So, I checked my Pear config:

me:ZendServer laran$ pear config-show
Configuration (channel pear.php.net):
=====================================
Auto-discover new Channels     auto_discover    
Default Channel                default_channel  pear.php.net
HTTP Proxy Server Address      http_proxy       
PEAR server [DEPRECATED]       master_server    pear.php.net
Default Channel Mirror         preferred_mirror pear.php.net
Remote Configuration File      remote_config    
PEAR executables directory     bin_dir          /opt/local/share/pear/bin
PEAR documentation directory   doc_dir          /opt/local/share/pear/PEAR/docs
PHP extension directory        ext_dir          /Applications/ZendServer/lib/php/20060613
PEAR directory                 php_dir          /opt/local/share/pear/PEAR
PEAR Installer cache directory cache_dir        /tmp/pear/cache
PEAR configuration file        cfg_dir          /Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/cfg
directory
PEAR data directory            data_dir         /opt/local/share/pear/PEAR/data
PEAR Installer download        download_dir     /opt/local/share/pear/temp/download
directory
PHP CLI/CGI binary             php_bin          /Applications/ZendServer/bin/php
php.ini location               php_ini          
PEAR Installer temp directory  temp_dir         /opt/local/share/pear/temp
PEAR test directory            test_dir         /opt/local/share/pear/PEAR/tests
PEAR www files directory       www_dir          /Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/htdocs
Cache TimeToLive               cache_ttl        3600
Preferred Package State        preferred_state  stable
Unix file mask                 umask            22
Debug Log Level                verbose          1
PEAR password (for             password         
maintainers)
Signature Handling Program     sig_bin          /usr/local/bin/gpg
Signature Key Directory        sig_keydir       /Applications/ZendServer/etc/pearkeys
Signature Key Id               sig_keyid        
Package Signature Type         sig_type         gpg
PEAR username (for             username         
maintainers)
User Configuration File        Filename         /Users/laran/.pearrc
System Configuration File      Filename         /Applications/ZendServer/etc/pear.conf
me:ZendServer laran$

That’s wack. Why are my Pear libraries in /opt/local?

So, I changed those settings so that everything would be in /Applications/ZendServer

me:ZendServer laran$ sudo pear config-set php_dir /Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/PEAR
config-set succeeded
me:ZendServer laran$ sudo pear config-set data_dir /Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/PEAR/data
config-set succeeded
me:ZendServer laran$ sudo pear config-set temp_dir /Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/temp
config-set succeeded
me:ZendServer laran$ sudo pear config-set test_dir /Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/PEAR/tests
config-set succeeded
me:ZendServer laran$ sudo pear config-set bin_dir /Applications/ZendServer/bin
config-set succeeded
me:ZendServer laran$ sudo pear config-set download_dir /Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/temp/download
config-set succeeded

Knowing that the Zend command line php executable is php-cli, not php, I made one last tweak:

me:ZendServer laran$ sudo pear config-set php_bin /Applications/ZendServer/bin/php-cli
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/postgresql-8.2.3/lib/libpq.5.dylib
  Referenced from: /Applications/ZendServer/bin/php
  Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap

Doh! Looks like the damage was already done. So, I had to manually modify /Applications/ZendServer/bin/pear to use php-cli. Here’s what it looked like when I was done.

#!/bin/sh

# first find which PHP binary to use
if test "x$PHP_PEAR_PHP_BIN" != "x"; then
  PHP="$PHP_PEAR_PHP_BIN"
else
  if test "/Applications/ZendServer/bin/php" = '@'php_bin'@'; then
    PHP=php-cli
  else
    PHP="/Applications/ZendServer/bin/php-cli"
  fi
fi

# then look for the right pear include dir
if test "x$PHP_PEAR_INSTALL_DIR" != "x"; then
  INCDIR=$PHP_PEAR_INSTALL_DIR
  INCARG="-d include_path=$PHP_PEAR_INSTALL_DIR"
else
  if test "/Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/PEAR" = '@'php_dir'@'; then
    INCDIR=`dirname $0`
    INCARG=""
  else
    INCDIR="/Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/PEAR"
    INCARG="-d include_path=/Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/PEAR"
  fi
fi

exec $PHP -C -q $INCARG -d output_buffering=1 -d variables_order=EGPCS -d open_basedir="" -d safe_mode=0 -d register_argc_argv="On" -d auto_prepend_file="" -d auto_append_file="" $INCDIR/pearcmd.php "$@"

The changes in there are on lines 8 and 10, I changed php to php-cli.

Now I can go back to change the Pear php_bin config properly:

me:ZendServer laran$ sudo pear config-set php_bin /Applications/ZendServer/bin/php-cli

Just to be sure, I checked the include_path in /Applications/ZendServer/etc/php.ini. Be sure that /Applications/ZendServer/share/pear/PEAR is on the path.

