Russell Smithers"Experience is the only teacher we have" – Swami Vivekananda

Recently I installed the wordpress plugin article2pdf (Marc Schieferdecker) which converts a post or page into a PDF document, you can see it in action at russellsashtanga.info. Further information can be found at the author home page and plugin home page although you may not need to visit these sites. You can download article2pdf from the wordpress plugins website or install from within a wordpress 2.7 installation. A note of caution, depending on your perma link structure you may want to read the installation notes.

So why would you want to create a PDF template? and how do you create a PDF template without spending any money? You may want extra information about the article or add some branding to it. I decided I wanted to include my name, web address and copyright on all the PDFs people create.

I thought I needed a special software package because when the PDF format first came out you had to pay for software to create PDF files, although I knew Open Office was able to create them, it didn’t seem to have a special PDF template option. After hunting around websites looking for ways to create these template files, I decided to create a normal PDF file and see if that would work, and it did!

So, the easy way to create a PDF template is using Open Office. Create a single page document, and set the headers and footers to what you want. Once this is done save it firstly as a document you can edit, and then save it as a PDF document. Then use the plugin to upload the file, and not forgetting to select the PDF you just loaded as your default template.

It realy is that simple, just any PDF document will act as a template for article2pdf. There is probably a standard PDF template format, and you may well have to use PDF templates in other applications. Of course the final disclaimer is that this may well depend upon the versions of software you are using, and changes in both the PDF format and article2pdf over time.

I have to share the following, it’s just so funny, im sure that little boy will go far! It is taken from the last of 4 stories at the following link; http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Little-Boxes-Everywhere,-and-More-Support-Stories.aspx

That Might Help? (from Dirk Grosskopf)
Back in the late 80′s, as computers were becoming more and more available for the masses, I worked at the computer desk in mid-sized electronics store. We carried several lines of computers, but the most popular tended to be the Commodore PC. While computers themselves were OK, Commodore’s customer service was a complete mess, taking six to eight weeks on average for warranty repairs.

One particular customer had a rather unfortunate experience with his Commodore PC 10 III. After purchasing the computer, he brought it home only to find that it didn’t work. Period. Nothing happened when he pressed the power button. This wasn’t a huge problem for us, but it required that the system be sent back Commodore.

After six weeks, the customer returned to pick up the repaired computer. When he got it home, he experienced the exact same problem: nothing happened. Not even a blink when he hit the power button. Angry, he brought it back in and we sent it back to Commodore a second time.

Another six weeks passed and he came back to get the computer again. And again, nothing. He went completely nuts, demanding to speak to the store manager, and insisting that he get his money back. This was surprising to us as, before giving him the computer back the second time, we tested it to make sure Commodore actually fixed it. Stranger still, the service reports from Commodore said that the PC was returned without any errors.

While waiting for the manager to come to the desk, I unpacked the PC, monitor, and keyboard, and installed it on a sales desk. I couldn’t find the power cord and therefore used the “brown” one we used for tests. The PC came right on, which the customer’s little boy notices right away.

“Daddy,” he said, pointing to me, “we didn’t plugged that brown cord into the computer, did we?”

The customer quickly learned after PCs do, in fact, need to be plugged in. I gave him back the Commodore and a new power cord. He was never seen again in the shop.

Subversion is used for version control and, having recently set up a subversion repository, I wanted to share the experience. Previously my experience of versioning was SCCS and CVS, both of these systems do the job, but Subversion is very easy to use and setup. Over the last few months I have used it extensively and become very knowledgeable about it. I would recommend Subversion to any one needing version control, I use it for source files, but it would be equally good for any thing else, it handles binary and text files so there is no limit.

Here are some links should you want to find out more;

Subversion website – subversion.tigris.org
Subversion forums – www.svnforum.org

Calculator Class

Description

Provides the graphical user interface of the calculator. Looking at the code you will see the method;

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)

which is the central hub of the Calculator, it is the point at which the user actions (events) are turned into sequences of actions that result in calculations being performed, and their result being shown to the user.

