The Author – Bart Busschots
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Nov
5
PBS 3 of X – HTML Block Elements
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on November 5, 2015 | 6 Comments
In the previous instalment we introduced HTML, learned about HTML tags in the abstract, and looked at a basic template for all HTML pages. Over the next few instalments we’ll be working our way through the common HTML tags.
There are two major types of HTML tags, block-level tags, and inline tags, though it should be noted that there is a much less common third type which is a hybrid of the two, referred to as inline-block. For now, we’ll be ignoring these odd-balls.
Block level tags define regions of content – things like titles, paragraphs, lists, list items, and so on. Inline tags affect parts of a block – for example, a few words within a paragraph can be marked for emphasis. With practice the distinction will be comes obvious, especially when we get to the more advanced aspects of CSS, but the different in type can be confusing. A handy way of remembering the difference is that opening a new block-level tag will always start a new line on your page.
In this instalment we’ll start with some of the most common block-level tags.
Oct
23
PBS 2 of X – Introducing HTML
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on October 23, 2015 | 4 Comments
The first baby-step we’ll take towards real programming is the Hyper-Text Markup Language, better known to us all as HTML. HTML is not a true programming language, it is instead a simpler beast known as a markup language – it adds context to text. HTML allows us to mark certain parts of a document as headings, other parts as paragraphs, and yet other parts as being emphasised etc.. Like with programming, we are conveying meaning to the computer, but the range of possible things we can ‘say’ is much smaller and simpler.
Modern best practices for web development are the result of decades of evolution. We’re going to ignore all the techniques that time and experience have shown to be mistake, and jump straight to the end of the story – modern best practice. There have also been many versions of HTML over the years, and again, we’re going to jump straight to the end of the story, and use the latest incarnation of the Hyper-Text Markup Language, HTML5.
Before we dive into the specifics, I want to take a moment to explain the larger context in which we’ll be using HTML. When HTML was originally developed, it was designed to describe both what different elements of a web page were, and, what they should look like. Experience has taught us that this is a terrible idea, so we no longer use HTML in this dual role. Instead, HTML is now just half of a duo of languages used to create a web page – the other partner being Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS. We use HTML to describe what each part of the page is, and CSS to describe how each marked up element on the page should be styled.
We’ll be moving on to CSS once we finish describing HTML. Until we get CSS, the web pages we create will look exceptional plain and frankly boring, but don’t worry, we’ll move on to CSS soon enough, and then you can really let your creative juices fly!
Oct
9
PBS 1 of X – Introduction
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on October 9, 2015 | 17 Comments
Computer programming is a very powerful skill – it literally lets you tell computers exactly what to do. Contrary to what you may believe, learning to program is not about learning any specific programming language, but about learning the principles shared by all languages. Once you grasp the fundamental principles, you can move from language to language with relative ease. In my two decades of programming I have programmed in X86 Assembler, BASIC, C, C++, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, BASH, Lisp, Maple, Matlab, and more. While doing so I’ve also made use of other computer languages that are not quite programming languages, but still involved telling a computer what you mean like SQL, HTML, CSS, XML & JSON. The point I really want to drive home is that you are not a Java programmer, or a PHP programmer, or a Perl programmer – you are a programmer! The tool you happen to use most today is unlikely to be the one you use most a decade from now. 15 years ago I did 90% of my programming in Java, 10 years ago, PHP, today, Perl, next year, who knows!
In case you hadn’t guessed yet, I’m not going to pick a single computer language for this series of tutorials. I’m very deliberately going to make use of a pallet of languages, and I’m going to focus on the underlying principles, rather than the specific peculiarities of any given language.
In order to help bring everyone along, I’m also not going to go from zero to real programming in one go. The plan is to sneak up on programming in small steps – hence the title of the series. We will be using computer languages from the start, but initially, they won’t be programming languages. Also, in order to be as inclusive as possible, I’m going to avoid vendor-specific languages – that means no Apple Script, no VB Script, no Objective C, and no C# (pronounced ‘see-sharp’ BTW). Instead, I’m going to use the most universal platform of all – the world wide web. We’re going to sneak up on programming by learning to create web pages.
