me talking out loud

OK - I have been told to research the Perl modules - again for email purposes (I am coming to hate email).
Specifications:

1. must be capable of multiple languages (Japanese and English)
2. must be capable of reading and writing MIME emails.
3. must be capable of accessing the mail box and sending an email

Possible solutions I have come up with:

1. MIME::Tools - everything I should supposedly need but seems kinda bloated
2. MIME::Lite (used to write and send emails) with Mail::Box (access and parse emails)

Can any one think of any other modules I should look at - or possible solutions I can use? Which of my 2 solutions do you like better?

Worst part - all this can be done with PHP… and yet they want to use perl. What are they thinking?

I was recently shown the PHP SPL libraries and decided to check ‘em out. First thing that caught my attention - all the iterators. Read up a bit and find out that that is the first design pattern the authors decided to tackle - so it makes sense that there are so many of them.

Since I know very little about design patterns I decided to do some research on this particular one (mostly reading the articles provided at the bottom of the SPL Doc page - though I did also read over some books again). Understand what they are and how they are used and where they are used. What I don’t get is the simple - why they are used. Why should I have the extra levels of abstraction needed to implement them? Why should I want all my loops to look the same?

I understand the concepts of encapsulation and modularity - but at what point is enough abstraction enough? Does it have to do with the size of a application or size of the team building the application? Or is it simply to standardize the method used? If so - why does the method need to be standardized? Efficency, optimization, readability, reuse, elegance (someone please define that by the way), robustness (another definition I would like to have), style - any one or all of the above?

I can use the classes and regurgitate everything I read - but I’m still lost for why?

Yes I am a PHP programmer! Work and my own curiosity send me to check out perl and it’s capabilities though. First impression - very confusing, with a steep learning curve. Hell it took me ~3 hours to just figure out the difference between an array, a list and a hash (an associative array in PHP). Though I am still slightly confused over the difference between a list and an array (a list is a finite thing while an array is more dynamic - I think). I have “Learning Perl”, “Programming Perl” and the “Perl Cookbook” ordered and am waiting for them to show up. Hopefully it will clarify some things for me. Figure since I have to look into it for work I might as well take advantage of the situation and actually learn it. Can’t hurt anything and will probably come in handy in my career. I love PHP and will always prefer it - but having another tool in the toolbelt doesn’t hurt.

Work wants me to look into using perl in regards to email. I have been looking at CPAN and think I have found a module that will work for what they want me to do. Now just to figure out 1) how to get it 2) how to use it and 3) how to write the code to do what work needs.

I’m sure I’ll be more then a little bit frustrated the next couple weeks/months doing this. Wish me luck.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Paris salutes its American hero

It is over and Lance has won. Amazing!

MercuryNews.com | 07/21/2005 | ‘Star Trek’ world’s miracle worker

Well I think I have finally managed to get rid of the spammers that have been screwing around with my blog. “No comments awaiting moderation” - for about 2 weeks now. Wonder if they were part of the group that was busted in the US?

Well I finished the basic CMS described in this article. I have updated all the files that go with it (index, newArticle, viewArticle, category, and DB Design) as well as placing the login and logout logic and template files, my navigation template, and a user access level file on the code snippet page.

I am considering creating a category index page so you could then view all the articles of that category with a link for it in the navigation bar. I think this will allow for a simple way to create subdirectories for a site. What do you think?

Also this still has no way of adding a new user (page to create member with access level of MEMBER), for the administrator to give a user advance priveleges(page to raise access level to AUTHOR, EDITOR, ADMIN, or SUPERUSER), or for an EDITOR to modify an article submitted by an AUTHOR (page that pulls up articles and allows editing). Again this isn’t really hard to add… but I’m not so sure I want to put this much work into this. After all it is just a learning experience not a full fledged CMS.

Or would anyone really want to eventually use something like this?

Got my Harry Potter book in so I didn’t do very much reading for PHP… Sorry - A good story will beat out a PHP book any day. After I’m done - I will be sending it on to Kayla. She’s “dying” to read it.

Got my first book in for review. Hopefully I will be able to tuck into it tonight. Have to get as much as I can done before the Harry Potter book shows up on my doorstep.

Well I’ve been pretty busy working on my CMS. Have made the category page, the index and the page to view the articles with and their assorted templates. You will find all of them listed on the code snippet page. All that is supposedly left is the creation of the administration area and the site security.

I fully admit that these pages have only been lightly tested. so feel free to beat up on them and tell me if there is anything wrong. I think I also need to create a something so the articles of a certain category are displayed together. Maybe another menu of the categories that links to a category index page - or something. Hmmm.

I have posted on the code snippet page a couple of things. My hacked version of IntSmarty is there, as well as the MyIntSmarty class I used, and finally the newArticle template converted over to use it. I have written in this
blog extensively about my experiences learning and hacking IntSmarty. The creation of the MyIntSmarty was also discussed.

If you look at the original newArticle template and the revised one - you will probably see very little difference (minus the few slight layout changes I made for the inclusion of a navigation menu). All I had to do was add the {l} and {/l} tags around the text I wanted translated. How easy is that.

Hopefully this will help anyone who has to create a multilingual site (mine was Japanese, English and eventually Korean). It really isn’t that hard once you get the basics - so do your homework. If you have a hard time getting this to work or have a question about it please let me know - I’d be more then willing to help you figure it out.

Well I think I’m finished with the page that will allow a person to add an article to the database. I am using the Smarty Templating system (maybe I will add the IntSmarty functionality later) so the page consists of the PHP page and the template. With the original name of newArticle. Impressive isn’t it. The code is also now listed on the code snippet page along with the slightly altered DB design (though I just overwrote the old one).

Now remember that since I am using the Smarty templating system - various folders and the Smarty core library will need to be installed. For information on that please see Smarty’s Manual.

Political Battle Likely Over Bush Nominee for Supreme Court

batten down the hatches and prepare for heavy seas - there’s a storm coming.

Well it is now offical - I didn’t get the job at the university. *sigh*

Although you were not selected, your participation and interest in this position certainly made for a challenging recommendation. The (position title here) selected a candidate she felt most closely met the qualifications and experience needed.

Well at least they tried to let me down easy. My husband and I looked at each other and wondered whose cousin got the job. Sad isn’t it when that is the first thing that pops into your mind (nepotism is rampent out here). Or maybe it is just easier on ones ego to think that way.

Damn - I really wanted that job.