From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Sun Mar 1 09:46:38 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 14:46:38 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.4b1 (BETA) Message-ID: <20090301144638.4126e5e1@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Alexandria 0.6.4b1 has just been released. Alexandria is a GNOME application to help you manage your book collection. This is the first release in just over a year. Most of the changes are maintenance-related, fixing broken book providers, fixing bugs, improving the GUI and increasing the stability of the program overall. There are also new and updated translations. On-line release notes may be found here: http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-03-01--0.6.4b1-released.html These include instructions for downloading and installing the new release. In addition, you should note that Alexandria now requires Hpricot for most of its web-based book providers. I believe 0.6.4b1 is much more stable and usable than 0.6.3, but you should still back up your library directory (~/.alexandria/) before upgrading. New users should not have any problems. We hope this new version encourages you to get involved with the development process of Alexandria; reporting new bugs on the Tracker and commenting or discussing features on the mailing list. In any case, thanks to all the patient bug-reporters who helped me figure out the snags in the 0.6.3 release. I hope you enjoy the new version a bit better. - Cathal Mc Ginley. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAkmqn84ACgkQfMAUnRdb+8ojxgCfeOwFrzNSWOBxnxuS0AbpQzdJ XskAnAroCwA4hd4ge/pN5LbUfO0t540o =2D+E -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From magmaxlistas at gmail.com Sun Mar 1 12:13:44 2009 From: magmaxlistas at gmail.com (Miguel =?ISO-8859-1?B?wW5nZWwgR2FyY+1h?=) Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 18:13:44 +0100 Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.4b1 (BETA) In-Reply-To: <20090301144638.4126e5e1@kate> References: <20090301144638.4126e5e1@kate> Message-ID: <20090301181344.4c449767@tormenta> Hi there. I updated Spanish translation, but I found a problem when I was going to probe it: $ alexandria ruby: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/gtk2.so: undefined symbol: gtk_file_system_error_quark I think it is not a direct problem from alexandria, but maybe you can help me about the package I need. I use Debian SID with some packages from Experimental. Thank you. El Sun, 1 Mar 2009 14:46:38 +0000 Cathal Mc Ginley escribi?: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Alexandria 0.6.4b1 has just been released. > > Alexandria is a GNOME application to help you manage your book > collection. > > This is the first release in just over a year. Most of the changes are > maintenance-related, fixing broken book providers, fixing bugs, > improving the GUI and increasing the stability of the program overall. > There are also new and updated translations. > > On-line release notes may be found here: > http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-03-01--0.6.4b1-released.html > > These include instructions for downloading and installing the new > release. In addition, you should note that Alexandria now requires > Hpricot for most of its web-based book providers. > > I believe 0.6.4b1 is much more stable and usable than 0.6.3, but you > should still back up your library directory (~/.alexandria/) before > upgrading. New users should not have any problems. > > We hope this new version encourages you to get involved with the > development process of Alexandria; reporting new bugs on the Tracker > and commenting or discussing features on the mailing list. > > In any case, thanks to all the patient bug-reporters who helped > me figure out the snags in the 0.6.3 release. I hope you enjoy the new > version a bit better. > > - Cathal Mc Ginley. > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE > > iEYEARECAAYFAkmqn84ACgkQfMAUnRdb+8ojxgCfeOwFrzNSWOBxnxuS0AbpQzdJ > XskAnAroCwA4hd4ge/pN5LbUfO0t540o > =2D+E > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > _______________________________________________ > Alexandria-list mailing list > Alexandria-list at rubyforge.org > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/alexandria-list -- In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates? "Microsoft ha lanzado una nueva versi?n, Windows XP, que seg?n todo el mundo 'es la versi?n m?s fiable de Windows hasta la fecha'. Para m?, esto es como decir que el esp?rrago es el vegetal m?s articulado que ha existido nunca" -- Dave Barry From nisses.mail at home.se Sun Mar 1 18:49:54 2009 From: nisses.mail at home.se (Andreas Nilsson) Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:49:54 +0100 Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.4b1 (BETA) In-Reply-To: <20090301144638.4126e5e1@kate> References: <20090301144638.4126e5e1@kate> Message-ID: <49AB1F22.2090500@home.se> Cathal Mc Ginley wrote: > Alexandria 0.6.4b1 has just been released. > Finally, wohoo! I'm totally adding more of my books to it now, as it seems quite stable. Thank you! - Andreas From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Mon Mar 2 05:49:37 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 10:49:37 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.4b1 (BETA) In-Reply-To: <20090301181344.4c449767@tormenta> References: <20090301144638.4126e5e1@kate> <20090301181344.4c449767@tormenta> Message-ID: <20090302104937.2a8cf231@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Sun, 1 Mar 2009 18:13:44 +0100 Miguel __ngel Garc__a wrote: > Hi there. > > I updated Spanish translation, Thanks. I didn't notify the translators before the beta release, but I will before the 0.6.4 final release. In the mean time, if anyone has suggestions for changes to the text of the user interface, please send them in. I was writing in a very technical mindset - not giving very much thought to user-friendliness... > but I found a problem when I was going > to probe it: > > $ alexandria > ruby: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/i486-linux/gtk2.so: > undefined symbol: gtk_file_system_error_quark > > > I think it is not a direct problem from alexandria, but maybe you can > help me about the package I need. I use Debian SID with some packages > from Experimental. > > Thank you. > It seems to be due to an interface incompatibility between your versions of GTK+ and libgtk2-ruby --Simon Lipp explains it near the end of this bug report: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/11623 My summary: * Your version of libgtk2-ruby is older than your version of GTK+. * If libgtk2-ruby was built against GTK+ 2.12 it will have included a reference the private symbol gtk_file_system_error_quark. * If you're now running GTK+ 2.14 (which removed the gtk_file_system_error_quark symbol) then libgtk2-ruby obviously won't find it. The solution is probably just to make sure your copies of GTK+ and libgtk2-ruby (and all the other ruby-gnome2 stuff) are from the same package repository. If that doesn't work, drop me a line and I can try to work through it over Jabber or some such. The reason I never came across this is that I'm still running GTK+ 2.12.12 - I'd upgrade to test the problem, but I think I'll do a system backup first ;^) - Cathal. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAkmrucEACgkQfMAUnRdb+8pUMgCfVAADOfvAeglmpjgwt0M8nr0I QgIAoM7sQEXN+AP0qE9qMOAqtCoJMAQu =ITzW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From kovac.peter at fotopriestor.sk Mon Mar 2 11:07:58 2009 From: kovac.peter at fotopriestor.sk (kovac.peter at fotopriestor.sk) Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 17:07:58 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Alexandria-list] Slovak translation and using a webcam as a barcode scanner Message-ID: Hi, first of all, thank you for new version! It's nice to see that this project is still alive. :) Next, I've just made Slovak translation of Alexandria 0.64b1 (see the attachment). And another issue - I'm now a computer science student at Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia. This term every student chooses some interesting topic and makes a project about it (a piece of software or something like that). My project is to make webcams work as barcode scanners with Alexandria. I've googled for some webcam-to-barcode-scanner library and found Zebra ( http://zebra.sourceforge.net/ ). It's written in C but I've read somewhere that it is possible to work with C libraries in Ruby. I've an idea that encapsulating it as WebcamScanner class and registring it in Scanner