Navigating Log Files With VIM

One of the main problems with VI, VIM and GVIM is the navigation between multiple files. The “:n” and “:rew” commands may get somebody through the basics. But seriously it’s not enough. The secret is writing little macros for the work being done. Often this is such a daunting task that most people haven’t got a clue. So hence this article. The idea presented here is to show how to make a navigation file so that once the cursor is over the file name in question, or information needed to identify the file, two keystrokes will take you to that file.

First there is the ~/.vimrc file or equivalent depending on the OS. Locate it. Add to this file the macros.

:map ** “zyy:@z<Enter>

This command maps the keystrokes “**”, the two asterisks hit in rapid succession, to the commands that follow it. The command that follows reads the line the cursor is on into the z buffer and then executes that buffer. This is very useful because now the commands you want to test can be written on a line and then executed by pressing “**”. It opens the world of macros to you.

So lets write a macro that will bounce the window between the current file and the last file you edited. Say you started gvim by typing gvim file1 file2 file3 and once in file1 you then typed :n and :n again. So you are now in file2. The goal of this macro is to let you move to file2 without doing a “:rew” and “:n”. So start a new line in file 3 and type in:

:map *; :e#<Enter>

Then press “**” over the line so this macro becomes available. Now if you press “*;” you’ll go to file2.

Now we are ready to write some macros to view log like files. I’ll start with the one I wrote yesterday. Websites require a file named “Sitemap.xml” which describes each file’s location, importance, and frequency they should be crawled by the search spiders. Each line has a format similar to this:

<url><loc>http://www.domain-name.com/index.html</loc><priority>0.50</priority><changefreq>weekly</changefreq></url>

Three macros might be all that is needed to navigate a website via its Sitemap.xml. File navigation this way ensures the Sitemap.xml always stays relevant. So the first macro might be something like:

:map *S :e ~/path/Sitemap.xml<Enter>

This is simple enough to understand. When “*S” is typed it will take you to the Sitemap.xml file.

Now the following is all that is needed to edit the files listed in the Sitemap.xml by putting the cursor on the line containing the file and typing “*e”:

:map *e :w<Enter>$0fhf<mz0fml”ay`zo:e ~/path-to-website/<Esc>”ap<Esc>”zyyu:@z<Enter>

First the file is written out with this command “:w<Enter>”. Depending on your habits you may want to remove that.
Then the cursor is moved to the end of the line and then to the beginning with “$0″. There is history to this that is wasted on VIM/GVIM.
Then a search for the ‘h’ in “http” is done, to get to the start of the URL, with “fh” and then another search for the end of the URL with “f<”
Then that location is marked as location “z” with the command “mz”. Then we go back to the start of the file name which for my Sitemaps can be done for searching for the “m” in com. You may have to vary the search depending on your domain name. Then moving the cursor over to the “/”. So altogether it’s “0fml”.
Now yank the name of the file into the a buffer using the backwards tick “”ay`z”.
Now create a line with the command needed to edit the file just yanked “o:e ~/path-to-website/<Esc>”ap<Esc>”
Finally yank the newly created line into the z buffer, undo the line just created, and then execute the z buffer so the editor is now editing the file “”zyyu:@z<Enter>”

The next command sets the browser to the file in question:

:map *b :w<Enter>$0fhf<mz0fh”ay`zo:!gnome-open <Esc>”ap<Esc>”zyyu:@z<Enter>

These techniques can be used for almost anything to avoid typing names. In fact a list of all files you edit, in a centralized place, is all that’s needed to prevent ever repeatedly typing out a file name again. Once familiar with these techniques most of the files needing editing can be gotten to with two key strokes. This gives VI, VIM, and GVIM the ability to navigate files more easily than an IDE without losing all the power you surrender when using an IDE. And it’s all free!

Backups Via GIT: gibak

What’s the best way to move data between two machines? As in migrating off this laptop and on to another laptop? Rsync with tar and rdiff-backup come immediately to mind. Why not with “git” instead? Supposedly git is much faster than anything and compacts stuff better too. Because of it’s strange algorithms you don’t have to worry about date discrepancies between machines either. It was written by Linus to be better than sliced bread. Here Linus is giving a presentation at Google on “git”. So every machine could contain exactly the same information across my networks. And since it is a distributed version control system, DVCS, what happens in Las Vegas doesn’t stay in Las Vegas. You’d also have the various versions of the data too.

Trying not to reinvent the wheel a quick google was done. Lucky thought on my part because somebody else has already made an application for this purpose called “gibak“. Here’s what the author says:

* it is more space-efficient than most incremental backup schemes, since it does file compression and both textual *and* binary deltas (in particular, it’s better than solutions relying on hardlinks or incremental backups à la tar/cpio)
* its transport mechanism is more efficient than rsync’s
* it is fast: recoving your data is *faster* than cp -a
* you keep the full revision history
* powerful toolset with a rich vocabulary

So what’s the catch? I don’t know. I’ll be playing with it today and update this blog with my results…

I played with it for quite some time but for some reason it would archive over 8GBs, which is all the space I currently have left on this laptop, and die. As a result I’m looking at using a drive on the network before I can resume this. (And unfortunately the documentation for doing this is lacking and the wee little bit that does exist is so badly incorrect it makes me think poorly on the testing that never gets done on Ubuntu.)

