Software Projects

The other life is lived in computers where I write programs to make my life easier. I believe that all information should be free and software is no exception. All of the software I use is free and I am a user of the most popular free operating system - GNU/Linux - which I have used since 2005. In 2007, I settled on Archlinux as my distro of choice, because I saw it as the most customizable distribution that still allowed me to install a package painlessly. In 2012, I became a trusted user because I wanted to maintain binary packages for the Archlinux community. My PGP key fingerprint is 6EA3 F3F3 B908 2632 A9CB E931 D53A 0445 B47A 0DAB.

Mostly self-taught, I use the C and Python programming languages as well as the GTK+ widget toolkit. Even though I mostly write random hacks, three of these hacks have become software projects, meaning that I stand behind them and offer support. Even if the last release was not made recently, this does not mean that the project is dead. It most likely means that I think the project has achieved its goal and does not need anything else added. One thing I have yet to do is update my programs to use GTK3 and Python3 once I start caring about them.

• Mebitag:
  Mebitag is a set of utilities designed to let people tag their files with arbitrary metadata. Unlike mp3 and Xiph formats, other types of files do not have headers dedicated to storing metadata. Mebitag therefore resorts to external storage - a simple XML file. These XML files are amazingly flexible and allow one to implement virtually any type of tagging scheme. Translators wanted.
• Unified Demos:
  GTK+ comes with a program called GTK-demo that allows one to browse through a list of example GTK programs and read up on what the program does, view the code and try it out all from within one interface. Many language binding packs for GTK+, notably the ones for C++, Python, Perl and Ruby include similar programs. For reasons that are too numerous to list here, these programs are not the best. The Unified Demos program or "demohack" as it is affectionately called, offers a superior alternative that uses XML to achieve a level of flexibility similar to that of Mebitag.
• Xfce4-Generic-Slider:
  I use the Xfce desktop environment and many of its fun panel plugins. When I wrote Xfce4-Generic-Slider, there were plugins that allowed one to monitor the output of an arbitrary shell command but none of them allowed me to control the input instead. This plugin does both. As long as command 1 accepts a numeric value and command 2 returns one, you can drag this slider up and down to adjust the input to command 1 and synchronize with command 2. This is ideal when commands 1 and 2 get and set the same variable like sound card volume or screen brightness. Translators wanted.

Of course, there's also this.