Registry should make it (although I don't know how to make UI for it, but I hope it wouldn't be too hard). Is this a good idea or should I try something else? Sincerely, Peter Kovac -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: sk.po Type: text/x-gettext-translation Size: 38041 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Mon Mar 2 20:11:43 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 01:11:43 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Slovak translation and using a webcam as a barcode scanner In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090303011143.4108bfaa@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 17:07:58 +0100 (CET) kovac.peter at fotopriestor.sk wrote: > Hi, > > first of all, thank you for new version! It's nice to see that this > project is still alive. :) > > Next, I've just made Slovak translation of Alexandria 0.64b1 (see the > attachment). Thanks! I've just committed it to SVN, so it'll be in the final 0.6.4. Make sure to join the alexandria-i18n-list too to be notified of immanent releases and "string freezes". Welcome to Alexandria! > > And another issue - I'm now a computer science student at Comenius > University in Bratislava, Slovakia. This term every student chooses > some interesting topic and makes a project about it (a piece of > software or something like that). My project is to make webcams work > as barcode scanners with Alexandria. I've googled for some > webcam-to-barcode-scanner library and found Zebra > ( http://zebra.sourceforge.net/ ). This sounds very cool! I was investigating Zebra just last night. Lennart Karssen suggested it in Feature Request #23143 (from a suggestion by Calors Garcia Saura). I managed to get the camera preview working, but not scanning barcodes (I think it requires a webcam that can focus... my Yeeloong netbook webcam probably has its focus fixed at 'infinity'.) Check that zebracam scans barcodes for you! > It's written in C but I've read > somewhere that it is possible to work with C libraries in Ruby. Yep, it's how ruby-gnome2 does it. You might take a look at Ruby-Sexy, ( http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-sexy/ ) a small-ish project which binds to the GTK widget extensions library Libsexy: http://www.chipx86.com/w/index.php/Libsexy That should give you a starting point for writing Ruby bindings. Zebra also has bindings for Python which might help you too. > I've an idea that encapsulating it as WebcamScanner class and registring > it in Scanner Registry should make it (although I don't know how to > make UI for it, but I hope it wouldn't be too hard). Actually that part would require some re-writing of Alexandria. The current code only works for barcode scanners which provide data as if they were keystrokes (To Alexandria, CueCats and standard keyboard wedge scanners look like keyboards - with really fast typing of numbers). However, I had been working (some months ago) with making this more flexible, and wrote a client-server type setup for barcode scanning. (I can't find it at the moment, but it was for some user's expensive serial barcode scanner, that sub-project kinda went nowhere.) I did have the framework set up, but that code never made it into SVN. If I can dig it up again, I'll create an SVN branch for "extended barcode scanner support" and you can work from that branch. > Is this a good idea or should I try something else? Basically, if you can get Ruby code to grab images from a webcam and scan them with Zebra to produce the barcode number, Alexandria can be modified to accept those scans. It sounds like a great little project, if maybe a little tricky in places. You'd have to check that whatever help I give in integrating this code into Alexandria is in line with the University's rules for computer projects. Also, check if it will be possible for you to release the code to Alexandria under the GPL when your project's finished? Even if not, the process of writing it will make it easier to re-implement if neccessary (you could just describe the approach you took). Anyway, let me know if you need any further pointers. And I'll keep you up to date on that SVN branch, if I can find that code... - Cathal. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAkmsg88ACgkQfMAUnRdb+8rUtgCeKB/BOSTmAdOGXCzMp78uycRe 8VgAoLPxNvQY+QB8ZgMHgX8p74EMISjO =UkY5 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From count-linux at flatline.de Mon Mar 2 20:48:18 2009 From: count-linux at flatline.de (Andreas Kotes) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 02:48:18 +0100 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Slovak translation and using a webcam as a barcode scanner In-Reply-To: <20090303011143.4108bfaa@kate> References: <20090303011143.4108bfaa@kate> Message-ID: <20090303014818.GC9615@slop.flatline.de> Hello Cathal / list, * Cathal Mc Ginley [20090303 02:16]: > However, I had been working (some months ago) with making this more > flexible, and wrote a client-server type setup for barcode > scanning. (I can't find it at the moment, but it was for some user's > expensive serial barcode scanner, that sub-project kinda went nowhere.) well, it went to sleep on my harddisk, and begs to be revived - which gets more likely now that my concience is invoked every time this mailing list sees some action again *cough* > I did have the framework set up, but that code never made it into SVN. > If I can dig it up again, I'll create an SVN branch for > "extended barcode scanner support" and you can work from that branch. I've got it in any case ... > > Is this a good idea or should I try something else? > > Basically, if you can get Ruby code to grab images from a webcam and > scan them with Zebra to produce the barcode number, Alexandria can be > modified to accept those scans. I figure adapting the Zebra C-code to act as a TCP client to the interface in Alexandira should be a piece of cake. The idea was to have AGSP (Alexandria Generic Scanner Protocol), and there were simulators on http://slop.flatline.de/agsp-scanner.pl and http://slop.flatline.de/agsp-alexandria.pl for both sides. Cathal did an integration into Alexandria against the client simulator and put them on http://www.gnostai.org/tmp/alexandria-0.6.3.1.tar.gz and http://www.gnostai.org/tmp/alexandria_0.6.3.1_all.deb - I never came around to completely integrate it with my own scanner (which requires implementing some non-blocking I/O with an annoying inherently unstable serial connection - possible, but tedious to implement, and I just had things which were more fun to do *cough*) .. it's 80% done, just the annoying 20% are missing. I'll try to get around to doing it this month. > It sounds like a great little project, if maybe a little tricky in > places. You'd have to check that whatever help I give in integrating > this code into Alexandria is in line with the University's rules for > computer projects. I think by now it's straightforward - apart from the things that need to be finished we'd need an implementation of a CueCat scanner client to keep the old functionality and could even replace the old code completely - making AGSP the default for 0.6.4 final. > Also, check if it will be possible for you to release the code to > Alexandria under the GPL when your project's finished? Even if not, the > process of writing it will make it easier to re-implement if neccessary > (you could just describe the approach you took). I'll release all of my stuff under GPL, including the simulators. > Anyway, let me know if you need any further pointers. And I'll keep > you up to date on that SVN branch, if I can find that code... hope the links back to your own site help ;) Andreas P.S: I _think_ I've got an old CueCat lying around somewhere here, but I don't really have a (Linux) system available to use it with for integration - if somebody else would take that task, that would be cool. Doesn't have to be in Ruby, just needs to be able to talk agsp-alexandria.pl correctly. man perlipc(1) has some good code that also roughly translates to how to do it in C ... -- I'm a man with a one track mind .. so much to do in one lifetime! Not a man for compromise .. and where's and why's and living lies .. So I'm living it all - and I'm giving it all ... -- Brian May / Queen - I want it all From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Tue Mar 3 14:19:35 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 19:19:35 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Slovak translation and using a webcam as a barcode scanner In-Reply-To: <20090303014818.GC9615@slop.flatline.de> References: <20090303011143.4108bfaa@kate> <20090303014818.GC9615@slop.flatline.de> Message-ID: <20090303191935.31cbbdb8@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 02:48:18 +0100 Andreas Kotes wrote: > The idea was to have AGSP (Alexandria Generic Scanner Protocol), and > there were simulators on http://slop.flatline.de/agsp-scanner.pl and > http://slop.flatline.de/agsp-alexandria.pl for both sides. > > Cathal did an integration into Alexandria against the client simulator > and put them on http://www.gnostai.org/tmp/alexandria-0.6.3.1.tar.gz Okay, I'd totally forgotten that I uploaded the code anywhere. I'd been hunting around for the e-mail conversation... > I think by now it's straightforward - apart from the things that need > to be finished we'd need an implementation of a CueCat scanner client Hm, I think it'd still be easier to deal with keyboard wedge scanners through some kind of text widget. > to keep the old functionality and could even replace the old code > completely - making AGSP the default for 0.6.4 final. I won't be adding *any* new features between the beta release and 0.6.4 final. The longstanding tooltips bugs in 0.6.3 have convinced me of that. In any case, it's a major new feature and warrants a 0.7 release. I'm going to announce a "string freeze" for translators this weekend, and hopefully release 0.6.4 the week after. On another note, if external (non-ruby) clients want to interact with Alexandria, perhaps it would be best to do so in a GNOME-ish way, and use D-Bus. Rather than defining an ad-hoc TCP protocol. Something to experiment with, anyway... - Cathal -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAkmtgscACgkQfMAUnRdb+8rnkACbB93riNV6F4pp6mhkik3sAGbV OxAAmQEejTmiwoO7++fdEZYLRBBGBsRp =cXxN -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Tue Mar 3 15:40:53 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 20:40:53 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Slovak translation and using a webcam as a barcode scanner In-Reply-To: <20090303194238.GB15067@slop.flatline.de> References: <20090303011143.4108bfaa@kate> <20090303014818.GC9615@slop.flatline.de> <20090303191935.31cbbdb8@kate> <20090303194238.GB15067@slop.flatline.de> Message-ID: <20090303204053.42e504c8@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 20:42:38 +0100 Andreas Kotes wrote: > > Hm, I think it'd still be easier to deal with keyboard wedge > > scanners through some kind of text widget. > > so do I, and hacking something like that would be useful for 'generic' > keyboard wedge scanners in any case. could be done in quite short time > as well. > > as I understand it, this only works with 'declawed' Cuecats, i.e. > you'd need to have some separate code to read from the cuecat-device > if the data isn't put in the keyboard data stream - but, I don't mind. > Unmodified CueCats provide a form of Base64-encoded data directly as keyboard input, so scanning an ISBN barcode in my e-mail window gives: .C3nZC3nZC3n2ChnWENz7DxnY.cGf2.ENr7CNT7CxjYD3P7DxzXD3P2. The 3 fields separated by dots are serial no., barcode type (in this case IB5 = ISBN+5), and barcode data. I don't have a modified CueCat myself, but I believe they provide just the barcode data, i.e. for the same scan they would provide: 978188211498652495 There was a linux kernel driver for CueCats (back in kernel version 2.2 days) which made things much more complicated in some ways, by detecting the CueCat and inhibiting its action as a type of keyboard: instead scan data would show up in /dev/scanners/cuecat The advantage was that an application wouldn't need to have the keyboard focus before you scanned a barcode. Alexandria hasn't used the /dev/scanners/cuecat approach since 0.6.2. (This is why the "Acquire from Scanner" dialog has the rather unwieldy message "Click below to scan barcodes"... the widget needs the keyboard focus to accept scan data.) - Cathal. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAkmtldUACgkQfMAUnRdb+8rEIACdFudr97cP1zRIn7EI3+MDr7fy W0UAnitt1+0EC04XQ534gTaOvqJDe8Y6 =YnsP -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Wed Mar 4 04:48:18 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:48:18 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Slovak translation and using a webcam as a barcode scanner In-Reply-To: <20090303011143.4108bfaa@kate> References: <20090303011143.4108bfaa@kate> Message-ID: <20090304094818.58c03a3c@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 01:11:43 +0000 Cathal Mc Ginley wrote: > I did have the framework set up, but that code never made > it into SVN. If I can dig it up again, I'll create an SVN branch for > "extended barcode scanner support" and you can work from that branch. Created a branch with the AGSP code included, but based on 0.6.4b1 this time. It's here: svn://rubyforge.org/var/svn/alexandria/branches/alexandria/0.6.4b1-extended-barcode-scanner-support/ We should probably stop commenting on this feature, and let Peter work away at his own leisure. We can come back to it later, when discussion won't conflict with his project. In any case, it really won't be going in until 0.7 at the earliest, and I have a few ideas for 0.6.5 and later (fixing the rest of the book providers for a start) which should keep us going for a month or two... - Cathal. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAkmuTmIACgkQfMAUnRdb+8rRBACgvJqCT9e06nD2GK8z/3cCjjYa /y0An2xnfE7MIbn3+xDqlrKjq00soOvT =j5+k -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Sat Mar 14 19:33:25 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:33:25 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.4 Message-ID: <20090314233325.4dd0e186@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Alexandria 0.6.4 has just been released. Alexandria is a GNOME application for managing your book collection. This is the first stable release in just over a year, following a largely uneventful beta test period. The 0.6.4 release focuses on maintenance and stability. Since 0.6.3, many providers of book meta-data have been fixed, GUI responsiveness and feedback have been further improved, and many long-standing stability problems have been addressed. There are also new translations for Greek, Macedonian, Norwegian and Slovakian. On-line release notes, including installation instructions, may be found here: http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-03-14--0.6.4-released.html I believe 0.6.4 is much more stable and usable than 0.6.3, but there are still some outstanding bugs. Please back up your libraries (in the ~/.alexandria directory) before upgrading. And if you do have problems, please let me know about them either via the RubyForge Tracker or on this mailing list. I hope you enjoy this new release. Now I'm off to start scanning in my whole library... - Cathal Mc Ginley. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAkm8PsUACgkQfMAUnRdb+8oWEQCgimAFSs5sLpNMXF7KjGX+QJMU 0u8AniI/3uHhgWl4IszqB1WoB8uwgQ9c =Z3kR -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From lennart at karssen.org Sun Mar 15 04:17:07 2009 From: lennart at karssen.org (L.C. Karssen) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:17:07 +0200 Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.4 In-Reply-To: <20090314233325.4dd0e186@kate> References: <20090314233325.4dd0e186@kate> Message-ID: <1237105027.11763.4.camel@sidonia> Congratulations on this latest achievement! I've posted the release notes on Ubuntu's launchpad website as well (and updated it a bit). The url is https://launchpad.net/alexandria. Lennart Karssen. On Sat, 2009-03-14 at 23:33 +0000, Cathal Mc Ginley wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Alexandria 0.6.4 has just been released. > > Alexandria is a GNOME application for managing your book collection. > > This is the first stable release in just over a year, following a > largely uneventful beta test period. > > The 0.6.4 release focuses on maintenance and stability. Since 0.6.3, > many providers of book meta-data have been fixed, GUI responsiveness and > feedback have been further improved, and many long-standing stability > problems have been addressed. There are also new translations for Greek, > Macedonian, Norwegian and Slovakian. > > On-line release notes, including installation instructions, may be found > here: > http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-03-14--0.6.4-released.html > > I believe 0.6.4 is much more stable and usable than 0.6.3, but there > are still some outstanding bugs. Please back up your libraries (in > the ~/.alexandria directory) before upgrading. And if you do have > problems, please let me know about them either via the RubyForge > Tracker or on this mailing list. > > I hope you enjoy this new release. Now I'm off to start scanning in my > whole library... > > - Cathal Mc Ginley. > > > > > > > > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) > Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE > > iEYEARECAAYFAkm8PsUACgkQfMAUnRdb+8oWEQCgimAFSs5sLpNMXF7KjGX+QJMU > 0u8AniI/3uHhgWl4IszqB1WoB8uwgQ9c > =Z3kR > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > _______________________________________________ > Alexandria-list mailing list > Alexandria-list at rubyforge.org > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/alexandria-list -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- L.C. Karssen Utrecht The Netherlands lennart at karssen.org http://blog.karssen.org Stuur me aub geen Word of Powerpoint bestanden! Zie http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.nl.