How To Install Jslint on Ubuntu

At my entry http://ioconnor.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/javascript-testing/ you’ll notice there are two entirely different lint programs out there for JavaScript. I installed and made an entry on how to install JavaScript Lint here. This posting describes how to install the other version of lint, jslint, under ubuntu. I even tested it under Ubuntu 8.04 and 9.04. Follow these steps:

1. sudo mkdir -p /my/bin
   I prefer not to much around in the home directory but to create all custom stuff right off the root so I know what is mine. You can choose some other directory if you’d like.
2. cd /my/bin
3. sudo wget http://www.jslint.com/rhino/jslint.js
   If they ever remove this send me a mssage and I’ll post it.
4. sudo chmod a+x jslint.js
   Not sure if this is needed but it’s habit…
5. sudo apt-get install rhino
   I did not have rhino installed on 9.04 but it does not hurt to verify with this command.
6. time rhino jslint.js jslint.js
   jslint is written in javascript. So run it on itself to see if there are any errors or warnings.

That’s pretty simple. Too bad their website does not make it simple. In fact their website does not contain enough information. I had to google about for a while to figure it all out. Anyways here is the output when ran on itself. Then further down I use the other lint program on it.

JSLint does allow options. I am going to at some point see if I can make an include file that will specify just the options I want.

JSLint also has a good section on coding standards. I like it.

time rhino /my/bin/jslint.js /my/bin/jslint.js
Lint at line 4 character 236: eval is evil.
“use strict”;JSLINT=(function(){var 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‘},tt:{},u:{},ul:{},’var’:{}},ids,implied,inblock,indent,jsonmode,lines,lookahead,member,membersOnly,nexttoken,noreach,option,predefined,prereg,prevtoken,pseudorule={‘first-child’:true,link:true,visited:true,hover:true,active:true,focus:true,lang:true,’first-letter’:true,’first-line’:true,before:true,after:true},rhino={defineClass:true,deserialize:true,gc:true,help:true,load:true,loadClass:true,print:true,quit:true,readFile:true,readUrl:true,runCommand:true,seal:true,serialize:true,spawn:true,sync:true,toint32:true,version:true},scope,sidebar={System:true},src,stack,standard={Array:true,Boolean:true,Date:true,decodeURI:true,decodeURIComponent:true,encodeURI:true,encodeURIComponent:true,Error:true,’eval’:true,EvalError:true,Function:true,isFinite:true,isNaN:true,JSON:true,Math:true,Number:true,Object:true,parseInt:true,parseFloat:true,RangeError:true,ReferenceError:true,RegExp:true,String:true,SyntaxError:true,TypeError:true,URIError:true},standard_member={E:true,LN2:true,LN10:true,LOG2E:true,LOG10E:true,PI:true,SQRT1_2:true,SQRT2:true,MAX_VALUE:true,MIN_VALUE:true,NEGATIVE_INFINITY:true,POSITIVE_INFINITY:true},syntax={},tab,token,urls,warnings,widget={alert:true,animator:true,appleScript:true,beep:true,bytesToUIString:true,Canvas:true,chooseColor:true,chooseFile:true,chooseFolder:true,closeWidget:true,COM:true,convertPathToHFS:true,convertPathToPlatform:true,CustomAnimation:true,escape:true,FadeAnimation:true,filesystem:true,Flash:true,focusWidget:true,form:true,FormField:true,Frame:true,HotKey:true,Image:true,include:true,isApplicationRunning:true,iTunes:true,konfabulatorVersion:true,log:true,md5:true,MenuItem:true,MoveAnimation:true,openURL:true,play:true,Point:true,popupMenu:true,preferenceGroups:true,preferences:true,print:true,prompt:true,random:true,Rectangle:true,reloadWidget:true,ResizeAnimation:true,resolvePath:true,resumeUpdates:true,RotateAnimation:true,runCommand:true,runCommandInBg:true,saveAs:true,savePreferences:true,screen:true,ScrollBar:true,showWidgetPreferences:true,sleep:true,speak:true,Style:true,suppressUpdates:true,system:true,tellWidget:true,Text:true,TextArea:true,Timer:true,unescape:true,updateNow:true,URL:true,Web:true,widget:true,Window:true,XMLDOM:true,XMLHttpRequest:true,yahooCheckLogin:true,yahooLogin:true,yahooLogout:true},xmode,xquote,ax=/@cc|<\/?|script|\]*s\]|<\s*!|&lt/i,cx=/[\u0000-\u001f\u007f-\u009f\u00ad\u0600-\u0604\u070f\u17b4\u17b5\u200c-\u200f\u2028-\u202f\u2060-\u206f\ufeff\ufff0-\uffff]/,tx=/^\s*([(){}\[.,:;'"~\?\]#@]|==?=?|\/(\*(global|extern|jslint|member|members)?|=|\/)?|\*[\/=]?|\+[+=]?|-[\-=]?|%=?|&[&=]?|\|[|=]?|>>?>?=?|<([\/=!]|\!(\[|--)?|<=?)?|\^=?|\!=?=?|[a-zA-Z_$][a-zA-Z0-9_$]*|[0-9]+([xX][0-9a-fA-F]+|\.[0-9]*)?([eE][+\-]?[0-9]+)?)/,hx=/^\s*(['"=>\/&#]|<(?:\/|\!(?:–)?)?|[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_\-]*|[0-9]+|–|.)/,nx=/[\u0000-\u001f&<"\/\\\u007f-\u009f\u00ad\u0600-\u0604\u070f\u17b4\u17b5\u200c-\u200f\u2028-\u202f\u2060-\u206f\ufeff\ufff0-\uffff]/,nxg=/[\u0000-\u001f&<"\/\\\u007f-\u009f\u00ad\u0600-\u0604\u070f\u17b4\u17b5\u200c-\u200f\u2028-\u202f\u2060-\u206f\ufeff\ufff0-\uffff]/g,ox=/[>&]|<[\/!]?|–/,lx=/\*\/|\/\*/,ix=/^([a-zA-Z_$][a-zA-Z0-9_$]*)$/,jx=/^(?:javascript|jscript|ecmascript|vbscript|mocha|livescript)\s*:/i,ux=/&|\+|\u00AD|\.\.|\/\*|%[^;]|base64|url|expression|data|mailto/i,sx=/^\s*([{:#*%.=,>+\[\]@()”‘;*]|[a-zA-Z0-9_][a-zA-Z0-9_\-]*|<\/|\/\*)/,ssx=/^\s*([@#!"'};:\-%.=,+\[\]()*_]|[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9._\-]*|\/\*?|\d+(?:\.\d+)?|<\/)/,qx=/[^a-zA-Z0-9-_\/ ]/,dx=/[\[\]\/\\”‘*<>.&:(){}+=#]/,rx={outer:hx,html:hx,style:sx,styleproperty:ssx};function F(){}

