robert for the comments here and on the ML.

It would make sense to refine the application-sizer to have the option 
to exclude specfic files, like rebgui. Then perhaps an app would 
have two counts:
-- all source files 
-- "unique" source files.

As stated...we will make things smaller over time.

But even after it all, with this number of people, the source needs 
a level of redundancy...


But yeah, it seems a bit  silly to me when people say they have the 
"biggest" REBOL application, because unless you are working on something 
of the scale of what we have been doing, and that is quite unlikely... 
 And we are speeding up, and making even more every day.

Dockimbel <Half a million functions? That's huge!>

I've updated application-sizer.r to break the previous count (which 
was of any item of type any-function?) to distinguish action! op! 
and native!

The newer counts may be more meaningful. Plus a few other changes 
as suggested by Ashley and Robert. Thanks guys!
More info:
http://www.rebol.org/ml-display-message.r?m=rmlDHZC

IT would be cool if it had an output that was flat text (not REBOL), 
this way we can through it in a spreadsheet quickly, and over time, 
paint a picture of how people program... (size matters, but relative 
usage of REBOL is of greater interest to me).

I only need to fill out a PDF form and don't trust these online editors 
as to what they are doing with the information.

Yeah I did and finally did get a product but most couldn't do the 
job.  But it turns out this didn't contain forms so I had to overlay 
text on it..

A happy, peaceful and prosperous new year to one and all.

Thak you Peter. I hope the same for you, your family and everyone 
who reads this message.

One man's happiness may be another man's terror.

 -- Then let us hope for, and work towards, the elimination of things 
 that cause this disparity.

For several years I've been using REBOL for CGI on sites hosted at 
Lunarpages.  I never asked before trying it, but they've never given 
me any troubles about it.  They have shut down several PERL scripts 
that were in use on the same servers, and they've also emailed me 
about folders with names that they considered potentially suspicious, 
so they are paying attention...

Well we put the older version back and REBOL works again.  Does anyone 
else have the linuxx86 2.7.6 working on a server via cgi?

2.62 works but 2.7.6 doesn't work.  Same permissions on file and 
same locations but wouldn't work.

I noticed that I couldn't uncompress the 2.7.6 via the cpanel extract 
function either so i extracted it via my windows box using 3rd party 
tool and uploaded it but it still failed.

Excellent that one is now calling Tretbase via CGI and updaing the 
database with the form inputs.

I like this sentence:   "and it saves the user a lot of work in learning 
your language (*if* he already knows lisp, that is)."

Oh, and it doesn't have to load as money!   just not trip on Syntax 
Error: Invalid money -- $10,000,000.00

So close ...  it even knew I was aiming for money!

and you know what they say....

time is money   ;-)

right, and 1) that can't work 2) you can parse as string, use load/next, 
and use your own parsing when load/next fails.

when you start doing 2) you'll see why it can't be done in a *general* 
way and thus 1)

And if they're malacious users ... use string parsing

I want Joe the Plumber to be a home rebol.  REBOL is one step away 
from allowing normal people access.  This hit me when I was showing 
how easy REBOL was to a construction boss.  How they could be masters 
of their own domain.  They lit up like a christmas tree.  A few days 
later a $10,000.00 entry caused one of their little scripts to fail. 
 The lights went out, and instead of embracing becoming a home business 
script writer, they felt stupid, and when I tried to reexplain the 
use of tick versus comma, they just got pissed off and will never 
be budding REBOL home users. 


All of us here could handle 001101010110110110110110010101 and eventually 
get the machine to do what we want.  I'm aiming to open our favourite 
little engine so grandma could use it to write grocery lists and 
then little VID charts etc, etc.   If we keep that to ourselves, 
well, IMHO, REBOL will wallow in the usage numbers counted in hundreds 
not millions as I believe it could.


I could be wrong, but REBOL is too close to being usable by non-programmers 
to let this slip by without at least griping once every 2 months 
or so.  :)


In my little warped world, the REBOL console could be the home users 
"application framework".  Every inch closer to common text usage 
could add an untold number of people by making them feel enabled. 
 Less geek, more people.   Again, I'll admit, I could be wrong; maybe 
the art of scripting will always be for nerds.

The search function is changing a bit.  I'm simplifying the look 
so that it is only two blocks:

db/search [logic][action]


There will no longer be a database block.  Instead a database and 
field will be inputed together such as:

db/search [my-base.field-name > 1][my-base.field-name]


In that example it would check the database called "my-base" and 
check its fieldname which is called simply "field-name" in the example 
above to see if it is greater than the value  of 1.  If it is then 
it returns the field-name value.

Well, technically the design does allow for more international usage; 
and that IS a good thing, but North Americans use commas.  I'll quiet 
down after this post and then repost to the issue in a few months. 
 I don't know really, but I feel a few small incremental changes 
could open up the field to more people not inclined to be programmers.


