My plan was to use XAMPP for the Apache, PHP, and MySQL part, and then set up PHPEclipse. There are many pages describing how to do this on the net, but getting it working involved some subtleties that took up 1 full day of tweaking.

My setup :

1. OS : Windows XP
2. XAMPP 1.5.1, i.e., 
   • MySQL 5.0.18
   • Apache 2.2.0
   • PHP 5.1.1
   • phpMyAdmin 2.7.0 pl1
3. Then I installed PHPEclipse (for Eclipse 3.1) using the Update Manager as described on this plog4u page. This was a breeze.
4. Then I downloaded and set up DBG and PHPEclipse as described here on plog4u. Of particular mention on this wiki page is Robert Kraske’s php_dbg.dll for PHP 5.1.1, which you will want unless you are ok with building it from scratch.

The whole plog4u wiki, and that page (“Installing the DBG Debugger”) in particular are gems. Thanks to whoever took all the screenshots, man!!

But after I got all the pieces in place as per the instructions on the above pages, I faced some issues. Here’s a list of issues and how I resolved them:

O========= Issues and resolutions ===========O

• Issue : php_dbg.dll was not loading up (How do you know? Use Process Explorer from sysinternals.com and look at the apache process DLLs)
• Resolution : I was working with the wrong php.ini. You have to work with the php.ini in apache/bin, not php/bin !!

• Issue : The eclipse debugger just hangs.
• Resolution : php_dbg.dll was being loaded with zend_extension_ts. You have to use extension=, NOT the zend_extension_ts=

Sample from my apache/bin/php.ini:

;[Zend]
; VJ : this doesn’t work, use extension= in the debugger section
;zend_extension_ts = “C:\xampp\php\ext\php_dbg.dll�
;zend_extension_ts = “C:\xampp\php\zendOptimizer\lib\ZendExtensionManager.dll�
;zend_extension_manager.optimizer_ts = „C:\xampp\php\zendOptimizer\lib\Optimizer“
;zend_optimizer.enable_loader = 0
;zend_optimizer.optimization_level=15
;zend_optimizer.license_path =

[debugger]
extension=php_dbg.dll
debugger.enabled=on
debugger.profiler_enabled=on
debugger.hosts_allow=localhost 127.0.0.1
;debugger.hosts_deny=ALL
debugger.ports=7869, 10000/16
debugger.JIT_host = clienthost
debugger.JIT_port = 7869

• Issue : Eclipse complains An internal error occurred during: “Debug Source lookupâ€?
• Resolution : I was giving the full path to the file in Remote Sourcepath. Instead, you should just give the path up to the directory in which your php file is located.

• Issue : Clicking on the source screws up the PHP Browser display! This is obviously bad, since I will need to see the output web page as well as look around the code!
• Resolution : Uncheck this option in the PHP preferences : “Refresh PHP browser view when opening editorâ€?

I also tried using the debugbreak() method which some people recommended. This works, but native eclipse breakpoints are of course much more convenient.

(With apologies to the hard working guys that must’ve taken years to write the compiler. . Heck, I’d take a lifetime.)

This is in rememberance of those fond days in the last century (yep, 1998 is THAT far ago) when I started using Visual Studio 6.0. ‘Twas a good IDE.

I’ve put comments in the code below to explain how it works.

Let’s examine the algorithm’s properties :

1. Safety : At any time, at most one process is allowed to be in the Critical Section. In brief, when 2 processes try to enter the critical section simultaneously, in the ensuing race condition to set turn = process (line 7), the process that “wins” is stuck in the while loop, letting the other interested process enter the Critical Section.

2. Fairness : Both processes should have an equal chance of acquiring the lock on the critical section, since the race condition is impartial. (However, the algorithm is not necessarily fair in the sense that both processes execute their Critical Section an equal number of times over long periods of time. That is an analysis that is more involved.)

3. Liveness : When one or more processes have expressed their intentions to enter the Critical Section, one of them eventually enters. (See explanation above).