Lint at line 4 character 6051: eval is evil.
“use strict”;JSLINT=(function(){var adsafe_id,adsafe_may,adsafe_went,anonname,approved,atrule={‘import’:true,media:true,’font-face’:true,page:true},banned={apply:true,’arguments’:true,call:true,callee:true,caller:true,constructor:true,’eval’:true,prototype:true,unwatch:true,valueOf:true,watch:true},boolOptions={adsafe:true,bitwise:true,browser:true,cap:true,css:true,debug:true,eqeqeq:true,evil:true,forin:true,fragment:true,immed:true,laxbreak:true,newcap:true,nomen:true,on:true,onevar:true,passfail:true,plusplus:true,regexp:true,rhino:true,undef:true,safe:true,sidebar:true,strict:true,sub:true,white:true,widget:true},browser={alert:true,blur:true,clearInterval:true,clearTimeout:true,close:true,closed:true,confirm:true,console:true,Debug:true,defaultStatus:true,document:true,event:true,focus:true,frames:true,getComputedStyle:true,history:true,Image:true,length:true,location:true,moveBy:true,moveTo:true,name:true,navigator:true,onblur:true,onerror:true,onfocus:true,onload:true,onresize:true,onunload:true,open:true,opener:true,opera:true,Option:true,parent:true,print:true,prompt:true,resizeBy:true,resizeTo:true,screen:true,scroll:true,scrollBy:true,scrollTo:true,setInterval:true,setTimeout:true,status:true,top:true,XMLHttpRequest:true},cssAttributeData,cssAny,cssColorData={“aliceblue”:true,”antiquewhite”:true,”aqua”:true,”aquamarine”:true,”azure”:true,”beige”:true,”bisque”:true,”black”:true,”blanchedalmond”:true,”blue”:true,”blueviolet”:true,”brown”:true,”burlywood”:true,”cadetblue”:true,”chartreuse”:true,”chocolate”:true,”coral”:true,”cornflowerblue”:true,”cornsilk”:true,”crimson”:true,”cyan”:true,”darkblue”:true,”darkcyan”:true,”darkgoldenrod”:true,”darkgray”:true,”darkgreen”:true,”darkkhaki”:true,”darkmagenta”:true,”darkolivegreen”:true,”darkorange”:true,”darkorchid”:true,”darkred”:true,”darksalmon”:true,”darkseagreen”:true,”darkslateblue”:true,”darkslategray”:true,”darkturquoise”:true,”darkviolet”:true,”deeppink”:true,”deepskyblue”:true,”dimgray”:true,”dodgerblue”:true,”firebrick”:true,”floralwhite”:true,”forestgreen”:true,”fuchsia”:true,”gainsboro”:true,”ghostwhite”:true,”gold”:true,”goldenrod”:true,”gray”:true,”green”:true,”greenyellow”:true,”honeydew”:true,”hotpink”:true,”indianred”:true,”indigo”:true,”ivory”:true,”khaki”:true,”lavender”:true,”lavenderblush”:true,”lawngreen”:true,”lemonchiffon”:true,”lightblue”:true,”lightcoral”:true,”lightcyan”:true,”lightgoldenrodyellow”:true,”lightgreen”:true,”lightpink”:true,”lightsalmon”:true,”lightseagreen”:true,”lightskyblue”:true,”lightslategray”:true,”lightsteelblue”:true,”lightyellow”:true,”lime”:true,”limegreen”:true,”linen”:true,”magenta”:true,”maroon”:true,”mediumaquamarine”:true,”mediumblue”:true,”mediumorchid”:true,”mediumpurple”:true,”mediumseagreen”:true,”mediumslateblue”:true,”mediumspringgreen”:true,”mediumturquoise”:true,”mediumvioletred”:true,”midnightblue”:true,”mintcream”:true,”mistyrose”:true,”moccasin”:true,”navajowhite”:true,”navy”:true,”oldlace”:true,”olive”:true,”olivedrab”:true,”orange”:true,”orangered”:true,”orchid”:true,”palegoldenrod”:true,”palegreen”:true,”paleturquoise”:true,”palevioletred”:true,”papayawhip”:true,”peachpuff”:true,”peru”:true,”pink”:true,”plum”:true,”powderblue”:true,”purple”:true,”red”:true,”rosybrown”:true,”royalblue”:true,”saddlebrown”:true,”salmon”:true,”sandybrown”:true,”seagreen”:true,”seashell”:true,”sienna”:true,”silver”:true,”skyblue”:true,”slateblue”:true,”slategray”:true,”snow”:true,”springgreen”:true,”steelblue”:true,”tan”:true,”teal”:true,”thistle”:true,”tomato”:true,”turquoise”:true,”violet”:true,”wheat”:true,”white”:true,”whitesmoke”:true,”yellow”:true,”yellowgreen”:true},cssBorderStyle,cssLengthData={‘%’:true,’cm’:true,’em’:true,’ex’:true,’in’:true,’mm’:true,’pc’:true,’pt’:true,’px’:true},escapes={‘\b’:'\\b’,'\t’:'\\t’,'\n’:'\\n’,'\f’:'\\f’,'\r’:'\\r’,'”‘:’\\”‘,’/':’\\/’,'\\’:'\\\\’},funct,functions,global,htmltag={a:{},abbr:{},acronym:{},address:{},applet:{},area:{empty:true,parent:’ map ‘},b:{},base:{empty:true,parent:’ head ‘},bdo:{},big:{},blockquote:{},body:{parent:’ html noframes ‘},br:{empty:true},button:{},canvas:{parent:’ body p div th td ‘},caption:{parent:’ table ‘},center:{},cite:{},code:{},col:{empty:true,parent:’ table colgroup ‘},colgroup:{parent:’ table ‘},dd:{parent:’ dl ‘},del:{},dfn:{},dir:{},div:{},dl:{},dt:{parent:’ dl ‘},em:{},embed:{},fieldset:{},font:{},form:{},frame:{empty:true,parent:’ frameset ‘},frameset:{parent:’ html frameset ‘},h1:{},h2:{},h3:{},h4:{},h5:{},h6:{},head:{parent:’ html ‘},html:{parent:’*'},hr:{empty:true},i:{},iframe:{},img:{empty:true},input:{empty:true},ins:{},kbd:{},label:{},legend:{parent:’ fieldset ‘},li:{parent:’ dir menu ol ul ‘},link:{empty:true,parent:’ head ‘},map:{},menu:{},meta:{empty:true,parent:’ head noframes noscript ‘},noframes:{parent:’ html body ‘},noscript:{parent:’ body head noframes ‘},object:{},ol:{},optgroup:{parent:’ select ‘},option:{parent:’ optgroup select ‘},p:{},param:{empty:true,parent:’ applet object ‘},pre:{},q:{},samp:{},script:{empty:true,parent:’ body div frame head iframe p pre span ‘},select:{},small:{},span:{},strong:{},style:{parent:’ head ‘,empty:true},sub:{},sup:{},table:{},tbody:{parent:’ table ‘},td:{parent:’ tr ‘},textarea:{},tfoot:{parent:’ table ‘},th:{parent:’ tr ‘},thead:{parent:’ table ‘},title:{parent:’ head ‘},tr:{parent:’ table tbody thead tfoot ‘},tt:{},u:{},ul:{},’var’:{}},ids,implied,inblock,indent,jsonmode,lines,lookahead,member,membersOnly,nexttoken,noreach,option,predefined,prereg,prevtoken,pseudorule={‘first-child’:true,link:true,visited:true,hover:true,active:true,focus:true,lang:true,’first-letter’:true,’first-line’:true,before:true,after:true},rhino={defineClass:true,deserialize:true,gc:true,help:true,load:true,loadClass:true,print:true,quit:true,readFile:true,readUrl:true,runCommand:true,seal:true,serialize:true,spawn:true,sync:true,toint32:true,version:true},scope,sidebar={System:true},src,stack,standard={Array:true,Boolean:true,Date:true,decodeURI:true,decodeURIComponent:true,encodeURI:true,encodeURIComponent:true,Error:true,’eval’:true,EvalError:true,Function:true,isFinite:true,isNaN:true,JSON:true,Math:true,Number:true,Object:true,parseInt:true,parseFloat:true,RangeError:true,ReferenceError:true,RegExp:true,String:true,SyntaxError:true,TypeError:true,URIError:true},standard_member={E:true,LN2:true,LN10:true,LOG2E:true,LOG10E:true,PI:true,SQRT1_2:true,SQRT2:true,MAX_VALUE:true,MIN_VALUE:true,NEGATIVE_INFINITY:true,POSITIVE_INFINITY:true},syntax={},tab,token,urls,warnings,widget={alert:true,animator:true,appleScript:true,beep:true,bytesToUIString:true,Canvas:true,chooseColor:true,chooseFile:true,chooseFolder:true,closeWidget:true,COM:true,convertPathToHFS:true,convertPathToPlatform:true,CustomAnimation:true,escape:true,FadeAnimation:true,filesystem:true,Flash:true,focusWidget:true,form:true,FormField:true,Frame:true,HotKey:true,Image:true,include:true,isApplicationRunning:true,iTunes:true,konfabulatorVersion:true,log:true,md5:true,MenuItem:true,MoveAnimation:true,openURL:true,play:true,Point:true,popupMenu:true,preferenceGroups:true,preferences:true,print:true,prompt:true,random:true,Rectangle:true,reloadWidget:true,ResizeAnimation:true,resolvePath:true,resumeUpdates:true,RotateAnimation:true,runCommand:true,runCommandInBg:true,saveAs:true,savePreferences:true,screen:true,ScrollBar:true,showWidgetPreferences:true,sleep:true,speak:true,Style:true,suppressUpdates:true,system:true,tellWidget:true,Text:true,TextArea:true,Timer:true,unescape:true,updateNow:true,URL:true,Web:true,widget:true,Window:true,XMLDOM:true,XMLHttpRequest:true,yahooCheckLogin:true,yahooLogin:true,yahooLogout:true},xmode,xquote,ax=/@cc|<\/?|script|\]*s\]|<\s*!|&lt/i,cx=/[\u0000-\u001f\u007f-\u009f\u00ad\u0600-\u0604\u070f\u17b4\u17b5\u200c-\u200f\u2028-\u202f\u2060-\u206f\ufeff\ufff0-\uffff]/,tx=/^\s*([(){}\[.,:;'"~\?\]#@]|==?=?|\/(\*(global|extern|jslint|member|members)?|=|\/)?|\*[\/=]?|\+[+=]?|-[\-=]?|%=?|&[&=]?|\|[|=]?|>>?>?=?|<([\/=!]|\!(\[|--)?|<=?)?|\^=?|\!=?=?|[a-zA-Z_$][a-zA-Z0-9_$]*|[0-9]+([xX][0-9a-fA-F]+|\.[0-9]*)?([eE][+\-]?[0-9]+)?)/,hx=/^\s*(['"=>\/&#]|<(?:\/|\!(?:–)?)?|[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_\-]*|[0-9]+|–|.)/,nx=/[\u0000-\u001f&<"\/\\\u007f-\u009f\u00ad\u0600-\u0604\u070f\u17b4\u17b5\u200c-\u200f\u2028-\u202f\u2060-\u206f\ufeff\ufff0-\uffff]/,nxg=/[\u0000-\u001f&<"\/\\\u007f-\u009f\u00ad\u0600-\u0604\u070f\u17b4\u17b5\u200c-\u200f\u2028-\u202f\u2060-\u206f\ufeff\ufff0-\uffff]/g,ox=/[>&]|<[\/!]?|–/,lx=/\*\/|\/\*/,ix=/^([a-zA-Z_$][a-zA-Z0-9_$]*)$/,jx=/^(?:javascript|jscript|ecmascript|vbscript|mocha|livescript)\s*:/i,ux=/&|\+|\u00AD|\.\.|\/\*|%[^;]|base64|url|expression|data|mailto/i,sx=/^\s*([{:#*%.=,>+\[\]@()”‘;*]|[a-zA-Z0-9_][a-zA-Z0-9_\-]*|<\/|\/\*)/,ssx=/^\s*([@#!"'};:\-%.=,+\[\]()*_]|[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9._\-]*|\/\*?|\d+(?:\.\d+)?|<\/)/,qx=/[^a-zA-Z0-9-_\/ ]/,dx=/[\[\]\/\\”‘*<>.&:(){}+=#]/,rx={outer:hx,html:hx,style:sx,styleproperty:ssx};function F(){}

