Hello again. It’s been about two and a half months since the last post… Yes, I’m still writing code, and no, I haven’t forgotten about this blog. I still intend on following through with my plans to make this domain useful to myself again.
Well, how am I doing since the last post? Pretty well, I’d say. A lot has been happening between work and life. h4x.Stats is pretty close to complete. I was waiting until it was “complete” before I decided to put it up onto my github. I got hung up working on the stats page before losing my focus on the project. I plan on going back to it to finish that up after I am finished with my current projects.
And currently… I am working with Python! I decided to try out Python after getting fed up with my lack of knowlege of C++ and wanted to create a cross-platform program for my next project. That project was a program I have titled tweakZip. tweakZip is a program that will create a customized update.zip file that can be flashed to an Android device. It is sort of a “spiritual successor” to my old BarebonesAndroid project. Similarly, it allows you to delete unwanted system apps from the filesystem, and it also allows you to add files as well! On top of that, with it being a .zip file, you can use it multiple times, including every time you flash a new ROM to your device! As an example of the usefulness this can offer, my particular tweakZip build removes the CarHome and POP Email apps, installs TitaniumBackup into /data, installs a filemanager, terminal emulator, and launcher into /system, and restores the stock boot animation! It saves me A LOT of time every time I flash my phone (which is quite often)! The tweakZip program will be up on github very soon.
The other project I’ve been focused on is quickTray! quickTray is a program that places an icon into your system tray and allows quick access to a customization list of shortcuts. I got the idea for this at work when I found myself having to rapidly switching to different project workspaces in my IDE. This is my first time ever making anything with any type of graphical interface native to the operating system. I was very suprised with how quickly Python allowed me to achieve this. I’ve actually written it twice – the first time using PyWin32, and the second time using PyQT. With the PyQT rewrite, it went from being a Win32-only program to being cross-compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac. Currently the list of shortcuts is read from a text file that has to be edited manually. I have been working on a fully graphical editor to replace the manual text editing. This has helped me learn more about QT and graphical programming in general. It’s been very interesting! The editor will hopefully be completed soon. To download a pre-built version of this for Windows (Python is NOT required to run this!) you can download it here.
I really like Python a lot. I was quite suprised with how quickly and easily I was able to pick it up and start developing with it. Literally, all I had done to get started was reading the first few chapters of the official Python tutorial (to learn the basic syntax rules and how it handles loops/variables/libraries) and just hopped right in from there. Within a couple hours I was already making way more progress on tweakZip than I would have if I kept trying to write it in C++! It’s been a very interesting and educational experience.
On top of all this, I still have one or two web projects I’d like to eventually return to and publish. I really need to start using this page more (like I had originally intended)!
