AltME groups: search

Is this a bug?

1)  I read a directory on our ftp server and return a set of files 
of which  02 EN AR final.pdf is one of them

2)  I then copy a URL address that returns a 404 indicating it couldn't 
find the file in question ie.  http://www.cpcpension.com/files/2002EN AR final.pdf

3)  I do a  split-paths to-url on the contents of the clipboard:// 
that contains item in step 2)

4)  I compare the file names for equality either using "=" or equal? 
and both return false
5)  I check the type of each file, they are both 'file' types

6)  I check the length of each file, the one from step 1) returns 
20, step 2) returns 26


So, somewhere it is changing the   representation of a space into 
the actual string " ".
Any ideas?
6)

when I execute this command...
print second split-path to-file to-string read clipboard://
where I have copied the URL above into the clipboard://
it returns.... 2002 EN AR final.pdf

Brock: 'to-url converts a string into an url without escaping, escaping 
is only done when showing the url string: 

to-url "http://www.cpcpension.com/files/2002EN AR final.pdf" ; works 

== http://www.cpcpension.com/files/2002EN AR final.pdf ; blanks 
->  

to-url "http://www.cpcpension.com/files/2002EN AR final.pdf" 
; don't works

== http://www.cpcpension.com/files/2002EN AR final.pdf ; only 
looks the same, but contains "%" "2" "0"
you can use 'do or 'load to interpret the string in clipboard:
do read clipboard://
load read clipboard://
(same with 'to-file)

have you ever read the parse documentation in the old RT publisehd 
rebol 2.3 pdf  ?  its a good reference... there are only minor changes 
from that version up to the latest... I don't think any of the examples 
would fail in the current parse.

what you have to do is: extend the typesetter so that it can read 
font descriptions and build glyph width and kerning pairs tables 
(Volker has an AFM file parser); extend the dialect so that it can 
somehow recognize and load external fonts; study the PDF reference 
to see what you need to do to include the font in the PDF file (at 
the very least, you have to provide a font object; i'm not sure if 
this is sufficient, but i hope that the reader is able to load external 
fonts once you give it the font name and description; in theory you 
should embed the font into the PDF file, which usually means parsing 
the font file and so on)

it's possible to edit the pdf file by appending stuff to it, but 
you'll need to read the specs to make that work, it's not entirely 
trivial either.

Ashley, can you explain in a little more detail how your setup works 
for you?

 Sure. I run a home office with two studies. Each has a Mac mini (plus 
 Cinema display) for day-to-day work. My study also has a TabletPC 
 connected to a 1280x1024 VGA LCD display. I use this for REBOL development 
 and demos away from home.


The iBook is located in the other study and is used by my better 
half when running Windows software related to our finance company 
(CRM/Sales software distributed via the professional body we belong 
to, no Mac or Linux option available). We also use the iBook when 
showing non-IT people stuff (e.g. a spreadsheet showing how much 
their portfolio could be worth if they geared it) and when attending 
training sessions.


The ADSL modem has an ethernet connection to Airport express, which 
in turn has the MFC plugged into its USB slot. The Mac's pick up 
the printer automatically, the TabletPC runs Bonjour and does the 
same. Everything, including the TabletPC, detected the Network without 
issue. It really has been as simple as, 1) Unpack, 2) Plug-in, 3) 
Use. I've also noticed that WinXP running on the iBook is a lot faster/smoother 
than on the TabletPC as it installs 'clean' (i.e. piggy-backs off 
the Mac's Network and Hardware support).


Large screens are a must if you write and or read a lot of documents. 
A 1920x1200 screen lets you do a slideshow on a PDF document and 
read the pages side-by-side. On wide screens I always have the task-bar/dock 
on the right to maximize the vertical display area.

Anyone has a few good PC hardware architecture overview books ? Maybe 
on mainboard archs, maybe on nvidia cards arch. Preferably in PDF 
so I can read on Kindle

Hello Denis,


So, one of the things a group of us have been talking about is doing 
some group lessons (world wide).