Lint at line 119 character 36: eval is evil.
if(!option.evil&&nexttoken.value===’eval’){warning(“eval is evil.”,nexttoken);}}

Lint at line 350 character 604: eval is evil.
return this;},led:function(){error(“Expected an operator and instead saw ‘{a}’.”,nexttoken,nexttoken.value);}};type(‘(regexp)’,function(){return this;});delim(‘(endline)’);delim(‘(begin)’);delim(‘(end)’).reach=true;delim(‘</’).reach=true;delim(‘<!’);delim(‘<!–’);delim(‘–>’);delim(‘(error)’).reach=true;delim(‘}’).reach=true;delim(‘)’);delim(‘]’);delim(‘”‘).reach=true;delim(“‘”).reach=true;delim(‘;’);delim(‘:’).reach=true;delim(‘,’);delim(‘#’);delim(‘@’);reserve(‘else’);reserve(‘case’).reach=true;reserve(‘catch’);reserve(‘default’).reach=true;reserve(‘finally’);reservevar(‘arguments’);reservevar(‘eval’);reservevar(‘false’);reservevar(‘Infinity’);reservevar(‘NaN’);reservevar(‘null’);reservevar(‘this’);reservevar(‘true’);reservevar(‘undefined’);assignop(‘=’,'assign’,20);assignop(‘+=’,'assignadd’,20);assignop(‘-=’,'assignsub’,20);assignop(‘*=’,'assignmult’,20);assignop(‘/=’,'assigndiv’,20).nud=function(){error(“A regular expression literal can be confused with ‘/=’.”);};assignop(‘%=’,'assignmod’,20);bitwiseassignop(‘&=’,'assignbitand’,20);bitwiseassignop(‘|=’,'assignbitor’,20);bitwiseassignop(‘^=’,'assignbitxor’,20);bitwiseassignop(‘<<=’,'assignshiftleft’,20);bitwiseassignop(‘>>=’,'assignshiftright’,20);bitwiseassignop(‘>>>=’,'assignshiftrightunsigned’,20);infix(‘?’,function(left,that){that.left=left;that.right=parse(10);advance(‘:’);that['else']=parse(10);return that;},30);infix(‘||’,'or’,40);infix(‘&&’,'and’,50);bitwise(‘|’,'bitor’,70);bitwise(‘^’,'bitxor’,80);bitwise(‘&’,'bitand’,90);relation(‘==’,function(left,right){if(option.eqeqeq){warning(“Expected ‘{a}’ and instead saw ‘{b}’.”,this,’===’,'==’);}else if(isPoorRelation(left)){warning(“Use ‘{a}’ to compare with ‘{b}’.”,this,’===’,left.value);}else if(isPoorRelation(right)){warning(“Use ‘{a}’ to compare with ‘{b}’.”,this,’===’,right.value);}

