AJagucki.log

I became interested in nanoblogger's support for Markdown, "a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers." Now I don't have a problem writing raw HTML, as I have done so naturally for all my previous entries. However, I cannot write W3C valid XHTML easily. Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax, and also a Perl program that converts the formatting to HTML.

Now, in the spirit of consistency, I have written a Perl program that converts nanoblogger's metafiles from HTML to Markdown. This may seem redundant to those who don't know how nanoblogger works.

Nanoblogger uses its metafiles to generate HTML that can then be modified and/or validated with plugins. I prefer to use a program's accuracy to ensure the HTML generated by the Markdown formatting is W3C valid. Plus, reading and writing Markdown syntax is a breeze.

If you have been using raw HTML to create your nanoblogger entries, and you wish to switch to Markdown formatting, this tool will help you cope with the thought of having inconsistent metafiles. It uses html2text.py so you will of course need that as well. Be sure to backup your metafiles before using this tool, as it will modify your files without intervention.

Download: nb-html2md.perl

After the conversion, I was pleased to see this site is now W3C XHTML and CSS valid.

GTA2SGE is a save game editor for a classic PC game; Grand Theft Auto 2 by Rockstar Games. Rockstar has made GTA2 freely available at Rockstar Classics. For new comers to the series, GTA2 is required playing. This program was developed as an intellectual exercise and also to pay homage to one of my favorite gaming series.

If you use GNU/Linux, you may be happy to know that GTA2 runs great under wine, an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix. Although I have yet to try network multiplayer since no one I know has a copy. But hey, I'm open for a challenge.

The interface was created with the Open Source Edition of Qt 4, a high-performance, cross-platform application development framework. For those who are unfamiliar with Qt, I will give a short run down on my favorite features. Firstly, it supports multiple platforms. You only need to write your code once, yet you can compile for all of the widely used operating systems. Code developed with Qt runs natively on GNU/Linux, Windows, and OS X to name the popular ones. The widgets will be drawn using whatever theme engine the operating system uses normally. Secondly, writing code using Qt's extensive classes is intuitive and feels like the 'right way' to be programming GUIs. If you're at all interested, do yourself a favor and read C++ Programming With Qt 4.

Download:

• GNU/Linux: gta2sge-1.0.tar.gz
• Windows: gta2sge-1.0-win32.rar

Screenshots:

• gta2sge-1.0.png
• gta2sge-1.0-about.png

Changes:

• Ported from Qt 3 to Qt 4.
• Respect-O-Meter sliders fully functional.