4. Freedom from Starvation: In addition to these properties, the following is a desirable property: Any process that expresses its intention to enter the critical section will be able to do so in finite time. This is also true for Peterson’s algorithm. Once the process that has entered the critical section leaves, interested[other] becomes FALSE for the blocked process, allowing it to enter the critical section.

O======O======O======O======O======O

1 int turn;
2 int interested[2];

/*
The two processes have ids process = 0 and process = 1.
*/

3 void enter_region(int process) {
4 int other;

5 other = 1 – process;
6 interested[process] = TRUE;
7 turn = process;

/*
1. If interested[other] == FALSE, there is no competition from the other process
(say, due to it being slow), and we enter the critical section.

*/

8 while ( turn == process && interested[other] == TRUE ) ;
}

void leave_region(int process) {
interested[process] = FALSE;

/*
If the other process is blocked in enter_region(), this releases it
from the while loop on line 8, allowing it to acquire the lock.
*/

}

O======O======O======O======O======O

ha ha, hit the goldmine (oldmine?)!!
Has ALL the info you asked for.

Text-Terminal-HOWTO
by David S. Lawyer
(v1.36, August 2004)

Text-Terminal-HOWTO

Just 119 pages. ) The thing with UNIX is : you gotta know the history to know why things work(?) the way they do.

========= And another : “Linux Internals” =========

Linux Internals
by Simone Demblon

The whole book as one HTML : http://learnlinux.tsf.org.za/courses/build/internals/internals-all.html

Chapter 3 has a whole section on Terminal Emulation.

Excerpt:

1978 Bill Joy creates “the “vi” editor a full screen editor, and at the same
time he sees the need “to optimize the code for several different types of
terminals, he decided to consolidate screen management by using an interpreter
to redraw the screen. The interpreter was driven by the terminal’s
characteristics – termcap was born,”. P Sulcas

I guess it’s a good thing. There’s just MSDN if you’re Microsoft, and they don’t keep the old articles, damn them.

========== from an article : “Excavating ancient abbreviations in Linux” ==========

“Excavating ancient abbreviations in Linux”

TTY
Perhaps the most confusing jargon in Linux relates to terminals. TTY is an old abbreviation for a TeleTYpe. Teletypes, or teletypewriters, were originally printer-keyboard combinations that read and sent information over a serial line, not too different from an ancient telegraph machine. Later on, when computers only ran in batch mode (when card readers were the only way to get your program loaded), a teletype was the only useful “real time” input/output device available. Eventually teletypes were replaced with keyboard-and-screen terminals, but the operating system still needed a program to watch the serial port where the terminal or TTY was plugged in. That’s what a getty “GEt TTY” process is: a program watching a physical TTY/terminal port. A Pseudo-TTY (a fake TTY, a “PTY”) is the terminal equivalent of a virtual network computing (VNC) server. When you run an xterm or GNOME Terminal program, the PTY acts as a TTY for the virtual or pseudo terminal that the xterm represents. “Pseudo,” meaning “duplicating in a fake way,” is really a more descriptive term than “virtual” or “emulated.” It’s a shame that it has fallen out of fashion in computing.

Dev
Also left over from TTYs is the “stty” command, for “set tty”, and an /etc/inittab (“initialization table”) file that configures which gettys are on which serial ports. In modern times, the only terminal directly attached to a Linux box is usually the console, with its special TTY that’s named “console.” Of course, the “console” TTY goes out the window as soon as you start up X11, which doesn’t use a serial protocol any more. All the TTYs are stored in the “/dev” directory, which is short for “[physical] devices.” Once upon a time you had to configure each such device file by hand when you plugged a new terminal into the set of serial ports on the back of the computer. These days, the install process for Linux (and Unix) just creates in that directory every device file that it can imagine. That way, you rarely have to create one.

============ from the Unix Jargon File ============
at http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/frames.html

tty: /T·T·Y/, /tit´ee/, n.

