Zak B. Elep — blog, stories, and other stuff
Simply point your feed aggregator somewhere that’s not dangerous, and help yourself.
Now, let me contemplate on working an Emacs-Lisp-powered semantic personal publishing system with spam-fighting comment support, PlannerMode capabilities and Emacs-Lisp manipulexity.
Clair: Yeah! Same here too, just got my email, I was beginning to worry about it. 
I also saw Sacha and Dong Calmada among the participants as well.
Yeah, I also changed the layout to WP1.5-classic. I’m considering whether to get a theme from Alex King or hack on the classic, as the Lisp title above suggests.
And yes, I’m going ga-ga over Lisp, too So much that I haven’t been seriously writing prose or blog-content, just real Lisp code. Come to think of it, learning Lisp has such an impact on me that I’m starting to write in reverse, like what you see in front of an ambulance…
Update: Now on clasikue, by freak.
I’ve been busy since Easter morning, taking a cue from dotemacs.de on modularizing my .emacs . So far, so good, there wasn’t any breakage, and at the same time it was a good way to practice my learning of Emacs Lisp. All the same, it’s not perfect yet, as some simple things need resolving. You can take a look at it too if you’re interested.
Clair: Yep, its quite easy to switch from LILO to GRUB, just follow the instructions at /usr/share/doc/grub/README.Debian, and in particular you can integrate GRUB onto `kernel-package’-built kernels’ installations. As for kernel baking, Manoj Srivastava’s text on /usr/share/doc/kernel-package/README.gz is the better text to read, along with the kernel docs. In a nutshell, though:
$ cd <linux-source-dir>
$ make <config-method>
$ make-kpkg clean
$ make-kpkg -rfakeroot -rev 1 kernel-image
$ MODULE_LOC=<modules-outside-linux-source-directory> make-kpkg -rfakeroot -rev 1 modules-image
$ sudo dpkg -i ../kernel-image-<kernel-revision>_<your-rev>_<your-arch>.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i ../<outside-modules>-<kernel-revision>_<your-rev>_<your-arch>.deb
$ sudo shutdown -r now
You better install fakeroot too.
I’ve also updated my del.icio.us tags.
`the Lord of Hackers is about to rise’ - And now He has Risen!
Happy Easter to everybody! Now get your bunnies! 
Yesterday I fetched the Emacs CVS sources, then built with GTK support. It definitely rocks! Screenshot soon…
I’ve also migrated Gnus, ERC, emacs-wiki and PlannerMode to their respective development versions. I’ve had a time setting them up so that they load first before the Debian equivalents; the following elisp takes care of this:
;; This lets me load my own elisp libs in front of Debian startup elisps
(mapcar '(lambda (f)
(and (not (string= (substring f -3) "/.."))
(file-directory-p f)
(add-to-list 'load-path f)))
(directory-files "~/elisp" t))
I have a few rants today:
Huh? What’s that?
Well, that’s my new tagline, as blogged by Clair. But you probably know about my tagline already…
With Clair and Sacha writing about a better mousetrap, let me write about why I’m using Ion instead of a full-blown DE like Gnome:
When I started using GNU/Linux in 2003, I already had some inkling about the state of the desktop environment under it. In fact, I have simulated the conditions unique to the Unix model by using the LiteStep desktop shell as a replacement for the default Windows Explorer. As it is, it didn’t completely replaced the Windows GUI; there was no longer a Start Menu, but the window decor was still the same. However, I solved that by using ShellWM to complete my look (no need to do hacks like in StyleXP or WindowBlinds, and its all free, naturally 
Flash forward to August 2003, when I got Debian Woody. At first I coudn’t even have X running (which I figured out by never ever setting up X with kernel framebuffers ever!), but that was an easy hurdle to overcome. By that time I’ve heard all about GNOME and KDE, so I decided to try out both. At first it was okay, with me having little to learn much from the two, until I finally got so tired by both of it. I was all too familiar, all too dull, so I checked out dselect and see what it was up to.
I took a pick, so I chose Enlightenment. Aside from the cool name, I knew this WM would be very similart to LS, so I grabbed the debs and started redecorating. And it was nice. Too nice, in fact. It wasn’t as heavy as the DEs (like I was too concerned about efficiency then,) but it was still just the same old windowing model, with just a little flair in the mix.
Now this was just the time when GNOME 2 got released, and taking a look at the new eye-candy GTK 2.0 had I was just roaring to get back to Gnome again. But it was also the time when I haven’t managed to completely move my system to testing/unstable yet (I was only forced to get the ALSA packages from testing as OSS didn’t work here). So I looked for another WM: I tried WindowMaker and played with it a little, but I got bored too. So was with IceWM and XFCE.