Lint at line 373 character 34: eval is evil.
if(!option.evil){if(left.value===’eval’||left.value===’Function’||left.value===’execScript’){warning(“eval is evil.”,left);}else if(p[0]&&p[0].id===’(string)’&&(left.value===’setTimeout’||left.value===’setInterval’)){warning(“Implied eval is evil. Pass a function instead of a string.”,left);}}

Lint at line 445 character 248: eval is evil.
if(o.safe){o.browser=false;o.css=false;o.debug=false;o.eqeqeq=true;o.evil=false;o.forin=false;o.nomen=true;o.on=false;o.rhino=false;o.safe=true;o.sidebar=false;o.strict=true;o.sub=false;o.undef=true;o.widget=false;predefined.Date=false;predefined['eval']=false;predefined.Function=false;predefined.Object=false;predefined.ADSAFE=true;predefined.lib=true;}

real    1m52.358s
user    1m52.047s
sys    0m0.232s

Ok, looks like their code is ok if the childish “eval is evil” warnings are ignored. However what does JavaScript Lint say. Turns out it’s much more interesting:

time jsl -conf /my/bin/jsl.conf -process jslint.js
JavaScript Lint 0.3.0 (JavaScript-C 1.5 2004-09-24)
Developed by Matthias Miller (http://www.JavaScriptLint.com)

jslint.js
/my/bin/jslint.js(32): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(32): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(33): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(42): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(43): warning: function string does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(53): lint warning: regular expressions should be preceded by a left parenthesis, assignment, colon, or comma
/my/bin/jslint.js(59): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(61): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(62): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(67): lint warning: use of label
/my/bin/jslint.js(71): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(72): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(72): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(81): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(81): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(82): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(83): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(86): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(87): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(90): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(90): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(97): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(97): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(114): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(160): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(166): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(172): warning: function identifier does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(184): warning: function statement does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(185): lint warning: regular expressions should be preceded by a left parenthesis, assignment, colon, or comma
/my/bin/jslint.js(193): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(193): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(222): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(222): warning: function cssWidth does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(229): warning: function cssCommaList does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(230): lint warning: empty statement or extra semicolon
/my/bin/jslint.js(247): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(248): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(255): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(261): warning: function styleValue does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(280): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(282): warning: function stylePattern does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(289): lint warning: regular expressions should be preceded by a left parenthesis, assignment, colon, or comma
/my/bin/jslint.js(289): lint warning: regular expressions should be preceded by a left parenthesis, assignment, colon, or comma
/my/bin/jslint.js(293): lint warning: regular expressions should be preceded by a left parenthesis, assignment, colon, or comma
/my/bin/jslint.js(306): lint warning: duplicate case in switch statements
/my/bin/jslint.js(306): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(309): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(343): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(347): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(349): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(349): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement
/my/bin/jslint.js(349): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(356): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(399): warning: function functionparams does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(399): warning: function functionparams does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(411): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(412): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(414): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(414): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(415): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(424): warning: anonymous function does not always return a value
/my/bin/jslint.js(442): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(452): lint warning: missing break statement for last case in switch
/my/bin/jslint.js(466): lint warning: missing default case in switch statement

