the List and the Truth

Spoon Boy: Do not try and bend the list. That’s impossible. Instead . . . only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Spoon Boy: There is no list.
Neo: There is no list?
Spoon Boy: Then you’ll see that it is not the list that bends; it is only yourself

from “Practical Common Lisp“

my phd thesis on scribd

as per title.

Lorenzo_Bolla_PhDthesis

videocracy

surf browser hints /2

following yesterday’s post, here is another useful hint about surf’s usage.

the following script lists the available bookmarks (from ~/.bookmarks file) and let’s you pick one using dmenu. if a new link is inserted, it is added to the list of known bookmarks, so you won’t need to type it in full the next time:

#!/bin/sh
bookmarks=~/.bookmarks
link=`cat $bookmarks | dmenu ${1+"$@"}` || exit 0
present=`grep $link $bookmarks`
if [ "$?" -ne "0" ]; then
echo $link >> $bookmarks
fi
surf -u $link


if you don’t want to open a new window, just change the last line to set the _SURF_URL X Property of the surf window you want to use (by clicking on it):

xprop -f _SURF_URL 8t -set _SURF_URL $link


surf browser hints

surf is a simple webbrowser based on webkit/gtk+, the same web engine that powers Google Chrome.

used with dwm and dmenu, it’s a very powerfull, yet simple tool.

here is a patch to apply X geometry hints to surf, so that surf windows behave in dwm.


*** surf.c.orig 2009-08-24 16:41:31.000000000 +0100
--- surf.c 2009-08-24 16:35:02.000000000 +0100
***************
*** 372,377 ****
--- 372,381 ----
gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(c->vbox), c->searchbar);
gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(c->vbox), c->urlbar);

+ /* Hints */
+ GdkGeometry hints = { 1, 1 };
+ gtk_window_set_geometry_hints(GTK_WINDOW(c->win), NULL, &hints, GDK_HINT_MIN_SIZE);
+
/* Setup */
gtk_box_set_child_packing(GTK_BOX(c->vbox), c->urlbar, FALSE, FALSE, 0, GTK_PACK_START);
gtk_box_set_child_packing(GTK_BOX(c->vbox), c->searchbar, FALSE, FALSE, 0, GTK_PACK_START);


another hint is to create a script to feed surf with your favorite bookmarks. here it is:

#!/bin/sh
exe="surf -u `cat ~/.bookmarks | dmenu ${1+"$@"}`" && exec $exe


enjoy!

vim and python comments

I’m currently undergoing a profound revision (read “cleanup”) of my .vimrc and I recently had to choose a decent plug-in to comment python code.

the best so far is EnhancedCommentify. it’s highly configurable, powerful and it supports a different number of languages (not only python).

the only one thing that wasn’t easy to setup if the behaviour described here: being able to comment a block, respecting the indent, in both visual and normal mode.

a clean solution, without the need to define any function is to stick these lines into your .vimrc:


let g:EnhCommentifyPretty='Yes'
let g:EnhCommentifyRespectIndent='Yes'
let g:EnhCommentifyUserBindings="Yes"
let g:EnhCommentifyUseBlockIndent='Yes'



vmap ,c (Plug)VisualComment
vmap ,d (Plug)VisualDeComment
vmap ,g (Plug)VisualTraditional
vmap ,f (Plug)VisualFirstLine
nmap ,c (Plug)Comment
nmap ,d (Plug)DeComment
nmap ,g (Plug)Traditional
nmap ,f (Plug)FirstLine


(but remember to change “(” to “<” and “)” to “>” — wordpress is strict about “<” and “>”…)

enjoy!

Windows’ bugs

a bug’s just hidden in my keyboard…
a green one…
under the Windows key!

escape sequences for rxvt

I’m posting this info because I had a hard time searching for it on the internet.

if you are using rxvt (or urxvt), and you want escape sequences to work as in xterm, you need to specify them in your .Xdefaults.

here are the codes I had to add to have vim working properly on rxvt (I use alt-left_arrow and alt-right_arrow to navigate through tabs):

*Rxvt*meta8: false
*Rxvt.keysym.C-Left: +033[1;5D
*Rxvt.keysym.C-Right: +033[1;5C
*Rxvt.keysym.M-Left: +033[1;3D
*Rxvt.keysym.M-Right: +033[1;3C
(substitute “+” with “\”)

enjoy!

blog post with charm

this is a test blog entry, posted with charm!

charm is a text-based client which uses the MetaWeblog API to post entries to WordPress powered blogs. it also implements other APIs.

