Narcissus/Zaphod JavaScript Research VM for Firefox

Narcissus is a JavaScript virtual machine written in JavaScript. Firefox extension Zaphod allows using Narcissus as the default JavaScript engine in Firefox.
Developers can write scripts specifically for the Narcissus engine (by specifying script tags with a type of "application/narcissus"), or they can replace SpiderMonkey with Narcissus as the default engine.

References:
More info about Zaphod 
Example Pages

How to use Huawei E1550 USB Modem On Ubuntu 10.04

I am using StarHub MaxMobile SurfLite plan. A USB modem device that comes with the plan is supported on Mac and Windows OS bydefault. 

I use Ubuntu and like to work on ubuntu than windows. It was very troublesome for me to change to windows whenever I needed Internet access. I was fed up with doing back and forth in windows and ubuntu OS. And desperately wanted to use my USB stick on ubuntu. 

My previous USB stick was ZTE MF628. And I don't know how to use it on ubuntu. If anyone knows it, I will appreciate if you post how to make it work on ubuntu.

When I renewed my contract with StarHub, I got new USB stick Huawei E1550 that worked on ubuntu without any hurdles. 

Step by Step guide to use Huawei E1550 USB stick on Ubuntu:

1. Plug in Huawei E1550 USB modem to USB port. You can notice its icon is loaded on Desktop. 

2.  Type following command at command prompt:

         $ gksu gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/15-huawei-e1550.rules

3. It will open gedit. Type following lines in it and then save it and close the file.

      SUBSYSTEM=="usb",

     SYSFS{idProduct}=="1446",

     SYSFS{idVendor}=="12d1",

     RUN+="/lib/udev/modem-modeswitch --vendor 0x12d1 --product 0x1446 --type option-zerocd" 

4. Restart the computer. After restart click on "Network connection" icon in the top panel. You will see new menu item under "Mobile Broadband" category.

5. Click on that new entry. It will open a New Mobile Broadband Connections dialog. Click Forward to continue.

6.  Select you country (Singapore in my case) and click Forward. Then select service provider from the list and click forward. Then choose your Billing plan and click Forward. Then finally Click on Apply to save setting. 

It will connect you to the Internet. Enjoy, hurdle free Internet connectivity on ubuntu using USB Modem (Huawei E1550).

Mac OS theme on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid)

Installing Mac OS theme on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) is easy and straightforward. 

Step 1:  Install Gstyle (Gstyle is a full Gnome Theme Manager)

             sudo add-apt-repository ppa:s-lagui/ppa

             sudo apt-get update

             sudo apt-get install gstyle

Step 2:  Once it is installed successfully. Launch Gstyle application (System -> Preferences - > Gstyle).

Step 3:  Click on Download button and then Click on Refresh button.  Select Mac4Lin theme from the list.

Step 4:  Then in each category option in the left panel of Gstyle, select Mac4Lin. I choose Mac4Lin Aqua.

Step 5A:  Now to Configure Global Menu (Top panel bar). Perform following steps:

             sudo add-apt-repository ppa:globalmenu-team

             sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnome-globalmenu

             killall gnome-panel

Step 5B:  Once done, remove all stuffs from top left panel (Right click on the panel and select “Remove from Panel”).  Right click on the top panel and select Add to Panel. Select Main Menu, follow by the Global Menu Panel Applet. Close the window. Now move the two items (right click and select Move) to the left hand corner and make sure they are side by side.

Step 6A: Now to configure Dock (Bottom panel bar). Perform following Steps:

            sudo apt-get install cairo-dock

            There are lot of dock application, but I found this one is easy to use. 

Step 6B: Before you launch the Cairo dock application, remove the bottom panel (right click at the bottom panel and select Delete This Panel).  Cairo dock needs a compositing manager to work, so make sure that your system support Compiz before launching the app. Launch Cairo dock (Menu -> Accessories -> Cairo Dock). Make sure to set it to launch everytime you startup your computer.