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: This is a digitally signed message part URL: From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Sun Mar 15 14:50:01 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:50:01 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.4.1 bugfix release In-Reply-To: <20090314233325.4dd0e186@kate> References: <20090314233325.4dd0e186@kate> Message-ID: <20090315185001.23cc7361@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Okay, so just to prove that nobody's perfect, a very annoying interface bug (#24568) crept in to 0.6.4 [1]. Thanks to Mamoru Tasaka (the packager for Fedora) for spotting it so quickly. The summary: if you sort your list of books, selecting a book to view its properties will bring up the wrong book! So, I just whipped up a quick 0.6.4.1 release with the bugfix included. The release notes now point to the new files: http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-03-14--0.6.4-released.html Obviously some better QA [2] is in order here :^) Sorry to the dozen-or-so people who had already installed 0.6.4... Hopefully the new version will work out a bit better. Cheers, - C. [1] http://rubyforge.org/tracker/?func=detail&atid=863&aid=24568&group_id=205 [2] Quality Assurance, but even some informal pre-release user testing would help here. Any volunteers? -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAkm9TdoACgkQfMAUnRdb+8qiFACgszRLFixnrXBIztxfp0SzPjqD CPwAn1C6GfvK+iyH2MAcCh9FxRBnvEze =L0cV -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From pablo.bianchi at gmail.com Mon Mar 23 14:58:28 2009 From: pablo.bianchi at gmail.com (Pablo Bianchi) Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:58:28 -0300 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Just another wishlist for Alexandria Message-ID: <1f6fc5c70903231158r2e258ac6ua42df72e9cdc99cd@mail.gmail.com> hi! I have been using Alexandria for a while and made a little wishlist. -- Pablo WISHLIST: Same functionalities of Amarok to mp3, to books on Alexandria: Toggle checkboxs directly on list "Edit tag 'Authors'..." (for example) on context menu when righ-clicing a book on the list Next and Previews buttons on Properties box, to move... Statistics and Labels tabs and functionalities Export/Import to ISO 2709 Format using MARC 21 bibliographic format, Using UTF-8, Latin1, or any other coding. Import also the Synopsis of the book, is the field 520 of MARC 21. Import from a TXT with a set of ISBNs Import using z39.50 when Amazon, WorldCat... doesn't works (like ILSs like Koha) Why if I enter to the link web I can see the cover, but it doesn't download it when fetching data? Clic on cover image (on Properties box) should let: Save the image Set url or path of the image (not only path, locally) If it doesn't found it on Amazon and those: Offer a set of covers using Google Images Possibility to create different notes: Unknown words (It would be awesome that it search automatically the meaning/translation, detecting automatically (or not) the language, for eg using WorldReference.com). Things to search about Remarkable quotes. Related URLs, Books, Movies Link to biography of the author on Wikipedia (look for Context sidebar on Amarok for inspiration) using embedded browser Different color for odd lines on List view Checkbook on "Add book..." to not to close the dialog box, to quickly add another book (with ISBN or anything else). From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Mon Mar 23 22:15:17 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 02:15:17 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Just another wishlist for Alexandria In-Reply-To: <1f6fc5c70903231158r2e258ac6ua42df72e9cdc99cd@mail.gmail.com> References: <1f6fc5c70903231158r2e258ac6ua42df72e9cdc99cd@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20090324021517.3a7a6ac2@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:58:28 -0300 Pablo Bianchi wrote: > hi! > > I have been using Alexandria for a while and made a little wishlist. > > -- > Pablo Hi Pablo, thanks for getting involved. I generally love "features wishlists"; they provide good ideas for possible future development. What version of Alexandria are you currently using? Because some of the features you mention are already supported... 0.6.4.1 is the latest release. I'll go through your list a few at a time, with comments. > > WISHLIST: > > Same functionalities of Amarok to mp3, to books on Alexandria: > Toggle checkboxs directly on list > "Edit tag 'Authors'..." (for example) on context menu when > righ-clicing a book on the list Mentioned in Feature Request #23740, http://rubyforge.org/tracker/?func=detail&aid=23740&group_id=205&atid=866 along with how I might implement that. > Next and Previews buttons on Properties box, to move... I don't really know the Amarok GUI (I mostly use GNOME) but I can imagine what this would look like. Sounds like a nice idea actually; view the complete properties of a book in the 'properties' dialog, and then to get to the next book, just click the Next button (rather than closing the dialog and clicking the next book). Not sure how well this would fit in with the current GUI, but it's worth considering. One of the things users apparently love about Alexandria is that the GUI is pleasant to use, so that's one 'feature' I want to keep above all others. > Statistics and Labels tabs and functionalities You'll have to expand upon this, I don't know what you mean... What statistics should be displayed, and in what form? I don't understand what you mean by 'Labels' in this context either, unless you're talking about 'tags'. Can you describe what the feature would look like? A pencil-sketch would work too - or a screenshot of the Amarok feature you're referring to... > Export/Import to ISO 2709 Format using MARC 21 bibliographic format, Now this *could* be done, since the Z39.50 support does use MARC. Unfortunately, I only barely understand the MARC format - it's a part of the code I've barely touched. Would you really have MARC files lying around to use for Import and Export? Usually, we just let Ruby-ZOOM deal with accessing Z39.50 sources and parsing the MARC documents. If importing and exporting to MARC files is useful, it could be added quite easily I'm sure. > Using UTF-8, Latin1, or any other coding. In the future, Alexandria will use UTF-8 everywhere (where possible). At the moment, it's a bit of a mish-mash, and there are occasional encoding problems. > Import also the Synopsis of the book, is the field 520 of MARC 21. Thanks! That's something I can add to the "optional book properties" in a future version. > Import from a TXT with a set of ISBNs This feature is already supported: select menu item "Library > Import" and select "ISBN List (*.txt)" > Import using z39.50 when Amazon, WorldCat... doesn't works (like ILSs > like Koha) This feature is also supported, but you may not have Ruby-ZOOM installed which provides this support. The simple way to install it is: 1) Install rubygems using whatever tools your platform prefers (for example, on Debian or Ubuntu # apt-get install rubygems) 2) # gem install marc 3) # gem install zoom Restart Alexandria, and you should be able to add new Z39.50 providers. > Why if I enter to the link web I can see the cover, but it > doesn't download it when fetching data? Can you give a specific ISBN of a book for which this happens and the provider where you can see the cover image? It may be that the book was found at a different provider from the one whose link you followed. For example, I can't grab images from WorldCat (the web page uses complex JavaScript to display the cover image) but I can from Amazon and AdLibris etc. So if your book was found at WorldCat first, it won't have found any image. Naturally, once it has found a book, Alexandria stops searching - and it