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SPIonic Conversion
SPIonic is a public domain font that represents ASCII characters as Greek letters and diacritics. It is widely used to represent polytonic Greek, that is, ancient Greek, which has other tone marks in addition to the acute (´) found in modern Greek. It uses a scheme based on Beta Code with a few variations, the most significant of which is that uppercase letters are represented by uppercase letters and lowercase by lowercase (whereas Beta Code uses *A for uppercase alpha and A for lowercase alpha, etc.). I’ve created a simple tool that will convert Greek written using this scheme into proper Unicode Greek. For example, in Unicode the letter alpha is represented, not by typing the character a, but by an α character at a separate code point in the font. Though I’m sure something like this is not in high demand, I hope somebody out there finds it useful.
Formula for Styling Web Forms
Web forms are ubiquitous, and in my line of work I find myself building plenty of them, each time from scratch. That’s why I’ve recently put together a little style sheet to serve as a starting point for styling my HTML forms that includes the selectors and styles I find myself using most often. Take a look at the demo page for formula.css.
Software for Web Development
For the most part, I design and develop on Mac OS X and Unix. I thought I might give out a few tips on building your own arsenal of Mac software for Web development.
Apache HTTP Server 2
As noted in a previous post, I use Apache, which comes bundled with Mac OS X, to develop locally. That way, I can write dynamic pages and preview them without uploading anything to an external development server or the production server. In order to do so, I usually set up virtual hosts for each site I am working on:
VirtualHostX
VirtualHostX is a free application that offers a GUI for editing the Apache virtual hosts configuration file. You can pay to unlock the application if you need more than three virtual hosts configured at one time (which I haven’t as of yet).
Sequel Pro
Sequel Pro provides a clean, Apple-style GUI for managing MySQL databases. You can create, drop, and modify databases and tables, create stored procedures and functions, and easily build and test queries in the query editor. The only major functionality that is missing is user management. I’m still relying on MySQL’s command line utility for setting up database permissions. The Sequel Pro website promises these features in the next major release, though I don’t see any sign of further development online, and I have not seen a software update in a while.
Update (4/6/10): See first comment.
Coda
For almost everything else, I use Coda. Coda is, as far as I am concerned, the ideal editor and FTP client. Each project you work on can be saved with stored FTP and/or SSH connection details and code snippets. The editor is very flexible with syntax highlighting for many markup and programming languages and extensible via third-party plugins. The application also features a GUI CSS editor, which I have never used, opting instead to hand code my style sheets. You can easily switch from code view to a preview of your document in Webkit and any Web browser you have installed. The list of features goes on, but they are all laid out on Panic’s website. Despite the long list of features, the software does not feel in the least bit bloated. The interface is clean and stays true in every detail to the OS, and I have never run into a bug.
Billings 3
For the business side of my work, I use Billings to keep my projects organized, track my hours, and of course, bill for my time. Billings lets you keep it simple or keep very detailed records. I like erring on the side of logging too much information during the course of my jobs, which allows me to generate fairly detailed invoices with minimal effort when the time comes. The interface is mostly to my liking, though several features that should be front and center (such as project notes) seem to be buried in odd places. I have run into some bugs, but for the most part they are fixed in frequent software updates, and unfortunately, I have also seen a bug introduced in an update. Overall, Billings’ utility outweighs its annoyances.
Do you have anything to add about these applications? Have you found better software for the job? I’d like to hear about it.
Like Bells’ Palma
I recently saw Like Bells on tour at The Loft at Tommy Doyle’s in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Like Bells is a progressive post-rock band featuring cymbal-heavy percussion, violin, guitar, bass and sparse electronic accompaniment. Their energetic performance featured new material from their second and latest album, Palma, yet to be officially released. It is a departure from their debut album in that it tends toward being more upbeat and utilizes vocals to a higher degree, though they remain sparse. Check them out at www.likebells.com and www.myspace.com/likebells.
Virtual Hosts in Apache
I usually find it convenient to develop my websites and Web applications locally before pushing them to the production server. Mac OS X conveniently comes with the Apache Web server pre-installed. In fact, all you really need to do to start using it is to check the “Web Sharing” checkbox in System Preferences... > Sharing. You can then use your Web browser to navigate to http://localhost/, and you should see whatever files are in your Web root. The default Web root (root directory from which Apache serves files) is /Library/WebServer/Documents on Mac OS X. However, it’s useful, especially if you are working on more than one project at a time, to be able to host multiple sites on your Mac. To do this, you need to set up virtual hosts in Apache. Here is a step-by-step tutorial on setting up virtual hosts:
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