Aug
11
Crypt::HSXKPasswd and hsxkpasswd now on CPAN
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development, Security, My Projects on August 11, 2015 | 1 Comment
The latest stable release of both the Crypt::HSXKPasswd perl module, and the hsxkpassd terminal command are now available through CPAN: http://search.cpan.org/perldoc?Crypt%3A%3AHSXKPasswd
The library and terminal command are bundled together, and can be installed onto Unix/Linux/Mac OS X computers in the standard CPAN way:
sudo cpan Crypt::HSXKPasswd
When this install finishes, both the terminal command and perl module will be available for use on the system, along with the documentation for both:
man hsxkpasswd perldoc Crypt::HSXKPasswd
Even though I’ve put a lot of time an effort into creating these tools, I’ve chosen to released them entirely free of charge, and with a very liberal open-source license (BSD). If you find either the terminal command or Perl module useful, please consider making a donation below to help cover my time and costs.
If you find a bug, would like to suggest a change or improvement, or would like to contribute code to the project, please use the project’s GitHub page.
Aug
8
JSON – a quick intro
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on August 8, 2015 | 6 Comments
The letters JSON stand for JavaScript Object Notation, but that doesn’t really help you understand what it is, and what it’s for. JSON may have it’s origins in JavaScript, but it’s moved on from there. JSON has become a very popular human-readable plain-text format for sending structured data between applications.
In short, JS is a way of representing data that both computers and humans can read and understand. Think of it as XML’s younger better looking cousin 🙂
Note that this article is intended to be a JSON primer, not an exhaustive description of the format.
Jul
19
Announcing Crypt::HSXKPasswd Beta 4
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development, Security on July 19, 2015 | Leave a Comment
Another week, another beta release of Crypt::HSXKPasswd. The fact that the betas are now coming quick and fast is indeed a sign that this code is getting very close to ready for a full release.
This latest series of changes came about because when I started work on a tutorial for using the command line app I realised some changes were needed to give a better user experience.
The headline changes are that you can now specify a dictionary file rather than a dictionary package name if you prefer, you can now specify arguments for the dictionary and RNG packages, and the file format for hsxkpasswdrc files has been updated to match these changes.
Finally, I’m still looking for help in the following areas:
- Native German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese speakers to sanitise the dictionary files for those languages, leaving only a few thousand common words – these dictionary files are simply too big at the moment, and they must be full of really obscure words to be this large!
- People who are good at technical writing to help me give the documentation some spit and polish. I think all the relevant information is there, and I have run it all though a spell checker, but it could definitely do with some TLC from a copy editor!
Oh, and finally finally, if you find this module useful, please consider donating with the button below – I have literally put hundreds of hours into this code in the last few months, and given it all away for free.
*Download Beta 4 of Crypt::HSXKPasswd via GitHub*
Jul
13
Announcing Crypt::HSXKPasswd Beta 3
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development, Security on July 13, 2015 | Leave a Comment
I’ve just released what I hope will be the last beta release before the first stable release of Crypt::HSXKPasswd. This release has some bug fixes, but is mostly focused on improvements, especially to the new command line interface.
Initially I had planned to make the previous beta the last one before the first stable release, but then I realised that the command line interface really does need support for a configuration file before it’s ready for prime-time, so this beta is focused around the addition of what I am calling hsxkpasswdrc files.
hsxkpasswdrc files allow custom presets to be stored for re-use, and for defaults to be set for many of the command line options, making it much easier to customise the command line interface’s behaviour.
By default the command line interface now looks for a hsxkpasswdrc file at ~/.hsxkpasswdrc. You can specify a different path with the new --rcfile option, and you can use the new --test-rcfile option to help you debug your hsxkpasswdrc files.
If you have an interest in this module, please install the beta and report any problems you find by opening issues on the project’s GitHub page. Or better still if you’re a developer, fixing the bug and sending me a pull request 🙂
Finally, I’m still looking for help in the following areas:
- Native German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese speakers to sanitise the dictionary files for those languages, leaving only a few thousand common words – these dictionary files are simply too big at the moment, and they must be full of really obscure words to be this large!