I’m wondering if simple ASCII entries like this one will be properly formatted by the WordPress’ Intelligent Text Formatting feature. it would be nice to use vim to edit it…

enjoy!

qwerty vs dvorak vs colemak to edit python code

yesterday, I was intrigued by the idea of choosing a more efficient keyboard layout to work with everyday.

as long as I type python code 90% of my time, I decided to evaluate the efficiency of the first 3 most widespread keyboard layouts: QWERTY, Dvorak and Colemak.

I used this excellent tool to compare the three layouts over the first 50000 characters of the webpy source code.

here are the results:

The Qwerty Keyboard Layout Vs The Dvorak Keyboard Layout

:: UP ::Overall effort

Layout	Effort	% improvement over worst layout
Qwerty	306,509.6	0.0 %
Dvorak	283,868.7	7.4 %
Colemak	275,347.6	10.2 %

---

:: UP ::Keys for each finger (stronger fingers should be used more often)

Layout	Thumbs	LPinky	LRing	LMiddle	LIndex	RIndex	RMiddle	RRing	RPinky	Total
Qwerty	25.9 %	12.4 %	5.3 %	9.5 %	11.6 %	7.6 %	5.6 %	8.9 %	13.2 %	54,237.0 keys
Dvorak	25.9 %	13.0 %	5.2 %	8.1 %	7.3 %	7.5 %	7.5 %	8.2 %	17.3 %	54,237.0 keys
Colemak	25.9 %	12.7 %	4.8 %	7.5 %	9.5 %	8.4 %	10.1 %	6.6 %	14.5 %	54,237.0 keys

Layout	Thumbs	Left hand	Right hand	Total
Qwerty	25.9 %	38.8 %	35.2 %	54,237.0 keys
Dvorak	25.9 %	33.6 %	40.5 %	54,237.0 keys
Colemak	25.9 %	34.5 %	39.6 %	54,237.0 keys

---

:: UP ::Finger Travel Distance (only the horizontal)

Layout	Thumbs	LPinky	LRing	LMiddle	LIndex	RIndex	RMiddle	RRing	RPinky	Total
Qwerty	0.0 %	18.1 %	2.0 %	10.5 %	15.5 %	12.1 %	8.6 %	9.9 %	23.4 %	1,441.5 m
Dvorak	0.0 %	21.1 %	4.1 %	3.5 %	10.0 %	12.5 %	7.6 %	10.8 %	30.4 %	1,210.3 m
Colemak	0.0 %	23.7 %	2.5 %	6.1 %	10.2 %	10.2 %	9.3 %	9.3 %	28.6 %	1,131.2 m

Layout	Thumbs	Left hand	Right hand	Total
Qwerty	0.0 %	46.0 %	54.0 %	1,441.5 m
Dvorak	0.0 %	38.8 %	61.2 %	1,210.3 m
Colemak	0.0 %	42.6 %	57.4 %	1,131.2 m

---

:: UP ::% home keys (out of all character keys plus SHIFT and ENTER, but excluding keys operated by thumbs)

Qwerty	20.4 %
Dvorak	33.7 %
Colemak	38.7 %

---

:: UP ::% keys typed with the same finger as the previous key (excluding repeating keys like ss)

Qwerty	4.5 %
Dvorak	3.8 %
Colemak	3.6 %

---

:: UP ::% keys typed with the same hand as the previous key (ex: in Qwerty sd or ss are included, but s s is not since you type the space with the other hand)

Qwerty	26.8 %
Dvorak	20.0 %
Colemak	24.6 %

---

:: UP ::% keys typed with the same hand as the previous key and jumping a row (ex: in Qwerty ev is a row jump – you jump over the middle row – and it’s awkward to type; ef is not a row jump)

Qwerty	10.3 %
Dvorak	5.7 %
Colemak	4.1 %

---

:: UP ::% keys typed with the same hand as the previous key and in reverse order (ex: in Qwerty df or kj are typed in the easier order pinky-ring-middle-index, whereas fd and jk are in reverse order index-middle-ring-pinky, and harder to type)

Qwerty	15.4 %
Dvorak	11.9 %
Colemak	15.2 %

---

:: UP ::% keys that need the SHIFT modifier

Qwerty	14.3 %
Dvorak	14.3 %
Colemak	14.3 %

---

:: UP ::Pairs of consecutive keys typed with the same finger in Qwerty

:_NewLine_	253 times	0.47 %
de	200 times	0.37 %
tr	158 times	0.29 %
rt	102 times	0.19 %
ol	99 times	0.18 %
un	98 times	0.18 %
q_LeftShift_	87 times	0.16 %
ce	86 times	0.16 %
“_NewLine_	81 times	0.15 %
ed	80 times	0.15 %
}_NewLine_	62 times	0.11 %