             Only if your system does not support Compiz: You can activate the in-built metacity compositing manager with the command:

            gconftool-2 --type boolean --set /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager TRUE 

To change the logo in the panel bar with apple logo:
1. Download apple logo from google.
2.  Then go to /home/urprofilename/.icons/Mac4Lin_Icons_v1.0/scalable/places folder.  Check the resolution of distributor logo.png file. It may be 78 * 96. Now rescale the image you downloaded into 78 *96 or 96*96 size.
3. Then replace distributor-logo.png, gnome-main-menu.png, main-menu.png, and start-here.png with the apple logo file.
4. Open the terminal window and type  killall gnome-panel to restart the gnome-panel. Now you should see your new icon. 

How to create Patch on Liunx?

In this post I will explain how to create a patch file and how to apply patch.
I only know the basic stuff. Therefore, if you want to know more then please use command man diff at command prompt to explore other possible options.

How to Create a Patch File?
Patch file is a readable text file which is created using diff command.
To create a patch of entire source folder including its sub directories, do as follows:

 $ diff -rauB  old_dir   new_dir   >  patchfile_name

  options -rauB mean:
  r  -> recursive (multiple levels dir)
  a ->  treat all files as text
  u -> Output NUM (default 3) lines of unified context
  B -> B is to ignore Blank Lines

Blank lines are usually useless in the patch file.  Therefore I used B option, however you are free to tune your patch file according to your choice.
old_dir is the original source code directory,  new_dir is the new version of source code and patchfile_name is the name of the patch file.  You can give any name to your patch file.

How to Apply Patch to your Source Code?
Suppose you have got a patch file and you want to apply that patch to the version of your source code.
It is not necessary but I recommend to do a dry-run test first.

To do a dry run:
$ patch --dry-run -p1 -i patchfile_name

-i : Read the patch from patchfile.
-pnum : Strip  the  smallest prefix containing num leading slashes from each
          file name found in the patch file.  A sequence of one or more  adjacent
          slashes  is counted as a single slash.  This controls how file
          names found in the patch file are treated, in  case  you  keep  your
          files  in  a  different  directory  than the person who sent out the
          patch.

If there is no failure then you can apply patch to your source code:
$ patch -p1 -i patchfile_name

I hope this post will help you to generate patch from your source code and apply patch to your source code.

How to Build Lobo browser on Ubuntu 10.04

Prerequisites:

 1. Eclipse SDK for Java.

 2. IzPack (http://izpack.org/). Download cross platform installation jar file.

Steps:

1. Create a sudirectory "XAMJ_Project" in /opt folder.  In linux, /opt belongs to root user so you may need to change the owner of /opt folder, so that write operation will be allowed.

2. Install IzPack in "/opt/IzPack". for installation of IzPack at command prompt run the command: java -jar IzPack-install-x.x.x.jar.

3. Open Eclipse and change workspace path to "/opt/XAMJ_Project".

4. Now choose the Project Explorer (Window->Show View -> Project Explorer).

5. Right click in project explorer and select New -> Project -> CVS  - > Project from CVS.

6. When prompted for server details fill out the server details as given in step 3 of Lobo Eclipse build instruction page.   

Host: xamj.cvs.sourceforge.net

Repository path: /cvsroot/xamj

User: anonymous

Password: [leave blank]

Connection type: pserver

  7.  Next, select "Use an existing module" option.

  8.  Then select 8 modules from the XAMJ_Project folder for basic web browser build.  You can choose all modules.  eight modules I choose were as follows:    

• Common
• cssparser
• HTML_Renderer
• Platform_Public_API
• Platform_Core
• Primary_Extension
• XAMJ_Build
• IzPack_RegistryPanel

 9. Next select the version of repository and check out.

 10.  Now right click on "IzPack_RegistryPanel" select "Properties" . Then select "Java Build Path".  select the "Libraries" tab. 

  11. If you see cross for some libraries then its bcoz of the wrong path. As we have already installed IzPack, search for files in /opt/Izpack/lib or /opt/IzPack/bin/Panel, and correct the paths of library files. 

  12. Now configure "Run Configuration" for your Java Application project. Please see the README.txt file in Platform_Core for instructions, and set VM Variable and Program Variable in the Arguments tab according to the README.txt file.  Also set the  Project name and Main class name in the Main tab.  The name of the main class is org.lobobrowser.main.EntryPoint .