Restart apache with sudo /Applications/ZendServer/apache2/bin/apachectl restart

Lastly, any modules I’d installed while Pear was still configured to install them to /opt/local have to be re-installed.

And with that, I was ready to rock! Hope this helps.

To get correct documentation go straight to the source, the Rails wiki page on Mailers.

So many of these people seem like followers of the Rails ethos.

Case in point, how many systems out there have not much, if anything more than ID, Summary, Priority and Severity fields? There are a number that go beyond that. But so many just stick to that basic formula. So lame.

I guess this is a bit of a rant on developers who try to turn the process of them experimenting into a business. I don’t know why it bothers me. And I guess it doesn’t bother me all that much in the long run. I’ve just gotten tired of looking for a better task tracker, finding a new one, and then finding that it’s just the same cookie-cutter app.

Might be time to build one of my own. It will definitely NOT be the cookie cutter. Lots of stuff missing from most trackers I find. And sadly, they’re all the features that I would find really valuable.

*sigh*

A fair amount of the work I did in the Cornell Web Lab was exactly in this vein. We had to muck around with all sorts of issues at the time however related to getting MapReduce up and running on the compute cluster we had at the time via the Cornell Theory Center. I have no doubt that research groups and commercial organization requiring a powerful and flexible computation engine will jump on this offering.

Related links

• The original MapReduce research paper
• The HadoopMapReduce page on the Apache Wiki
• a critique of MapReduce (for a little contrast of perspective)

InfoQ is, in my opinion, one of the best sources for information about what’s going in the technology space. The interviews and reviews they provide I find truly informational and well worth the time spent absorbing them.

All you have to do is create your database before running the script and you’ll be off to the races.

General

Everything(!) is an object

if __name__ == ‘__main__’:

Collections

Dictionaries use squiqqly brackets

Lists use square brackets

Tuples use parens

Dictionaries

Basic syntax is

• foo{’bar’:'baz’}
• foo['bar']
• del foo['bar'] to delete
• foo.clear() to clear
• foo.keys() returns a list (need the parens)
• foo.values() returns a list

Lists

Basic syntax is

• li = ['a','b','c','d','e']
• li[0]
• li[-1] is OK (gets the last element in the list)

Slicing

• li[1:3] is ['b','c']
• li[1:-1] is ['b','c','d']
  • So this is different that referencing an element just by index. It’s off by one. It means more of a “leave out the last x elements”
• li[0:3] is ['a','b','c']
• li[:-1] is OK
• li[:] returns a copy of li, same values but a different instance

Adding elements

• li.append(value), li.extend(list of values), li.insert(index, value)
• append vs. extend
  • extend joins the lists. append just adds a value to the end of the list

Searching

• li.index(value)
• value in li (’a’ in li returns True/False)

Removing elements

• li.remove(value)
• li.pop()

List arithmetic

• ['a','b'] * 3 == ['a','b','a','b','a','b']
• ['a','b'] + ['c'] = ['a','b','c']
  • concatenation, can only be done with lists, can’t add a single value, have to add another list

Tuples (immutable lists)

• no methods (append(), remove(), index() are all invalid)
• can’t be modified once defined
• in CAN be used on a tuple
  • ‘a’ in (’a',’b',’c') is OK (returns True)
• faster (lookup-wise) than lists
• can be used as a dictionary key (lists can’t)
• used in string formatting

Simultaneous multi-value assignment:

• v = (’a',’b',’c')
• (x,y,z) = v
  • x is ‘a’, y is ‘b’, z is ‘c’

Consecutive value assignment

• (MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY) = range(7)
  • MONDAY is 0, TUESDAY is 1, etc.

String formatting

• print “Hello %s” % (’world’,)
• Second argument must be a tuple

But, after you get comfortable with your first language, each additional language is orders of magnitude easier to get up to speed on. The concepts are familiar. You know how to interpret error messages. There’s just a million little things that make it easier.

As of now, (March 2009) I’m comfortable with about a dozen programming languages. So I’ve been around the block a time or twelve. However, I still find myself needing to pick up other languages from time to time.

What I’m going to do here is document, hour by hour what I learn as I learn a new programming language. I expect this will serve two purposes. First, it’s going to be the short, short, short version of the “learn language X” tutorial. Second, it’ll give other people an idea of how quickly I can pick up new languages.

If you think that hour by hour will be too tedious, you might be surprised. I can cover a lot in an hour. Remember, all I really need to learn is new syntax. The programming concepts are all familiar to me.

Also, each hour will include the time it takes me to take notes on what I’m doing. So I won’t just be scanning through books as quickly as possible. I don’t learn that way. I need to take a few notes, try a few examples, ask and answer a few questions, etc.

So, enjoy. Here goes!

• Learning Python: Hour 1