The latter pronunciation was primarily ITS, but some Unix people say it this way as well; this pronunciation is not considered to have sexual undertones.

1. A terminal of the teletype variety, characterized by a noisy mechanical printer, a very limited character set, and poor print quality. Usage: antiquated (like the TTYs themselves). See also bit-paired keyboard.

2. [especially Unix] Any terminal at all; sometimes used to refer to the particular terminal controlling a given job.

3. [Unix] Any serial port, whether or not the device connected to it is a terminal; so called because under Unix such devices have names of the form tty*. Ambiguity between senses 2 and 3 is common but seldom bothersome.

======== from a BeOS text: BE ENGINEERING INSIGHTS: Terminal Issues=========

Actually, I liked this article QUITE a lot because it speaks the language at the exact level I wanted…Technical but without assuming that the user is either an ignoranus or guru:

Other than this excerpt, see the doc for other issues like character sets, ANSI escape sequences and compatibility etc;

http://www.beatjapan.org/mirror/www.be.com/aboutbe/benewsletter/Issue103.html

The pseudo-tty driver, “pty“, serves the same purpose as
that in the UNIX world. Both “pty” and the serial driver
provide uniform services in the area of low-level character
handling. This handling is programmable using the “termios”
family of functions, described in any Posix manual. From
the shell, use the “stty” command: Type “stty --help” for
help.

TERMCAP AND CURSES

UNIX pioneered the notion of describing the characteristics
and abilities of standalone terminals, a.k.a. glass TTYs.
There was a plentiful assortment in the 70s and 80s, with
differences that could best be described as gratuitous. The
publicly assembled file, stored in /etc/termcap, allowed
programs like text editors and games to move the cursor all
over the screen, without knowing the particular brand of
incompatible tty being used.

This file is shipped with the BeOS, and comes in handy when
you want to run “vi” or “emacs” locally in a Terminal
window. It is also needed if you log into a BeOS system from
Solaris, or from that VAX VMS system with the TeleVideo.

The BeOS will also ship with “ncurses“, a powerful library
built on termcap, and used by many terminal-oriented
programs. This is based on the “curses” library of BSD UNIX.

In the 90s, most terminal manufacturers have departed the
business (or this world). The market remains for terminal
emulators, such as ProComm, Kermit, xterm of X Windows, and
all UNIX workstation consoles. Be’s Terminal app falls in
this category. All follow the loosely-defined ANSI X3.64
standard.

======= Interesting threads on comp.unix.programmer ======

Searches for “pty terminal” etc’ in comp.unix.programmer in general yield good results.

Example : isatty() usage

Looks like their VM is getting better and better:
ActionScript 3 performance
courtesy oddhammer’s AS3 performance tests

I also like the Eclipse integration. Now if I could get some time to try it out hands on, that would be nice.

Basically, I’m wondering if it’s ready for prime-time, stuff like real-time trading apps.

I have the deepest sympathy for Laszlo, though, who got there first with their XML + JavaScript == build ==> ActionScript model, but are being ousted by fate (a.k.a Adobe/Macromedia).

Ajax
Awesome tricks, but it’s a trick. Problem is : you don’t want to do JS for n browsers. Not me, at least. There are enough business-layer problems to deal with. You’d want a GUI that just works.

Remember that Ajax GUIs are impressive not because of what they DO, but because of what you thought you COULD NOT do in the browser for so many years. But when you see a solid working Flash GUI that works both as a Desktop App as well as a browser App, the value-add is too good to ignore. I think Flash apps are ALMOST there…Once they get it that for browser apps, one needs to make sure that the browser-habits are still useful (Ctrl-F to start up a Find, etc;), the psychological resistance will come down. (I don’t think download time is a big issue because it’s a one-time cost).

Morfik does a good job of encapsulating the magic, and is an almost-as-good-as-desktop-programming solution. Except, I bet “Morfik Java” etc; don’t have threads, for example. Because the “VM” here (target language, if you insist) is JavaScript.

