Since I’ve wanted to begin developing programs for my n800, python seemed like a good route to go.  I’ve only heard good things about beginning development with python, and that it’s a good language to star things out with.  Since I already know PHP and Java, python is also a good language to get under my belt.

So, today I started my development, and I have been able to develop two programs.  One which was requested, one which I thought was useful.  So, I present two new programs for the N800/N810 running os2008 (could also work with os2006 and os2007, but untested):

• Tip Calculator
• Weight Watchers Points Calculator (was requested)

Both programmed using Python and Glade.  The Tip Calculator took under an hour.  The Weight Watchers Points Calculator took a little over an hour, but only because I had trouble using PyPackager.  This all makes Python look really good in my eyes

On the ongoing fight of grammar nazis for better grammar:

We recently purchased a new car.  (New being relative… it’s new to us, a ‘95 Corolla)  The other day, we got a letter in the mail telling us our license plates were ready.  This letter helped us by telling us what hours the dealership is open:

We are open Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 7:30 pm and 9:30 am to 4:00 pm.

Now, it took me a couple reads, but I’m pretty sure they meant to say “Monday through Friday 8:30 am to 7:30 pm and Saturday 9:30 am to 4:00 pm.”  From what I could tell, this was printed with a copy machine.  So, the dealership made a bunch of copies of a letter that doesn’t even make sense.  One would think that a dealership would hire someone to proof-read things like this.

Since I recently aquired a “new” linux box (900 MHz, 600-some MB RAM), I decided the summer would be a good time for me to make GUIEncode compile on Linux.

So, in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting some updates on how compiling for linux is going, and what improvements I’m making to GUIEncode because it needs to compile on Linux.  Overall, this should not only result in cleaner source code, but also a new and improved version that works great on Linux!  Initially, everything compiles fine, but there are some complaints in the program if you try to run it.  So, stay tuned for all the updates in the next couple of weeks.  Depending on what time allows, I hope to have a working Linux version of GUIEncode within the month.

Once it compiles and runs on Linux, it should also be able to compile and run on Mac OSX.  However, I don’t have the money to buy a REALbasic license to compile for OSX, so I won’t be able to do that myself.  If someone has OSX and REALbasic, please contact me!  When the code has been cleaned up, if you can compile it, credit will be given!