I’m now contract for youview.

Let’s have fun…

Who needs medical insurance, it’s been a while since i took apart a laptop, nearly set fire to a house or electrocuted myself, don’t worry I’m hardy.

Meet Caliban v2. My first project for a while.

The range of matchers and stuff, strongly recommend it to everyone it seems fabby

Matchers! (from wiki)

• Core
  • anything – always matches, useful if you don’t care what the object under test is
  • describedAs – decorator to adding custom failure description
  • is – decorator to improve readability – see “Sugar”, above
• Logical
  • allOf – matches if all matchers match, short circuits (like PHP &&)
  • anyOf – matches if any matchers match, short circuits (like PHP ||)
  • not – matches if the wrapped matcher doesn’t match and vice versa
• Object
  • equalTo – test object equality using the == operator
  • anInstanceOf – test type
  • notNullValue, nullValue – test for null
  • sameInstance – test object identity using the === operator
  • identicalTo – alias of sameInstance, but with similar semantics to equalTo
• Number
  • closeTo – test floating point values are close to a given value
  • greaterThan, greaterThanOrEqualTo, lessThan, lessThanOrEqualTo – test ordering
• Collections
  • hasItem, hasItems – test if an array contains one or more items
• Text
  • equalToIgnoringCase – test string equality ignoring case
  • equalToIgnoringWhiteSpace – test string equality ignoring differences in runs of whitespace
  • containsString, endsWith, startsWith – test string matching
• Combinations
  • both and either, for example:
    • both(startsWith('a'))->andAlso(endsWith('b'))
    • either(startsWith('x'))->orElse(endsWith('y'))

Sugar!

pretty is(…) and stuff that make stuff easier, call the same “is” “equalTo” matchers nesting them for readablity.

Here’s my first very simple hamcress test :-

before

$this->assertEquals($this->class->getGid(), $expectedGid, "Game Gid got back from migitation game is wrong");

after

assertThat($this->class->getGid(), equalTo($expectedGid), "Game Gid got back from migitation game is wrong");

Sooo soo much more readable!
My only complaint is the “Game Gid got back from migitation game is wrong” message isn’t called, without wrapping the matcher in a custom matchers which is a bit class verbose

Gotta 1!

download the 0.1.0 version if your on php 5.2, the 0.2.0 and 0.3.0 versions only work with 5.3 (that i could see at least)

http://code.google.com/p/hamcrest/downloads/detail?name=hamcrest-php-0.1.0.tgz

(0.2.0 / 0.3.0 weren’t compatible with PHP 5.2 because of the static late binding all over the place)

Gotta 2!

the class has changed since the tutorial! it’s ‘Hamcrest/hamcrest.php’

<?php
require_once 'PHPUnit/Framework.php';
require_once 'Hamcrest/hamcrest.php';

class Somedomain_Test_PHPUnit_ExtendedControllerTestCase extends BBC_Test_PHPUnit_ControllerTestCase {
...
}

Gotta 3!

php unit has a assert that too!

public function testHamcressAssertThat()
{
assertThat(true, equalTo(true));
}
public function testHamcressNotAssertThat()
{
assertThat(true, equalTo(false));
}
public function testPHPUnitAssertThat()
{
$this->assertThat(true, equalTo(true));
}
public function testPHPUnitNotAssertThat()
{
$this->assertThat(true, equalTo(false));
}

http://code.google.com/p/hamcrest/wiki/TutorialPHP

http://code.google.com/p/hamcrest/wiki/UsesOfHamcrest

Additonally here’s some Zend asserts for controllers I use, basically I just want to test the routing works or not, it’s a single failure for me not a action/module or status code error, there all pre-hamcress inventions, and some of teh code has been stolen from many great folks i’ve worked with over the last few years, thank you all of you

< ? php 

require_once 'PHPUnit/Framework.php'; 
require_once 'Hamcrest/hamcrest.php'; 

abstract class Somedomain_Test_PHPUnit_ExtendedControllerTestCase extends Zend_Test_PHPUnit_ControllerTestCase {     

public function setUp() {       
parent::setUp();       
// MOCKING STARTS HERE       
// Unfortunately this won't be output first if the derived class does log(...); setUp();      
 // LOGGER_CLASS::info('BEGIN Test: Page - ' . get_class($this));
   }

   public function tearDown() {

      parent::tearDown();
      // UNMOCKING STARTS HERE

      // Unfortunately this won't be output last if the derived class does tearDown(); log(...);
      // LOGGER_CLASS::info('END Test: Page - ' . get_class($this));
   }