13. Now apply your setting and run the project. It should work. If it doesn't then right click on IzPack_Registry Panel and add libraies: xpp3-1.1.3.4.M.jar, and cobra-no-commons.jar.zip. You can search and download these libraries if they are not present.

What is Really Simple Syndication( RSS)?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a way to subscribe to a source of information, such as a Web site.  

RSS works by having the website author maintain a list of notifications on their website in a standard way. This list of notifications is called an "RSS Feed". Many Blog services automatically create RSS Feeds. For Websites, RSS Feeds can be created manually or with software(such as Software Garden, Inc.'s ListGarden). 

The RSS Feed that is created is an XML file that lives on a Webserver. Once RSS feed is ready on web server, RSS Feeds waits for an RSS Reader to subscribe to them. The RSS Feed Reader reads the RSS Feed file and displays it. That is, the RSS Reader displays only new items from the RSS Feed. An RSS Feed Reader reads the RSS feed file, finds what is new, converts it to HTML, and displays it.

Spider-monkey Internals

SpiderMonkey Internals 

The JavaScript engine compiles and executes scripts containing JavaScript statements and functions. The engine handles memory allocation for the objects needed to execute scripts, and it cleans up—garbage collects—objects it no longer needs.

The word JavaScript may bring to mind features such as event handlers (like onclick), DOMobjects, window.open, and XMLHttpRequest. But in Mozilla, all of these features are actually provided by other components, not the SpiderMonkey engine itself. SpiderMonkey provides a few core JavaScript data types—numbers, strings, Arrays, Objects, and so on—and a few methods, such as Array.push. It also makes it easy for each application to expose some of its own objects and functions to JavaScript code. Browsers expose DOM objects. 


Spidermonkey includes/implemented JavaScript functions such as eval(), charAt(), escape(), unescape(), encodeURI(), decodeURI(), etc. 


JavaScript Event Handlers (like onClick) are implemented in  the content/event/ module in Firefox. The file use to handle events is content/event/src/nsEventStateManager.cpp.


Window.open is implemented in the dom/ module. The file  which implemented native function for window.open is  dom/src/base/nsGlobalWindow::OpenJS() in Firefox. window object is not standardized in DOM specifications, therefore, it has vendor specific implementation of it. 


XMLHttpRequest() is implemented in the content/base/ module in Firefox. The file is content/base/src/nsXMLHttpRequest.cpp implementing XHR request.  

C/C++ code accesses SpiderMonkey via the JSAPI, by including the header "jsapi.h". The JSAPI provides functions for setting up the JavaScript runtime, compiling and executing scripts, creating and examining JavaScript data structures, handling errors, enabling security checks, and debugging scripts.

In order to run any JavaScript code in SpiderMonkey, an application must have three key elements: a JSRuntime, a JSContext, and a global object.

Runtimes. A JSRuntime, or runtime, is the space in which the JavaScript variables, objects, scripts, and contexts used by your application are allocated. Every JSContext and every object in an application lives within a JSRuntime. They cannot travel to other runtimes or be shared across runtimes. Most applications only need one runtime.

A program typically has only one JSRuntime, even if it has many threads.

Contexts. A JSContext, or context, is like a little machine that can do many things involving JavaScript code and objects. It can compile and execute scripts, get and set object properties, call JavaScript functions, convert JavaScript data from one type to another, create objects, and so on. Almost all JSAPI functions require a JSContext * as the first argument.

Global objects. Lastly, the global object contains all the classes, functions, and variables that are available for JavaScript code to use. Whenever JavaScript code does something like window.open("http://www.mozilla.org/"), it is accessing a global property, in this case window. JSAPI applications have full control over what global properties scripts can see. The application starts out by creating an object and populating it with the standard JavaScript classes, like Array and Object. Then it adds whatever custom classes, functions, and variables (like window) the application wants to provide; see Custom objects below. Each time the application runs a JS script (using, for example, JS_EvaluateScript), it provides the global object for that script to use. As the script runs, it can create global functions and variables of its own. All of these functions, classes, and variables are stored as properties of the global object.