Source

/*
 * Calculator
 *
 * Russell Smithers
 * 26 October 2006
 *
 */
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class Calculator implements ActionListener
{
    // Display area references
    public JPanel mainPanel, selectPanel, displayPanel, actionPanel, memoryPanel;
    private JLabel displayScreen;

    // Calculation references and variables
    Calculation currentCalc;
    StringBuilder screenValue;
    double value;
    char valueInput;

    /**
     * Create a GUI Calculator - sets up swing with relevant controls
     */
    public Calculator()
    {
        // Main panel that holds all controls
        mainPanel = new JPanel();
        mainPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(0,2));
        mainPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5));

        // Screen areas
        this.displayPanel = this.addPanel("Result",0,0);
        this.memoryPanel = this.addPanel("Memory",0,1);
        this.selectPanel = this.addPanel("Keypad",0,3);
        this.actionPanel = this.addPanel("Operations",0,1);

        // Number buttons
        for (int button=9; button>=0; button--)
        { this.addButton(selectPanel, "" + button); }
        this.addButton(selectPanel, ".");
        this.addButton(selectPanel, "Clr");

        // Operation buttons
        this.addButton(actionPanel, "+");
        this.addButton(actionPanel, "-");
        this.addButton(actionPanel, "/");
        this.addButton(actionPanel, "*");
        this.addButton(actionPanel, "=");

        // Output area
        displayScreen = new JLabel();
        this.displayPanel.add( displayScreen );
        screenValue = new StringBuilder();

        currentCalc = new Calculation();
    }

    /**
     * Event handler which handles all input
     */
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
    {
        // System.out.println("Button pressed: " + e.getActionCommand() );
        String valueOrig = e.getActionCommand();
        this.valueInput = valueOrig.charAt(0);

        if ( Calculation.operationValid(valueInput) )
        {
            try
            {
                this.value = Double.valueOf(screenValue.toString()).doubleValue();
            }
            catch(Exception anError)
            {
                this.value = 0.0;
            }
            currentCalc.calculate( this.value, valueInput);
            this.updateDisplay();
        }
        else
        {
            if ( Character.isDigit(this.valueInput) || this.valueInput == '.')
            {
                screenValue.append( this.valueInput );
                this.displayScreen.setText( screenValue.toString() );
            }
            else
            {
                switch(this.valueInput)
                {
                    case 'C': currentCalc.setValue(0.0);
                }
                this.updateDisplay();
            }
        }

    }

    /**
     * Set calculator value
     */
    public void updateDisplay()
    {
        this.displayScreen.setText( Double.toString(currentCalc.getValue()) );
        this.screenValue = new StringBuilder();
    }

    /**
     * Add a button with an ActionListener and then add it to a panel
     */
    private void addButton(JPanel p, String value)
    {
        JButton tempButton = new JButton(value);
        tempButton.addActionListener(this);
        p.add(tempButton);
    }

    /**
     * Adds a new panel the main container panel and sets default decoration
     */
    private JPanel addPanel(String title, int x, int y)
    {
        JPanel tempPanel = new JPanel();

        // Set GridLayout is we have relevant values to use on
        if ( (x > 0) || (y >0) )
        { tempPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(x,y)); }

        // Set the panel decoration
        tempPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder(
                BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(title), BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(5,5,5,5)));

        // Add ths panel to the main one
        this.mainPanel.add(tempPanel);

        return tempPanel;
    }

    /**
     * Create the GUI and show it.  For thread safety,
     * this method should be invoked from the
     * event-dispatching thread.
     */
    private static void createAndShowGUI()
    {
        //Make sure we have nice window decorations.
        JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true);

        Calculator calcy = new Calculator();

        //Create and set up the window.
        JFrame calculatorFrame = new JFrame("Calculator v1.0 (rsmithers.net)");
        calculatorFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        calculatorFrame.setContentPane(calcy.mainPanel);

        //Display the window.
        calculatorFrame.pack();
        calculatorFrame.setVisible(true);
    }

    /**
     * Entry point for Calculator program
     */
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        //Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
        //creating and showing this application's GUI.
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable()
        {
            public void run()
            {
                createAndShowGUI();
            }
        });
    }
}