We have researched some tools for making this possible.  We narrowed 
it down to Macromedia's Breeze.  In fact last week I talked for about 
2 hours with their team (meaning the people that actually designed 
and programmed it).


This week I'm talking to their OEM leads about integrating Breeze 
from Rebol into Web applications.


So our first Breeze interactive lesson will be in a few weeks is 
my guess.  WE have not idea how good it will be with more than 10 
people, and world wide, but we are going to try.


As to a road map.  Programming languages in general are difficult 
to learn in a methodical method.  Rebol being even more difficult 
(in my opinion), because learning the structure does not help very 
much.  Even learning how Rebol works is not all that usefull (compared 
to lets say Basic, or a Batching system).

I will make some simple suggestions though:


1.	Go to Rebol.com, and read what is offered there.  It actually 
is a good starting point.  Rebol Essentials" which is a PDF on the 
site is worth reading.


2.	Write your own dictionary.  Literally, pick a given word in Rebol, 
use it in a sentence.  And just work your way through all 400+ words. 
 You can do it in a few hours.  All you need to do is try to use 
it in a way the Rebol Dictionary does not use it.



3.	Build something you really want to build.  Unless you have a goal, 
working on anything is going to be boring.  Think of a utility, or 
a game that you have always wanted to understand better, or want 
to play with, and build it.  Another cool concept is to simply copy 
it from an existing version in some other language you already know, 
or that is more simple (like Basic).

ok... I know that you can use com to get a text version of any file 
format which has a thumbnail viewer... which can be very usefull 
to read things like pdf, word, and other obscure file types....

I will read pdf .... till the section where mathematic equations 
start :-)

The browser as the launch platform for applications has always been 
an interesting idea. The fundamental problem of the sheer complexity 
of it can be solved with R3. If done right, it can completely wipe 
the floor with browsers and AJAX. I think the problem is that we 
haven't been speaking in a language that people can understand, such 
as "browser", "web2.0" and "webserver", but instead "dialects", "VID", 
"Viewtop" and "X Internet" and people go "huh?".

Some things I believe are needed to do this right:


- Browser form factor. People are used to browsers, not Viewtops. 
What's always the first thing a complete newbie computer user uses, 
when wanting to do anything on the internet? A webbrowser. I don't 
want a desktop inside my desktop. There are tens of solutions for 
such things and they are almost all forgotten. Carl is doing the 
REBOL browser. When you fire up R3, you will get what looks like 
a webbrowser and acts like one. The concept has to work equally well 
for people like us, as well as 5-year-olds and 95-year-olds.


- Do apps that are similar to webapps, like GMail. That's a quick 
way to compare. Don't you think a 50k GMail look-a-like inside a 
REBOL browser running at native speeds would be _slightly_ impressive? 
Remember to say that you can serve 5 times more users with the same 
bandwidth. REBOL can help make raw numbers look better without much 
effort. Google would have to use it as a content platform. They have 
no other choice. :-) Chrome? What's that?


- Plugins suddenly are very flexible. You don't have plugins as in 
Firefox, but helper scripts that can enhance/change your browsing 
experience. 15k full screen document reader that prettifies plain 
text files? Sure thing. Blog posts presented in that would be much 
nicer to read. Out goes the PDF reader.


- Do apps that are completely out of the league of AJAX, such as 
multithreaded P2P systems. In fact, why not build P2P capabilities 
right in? Have different instances of the browser allow users to 
connect and chat, when they are visiting the same "Rebsite". It's 
sort of like going into a physical store and chatting with the other 
customers and you decide to exchange business cards. Initial contact 
without needing email. Do the same thing with chat support for an 
article that you bought at that  "rebsite". Current websites are 
almost completely anonymous. You don't feel you are entering a live 
community. Coded in REBOL/Services.


- Webpages are now REBOL scripts. In R3, scripts can be closed and 
encrypted, so you can't read the source and you can sell scripts 
and have them signed. The best you can do right now is some kind 
of code obfuscation.

- Windows, MacOSX and Linux version.


- "A webbrowser that directly supports OpenGL without obscure/limited 
3rd party plugins." Say that again in your head.