References:

1. https://developer.mozilla.org/En/SpiderMonkey/JSAPI_User_Guide#JSAPI_basics

2. https://developer.mozilla.org/En/JSRuntime

V8 Build Error

Hi,

I downloaded v8 and followed the build instruction given at http://code.google.com/apis/v8/build.html#build .

However, When I executed the command "scons" (without quotes) it shown following errors on my machine.

cc1plus: error: dereferencing pointer 'dest' does break strict-aliasing rules

cc1plus: error: dereferencing pointer 'dest' does break strict-aliasing rules

cc1plus: error: dereferencing pointer 'dest' does break strict-aliasing rules

src/api.cc:3495: note: initialized from here

scons: *** [obj/release/api.o] Error 1

scons: building terminated because of errors.

This is bcoz warnings are considered as errors by the compiler.

To solve this problem,

open "SConstruct" file in the source directory of v8 and look for "V8_EXTRA_FLAGS"

Then comment the line (use # to comment line) '-Werror' in

gcc:{ 

    all:{ 

       WARNINGFLAGS: [

                                    

                                      ]

  },

After doing this, I was able to build it. However, I was not able to embed v8 in C++ application.

The reason was, I was running ubuntu x64 bit OS and V8 build is of 32-bit.

I ran following command to build 64-bit libaray of V8.

$ scons mode=debug arch=x64

Where mode=debug to build DEBUG version instead of by default release version. And arch=x64 to build 64-bit version instead of by-default 32-bit version.

Measure CPU usage time by Thread

    On Linux there are two commands you can use to measure CPU usage time of a thread in a multi threaded application.  Those commands are getrusage() and clock_gettime().  You can sue same commands to measure CPU time consumed by process.

Sample program to measure CPU time in a thread is given below:



#include
#include
#include


    int kResult = 0;
    struct rusage start, end;
    struct timeval timeS, timeE;
    double t= 0.0, time= 0.0;

    struct timespec st, endt;
    double t1= 0.0, time1= 0.0;

    // measure CPU time
      kResult = getrusage(RUSAGE_THREAD, &start);

        if (kResult == -1)
            fprintf(stderr, "\n\n Error in getrusage command");

        timeS = start.ru_stime; // system time
        t = (double)timeS.tv_sec + (double) timeS.tv_usec / 1000000.0;
        timeS = start.ru_utime; // user time
        t = t + (double)timeS.tv_sec + (double) timeS.tv_usec / 1000000.0;

        kResult = clock_gettime(CLOCK_THREAD_CPUTIME_ID, &st);
        if (kResult == -1)
            fprintf(stderr, "\n\n Error in clock_gettime command");
      
        t1 = (double) (st.tv_sec * 1000000.0 )+ (double) st.tv_nsec / 1000.0 ;
  


   // Do some operation to consume CPU


  // measure CPU time

 kResult = getrusage(RUSAGE_THREAD, &end);

        if (kResult == -1)
            fprintf(stderr, "\n\n Error in getrusage command");

        timeE = end.ru_stime; // system time
        time = (double)timeE.tv_sec + (double) timeE.tv_usec / 1000000.0;
        timeE = end.ru_utime; // user time
        time = time + (double)timeE.tv_sec + (double) timeE.tv_usec / 1000000.0;

        time = time - t;
        fprintf(stderr,"\n\n Total CPU usage time using 'getrusage' = %.12lf\n\n", time);

        kResult = clock_gettime(CLOCK_THREAD_CPUTIME_ID, &endt);
        if (kResult == -1)
            fprintf(stderr, "\n\n Error in clock_gettime command");
        
        time1 = (double) (endt.tv_sec * 1000000.0)+ (double) endt.tv_nsec / 1000.0 ;
        time1 = (time1 - t1) / 1000000.0;

        fprintf(stderr,"\n\n Total CPU usage time using 'clock_gettime' = %.12lf\n\n", time1);

Note: clock_gettime will generate error if you will not provide -lrt library to linker. 

  

To remove old kernel from Ubuntu

To remove old kernels from ubuntu OS:

First check the current kernel version:
$ uname -r

Do not remove current version.

To remove old kernel version use command:
$sudo apt-get purge linux-image-2.6.XX-XX-generic


Then remove header of that version:
$sudo apt-get purge linux-headers-2.6.XX-XX