Syntax highlighting, UML, etc.

So immediately on getting this blog, I noticed that I needed to immediately remedy the lack of syntax highlighting. After a little bit of poking around the blagoweb, I found this nifty little set of javascript. It has the added bonus that it puts all the processing requirements on you, my dear readers :-). Poking around in the files reveals that the highlight definition files are very human readable (assuming you speak regular expressions), and highly customizable. I added number highlighting to the original script, because I like to see when there are magic numbers lurking in my code.

Also in my travels recently, I have come across UMLGraph, which is sheer awesomeness. It basically allows you to write a Java skeleton of your program, and generate a nice, readable (ha) dot file of the UML object layout. Saves me from having to remember which arrows are supposed to point to which objects in which directions with the proper dash-ed-ness of the lines. The package also has the ability to generate pic files for process trees. Wish I knew about this when I was doing CSC305!!

Also, this is a really cool blogging site... it lets you get access to the HTML template for the blog, as well as all posts, etc., and insert arbitrary javascript/css/whatever I want. I already adjusted the template width to allow for the syntax highlighter to display 80 column code and to install the syntax highlighter. There probably aren't any server-side extensions though... that would just be asking for trouble. But since I can make arbitrary links, there's nothing to prevent me from linking to my own webserver.

Last but not least, Vimperator has to be the coolest extension for firefox in existance. No VIM keybindings on text entry boxes (yet), but it allows complete control of firefox using (more or less) standard VIM keybindings. Very useful. The new QuickMarks feature is pretty awesome too. It allows you to associate a letter with any URL, and then access that URL by pressing 'go'+<key>. For example, I have viperphish-code.blogger.com set to 'l', and to get here, I just press 'gol' ('gnl' if I want to open it in a new tab). 'f' is facebook, 'p' is pandora.com, 'b' is biblegateway.com etc. Super cool.^[:wq