Difference between revisions of "CoderMerlin Courier 2021.01.08"

Latest revision as of 16:46, 17 January 2021

Within these castle walls be forged Mavens of Computer Science ...

— Merlin, The Coder

CoderMerlin Courier

Volume One, Issue Three - January Two Thousand Twenty-One

Within these castle walls be forged Mavens of Computer Science

Current Contests[edit]

Essay Writing Contest[edit]

Why is the primary role of technology to improve humanity? You can read more about the essay and prize: here.

Excalibur Award
	$250.00

Hints, Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts[edit]

Command Line Tips[edit]

Helpful Hint

Slow typist? You can use the alias command. For example, to type the shortcut mt rather than merlin test you can add an alias: alias mt='merlin test'

If you'd like to make your aliases permanent (rather than lasting only for the current session) you can add them to your ~/.bash_aliases file.

Swift Tips[edit]

	Helpful Hint
	Print an empty line (i.e., just a new line) with: `print()` Print text without the default terminator with: `print(terminator:"Hello")` Create a string repeating a character n times with: `String(repeating:"!", count: 3)`

Emacs Tips[edit]

	Helpful Hint
	Web-mode supports both PHP and HTML in the same buffer. Web-mode can be activated with: `ALT`-`x` web-mode `RETURN`

Git Tips[edit]

Helpful Hint

Tags can be easily moved by using the --force option.

git tag --force J1154.Final
git push origin --force J1154.Final

Newly Installed and Updated Services[edit]

Disk Space Increased[edit]

The available disk space has been increased to 1.0 GiB.

Emacs Updates 27.1[edit]

Native support for JSON parsing
Built-in support for tab bar and tab-line

In order to ensure you receive the latest features, re-initialize your skeleton:

jane-williams@codermerlin:~/www$ skel-init

Then completely log off before logging back on. Run emacs (without any parameters) and wait for the initialization to complete.

Vapor Available[edit]

Swift Vapor applications are now available. See Vapor for configuration information.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{MerlinCourierHeader|Volume {{Red|VOLUME}}, Issue {{Red|ISSUE}} - {{Red|Month}} Two Thousand Twenty}}
+{{MerlinCourierHeader|Volume One, Issue Three - January Two Thousand Twenty-One}}
 == Current Contests ==
 === Essay Writing Contest ===
 Why is the primary role of technology to improve humanity?  You can read more about the essay and prize: [https://www.codermerlin.com/wiki/index.php/Essay_Contest-Primary_Role_of_Technology_is_to_Improve_Humanity here].
-{{ExcaliburAward|$100.00}}
+{{ExcaliburAward|$250.00}}
 == Hints, Tips, Tricks, and Shortcuts ==
-=== Linux ===
+=== Command Line Tips ===
 {{Hint2|[[File:Linux logo.jpg|120px|link=]]|
-This is a Linux Tip
+Slow typist? You can use the <syntaxhighlight lang='bash' inline>alias</syntaxhighlight> command.  For example, to type the shortcut  <syntaxhighlight lang='bash' inline>mt</syntaxhighlight> rather than  <syntaxhighlight lang='bash' inline>merlin test</syntaxhighlight> you can add an alias:
+<syntaxhighlight lang='bash' inline>alias mt='merlin test'</syntaxhighlight>
+If you'd like to make your aliases permanent (rather than lasting only for the current session) you can add them to your <code>~/.bash_aliases</code> file.
 }}
-=== Swift ===
+=== Swift Tips ===
 {{Hint2|[[File:Swift-og.png|120px|link=]]|
-This is a Swift Tip
+* Print an empty line (i.e., just a new line) with: <syntaxhighlight lang="swift" inline>print()</syntaxhighlight>
+* Print text without the default terminator with: <syntaxhighlight lang="swift" inline>print(terminator:"Hello")</syntaxhighlight>
+* Create a string repeating a character ''n'' times with: <syntaxhighlight lang="swift" inline>String(repeating:"!", count: 3)</syntaxhighlight>
 }}
-=== Emacs ===
+=== Emacs Tips ===
 {{Hint2|[[File:Emacs 512.png|120px|link=]]|
-This is an emacs hint
+Web-mode supports both PHP and HTML in the same buffer.  Web-mode can be activated with: {{SpecialKey|ALT|x}} web-mode {{Key|RETURN}}
 }}
-=== Git ===
+=== Git Tips ===
 {{Hint2|[[File:Git-logo.svg|120px|link=]]|
-This is an emacs hint
+Tags can be easily moved by using the <syntaxhighlight lang='bash' inline>--force</syntaxhighlight> option.
+* <syntaxhighlight lang='bash' inline>git tag --force J1154.Final</syntaxhighlight>
+* <syntaxhighlight lang='bash' inline>git push origin --force J1154.Final</syntaxhighlight>
 }}
 == Newly Installed and Updated Services ==
-=== Swift Update ===
+=== Disk Space Increased ===
-[[File:Swift-og.png|thumb|left|link=]]
+The available disk space has been increased to 1.0 GiB.
-Swift 5.3.2 is now available! You can read more about the update [https://swift.org/blog/swift-5-3-released/ here].
+=== Emacs Updates 27.1 ===
-<br clear='all'/>
+[[File:Emacs 512.png|120px|right|link=]]
-=== Octave Available ===
+* Native support for JSON parsing
-[[File:Octave Sombrero.svg|thumb|left|link=]]
+* Built-in support for tab bar and tab-line
-GNU Octave is now available! Octave is a Powerful mathematics-oriented syntax with built-in 2D/3D plotting and visualization tools.  You can read more about Octave [https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/index here].
-<br clear='all'/>
-=== Vapor Toolbox Available ===
-[[File:Vapor.png|thumb|left|link=]]
-The Vapor Toolbox is now available!  The Vapor Toolbox simplifies common command line tasks when using Vapor.  You can read more about Vapor [https://github.com/vapor/vapor here].
-You can run your vapor project using the following command:
-{{ConsoleLine|jane-williams@codermerlin:~/projects/vaporTest$|vapor run serve --hostname $IGIS_LOCAL_HOST --port $IGIS_LOCAL_PORT}}
-<br clear='all'/>
-=== ImageMagick Available ===
-[[File:Mona Lisa headcrop.jpg|thumb|left|link=]]
-Use ImageMagick® to create, edit, compose, or convert bitmap images. It can read and write images in a variety of formats (over 200) including PNG, JPEG, GIF, HEIC, TIFF, DPX, EXR, WebP, Postscript, PDF, and SVG. Use ImageMagick to resize, flip, mirror, rotate, distort, shear and transform images, adjust image colors, apply various special effects, or draw text, lines, polygons, ellipses and Bézier curves.  You can read more about ImageMagick [https://github.com/ImageMagick/ImageMagick here].
-For a very simple example, you can try the following in your www directory:
+In order to ensure you receive the latest features, re-initialize your skeleton:
 {{ConsoleLines|
-{{Cyan|jane-williams@codermerlin:~/www$}} convert -background cyan -gravity Center -font Utopia-Italic -weight 500 -pointsize 100 caption:"CoderMerlin" codermerlin.png
+{{Cyan|jane-williams@codermerlin:~/www$}} skel-init
-<br />
-{{Cyan|jane-williams@codermerlin:~/www$}} chmod a+r codermerlin.png
 }}
-Then, browse to your www directory and load '''codermerlin.png'''
+Then completely log off before logging back on.  Run emacs (without any parameters) and wait for the initialization to complete.
 <br clear='all' />
+=== Vapor Available ===
+Swift Vapor applications are now available.  See [[Vapor]] for configuration information.