- It's very important that the public get to see that creating REBOL 
scripts for the browser is very similar to creating plain HTML pages. 
REBOL scripts can be served off a plain webserver. All the infrastructure 
is already there. Or how about serving scripts from the browser itself? 
AltME can both be a client and a server. It's that P2P thing again.

- Browser would run wherever R3 runs.


- Market it as Web 4.0. Market it as a direct competition to current 
webbrowsing.


- Browser would be a 500-600 kb downloadable exe that starts immediately 
without installation. From deciding to get it, to be using it to 
browse "Rebpages", it should not take more than 30-45 seconds.

- We need AltME in that browser (Altissimo?) as well as QTask.

For developers:


- It's easy to create an HTML file in notepad and display it in your 
favourite browser. It's going to be equally easy to create a REBOL 
script in notepad and see it running in your REBOL browser. A 5-year-old 
who has just learned to type, should be able to create a script and 
display it.

- One language for everything.


- Everything is free. You can start out with notepad. The barrier 
for creating content is about as low as it can get.


- You wanna code slow web 2.0 apps or fast web 4.0 apps? Hard choice, 
I know.

The more I read and learn about the PDF format, the less fond I am 
of it. It's a bloated mess with some critical limites, as I see it.

As you might have read from above, I am attempting to post postscript 
to a RSP script to convert to PDF.
4k of postscript sees the script complete.
But 92Kb of postscript - and I get this response

make object! [
    code: 800
    type: 'user
    id: 'message

    arg1: {Error.  Target url: https://www.compkarori.co.nz:443/cgi-bin/createpdf.rsp 
    could not be retrieved.  Server response: none}
    arg2: none
    arg3: none

    near: [page: read/custom https://www.compkarori.co.nz/cgi-bin/createpdf.rsp
    reduce ['POST join "content=" content]]
    where: none
]

and to send the fax from REBOL is just


response: read/custom url?faxno=113432423&recipient=Joe Bloggs&extension=.pdf 
[ PUT %mypdffax.pdf ]

I want to allow download of the faxes.  I made the file  names links

<a href=showfax.rsp?fax000000.tif>fax000000.tif</a>

and showfax.rsp is 

<%
recvqdir: %/var/spool/hylafax/recvq/
file: dehex request/content/filename

switch suffix? file [
	%.tif [ response/set-header 'Content-type "image/tiff" ]
	%.pdf [ response/set-header 'Content-type "application/pdf" ]
]
response/buffer: read/binary join recvqdir file file
%>

but when the file downloads,it is called showfax.rsp ...

this is with 9.19


>> read/custom  http://129.33.194.254:8080/tempsdfsfsadfasdfasf/hasfasdfsfpkkkk.pdf 
[ HEAD "" ]


URL Parse: none none 129.33.194.254 8080 tempsdfsfsadfasdfasf/ hasfasdfsfpkkkk.pdf
Net-log: ["Opening" "tcp" "for" "HTTP"]
connecting to: 129.33.194.254
Net-log: {HEAD /tempsdfsfsadfasdfasf/hasfasdfsfpkkkk.pdf HTTP/1.0
Accept: */*
Connection: close
User-Agent: REBOL View 2.7.6.3.1
Host: 129.33.194.254:8080

Referer: http://129.33.194.254:8080/tempsdfsfsadfasdfasf/hasfasdfsfpkkkk.pdf
}
Net-log: "HTTP/1.1 200 OK"
Net-log: ["low level read of " 2048 "bytes"]

What's wrong here ?

rebol [
]

write %tryme.pdf
dirlist: read %//

foreach myfile dirlist [
	if find myfile ".pdf" [
		print ["Filename" myfile]
		extension: find/last/tail myfile "."
		print ["EXT" extension]
		print extension = "pdf"
	]
]
delete %tryme.pdf
halt


The comparison extension = pdf should return TRUE, instead I have 
FALSE

Read up on the research on PDF sometime before you start promoting 
Postscript. It is even a good idea to use PDF instead if you are 
outputting through Ghostscript - it can handle it.