0 error(s), 64 warning(s)
real 0m0.083s
user 0m0.068s
sys 0m0.008s

So, kind of neat how jslint.js is a JavaScript file but it appears to be weak, wimpy, and worthless. Meaning it doesn’t catch nearly as many possible problems and it took over 1652 times longer than JavaScript Lint.

However. The website version of jslint is much better. It’s faster and allows various options than it’s CLI version. Still it reported what seemed like spurious errors and miscellaneous information that was just plain confusing if even correct. (It was probably correct but I just didn’t have the desire to figure out what it was going on about.) The options are fun to play with but who wants to cut and paste to a website?

JavaScript Code Coverage On Ubuntu

I’ve been playing with JavaScript looking for QA tools, getting JavaScript Lint in vim on Ubuntu, etc.. Now I’ve got code coverage analysis going for it. Follow these instructions to install JavaScript Code Coverage on Ubuntu:

1. Download from and unpack.
2. Change directory to where it was unpacked:
   
   cd jscoverage-0.4/
3. Configure the environment for Ubuntu:
   
   ./configure
4. Compile the program:
   
   make
5. Copy jscoverage-server to your personal bin:
   
   cp jscoverage-server /my/bin
6. The jscoverage documentation does not mention it but you must start jscoverage-server from the directory where it is to be serving the javascript from. So to run their examples move to the directory where their example code is:
   
   cd jscoverage-0.4/doc/example/
7. Now start up the coverage server from the same directory the javascript is located:
   
   jscoverage-server –verbose
8. Open up a browser where index.html is the starting point of the code you are going to test:
   
   firefox http://127.0.0.1:8080/jscoverage.html?index.html
9. Execute the code a bit and then move to the store tab and press the store button.
10. Open up another browser to view the results:
    
    firefox jscoverage-report/jscoverage.html
11. Possibly open another browser, like opera, and test with it. All the additional tests will be added to the report.
12. Now if you have the directory available via the network test the code with IE.

At this point it’s a simple matter of writing the javascript as a separate library.
Once in a separate library each function can be called separately.
Unit tests can then be written attempting to maximize code coverage and results can be verified.
Once this is done then the user interfaces can be tested.

There are some caveats listed in the manual. They all seem quite acceptable.

1. JSCoverage adds instrumentation to JavaScript code, which will slow down execution speed. Expect instrumented code to take at least twice as much time to run.
2. JSCoverage currently instruments only .js files; it does not instrument code in script elements in HTML files.
3. HTML files must use relative URLs to reference scripts. If you use an absolute URL, your page will reference the original uninstrumented script rather than the instrumented one, and no code coverage data will be collected.
4. JSCoverage instruments physical lines of code rather than logical JavaScript statements; it works bests with code that has exactly one statement per line. If you put multiple statements on a line, or split a line across two or more statements, you may get strange results.
5. JSCoverage uses frames. Some web pages that use frames may not function properly when run under JSCoverage, especially those which try to access the top-level frame (window.top, target=”_top”, etc.).

I don’t see any way of incorporating the results into vim.
It would be nice if that were possible though.
I think the best that can be done would simply be to start a page that would call the various functions with assert statements.
Perhaps via a bash script.
Maybe I’ll learn more when I look into the jsunit tools.
As it now stands all of the error paths are questionable.
Still it’s better than no code coverage.

JavaScript Testing

I’m finding my JavaScript code is not behaving as I’d like it to. Code I thought was solid and have been using consistently is less than solid. Code involving money. So it’s time to start rigorously testing things as if I were coding in C/C++. At http://www.opensourcetesting.org/unit_javascript.php is a list of free tools that can help.