   /**
    * allows asserting if correct modulie/controller/action and http status code of controller response is correct
    * @param string expected module
    * @param string expected controller
    * @param string expected action
    * @param string expected http code
    * @param [optional] string - messages to add onto unit test fail
    *
    * $this->assertRouteDispatch('errorhandler', 'error', 'error', 500);
    */
   public function assertRouteDispatch ($assertedModule, $assertedController, $assertedAction, $httpCode, $message = "") {

      $routeStatus = " (module/controller/action)"
         . ":got(" . $this->getRequest()->getModuleName()
         . "/" . $this->getRequest()->getControllerName()
         . "/" . $this->getRequest()->getActionName()
         . ":HTTP)"
         . ":wanted(" . $assertedModule . "/" . $assertedController . "/" . $assertedAction . ":".$httpCode.") "
         . "\n Page Body [don't worry it will look messy and long, body dumps normally are] : \n" . $this->getResponse()->getBody();

      $this->assertModule($assertedModule, 'Incorrect module used ' . $message . $routeStatus);
      $this->assertController($assertedController, 'Incorrect controller used '.$message . $routeStatus);
      $this->assertAction($assertedAction, 'Incorrect action used '.$message . $routeStatus);
      $this->assertResponseCode($httpCode, 'Response Code Incorrect got '.$message . $routeStatus);
   }

   /**
    * allows asserting if content type header of controller response correct
    * @param string content header to contain, eg 'Content-Type: application/json'
    * @param [optional] string - messages to add onto unit test fail
    */
   public function assertContentTypeHeader($contentType, $message = "") {

      $repsonseHeaders = $this->__getKeyedArrayOfResponseHeaders();
      $this->assertEquals($repsonseHeaders["content-type"], $contentType, "response content type header not expected".$message);
   }

   /**
    * allows asserting if body is valid json
    * @param [optional] string - messages to add onto unit test fail
    */
   public function assertContentBodyValidJson($message = "") {

      $json = json_decode($this->getResponse()->getBody());
      $this->assertNotNull($json, "Http Response Body Response is not valid JSON: " . $this->getResponse()->getBody() . $message);
   }

   /**
    * allows asserting if body is valid xml
    REQUIRES UTILS
   public function assertContentBodyValidXml() {

      try {
         $success = true;
         $repsonseHeaders = BBC_Cbbc_Util::stringToSimpleXml($this->getResponse()->getBody(), "unittest_create_xml");
      } catch (Exception $e) {
         $success = false;
      }

      $this->assertTrue($success, "Http Response Body is not valid XML: " . $this->getResponse()->getBody());
   }*/

	/**
	 * Version of assertModule() with better error reporting.
	 *
	 * @param string $expected expected module
	 */

	public function assertModule($expected, $m = "") {
		$actual = $this->getRequest()->getModuleName();
		$message = "Expected module [$expected], got module [$actual]";
		if (!empty($m)) {
			$message .= ": $m";
		}
		parent::assertModule($expected, $message);
	}

	/**
	 * Version of assertController() with better error reporting.
	 *
	 * @param string $expected expected controller
	 */

	public function assertController($expected, $m = "") {
		$actual = $this->getRequest()->getControllerName();
		$message = "Expected controller [$expected], got controller [$actual]";
		if (!empty($m)) {
			$message .= ": $m";
		}
		parent::assertController($expected, $message);
	}

	/**
	 * Version of assertAction() with better error reporting.
	 *
	 * @param string $expected expected action
	 */

	public function assertAction($expected, $m = "") {
		$actual = $this->getRequest()->getActionName();
		$message = "Expected action [$expected], got action [$actual]";
		if (!empty($m)) {
			$message .= ": $m";
		}
		parent::assertAction($expected, $message);
	}

   private function __getKeyedArrayOfResponseHeaders()
   {
      $keyHeaders = array();
      $rawHeaders = $this->getResponse()->getHeaders();
      foreach ($rawHeaders as $header) {
         $name = $header['name'];
         $key  = strtolower($name);
         if (array_key_exists($name, $keyHeaders)) {
            if ($header['replace']) {
               $keyHeaders[$key] = $header['name'] . ': ' . $header['value'];
            }
         } else {
            $keyHeaders[$key] = $header['name'] . ': ' . $header['value'];
         }
      }
      return $keyHeaders;
   }
}

http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

Frankly it not only equals the now aged firebug, it surpasses it.