can't know that it hasn't found the 'best' data available. One feature that would be nice would be to 'fill-in extra data' from a specific provider afterwards. > Clic on cover image (on Properties box) should let: > Save the image That's a nice idea, it would be very convenient. Of course, it *is* currently possible to view all cover images directly by browsing "~/.alexandria/My Library" with Nautilus or another file browser. > Set url or path of the image (not only path, locally) That's a nice idea too: it should be quite easy to implement directly (but designing a simple GUI for this would a bit more complex). Ideally, for GNOME, the best way would be to use GIO/GVFS... but I don't think that's completely stable at the moment, nor is http support done yet. > If it doesn't found it on Amazon and those: Offer a set of covers > using Google Images I think that searching a book-specific site like LibraryThing might be more helpful here. That *is* a feature I plan to add, eventually. I would generally be *very* reluctant to display the results of a Google image search in Alexandria (even with safe-search on :^) (This is why I think in future Alexandria should support plugins; so individual users can add a feature like this that *they* might like but which others would prefer to stay out of the main body of the software.) > Possibility to create different notes: > Unknown words (It would be awesome that it search automatically the > meaning/translation, detecting automatically (or not) the language, > for eg using WorldReference.com). You probably meant WordReference.com I think this is too broad a feature for a cataloguing program. I personally can't see it being useful for cataloguing your books. But then, I'm an English-speaker and most of my books are in English; if you could give me a Use-Case that describes how you might use this feature and why it fits in to Alexandria's overall purpose (keeping track of your books) then it might help me understand your wish for the feature. > Things to search about > Remarkable quotes. This would be a nice idea, but where would Alexandria get these from? I don't know of any online book quotes database. There may be copyright issues which prevent such sites from existing. > Related URLs, Books, Movies Again, how would we generate a list of related items? There aren't really any sources that spring to mind that Alexandria could search automatically. (Amazon gives 'related purchases' which is not useful in the same way at all.) > Link to biography of the author on Wikipedia (look for Context sidebar > on Amarok for inspiration) using embedded browser Link to author biography would be a nice touch; but probably just launching a browser rather than having an embedded browser. I do want to keep the user-interface as simple as possible. As for how we'd get the URL of the author biography... that's another story. We could just construct the URL and hope the page exists, or we could search Wikipedia. But it's not trivial to get the canonical name of the author (never mind dealing with pen-names), and not every author will have their own page of course. GoodReads.com also has Author Biography pages, so that might be a useful start. > Different color for odd lines on List view This is already present. If it's not visible on your system, it's something to do with your GTK+ theme; but Alexandria definitely sets the "rendering hint" to alternate colours in the List View. http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/screenshots.html > Checkbook on "Add book..." to not to close the dialog box, to quickly > add another book (with ISBN or anything else). There is already such a checkbox on the "Add Book..." dialog in Alexandria 0.6.4, but not on the "Add Book Manually..." dialog. Making sure this type of feature is consistent is tricky. The dialog for "Add Book" is not too overcrowded, so adding the checkbox was easy to do while keeping the GUI simple. But the "Add Book Manually..." dialog is essentially the same as the "Book Properties" dialog; where would we put the checkbox? Would it be easy to see and understand what it's for? Would it make an already-crowded dialog too complex? Other users have pointed out that the user-interface for adding books could be improved and simplified. In particular, there are now two dialogs for adding books from a barcode scanner; one adds books in the foreground, one does it in the background... It's not so easy to figure out which is best, or how to combine the two dialogs without losing any features that users like. > Well, that went on for longer than I thought it would. I'll try to work some of your wishlist items (as well as lots of earlier input from the mailing list, Feature Requests on the Tracker and data from the recently-departed Wiki) into a requirements document sometime (soon, hopefully). Also, some of your questions could probably go into an online FAQ :^) I outlined my plans for future work on Alexandria on the list recently: http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/alexandria-list/2009-February/001598.html In particular, I want to get some other people looking at the code I've started for Palatina; I hope to set up a corner of the web for that project soon, including a list of goals and a requirements document. So, watch this space... Cheers, - Cathal. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAknIQjUACgkQfMAUnRdb+8oIfACgorDrxJRgHV/XkJdeSCNAIhzJ xw8AoKqvdBaMsK0aBJlWMlvOgTJCmvxp =DmnW -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From MiguelJose.Jimenez at isotrol.com Tue Mar 24 05:19:51 2009 From: MiguelJose.Jimenez at isotrol.com (Miguel J. =?UTF-8?B?Smltw6luZXo=?=) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:19:51 +0100 Subject: [Alexandria-list] ISBN provider Message-ID: <20090324101951.6e4a1874@isotrol.com> The latest version of Alexandria (0.6.4.1) does not update the Spanish ISBN provider... This one changed URL a few months back, and thus does not work as a valid provider anymore. The new URL is: http://www.mcu.es/webISBN/tituloSimpleFilter.do?cache=init&prev_layout=busquedaisbn&layout=busquedaisbn&language=es --- .---------------------------------------------------------. | Miguel J. Jim?nez | | mjjimenez at isotrol.com | :---------------------------------------------------------: | KeyID 0xFFE63EC6 hkp://pgp.rediris.es:11371 | :---------------------------------------------------------: | UTM ED-50 X:765205.09 Y:4144614.91 Huso: 29 | :---------------------------------------------------------: | "La cantidad es una cualidad por s? misma" | | (I?sif Stalin) | '---------------------------------------------------------' -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: not available URL: From MiguelJose.Jimenez at isotrol.com Tue Mar 24 13:08:38 2009 From: MiguelJose.Jimenez at isotrol.com (Miguel J. =?UTF-8?B?Smltw6luZXo=?=) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:08:38 +0100 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Debian testing Message-ID: <20090324180838.465ba0b2@isotrol.com> After updating my system, alexandria stop working... The error is: $>alexandria ruby1.8: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/x86_64-linux/gtk2.so: undefined symbol: gtk_file_system_error_quark Any ideas what happended? I have Debian/testing amd64 -- .---------------------------------------------------------. | Miguel J. Jim?nez | | mjjimenez at isotrol.com | :---------------------------------------------------------: | KeyID 0xFFE63EC6 hkp://pgp.rediris.es:11371 | :---------------------------------------------------------: | UTM ED-50 X:765205.09 Y:4144614.91 Huso: 29 | :---------------------------------------------------------: | "When you tell the thruth you'll never have to remember | | later what you lied about." | | Lwaxana Troi (Star Trek TNG) | '---------------------------------------------------------' -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Tue Mar 24 13:35:13 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:35:13 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] MCU provider In-Reply-To: <20090324101951.6e4a1874@isotrol.com> References: <20090324101951.6e4a1874@isotrol.com> Message-ID: <20090324173513.34b8f688@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:19:51 +0100 "Miguel J. Jim?nez" wrote: > The latest version of Alexandria (0.6.4.1) does not update the Spanish > ISBN provider... This one changed URL a few months back, and thus does > not work as a valid provider anymore. > The new URL is: > > http://www.mcu.es/webISBN/tituloSimpleFilter.do?cache=init&prev_layout=busquedaisbn&layout=busquedaisbn&language=es Hi Miguel, I had briefly