1. CrossCheck. It seems to concentrate on verifing the code will run on multiple browsers. Making sure things work on buggy browsers like IE is not big on my list.
2. JavaScript Assertion Unit. Assertion testing. Might be all I need. Probably not though. I don’t want to complicate the code itself. I’d like to have a separate unit supplying the input and comparing it to expected results that can be used by code coverage tests too.
3. JSCoverage. This runs the latest Linux and Firefox distros and looks very promising. It only checks coverage though. Nothing else.
4. JSMock. The documentation is less than clear. I can’t tell if it can be automated, if it runs on Linux, or even what it does. Hopefully it allows test scripts to suppy and perhaps change values within the called functions and compare the results. However if it does do this it does not plainly say it.
5. JSNUnit. A product made for M$ environments. Does not work in Linux.
6. JSUnit. Tests multiple browser javascript on multiple OSs. It looks very promising in that you can write test scripts to run the pages, functions, and possibly even alter values. Hopefully allowing the JSCoverage to run at the same time. I’ll probably start with this tool.
7. JSUnit. I’m not sure how this one differs from the other JSUnit. I’d best compare the two carefully before deciding which one to use.
8. RhinoUnit. It is tied to ANT. It mentions having integrated support for JSLint.
9. JSLint. I’m not sure if this can be run standalone. Perhaps this page will explain it better: http://www.jslint.com/rhino/index.html
10. JavaScript Lint. Hmmm.

Some of the criteria I’m looking for are:

1. Fully Automatable.
2. Speed.
3. Ease.
4. Runs on Linux.
5. Coverage Check.
6. Free.
7. Actively supported.
8. RegEx comparisons.

The Lints are the natural place to start. I’ll somehow make some bash scripts to test them and go from there.

Stripped Google Gears Causing Accidents

Attempting to use Google Gears when it is not installed on a user’s browser causes an error. You’d think their library would handle this more gracefully than just crashing but it doesn’t.
UPDATED 2009.04.04: Their library should define the call but return something akin to an alert warning the user/developer

The crash occurs on this line:

g_db = google.gears.factory.create(‘beta.database’);

I pulled out my “JavaScript The Definitive Guide 5th Edition” looking for how to get around this. (This is my primary reference book for all things JavaScript. Perhaps if I were better at JavaScript it would be second nature but I’m not good at JavaScript so I spend lots of time looking things up.) I figured “google…” was not defined. So I looked at the index and put a paperclip on each page in the book referenced by the index. Then I tried all sorts of combinations none of which would work. Things like:

if (google === undefined) {
alert(“A”);
} else {
alert(“B”);
}

and

if (google == undefined) {
alert(“A”);
} else {
alert(“B”);
}

and

if (“gears” in google) {
alert(“A”);
} else {
alert(“B”);
}

and

if (google) {
alert(“A”);
} else {
alert(“B”);
}

and

if (google.gears) {
alert(“A”);
} else {
alert(“B”);
}

and

if (“length” in google) {
alert(“A”);
} else {
alert(“B”);
}

but none of above worked! There were no other solutions in my reference book. My reference book doth sucketh.

So I used a try/catch for a while but I’d still get an error message in the “error console”. The try/catch is ugly but it let me do what I needed and polluting the error console seems to be acceptable. Everybody does it. Just leave the error console open while browsing the web to see how rampant the pollution is.

However I revisited this problem today. After extensive googling seeing all sorts of “solutions” that were similar to the above and which did not work I happened to find the following:

if (typeof(google) == ‘undefined’) {

I’m using Firefox 3.0.8 if this makes any difference. It’s the very latest version as of this month from Mozilla. I’ve got to remember this solution in the future!

My GMail Got Hacked!

I have not been changing my passwords. So some Chinese hackers got into my email account, like they have done with thousands of others from yahoo, hotmail, etc., and sent the following message:

hi:
New shopping new life!
How are u doing these days?Yesterday I found a web of a large trading company from china,which is an agent of all the well-known digital product factories,and facing to both wholesalers,retailsalers,and personal customer all over the world. They export all kinds of digital products and offer most competitive and reasonable price and high quality goods for our clients,so i think we you make a big profit if we do business with them.And they promise they will provide the best after-sales-service.In my opinion we can make a trial order to test that.
Look forward to your early reply!
The Web address: www.stuffunion.com
E-mail: stuffunion@188.com
MSN : stuffunion@live.cn

When you google this company you see they have collected quite a bit of money from unsuspecting people over the years. It’s like the Nigerian emails. However they keep the interest up by hacking email and spreading their outfit as if the person who sent the email is actually endorsing them. Finally they delete out all of your address book.

I’m going to go back to using Thunderbird as my email client instead of relying on the web interface. And only accessing it via linux. (I noticed I got hacked when I used M$.) And I’ll start using pgp again. I also downloaded a password maker so I can type “makepasswd -chars 20” and then stick the passwords up on a sheet on the wall so I don’t lose them. I did that already with gmail.

Update 2009.03.31
I’ve noticed some sites only allow passwords built with certain characters. Or some rate the strength of your password. Some require special characters or only rate your password as strong until you use special characters. In these situations supply a string like the one below:

makepasswd --chars 30 --string 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890\!@#$%^&*'

UPDATE 2009.06.01 I noticed cutting and pasting from the above did not work because wordpress changed the characters. So I updated the above with the ascii codes from HTML ASCII Reference and HTML ISO-8859-1 Reference. Now it should be a simple copy and paste.