Microsoft welcome back from the widerness, now if you could only backdoor
force upgrade all IE6 users out there, all sins would be forgiven.

No more messing with lots of vms and non-sense, we developers can now properly test IE9 and IE 10!!!

(ps sorry yes i know cbeebies and cbbc are both launched now and use glow, and glow hasn’t been updated for ages, and glow doesn’t work in IE9/10, BBC boffins are on the case)

Only negative vista/windows 7 only, but another good reason for me to make
the big switch back from Mac (just as soon as i’ve saved enough dough)

Allows really indepth testing of ie 7/8/9/10,

Tools:
console with breakpoints,

tracing (aka console.log),

full js function call profiling,

dom inspection / rewriting aka firebug,

css editing,

And it’s unmicrosoftly brillant in UX and functionality,

Ant

in other news testing testing test :-

var formattedCode = new Hello.World();

As stated in the last post, i’ve finally finished the T in the Park Channel T flash application, which any second should be going live… any second… any second at all

It was a great project working with good friends and collegues, learning the wonders of away3D, flcikr, swfAddress, and all those nice wee quirks of the flash IDE

One fo my afvourate features unfortunately not ready for release was the bot crowd, the idea was these would wander around in a 3d environment, surrounded by the various music stages of T in the Park, when you rolled over the stage the little bots would swarm towards it, a nice cute effect.

I got pretty close but ultimately what works well for animals, fishes, and mircobes is really hard to get realistic for thinking wandering humans, and with the deadline looming that was that

simple as3 bots

slightly more complex as3 bots

even more complex as3 in 3d pretendign to be humans badly

source

link to AS2 bots

Ps

I’ve now made it a promise to myself to give flex a try

Long live the Blogg

I’m merged my labs and blogg blogs together, frankly it was become way too much hassle for something i hardly update

thanks to mark for his use a different user post

For those wanting to do the same and redirect not lose too much seo/help users, here’s a quick htaccess snippet for you,

create a file in your old directory for me it was /labs, and create a file called .htaccess

{code}

RewriteEngine On
# redirect to new blog
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /blogg/$1 [R=301,L]

{code}

howto make mac osx automatically take timed screenshots every X seconds with a simple bash script

For programmers, open terminal

for i in {1..9999}; do echo “taking screen shot $i”; screencapture -x “helloworld$i.png”; sleep 1; done

For Editorial

Open Terminal

1. Open finder
2. go to the “Applications” Folder
3. go inside the “Utilities” Folder
4. run the “Terminal” application

Run the wee script which does the magic

1. Go to the “Terminal” application
2. type “cd”
3. type a space
4. Go to finder,
5. open a folder you what the screen captures to happen in
6. drag the icon of the folder into the “Terminal” application (this should make some text appear in the Terminal app like /Data/Applications or something)
7. Go back to the “Terminal” application
8. type return
9. type ‘for i in {1..9999}; do echo “taking screen shot $i”; screencapture -x “helloworld$i.png”; sleep 1; done‘ exact character for character or copy and paste
10. type return
11. {at this point the computer should be taking screen shot every second}
12. Do stuff, what ever you want to capture
13. When you want to stop the capturing, simply quite “Terminal” the way you normally would

Improvements

• sleep 1, controls the time between captures, so sleep 60 would take a capture every minute
• {1..9999}, controls the amount of time, that means after 9999 loops it stops

my good friend dimitar has suggested a better loop which never stops unless stopped by the user

#! /usr/bin/env bash

i=0

while 1

do

((i++))

screencapture -T 1 “capture$i.jpg”

done

Leaders are silly, as always brown is a tad behind

Google Search String

Hangover's suck

For what ever reason I decided I’m doing too much js to not being using the Excellent JSLint as such I’ve decided it’s time to use it in anger, no more bespoke copy and pasting, automated stylee, here how to do it

$bash – ./scripts/jslintchecker.sh iplayer/ report.txt scripts/jslint.js

Files here ->

JSLINT AUTOMATOR_SHELL_SCRIPT ZIP HERE

update 4th May – fix script for absolute paths agruments

Basic solution ->

Shell script Grabs files gives them to running JSLint on spidermonkey

Core bash command is

$bash – find . -name *.js

-exec sh -c ‘

cat $1 | jslint.js;’ {} {}

> report.txt ;