tested the MCU provider before I released 0.6.4.1, but probably with only one or two ISBNs. It seemed to work okay, so the old URLs still seem to work some of the time... For example, it works for me when I start Alexandria 0.6.4.1, put "Spanish Culture Ministry" at the top of the Providers list and "Add Book..." with ISBN "8420474630". The status bar says "Found at Provider 'Spanish Culture Ministry'". When I select "Display Online Information > Spanish Culture Ministry" for that book, it pops up a URL starting with http://www.mcu.es/cgi-brs/BasesHTML/isbn/BRSCGI.... which is the old URL base, but does refer to a page listing the book. However, when searching for books on the MCU site starting at the new URL you gave me, I came across this error message at one point: Las consultas a la base de datos tienen un l?mite de espera que ha sido sobrepasado. Por motivos t?cnicos, para repetir la consulta debe acceder de nuevo a la base de datos a partir de la p?gina inicial. Which (according to my automated translation) implies that only a certain number of searches can be performed before a limit is reached. Then, going back to the search page and searching makes it work again... If this is the case, I may have to re-write the provider using Ruby-Mechanize (to make it easier to search using POST forms). That's not a major problem though, roughly a day or two's work. I intended to re-write this provider eventually anyway. > It would be very helpful if you could give me a list of 10 to 20 ISBNs of Spanish books which you know can be found on MCU. That way, I can run tests to see what the root of the issue really is, as well as writing a test to verify that the new provider works as intended. Thanks, - Cathal. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAknJGdEACgkQfMAUnRdb+8q5VgCeOeLBWZbswGtKhNQpPej4sg82 8w0Anjkr8IynRv1eCKNKT9HeoEzKbnjA =VkVE -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From pablo.bianchi at gmail.com Tue Mar 24 13:52:47 2009 From: pablo.bianchi at gmail.com (Pablo Bianchi) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:52:47 -0300 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Just another wishlist for Alexandria In-Reply-To: <20090324021517.3a7a6ac2@kate> References: <1f6fc5c70903231158r2e258ac6ua42df72e9cdc99cd@mail.gmail.com> <20090324021517.3a7a6ac2@kate> Message-ID: <1f6fc5c70903241052m2947d266ie56394fa5fd04bae@mail.gmail.com> Hi Cathal, First, sorry for my English, isn't my native language. On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:15 PM, Cathal Mc Ginley wrote: > What version of Alexandria are you currently using? Because some of the > features you mention are already supported... 0.6.4.1 is the latest > release. Sorry I didn't mention. I'm using v0.6.4.1. >> Same functionalities of Amarok to mp3, to books on Alexandria: >> Next and Previews buttons on Properties box, to move... > I don't really know the Amarok GUI (I mostly use GNOME) but I can > imagine what this would look like. Sounds like a nice idea actually; > view the complete properties of a book in the 'properties' dialog, and > then to get to the next book, just click the Next button (rather than > closing the dialog and clicking the next book). Exactly! >> Statistics and Labels tabs and functionalities > You'll have to expand upon this, I don't know what you mean... What > statistics should be displayed, and in what form? I don't understand > what you mean by 'Labels' in this context either, unless you're talking > about 'tags'. With Statistics for example: Number of books from this author: n Author rating: m (average value for all books) Amazon book rating: (or any other source) But I think it could have more info.. Labels: Yes, I think we are talking of the same thing, labels on Amarok are similar like on GMail. The bibliographic format MARC 21 (the most used in the world) use descriptors in fields 6xx (fields are numbers, from 000 to 999, with subfields. For example, 20$a is the ISBN. Something similar but a little bit easier, to group sets of books. But I don't know the difference (in the behave) from actual tag and Notes field. I'm talking about a cloud of tags/labels where to pick someones, related to the book. This information usually comes on 6XX MARC fields: http://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/lite/elbdsubj.html > Can you describe what the feature would look like? A pencil-sketch > would work too - or a screenshot of the Amarok feature you're referring > to... Love between a man and a music player is possible: sudo apt-get install amarok :) A screenshot, but with only one label... http://yfrog.com/08amarokscreenshotlabelsj >> Export/Import to ISO 2709 Format using MARC 21 bibliographic format, > Now this *could* be done, since the Z39.50 support does use MARC. > Unfortunately, I only barely understand the MARC format - it's a part > of the code I've barely touched. > > Would you really have MARC files lying around to use for Import and > Export? Usually, we just let Ruby-ZOOM deal with accessing Z39.50 > sources and parsing the MARC documents. Fetching records of books with z39.50 is different from bulk importing/exporting from/to a ISO2709 (a "MARC file", to be strict, the file could have any other format, like UNIMARC or CEPAL). > If importing and exporting to MARC files is useful, it could be added > quite easily I'm sure. A little library could become a bigger library, so if is not very difficult, this option would be interesting. Another standard file format (modern) is MARC XML: http://www.loc.gov/marc/ >> Using UTF-8, Latin1, or any other coding. > In the future, Alexandria will use UTF-8 everywhere (where possible). > At the moment, it's a bit of a mish-mash, and there are occasional > encoding problems. Great! Encoding troubles are really annoying. >> Import also the Synopsis of the book, is the field 520 of MARC 21. > Thanks! That's something I can add to the "optional book properties" in > a future version. ;) >From the record of a well cataloged book you can fetch a lot of interesting data! Like size of the book, number of pages, translators, year, edition... To use z39.50 should be in some place the list of servers. A line would be the LOC server: Library of Congress Online Catalog Domain name: z3950.loc.gov (140.147.249.38) Port: 7090 Database name: Voyager >> Import from a TXT with a set of ISBNs > This feature is already supported: select menu item "Library > Import" > and select "ISBN List (*.txt)" OOPS! >> Import using z39.50 when Amazon, WorldCat... doesn't works (like ILSs >> like Koha) > This feature is also supported, but you may not have Ruby-ZOOM > installed which provides this support. The simple way to install it is: > > 1) Install rubygems using whatever tools your platform prefers (for > example, on Debian or Ubuntu # apt-get install rubygems) > 2) # gem install marc > 3) # gem install zoom > > Restart Alexandria, and you should be able to add new Z39.50 providers. Certainly I'm doing something wrong. I apt-get install rubygems (and of course restarted Alexandria) but I don't see any change. >> Why if I enter to the link web I can see the cover, but it >> doesn't download it when fetching data? > Can you give a specific ISBN of a book for which this happens and the > provider where you can see the cover image? It may be that the book was > found at a different provider from the one whose link you followed. ISBN: 9789871138517 (A brave new world). Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but I only see the default blue cover. Right-clicking, Display online information, Amazon go here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9871138512 where I can see the cover. > For example, I can't grab images from WorldCat (the web page uses > complex JavaScript to display the cover image) but I can from > Amazon and AdLibris etc. So if your book was found at WorldCat first, it > won't have found any image. mmm, I have Amazon on the first place (default order). I'm not familiarized with Amazon API. Google Books API is an alternative? > Naturally, once it has found a book, Alexandria stops searching - and > it can't know that it hasn't found the 'best' data available. And couldn't add even more data from the other sources? > One feature that would be nice would be to 'fill-in extra data' from a > specific provider afterwards. That what I'm talking about! Z39.50 servers have data amazon don't give, and vice versa. >> Clic on cover image (on Properties box) should let: >> Save the image > That's a nice idea, it would be very convenient. Of course, it *is* > currently possible to view all cover images directly by browsing > "~/.alexandria/My Library" with Nautilus or another file browser. Yes, but average user don't know that. The option is more user friendly. >> Set url or path of the image (not only path, locally) > That's a nice idea too: it should be quite easy to implement directly > (but designing a simple GUI for this would a bit more complex). > > Ideally, for GNOME, the best way would be to use GIO/GVFS... but I > don't think that's completely stable at the moment, nor is http support > done yet. > >> If it doesn't found it on Amazon and those: Offer a set of covers >> using Google Images > I think that searching a book-specific site like LibraryThing might be > more helpful here. That *is* a feature I plan to add, eventually. > > I would generally be *very* reluctant to display the results of a > Google image search in Alexandria (even with safe-search on :^) You are right. Searching the cover in Google Image should be then the last -manually by the user- alternative. > (This is why I think in future Alexandria should support plugins; so > individual users can add a feature like this that *they* might like but > which others would prefer to stay out of the main body of the > software.) Totally agree with that! >> Possibility to create different notes: >> Unknown words (It would be awesome that it search automatically the >> meaning/translation, detecting automatically (or not) the language, >> for eg using WorldReference.com). > You probably meant WordReference.com OOPS! Yes! > I think this is too broad a feature for a cataloguing program. I > personally can't see it being useful for cataloguing your books. > > But then, I'm an English-speaker and most of my books are in English; > if you could give me a Use-Case that describes how you might use this > feature and why it fits in to Alexandria's overall purpose (keeping > track of your books) then it might help me understand your wish for the > feature. Formally, for a cataloging program this is not a good idea. But, is Alexandria for a formal library, even a small one, to loan books...? I think not, only for a personal use (at least firstly). A use-case (I owe you the UML diagram :P): When I read a book, I often use the last white pages to make some annotations. If I have not near a dictionary, I write there the words I don't know to search for them later. Mainly I have three parts on those pages: "Unknown words", "Things to search about", "Quotes and page-number of interesting sections" >> Things to search about >> Remarkable quotes. > This would be a nice idea, but where would Alexandria get these from? I > don't know of any online book quotes database. There may be copyright > issues which prevent such sites from existing. That's because that data it comes from the user, not from any online database (well... it could be, with some things). For example, after (or before) reading the Odyssey is interesting to read about Ionian Islands. >> Related URLs, Books, Movies > Again, how would we generate a list of related items? There aren't > really any sources that spring to mind that Alexandria could search > automatically. (Amazon gives 'related purchases' which is not useful in > the same way at all.) All this items is in the group "Possibility to create different notes", personal notes, written, at least in first place, by the user. >> Link to biography of the author on Wikipedia (look for Context sidebar >> on Amarok for inspiration) using embedded browser > Link to author biography would be a nice touch; but probably just > launching a browser rather than having an embedded browser. I do want > to keep the user-interface as simple as possible. OK, but please see Amarok context sidebar. Is not a full browser, it doesn't look like a browser, just show the html embedded. > As for how we'd get the URL of the author biography... that's another > story. We could just construct the URL and hope the page exists, or > we could search Wikipedia. But it's not trivial to get the canonical > name of the author (never mind dealing with pen-names), and not every > author will have their own page of course. GoodReads.com also has Author > Biography pages, so that might be a useful start. Good question. I'm not sure how work internally Amarok, but Wikipedia usually have alias to redirect from a group of names to the exact (or more common) name of the author. >> Different color for odd lines on List view > This is already present. If it's not visible on your system, it's > something to do with your GTK+ theme; but Alexandria definitely sets > the "rendering hint" to alternate colours in the List View. > http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/screenshots.html OOPS! I use Kubuntu. But.. it could be my monitor or video card, because I don't see the colours alternate here: http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/images/gallery-Alexandria%200.6.3/List%20View%20of%20books.jpg > Other users have pointed out that the user-interface for adding books > could be improved and simplified. In particular, there are now two > dialogs for adding books from a barcode scanner; one adds books in the > foreground, one does it in the background... It's not so easy to figure > out which is best, or how to combine the two dialogs without losing any > features that users like. Yes, is something to think about, but I dont dislike the way it is now. > Well, that went on for longer than I thought it would. I'll try to work > some of your wishlist items (as well as lots of earlier input from the > mailing list, Feature Requests on the Tracker and data from the > recently-departed Wiki) into a requirements document sometime (soon, > hopefully). Also, some of your questions could probably go into an > online FAQ :^) > > I outlined my plans for future work on Alexandria on the list recently: > http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/alexandria-list/2009-February/001598.html > In particular, I want to get some other people looking at the code I've > started for Palatina; I hope to set up a corner of the web for that > project soon, including a list of goals and a requirements document. > So, watch this space... Well, a library soft it could be as much complex as you want. I'm familiar with Koha, an Integrated Library System big and complex, using MySQL (you can use SQL lite?) over a web server like Apache. You could think not only about "biblios" a with a list of items associated (copies of a book), also about a book on multiple volumes. In those cases you usually have an ISBN for each volume *AND* another ISBN for the complete group. Also you can add support for serials (magazine) with ISSN... Cheers, Pablo From MiguelJose.Jimenez at isotrol.com Tue Mar 24 14:33:57 2009 From: MiguelJose.Jimenez at isotrol.com (Miguel J. =?UTF-8?B?Smltw6luZXo=?=) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:33:57 +0100 Subject: [Alexandria-list] MCU provider In-Reply-To: <20090324173513.34b8f688@kate> References: <20090324101951.6e4a1874@isotrol.com> <20090324173513.34b8f688@kate> Message-ID: <20090324193357.036ccfbd@isotrol.com> El Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:35:13 +0000 Cathal Mc Ginley escribi?: > > It would be very helpful if you could give me a list of 10 to 20 ISBNs > of Spanish books which you know can be found on MCU. That way, I can > run tests to see what the root of the issue really is, as well as > writing a test to verify that the new provider works as intended. Try these: (ISBN-13 as calculated by Alexandria) 9788488342478 Enamorados (2008) 9788445071380 El libro de los cuentos perdidos I (2001) Both ISBNs exists at the database but Alexandria fails to get the data... When the browser is opened the message says that the page has moved (in spanish) so the url is incorrect. Also I also tried adding a book by ISBN whith MCU provider at the top and never found anyone... Hope it helps... -- .