Thursday, July 23, 2009

Time for summer holidays

It is time for holidays. So a bit of desk cleaning and that's it. Two weeks for giving up with databases, Java, Python... projects, plannings and budgets. I am taking my portable of course, but that's basically for emergency only...

I finished my first Tony Buzan book. This was a bit general - the french title 'une tête bien faite', I think the original title is 'use your head', the book goes over fast reading, memory and mind-mappings (a subject I like more and more).

There is a lot to say about these subjects and Tony Buzan has written books dedicated to each of them -- I will continue investigating.

Following Tony Buzan recommendations, mind-maps should be graphical (including graphic but also being smartly shaped) and coloured. It is a shame that all software tools that I have see currently are implementing very regular organisation pattern and don't promote that much colors and graphics. Anyway, I recommend you this book.

On the Open ERP front line, I finished a small doc concerning Initial Analysis - see previous post and what to prepare to have good, constructive interviews sessions with business processes owners. Tiny provided me three mind-maps. A good start but I will try to develop mine for the next project...

I have done a bit of testing with Python, but I had not time to finish my test software - submitting HTML forms to a Joomla web site. Hm that will be for August I guess...

Finally I am taking with me 'Everything is Miscellaneous' - ' The power of the new digital disorder' from David Weinberger. Social aspects of the web is fascinating and I hope to work more on it later this year...




So I hope to come back rested and a bit smarter - what a plan !

Friday, July 17, 2009

Open ERP - Methodology - Project layout

As I am working on a well sized Open ERP project, it is now good time to build extra material concerning the project methodology.

The idea is basically to perform a a first analysis and then provide the customer with a fixed budget. The purpose of this initial analysis is not to get all details but to list identify business activities.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Python map



Is this blog not better now with graphic... :-)

Also it is not entirely open...

Note taking - mind mapping Python & Open ERP

As I am continuing to learn Open ERP, I tried to keep track of what I am learning (Open ERP, Python,...). I decided to use FreeMind a small software (written in Java) for creating mind maps.

FreeMind has a simple interface, you create nodes by pressing the return or insert keys. This is fast to create a tree structure of your ideas and in my case keep track of my progress. Navigation is globally more confortable than with a linear text.

Unfortunately the tool is not perfect.

For example as I learned Python, I wanted to keep track of code snipsets that are for me the most valuable source of information for remembering an aspect of a programming language. It is annoying not being able to specify a title and hide the body of the note - I am getting too big block of text, the work around is to create one node for the title and one for the code...

Another aspect is text formating which is applied to the entire node - no way to say that this word should be in bold/red (for example to separate visually the code from my comments).

Another issue is that FreeMind supports text but not graphic. I should say not that much. You can insert pictures but it is a pain and there is no way to diagram easily within the map and the Windows clipboard is not supported - that would save my life, helping me to work with Snagit (Snapshot taking) for example.

The interface is also sometimes driving me nuts. For example when you want to apply a function of the toolbar, the current selection is lost when you move over something else... watch out!

As I followed the Open ERP course I regretted not having used my PC to take notes. The problem remains which tool to use... FreeMind is nice but probably too basic in many aspects...

I will finish on a positive mention for the export, I can export my maps to HTML with Javascript. This makes my notes very accessible and easy to browse. Let's hope they will enrich it a bit so it can be of more general usage.

I will post my maps later on (I still don't know how...)

Friday, July 10, 2009

First steps with Python support in Netbeans 6.7

Python support is being added to Netbeans.

Install Netbeans 6.7 (in my case the bundled JDK did not installed, so I had to install the JDK speartely) then in the list of plugins install the Python module.

http://www.netbeans.org/kb/docs/python/temperature-converter.html

The install will bring you Jython as a first Python platform. I will keep that for further study. I then installed the Cpython 2.6. Restarted the Netbeans platform and to my great surprise Tools/Python plaftorms auto detected the new Pyhton install !

I created a project, but there, a problem occured when trying to debug. The message was a bit hard to decode. I saw file names truncated (under Windows, the default projects directory is under 'Documents and settings'. I changed the location to avoid spaces (something I always remind around me - don't put space in file names) and it works (I mean I can debug a 2 lines long Python program.

Open ERP - https://code.launchpad.net/openobject-addons

I continue digging into Open ERP. Searching for new extension, I found the project where addons are stored:

https://code.launchpad.net/openobject-addons

So if you think a branch is interesting for you - using bzr on Linux is:

bzr branch lp:~openobject-training/openobject-addons/extra

I know this basic stuff for many people, but for me it is a lot to learn and discover

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Open ERP - startup up issue on Linux / Ubuntu

An error such as:

INFO:dbpool:Connecting to template1
[2009-07-09 15:48:45,096] ERROR:dbpool:Unable to connect to template1: FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user "chanon".

Means you cannot connect to Postgres for security reason. Under Ubuntu, it may be worth trying " sudo -u postgres python openerp-server.py". So you start as the postgres user (will require the super user password).

Open ERP bugs etc on Launchpad

I was a bit puzzled, searching for open issues on Open ERP on launchpad. Well it seems everything is packed under the openobject project.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Google announces Google Chrome OS

After Google Chrome (a browser) and Android (OS for portable devices - smart phones) Google just announced :
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html.

The two first products made a lot of sense to me having a more application oriented browser is a necessity for a Web application fabric and mobile Web business requires smart phones and if you don't want to have the Apple and Microsoft business plans in the midle of your road...

But here, I have a doubt. Most of the Linux Netbooks are returned, exchanged or simply not used... because they lack Microsoft Office and a few handy apps.

Wait and see...