So broken down thats

$bash – find . -name *.js # get all the js files in . folder

-exec sh -c ‘echo $1′ {} {} # run a shell command with the js file as the $1 variable

echo -e “B:AH”# print some nice stuff

cat $1 | jslint.js; # pipe the file $1 = /balh/balh,js, into jslint pass on the stdOut from that

> report.txt ; # chuck in a file called report.txt

Steps ->

1. Install Spidermonkey

linux command I used

$bash – yum clean all;

$bash – yum –noplugins install js-devel

more helpful instructions found here

2. Copy and unzip .sh/.js script files

DOWNLOAD ZIP HERE

js file from this excellent blog on the matter, and this guy cheers to him for writing an excellent post of using pipes within find exec commands,cheers you guys are the best

3. Chmod jslintchecker.sh and jslint.js so they execute, incase the zip file breaks it

$bash – chmod 777 jslintchecker.sh

$bash – chmod 777 jslint.js

4. Run jslintchecker.sh on the folder you wanta jslint check

USEAGE jslintchecker.sh <JS_FOLDER> <REPORT_FILE_NAME> <JSLINT_LOCATION>

$bash – ./scripts/jslintchecker.sh iplayer/ report.txt scripts/jslint.js

Zap

all through the commandline using open source tools (i think)

pngquant +pngout + pngcrush

firefox & transparent PNG 8 & gradient background = 

IE6 & transparent PNG 8 & gradient background = 

updated removed full images as there sensitive

First off…

Failures

Tried imagemagick it turns transparency into a bit mask….

Tried pngopti, it’s a black box that doesn’t tell you what it’s doing

Tried pngcrush, it lies when converting to 8 bit png’s and doesn’t do this if the pallette’s over 256 colours

Tried pngout, it does well but fails when the pallette isn’t smaller 257 colours

Now the good part

Solution

Solution a combination of tools

step one

-> quantise image into 256 (so basically png8′s look crap with large sprites or sprites with a large colour range)

I used pngquant

$bash -

pngquant 256 some_24_bit.png

step two

-> convert image form a png24 to a png8 (many tools claim to do this, many tools lie… or fail unexpectedly pngcrush! I trusted you)

I used pngout got the linux executable here pngout-static from this excellent blog

(unfortunately if the number of colours in the needed by the image is greater than 256 it fails hence the first step)

$bash -

./pngout-static -c3 -d8 -y -force some_24_bit.png some_8_bit.png

step three (optional)

->compress image for fun and profit or simply just bandwidth savings

I used pngcrush

Couldn’t find linux executable -> compile instructions

$bash -

yum –noplugins gcc-i386

yum –noplugins xz

xz -d pngcrush-BLAH.tar.xz

tar -xf pngcrush-BLAH.tar

cd pngcrush-B:AH

make install

./pngcrush –help

here’s one I made earlier only tested on the bbc’s forge sandbox, no promises given, if it doesn’t work build your own one, instructions above

So compress image using pngcrush

$bash -

./pngcrush some_8_bit.png -bit_depth 8 -brute -rem alla -reduce some_8_bit_small.png

whola -> png8 with progressively enhanced IE6 transparency

Without fireworks!!! see what you can do with a little locked down machine and a VM

whoope!!!

and the results….

Firefox 3 (beatiful… ps i cheated slightly and did this screenshot on a mac so the fonts look prettier)

IE 6 (ok it’s not perfect but the designs really like gradiented backgrounds… ah to build the thing in flash)

PNG 24

PNG 8

Zap

Oooops I did it again, many of you have hear the story of the infamious sparky the laptop, the only laptop in history to have almost committed a darwin award on it’s owner,

Well today I created the sparking hard disk, basically my hard disk broke nearly immediate the second I move to London, damn stuipd WD external harddisk, it’s rubbish don’t buy them their crap, heard of two other users that have had bad experiences.

Anyway I left the poor laptop alone until today, where… after not finding any case opening instructions, used a combination of two bread knifes, and a swizz army knife (this for future reference is not recommended).

This opened the case fine!, whoope I then took off the metal case around the usb socket, servering the poor sata and power connections ckeanly in half… oops

Not deterred by this i then put anything back together again (pressing the broken contact together [wish i had my soldering iron with me down south]) and connected the power…. there were one or two wee sparks, should mention i was pressing the contacts together with my fingers,

Again I’m fine, nothing caught fire this time, there isn’t any notiacable damage on the hard disk, so I’m going to discard the broken usb bit, and attempt to get the hard disk working inside my flatmates computer

He’s such a good flatmate, I think I’ll not mention the sparky bits…

Zap