---------------------------------------------------------. | Miguel J. Jim?nez | | mjjimenez at isotrol.com | :---------------------------------------------------------: | KeyID 0xFFE63EC6 hkp://pgp.rediris.es:11371 | :---------------------------------------------------------: | UTM ED-50 X:765205.09 Y:4144614.91 Huso: 29 | :---------------------------------------------------------: | "When you tell the thruth you'll never have to remember | | later what you lied about." | | Lwaxana Troi (Star Trek TNG) | '---------------------------------------------------------' -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 197 bytes Desc: not available URL: From leandro.regueiro at gmail.com Tue Mar 24 14:51:48 2009 From: leandro.regueiro at gmail.com (Leandro Regueiro) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:51:48 +0100 Subject: [Alexandria-list] MCU provider In-Reply-To: <20090324173513.34b8f688@kate> References: <20090324101951.6e4a1874@isotrol.com> <20090324173513.34b8f688@kate> Message-ID: > However, when searching for books on the MCU site starting at the new > URL you gave me, I came across this error message at one point: > > ? Las consultas a la base de datos tienen un l?mite de espera que ha > ? sido sobrepasado. Por motivos t?cnicos, para repetir la consulta debe > ? acceder de nuevo a la base de datos a partir de la p?gina inicial. Correct Translation (or an almost correct translation): The queries to the database have a timeout that has been exceeded. For technical reasons, for repeating the query you should access again to the database from the home page. Bye, Leandro Regueiro From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Tue Mar 24 15:11:31 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:11:31 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Debian testing In-Reply-To: <20090324180838.465ba0b2@isotrol.com> References: <20090324180838.465ba0b2@isotrol.com> Message-ID: <20090324191131.68c6a70e@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:08:38 +0100 "Miguel J. Jim?nez" wrote: > After updating my system, alexandria stop working... The error is: > > $>alexandria > ruby1.8: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/x86_64-linux/gtk2.so: > undefined symbol: gtk_file_system_error_quark > > Any ideas what happended? I have Debian/testing amd64 > This has cropped up before on the list: http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/alexandria-list/2009-March/001605.html (It would be nice if these list archives could have a search interface). - C. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAknJMGMACgkQfMAUnRdb+8pjOQCfT+N26AnoEAP2iTW2VggI27MQ ePkAoKxls7n/Ek8ie5bQjCZn9Z/sy/OW =mBEp -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Tue Mar 24 16:07:52 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:07:52 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] Just another wishlist for Alexandria In-Reply-To: <1f6fc5c70903241052m2947d266ie56394fa5fd04bae@mail.gmail.com> References: <1f6fc5c70903231158r2e258ac6ua42df72e9cdc99cd@mail.gmail.com> <20090324021517.3a7a6ac2@kate> <1f6fc5c70903241052m2947d266ie56394fa5fd04bae@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20090324200752.0724d520@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:52:47 -0300 Pablo Bianchi wrote: - -------- 8<-------snip [amarok labels feature] snip--------- 8<------ > http://yfrog.com/08amarokscreenshotlabelsj These are equivalent to the tags Alexandria uses, but they are simply displayed as a comma-separated list in the Book Properties dialog, and are useful mostly in searches or in creating Smart Libraries. The idea of a tag-cloud widget is nice, but it's a big feature. > Fetching records of books with z39.50 is different from bulk > importing/exporting from/to a ISO2709 (a "MARC file", to be strict, > the file could have any other format, like UNIMARC or CEPAL). Your knowledge and familiarity with MARC and related formats could be very useful to Alexandria. Once I set up a Wiki, perhaps you could work on a few quick summaries and introductions to the most useful aspects of MARC... > To use z39.50 should be in some place the list of servers. A line > would be the LOC server: The Library of Congress is enabled by default if you have Ruby-ZOOM set up fully. After installing rubygems with apt-get, you need to use the 'gems' program itself to install marc and zoom: sudo gem install marc sudo gem install zoom > ISBN: 9789871138517 (A brave new world). Perhaps I'm doing something > wrong, but I only see the default blue cover. Right-clicking, Display > online information, Amazon go here: > http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/9871138512 where I can see the > cover. Aha, this should be on a FAQ as I've seen it before. For *some* books, the Amazon AWS web-service doesn't provide a link to the image - even when the website does. No way to tell when this is the case though. A "fill-in" feature would be a way to work around this though. - --------- 8<--------- snip [translation feature] snip------- 8<------- > Formally, for a cataloging program this is not a good idea. But, is > Alexandria for a formal library, even a small one, to loan books...? I > think not, only for a personal use (at least firstly). > What I mean is that Alexandria can't be all things to all users. Perhaps a plugin architecture could allow someone to write an inline translator or dictionary interface, but with (currently) one active developer, my priority is going to be to focus on book-cataloguing features. > A use-case (I owe you the UML diagram :P): When I read a book, I often > use the last white pages to make some annotations. If I have not near > a dictionary, I write there the words I don't know to search for them > later. Mainly I have three parts on those pages: "Unknown words", > "Things to search about", "Quotes and page-number of interesting > sections" > Aha! I misunderstood you here: I thought that by "Things to search about" you meant something to do with automatic searches for Alexandria to do... (As in "Alexandria should search for remarkable quotes"...) In fact, you just mean extra Notes tabs for specific types of notes! This type of thing could easily be supported in Palatina (arbitrary properties are supported). > Well, a library soft it could be as much complex as you want. I'm > familiar with Koha, an Integrated Library System big and complex, > using MySQL (you can use SQL lite?) over a web server like Apache. You > could think not only about "biblios" a with a list of items associated > (copies of a book), also about a book on multiple volumes. In those > cases you usually have an ISBN for each volume *AND* another ISBN for > the complete group. Also you can add support for serials (magazine) > with ISSN... Cheers for the pointer to Koha (a GPL'd web-based library system). Useful for research. Palatina isn't yet as complex or comprehensive as that, but it *should* provide more than enough detail for the nerdiest individual (like me!) to catalogue and document their book collection fully. And two other wider use-cases I'm interested in are "Second-Hand Bookshop" and "School or Village Library"... - Cathal. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAknJPZgACgkQfMAUnRdb+8qYWwCfRAVgKXnDrOxdjxzM/CAX2wAH NcYAn0QqGQQUNrQ9c6w0gROJoiEqNI5N =/vyD -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org Tue Mar 24 16:25:56 2009 From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:25:56 +0000 Subject: [Alexandria-list] MCU provider In-Reply-To: <20090324193357.036ccfbd@isotrol.com> References: <20090324101951.6e4a1874@isotrol.com> <20090324173513.34b8f688@kate> <20090324193357.036ccfbd@isotrol.com> Message-ID: <20090324202556.04b6fc59@kate> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:33:57 +0100 "Miguel J. Jim?nez" wrote: > Try these: (ISBN-13 as calculated by Alexandria) > 9788488342478 Enamorados (2008) > 9788445071380 El libro de los cuentos perdidos I (2001) Hm, found both of those at MCU... (Although it didn't get an author for the second text.) I even tried running Alexandria with LANG=es_ES.utf8 I don't know what the issue is here!? It could be something to do with your location... coming from outside Spain the website might treat my requests differently. (I'm guessing here!) I get a result page from this URL with no trouble... http://www.mcu.es/cgi-brs/BasesHTML/isbn/BRSCGI?CMD=VERLST&BASE=ISBN&DOCS=1-15&CONF=AEISPA.cnf&OPDEF=AND&DOCS=1&SEPARADOR=&WGEN-C=&WISB-C=8445071386&WAUT-C=&WTIT-C=&WMAT-C=&WEDI-C=&WFEP-C=&%40T353-GE=&%40T353-LE=&WSER-C=&WLUG-C=&WDIS-C=%28DISPONIBLE+or+AGOTADO%29&WLEN-C=&WCLA-C=&WSOP-C= The resulting page is attached. > I'll be writing a new provider for MCU anyway (I want to convert them all to Hpricot). I'll keep you in the loop and perhaps ask you to test it to be sure it's fixed whatever problem is happening here... In the mean time, you could try running: alexandria --debug from the command-line. The amount of output is ridiculously huge, but if you could paste it to some pastebin (http://pastebin.com for example) and give me the link to it, I might be able to see if there's an obvious issue... Here's the pastebin for my successful MCU search: http://pastebin.com/m22fc0d75 - Cathal. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: GnuPT 2.6.2.1 by EQUIPMENTE.DE iEYEARECAAYFAknJQdQACgkQfMAUnRdb+8ptPgCgnq1YdonC+1uywu+Jh/3KWMb+ wvoAn3q6005qmxLJr58gm6Ch1qIuQVT9 =G4XM -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: