Hackfest 2002 continues. This week I have been writing a C++ program that is a replacement for the ancient Unix command-line app calendar. It uses an XML config file which I’m parsing with Expat, although I may replace this with Apache’s Xerces. I’ve kind of got a bit lost on this one. It’s basically functional, but very basic. I need to think more carefully about the algorithm used to process nodes. At the moment it’s getting messy, but as long as I work to standardise the way I discover node context (SAX parsing here) I should be OK. Then it’s just a case of calculating the right Unix timestamps and comparing them. It, like calendar will extrapolate information about repeating events based on what data you specify, so if you specify only a weekday, it will assume that your event runs all day and repeats weekly.

Also I have beautified my mail page. It is now bright pink. The background image invites the prospective emailer to consider both them and I as monotone pink buxom underwear models from the Sixties. I like it. Also the error messages have a certain pinned-on afterwards punkness about them. I’d like to thank Mat Denney for the tracing inspiration on that one, ‘cos it’s TME creds-tastic, I only hope I haven’t ripped you off too badly (I kept some texture!). BTW, spot the hidden Mac OS logo…

Once again I’ve made use of my PHP form validation class. I have enhanced it’s ability to generate natural English reports of errors by adding a whole bunch of class members which control the output sentences. This makes it a lot more useful. With the latest version you would probably want to use to_english even if you wanted a ungrammatical list. It is powerful enough and has the advantage that it will parse the error arrays itself rather than you having to write code. When I’ve used it on a few more pages I’ll release it. I keep meaning to make a /software/ area. In fact I need to put my CV up as well.