Tag Archives: Programming

Rapidly set up a MySQL database for testing

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Samuel Huckins

Sometimes you just want a database to run some queries against. Any reasonable set of tables with data pertaining to something not terribly complicated will do. Perhaps you have an urge to tease out the intricacies of correlated subqueries, or … Continue reading →

Posted in MySQL | Tagged efficiency, MySQL, Programming | 3 Comments

Checking options with optparse callbacks

Posted on August 16, 2009 by Samuel Huckins

optparse is a flexible and powerful module for processing command line options in Python programs. I’ve used it for a while, but I didn’t have much occasion to get into callbacks until recently. A callback here is a user-defined function … Continue reading →

Posted in Python | Tagged CLI, Programming, Python | 2 Comments

Improved irb configuration

Posted on July 18, 2009 by Samuel Huckins

As applies to most new tools I start to use, the time in which I’ve started to learn Ruby has included a fair amount of time improving my general working environment, to make it more suited to the use of … Continue reading →

Posted in Ruby | Tagged efficiency, Programming, Ruby | 4 Comments

A better Ruby prompt

Posted on June 21, 2009 by Samuel Huckins

The Interactive Ruby Shell, or irb, is indispensable for trying out Ruby code rapidly, seeing what works and what’s elegant. But the defaults aren’t quite optimal. Tab completion It lacks tab completion by default. Having this available can save you … Continue reading →

Posted in Ruby | Tagged efficiency, Linux, Programming, Ruby | 3 Comments

Rails on Ubuntu

Posted on May 17, 2009 by Samuel Huckins

[EDIT, 2009-12-20]: For some time I steered away from installing Rails via APT on Ubuntu systems. I ran into a number of annoyances early on trying to get various bits of Ruby, Rails, libraries, and others installed and working together … Continue reading →