- People who are good at technical writing to help me give the documentation some spit and polish. I think all the relevant information is there, and I have run it all though a spell checker, but it could definitely do with some TLC from a copy editor!
Oh, and finally finally, if you find this module useful, please consider donating with the button below – I have literally put hundreds of hours into this code in the last few months, and given it all away for free.
*Download Beta 3 of Crypt::HSXKPasswd via GitHub*
Jun
8
Announcing Crypt::HSXKPasswd Beta 2 – now with more command-line!
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development, Security on June 8, 2015 | Leave a Comment
Last night I released what I hope will be the last beta release Crypt::HSXKPasswd before the first release to CPAN. You can download it from the project’s GitHub page (reminder, you can get installation instructions for the beta releases here).
The head-line change is the addition of a bundled command line app, bringing all the power of Crypt::HSXKPasswd to the terminal, shell scripts, and indeed programs and scripts written in any language with the ability to shell out.
In terms of lines of code the biggest change is a complete re-write of all data validation code. The project now contains a custom type library which exactly defines what it means to be a word, letter, symbol, symbol alphabet etc.. This has made the code much more robust, and has make it a lot easier to write consistent documentation. The type library is written using Type::Tiny, and all the custom type definitions contain customised validation error message functions to give users much more helpful feedback.
With the help of Allison Sheridan from the NosillaCast Mac Podcast, the warnings and error messages issued by the module have also become a lot more human-friendly.
The test suite has also been greatly expanded, making it easier to find and fix bugs going forward.
If you have an interest in this module, please install the beta and report any problems you find by opening issues on the project’s GitHub page. Or better still if you’re a developer, fixing the bug and sending me a pull request 🙂
Finally, I’m looking for help in the following areas:
- Native German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese speakers to sanitise the dictionary files for those languages, leaving only a few thousand common words – these dictionary files are simply too big at the moment, and they must be full of really obscure words to be this large!
- People who are good at technical writing to help me give the documentation some spit and polish. I think all the relevant information is there, and I have run it all though a spell checker, but it could definitely do with some TLC from a copy editor!
Oh, and finally finally, if you find this module useful, please consider donating with the button below – I have literally put hundreds of hours into this code in the last few months, and given it all away for free.
*Download Beta 2 of Crypt::HSXKPasswd via GitHub*
May
28
Getting Started with Crypt::HSXKPasswd
Filed Under Software Development, My Projects, Computers & Tech on May 28, 2015 | 2 Comments
This is a quick-start guide to using the free and open source Crypt::HSXKPasswd Perl module for generating secure but memorable passwords.
As I write this post the module is not on CPAN yet, and still in beta form. The module can be downloaded from the project’s GitHub page.
This article assumes you have the module installed – you’ll find installation instructions here.
Before we get stuck into some sample code, let’s first summarise the module’s philosophy.
The module is built around the idea of using common words as a kind of lattice around which to build passwords that are long, have a wide coverage of characters, and yet are still memorable. An ideal HSXKPasswd password will contain a mix of upper and lower case letters, some digits, and some symbols.
The module starts building a password by randomly closing a given number of words from a given dictionary. There can then be an optional number of digits added as pseudo words to the front and/or the back of the initial list of words. Next, a symbol can be used to separate the words, and finally a symbol can be used to pad the front and/or back of the password.
Think of it like this:
correct HORSE BATTERY staple 23 correct HORSE BATTERY staple 45 23*correct*HORSE*BATTERY*staple*45 --23*correct*HORSE*BATTERY*staple*45--
May
28
Installing the Crypt::HSXKPasswd Betas
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development, My Projects on | 5 Comments
Until Crypt::HSXKPasswd comes out of beta, I’m not going to upload it to CPAN, so until then, the betas need to be manually installed. You can get the latest release of the library by downloading the appropriate .tar.gz file from GitHub.
For Perl regulars, the process is likely to be familiar, because the module is packaged using the very popular Module::Build. The process is quite straight forward, but there are a few potential pitfalls for the uninitiated.
For quick reference, here are the commands needed to install the module:
perl Build.PL sudo ./Build installdeps ./Build ./Build test sudo ./Build install