After taking the plunge to Sarge/Sid the first packages I took was Gnome 2.4’s. At first, it was really cool, having a complete DE with all the features *doze has, and more too. But at the same time I was becoming aware of the efficiency concerns (my box went slow as I used Gnome, more so when the libs from other apps are running) so then I started looking for a very lightweight low-maintenance WM.
It was then that my box’s motherboard borked so I had it fixed at the local shop. Afted the mobo was replaced, I had the box connected to the LAN to test the new built-in NIC (just an excuse, really, to grab debs) when I saw Joey Hess’ blog on Ion and Lua. From there on, I got fascinated with the idea of a WM that arranges windows neatly in a tile formation, much like those cool intstrumentation panels you see on TV.
So, with little hesitation, I got ion2, ion2-dev and ion2-doc, and started. The configuration (X-wise) was easy enough, just a little editing of .xsession and go. After that, I encountered a blank WIonWS (the default workspace model of Ion2). A bit of confusion there, so I read the docs more, and also unwittingly learned more about Lua. I arrived at copying /etc/X11/ion2/ to my $HOME, and let myself dive in to a hacking spree.
Through learning Lua and a few keyboard shortcuts, I was able to split the screen into a four-way frame layout, allowing me to have a bird’s-eye view of the running system at any point in time. I have a tail at the top shelf following syslog, apache and exim logs; at its right is ncmpc following my music database; on the bottom shelf is the MainFrame where Emacs resides along with Firefox and a local shell, and at its right is gkrellm with its meters. Note that I could probably do the same in a single Emacs session, but that would have been rather distracting.
Like RatPoison Ion doesn’t handle transient windows very well, which mean that when you want to use a many-windowed app like Gaim or the GIMP you just have to switch WMs, or use the built-in PWM sibling of Ion to work with such apps. However, the latest Ion3 sports the new WPaneWS workspace model that converts the entire screen into a single frame housing several panes that can work very much like WIonWS frames, but can also overlap each other, and can also cope with both transient and multiple windows. I now run this on another workspace when I need to do GIMP stuff, or play FreeCiv.
I know Ion isn’t for everyone, but for me, I fell in love with it. And because I know this project is constantly improving itself, I know I’m gonna love it more. It’s definitely not for everyone since you have to tweak config files every now and then (as opposed to doing registry/gconf hacks, but that doesn’t happen very often anyway and learn to dive into Lua as well, but it fits me since I fit that category. And besides, there’s Emacs for doing all the editing fun!
Have you read this? If you’re on Debian, you better. Though it may not affect you now, it surely will be if you’re a second-class citizen.
I won’t add to the many flames on -devel, since there are too many already, making me think of unsubscribing. There are a lot of other people out there who are very good in the art of cursing.
I will say this, as a user: it’s a shame. Not enough shame to have me puking and leaving Debian, but almost close enough.
It would be `the horror!’ (as my cousin in Manila puts it,) to see Debian, the Universal Operating System, drop 8 arches to Second-Class Citizenship (and imply First-Class Citizenship on the most popular arches.)
I think there is another way to manage the complexity of managing the development of Debian simultaneously over different arches, and to think of that must take time. Time enough not to be distracted by the fact that Woody is 3 years old enough to be a grandpappy, and the fact that people are now becoming impatient (enough to warrant migrating to other Debian-based distros such as Ubuntu, or abandon dpkg altogether). And a lot of love, too.
Oh well, seems Berlioz’s Sturm und Drang is taking shape over the Debian halo. The sky is definitely not falling, but it is neither clear nor sweet.
I’ve been busy for a few days:
Yesterday I got my Ubuntu CDs–120 in all–in good shape, after almost 4 months of waiting. I tried one of the x86 live CDs on *eliza*, and she worked great, so I decided to replace the Woody installation with Warty. I’ve yet to do my standard routine (recompiling the kernel, building drivers and all,) maybe tomorrow… At any rate, it seems that not only the post office is to blame, but the forwarders as well, as the box seemed to take the scenic route from South Africa, down to the Netherlands, then to Asia.
I have ordered 100 more x86 CDs for the upcoming release of 5.04. I expect them coming now sometime in August…
Zak B. Elep is a freelance IT consultant, UP Open University student, cook, swimmer, tutor, Debian maintainer, and Ubuntu developer, all of these done in no particular order. Zak lives in the relatively peaceful countryside of Daet, Camarines Norte.