On a grander scale, for linguistics work ala Icon's power, being 
able to LOAD %somerandompoem.txt  and not worry about syntax errors 
could open up a whole new domain for REBOL.  That would require a 
junk! datatype, and sure there will be issues with correctness, but 
let the english majors worry about those.  Today they won't even 
bother to start, so there are no issues of correctness as there are 
no scripts.   But imagine some English professor or a theologist; 
LOAD %kingjames.txt and then using REBOL to do statistical analysis, 
right at the console.  A report could count how much non-REBOL data 
was in the books along with counting the times 'Moses was mentioned 
in 2 or 3 simple lines of code.


I'll stop dreaming now (for a awhile) and get back to the task of 
being a nerd.  S'alright.  ;)

Brian, load in Icon is more like READ, and Icon's analysis code is 
very much like REBOL's string parsing.

I've asked before, but don't think I ever got an answer from Carl, 
if the money! lexicon couldn't be fixed to allow commas and dots 
to be used in either order, as group and decimal separators. Does 
anyone see a problem with that?

Probably the answer is to have decent widgets that filter the user 
input.   My bank just cheats and prevents any commas being entered 
into money fields.

The comma is a sure fire  way to get past some parsing systems right 
now and possibly cause a crash.  Because of the following:

>> type? $10,000
== money!
>> $10,000 + 1
== $11.00

if we have regular iterative release/development ... these issues 
could have been discussed and dealt with long ago.  Instead we have 
100s of issues, which are looked at every now and then, and it's 
just too much to handle at one time.

I wrote an 'as (possibly short for coerce) function for QM with the 
heady goal of recognising types from strings.  It isn't nearly as 
extensive as I'd like (if I were to do that myself, it wouldn't be 
nearly as efficient as I'd like), but the community could use an 
'as like function (with possible /next refinement):

	>> as integer! "1,000"
	== 1000
	>> as/next integer! "1,000 and 1"
	== [1000 "and 1"]
	>> as money! "$1,000"
	== $1000
	; note, this is not how 'as works in QM


And it should be independent and open source.  It's perhaps something 
the core language should not be burdened with...

Paul: 10,000 + 1 is 11, that's 100% OK, as comma is decimal delimiter 
here in Europe. And getting 10001 instead would be a terrible bug.

So, let's do it this way. Please implement what you want LOAD to 
do using PARSE and LOAD/NEXT. Then we can discuss it.

Ok;  I get the omens  ;)  REBOL3 went offline just as I had posted 
this ...


Ok, I wasn't going to speak to the issue for another 60 days, but 
 ;)

My main point is not making the life of rebols any easier.  The point 
is attracting mom, pop and non technically inclined academic types. 
 For instance;  imagine a CPU that refused to load a binary into 
a code segment if the image included non executable hexcodes.  I 
don't mean only loaded bits of it, it just halted.  Said chip would 
not garner a mass following.  Sure NASA and Boeing my buy them for 
their engineers, but normals would balk at such a thing.  Not even 
going as far as loading it and giving a chance for a debugger to 
examine the nasty bits would make it a non-starter for mass market. 
 I akin current REBOL from that angle (again, thinking about mom, 
pop, history professors and linguists)

Note how the error objects have a great clue in arg1?   This is just 
an example, the code sucks.  Don't think about that.  Think about 
a history professor sitting at a desk and typing
>> mybook: load %mybook.txt

and then fiddling with   >> unique    or  sort   or ...  while trying 
to determine how many times he invoked Godwins Law

I think this would open up reams of new REBOL communities.  Let us 
pros worry about correctness and DSL and user friendly power apps. 
 But open REBOL to general mishmash for the world at large.  No?

Ahh, good point.  Let's keep the knowledge to the illuminati.  ;) 
  But more seriously, he also mentioned


I think it's time to change our message. REBOL is not for everyone. 
REBOL is advanced. It promotes the concepts of symbolics, context, 
and environment as powerful tools, going far beyond the traditional 
ideas of functions, objects, loops, and if statements.


Why not let cunning linguists (if not mom and pop) in on the party 
too?   It would still open up reams of communities. Entice them with 
"any kind of junky code that works" and then let them sit back and 
"consider each detail of their design, and sculpt it perfectly as 
a lasting work of thought." a few minutes after getting hooked?

It's almost easier to invent a time machine, go back in time, and 
standardize the world's decimal point.  And, maybe if there's a little 
extra time, standardize the date format too.

i will not have any request (really hard), i just stay here and have 
a beer waiting for others who will begin to harass you :)

mhhhhhh there is some comon points with porn and religion

Sorry ... I was chatting to him about mediawiki and deki while he 
was here.

new resolution for 2009!

make a 3hr drive and pay a beer to Btiffin!   :-D