In comparison, Flash is not just a plug-in but a self-contained VM & GUI, too : you could build a web browser entirely in Flash, for example. (Update: As an example : liveplasma is the kind of full-screen Flash UI I like seeing. But as mentioned above, I wish Ctrl-F, etc; worked as they do in the browser…)

Also, I guess firms think about being able to hire people : multi-browser JS is an esoteric skill in comparison to Java + XML in Eclipse skills (which is the model that Flex 2 and Laszlo offer).

Microsoft is Live, remember?
Then there’s MS and Avalon…whew, changing landscape all the time eh?!

My bet?
Flash with Flex 2 for unified (i.e., both web and desktop applications) GUIs:

• More developer base for both the traditional ActionScript side and the newer Java-friendly side.
• Longer history ==> less bugs in the VM.
• (Adobe + Macromedia vs. Microsoft : CIO types will feel comfortable investing in either of them.)

Methinks Ajax is a phase. 5 years down the line, it will still be there (remember how long it took for Gmail and come teach Yahoo to change?), but we’ll find a much more pain-free way of doing unified GUI development by then.

Please feel to criticize and correct : I don’t earn my bread and butter from GUI work and do not KNOW any of the techologies (except Java and XML) in great depth. I’m sure to have got some angles wrong….speculation for the most part.

A whiff of refreshing C breeze for you, then!

Imagine a car racing program with collission detection, decent graphics and the other features listed below.

In 63 lines of C code.

.

Features
========
This program is a complete car race game with a lot of nice features:

* Drive on a road in a 3-d landscape with hills and curves
* Mountains in the horizon
* A sun in the sky when driving during the day.
* Dark sky and reduced visibility when driving at night.
* Snow when driving in the winter.
* Slippery road when driving in the winter.
* When driving off the road, the car slows down to a halt
* Three different race tracks that takes about one minute to complete.
* Speed meter.
* Computer driven opponent cars.
* Collision detection when driving into other cars.
* Lap time measurement.
* The best lap time is stored as reference.

Well, 63 lines of obfuscated C code, yes, but nevertheless, 63 lines.
Description: vik1 car racing game at the IOCCC.
Source code and Makefile: Look for vik1 on this page : http://www.au.ioccc.org/years.html#2004

Kudos to Daniel Vik for “Best X11 Game”.

A marvel eh?

But back to the topic of wordpress.com : I think I’ll stay. Bye blogger.com.
I was looking for an easy way to

1. post source code snippets, and preferably lj-cut, so that I can hide the code listings if they get too long or disruptive
2. comments, trackback, feeds
3. spam control
4. no hosting : dont want to manage the server
5. no software either : dont want to do maintenance and upgradation of the software (I can EASILY get lost tinkering with that instead of focusing on the content)

In brief, enough for me to share my code tinkering without the distractions.

The wordpress.com invite couldn’t have come at a better time. blogger.com drove me crazy as I tried to do lj-cut. Compared to lj-cut in LJ and the more tag in WP, the CSS editing that one has to do to achieve the same effect in blogger is ridiculous. See blogger.com: How can I create expandable post summaries?. Conditional CSS vs typing in <!–more–> is a no-brainer.

And Voila, it DOES work. Kind of. Click here:

The wp “more” tag is described as:

WordPress tag that breaks a post into “teaser” and content sections. Type a few paragraphs, insert this tag, then compose the rest of your post. On your blog’s home page you’ll see only those first paragraphs with a hyperlink ((more…)), which when followed displays the rest of the post’s content.

Basically, you can’t inline the “cut” (expandable text) within the main post’s text as with LJ.

But heck, they’ve got a code tag and Trackback. Let’s try code:

int main()
{
set clients;
typedef set::iterator clientiterator;
pair p = clients.insert("blah");
...
}

Code looks good if you surround it with a blockquote in the “Almost Spring 1.1″ template.
But not in the “Connections” template, whose blockquote is visibly meant for quoting people…