---

:: UP ::Pairs of consecutive keys typed with the same finger in Dvorak

ct	196 times	0.36 %
s_RightShift_	169 times	0.31 %
db	152 times	0.28 %
l_RightShift_	137 times	0.25 %
‘_LeftShift_	133 times	0.25 %
rn	115 times	0.21 %
ls	100 times	0.18 %
}_NewLine_	62 times	0.11 %
=_RightShift_	59 times	0.11 %
“_LeftShift_	58 times	0.11 %
e.	58 times	0.11 %

---

:: UP ::Pairs of consecutive keys typed with the same finger in Colemak

:_NewLine_	253 times	0.47 %
ue	237 times	0.44 %
db	152 times	0.28 %
e,	89 times	0.16 %
q_LeftShift_	87 times	0.16 %
“_NewLine_	81 times	0.15 %
}_NewLine_	62 times	0.11 %
]_NewLine_	46 times	0.08 %
pt	44 times	0.08 %
‘_RightShift_	41 times	0.08 %
“_RightShift_	41 times	0.08 %

---

:: UP ::Key frequency in your text

_Space_	14067 times	25.94 %
_LeftShift_	4391 times	8.10 %
e	3239 times	5.97 %
t	2184 times	4.03 %
s	2170 times	4.00 %
r	1890 times	3.48 %
a	1619 times	2.99 %
o	1557 times	2.87 %
l	1530 times	2.82 %
n	1519 times	2.80 %
_NewLine_	1511 times	2.79 %
i	1372 times	2.53 %
_RightShift_	1357 times	2.50 %
d	1014 times	1.87 %
f	971 times	1.79 %
c	855 times	1.58 %
u	851 times	1.57 %
m	716 times	1.32 %
p	715 times	1.32 %
(	674 times	1.24 %
)	673 times	1.24 %
.	658 times	1.21 %
‘	623 times	1.15 %
,	573 times	1.06 %
b	571 times	1.05 %
”	563 times	1.04 %
_	554 times	1.02 %
=	518 times	0.96 %
:	490 times	0.90 %
q	463 times	0.85 %
y	423 times	0.78 %
h	416 times	0.77 %
w	352 times	0.65 %
>	348 times	0.64 %
g	304 times	0.56 %
v	257 times	0.47 %
x	253 times	0.47 %
k	231 times	0.43 %
<	154 times	0.28 %
/	125 times	0.23 %
[	120 times	0.22 %
]	119 times	0.22 %
;	113 times	0.21 %
0	86 times	0.16 %
`	85 times	0.16 %
+	84 times	0.15 %
1	81 times	0.15 %
{	80 times	0.15 %
}	79 times	0.15 %
–	78 times	0.14 %
j	76 times	0.14 %
*	72 times	0.13 %
#	69 times	0.13 %
2	67 times	0.12 %
%	55 times	0.10 %
$	52 times	0.10 %
3	31 times	0.06 %
6	29 times	0.05 %
8	18 times	0.03 %
@	17 times	0.03 %
\	14 times	0.03 %
z	13 times	0.02 %
5	13 times	0.02 %
4	8 times	0.01 %
?	8 times	0.01 %
9	7 times	0.01 %

---

:: UP ::Frequent pairs of keys in your text

_Space__Space_	9243 times	17.04 %
_NewLine__Space_	1233 times	2.27 %
_Space__LeftShift_	805 times	1.48 %
_LeftShift_(	674 times	1.24 %
_LeftShift_)	673 times	1.24 %
_LeftShift_”	563 times	1.04 %
_LeftShift__	554 times	1.02 %
se	549 times	1.01 %
,_Space_	543 times	1.00 %
_LeftShift_:	490 times	0.90 %
el	405 times	0.75 %
er	377 times	0.70 %
in	364 times	0.67 %
_Space__RightShift_	362 times	0.67 %
or	352 times	0.65 %
_LeftShift_>	348 times	0.64 %
_Space_i	344 times	0.63 %
_Space_s	341 times	0.63 %
te	340 times	0.63 %
e_LeftShift_	338 times	0.62 %
=_Space_	332 times	0.61 %
_Space_=	321 times	0.59 %
re	306 times	0.56 %
lf	294 times	0.54 %
)_NewLine_	281 times	0.52 %
e_Space_	281 times	0.52 %

actually, I was disappointed: there seem to be no clear advantage of Dvorak or Colemak, wrt QWERTY and, given the popularity of the latter, switching does not seem to be a good idea…