The Voidspace Python Programs
Welcome to the home of the Voidspace Python Programs. These are various programs that I've written with Python. They are all fully open source, with an OSI Approved License. I hope you find them useful, and I welcome feedback. Check out the Python Index Page for links to my Python CGIs, modules, and smaller "recipes".
| The Voidspace Python Programs | |
|---|---|
| Nanagram | DirWatcher |
| Movable Python | rest2web |
| linky | Firedrop2 |
| Atlantibots | |
The Anagram Maker
Nanagram is a program for making anagrams. Astound and annoy your friends by discovering what silly anagrams can be made from their names. For example, did you know that ? :
- George W Bush - is an anagram of 'whose bugger'.......
- Tony Blair : 'bony trail'.....
- Ronald Reagan : 'adrenal groan' or 'loan arranged'....
- Osama Bin Laden : 'bald nose mania' or 'bad neon salami'.........
- Mother Theresa : 'hot rare themes' or 'earth theorems'.........
- Michael Foord : 'cool firm head'... remember... the anagram never lies
The desktop version has various features - including several dictionaries and advanced search options. There is also an online version that you are free to include in your own websites. The help file for the desktop version has a guide to finding anagrams and an explanation of how the program works. For download and installation instructions, go to the relevant docs page, using the links below. You can also try Nanagram online.
Nanagram is now shareware. It is available for a very low cost from the Voidspace Shareware Page. There is also a free demo version to download and try.
Remote Directory Sync Utility
Version 1.0.0 13th June 2004
DirWatcher is an offline directory sync tool - a remote directory sync utility. It's useful where you maintain identical directory structures on two machines. For example when working on projects both at home and at work. DirWatcher can profile a directory. When you reprofile, it can summarise all the changes into a single zipfile. From that zipfile it can implement all the changes on the other computer.
Portable Python Distribution
Version 2.0.0beta1 17th September 2006
Movable Python is a distribution of Python (for Windows) that doesn't
need to be installed. It easily fits onto a USB
memory stick. Python on a stick.
It includes an integrated IDE, to make Movable Python a portable Build, Test, and Run environment. It has a nice GUI to launch programs and control its behaviour.
Movable Python is useful in the following situations:
- Machines where you can't install programs.
- Where you need a portable 'Build, Test, and Run' Python environment.
- Having several versions of Python on the same machine for forward/backward compatibility testing.
- Easily deploying Python scripts without having to install Python.
- Try before you buy - test Python without having to install it, including new versions .
- 'Python Runtime Environment'. '.py' files can be associated with movpy.
Note
The latest version of Movable Python has not yet had the documentation written for it. It is a great advance on previous versions, including allowing you to test programs with multiple interpreters from a single interface. It will also act as a GUI front end for any executable.
See An Overview of Movable Python 2 for a run down on the new features, including screenshots.
See What's New in Movpy 2 for a list of all the changes.
There is even a version available for Python 2.5, test your programs for
compatibility without having to install.
Website Generation Tool
Version 0.5.0 Beta 1 06th August 2006
rest2web is a tool for autogenerating websites (and parts of websites). It also has support for maintaining a website with multiple translations (i18n I suppose). It allows you to store your website contents in reST format, and generate pages and indexes from templates. It uses a simple but flexible templating and macro system; and generates index pages, sidebars, and navigation links.
This means that adding new pages is as easy as dropping a text file into the right folder. rest2web will handle adding the link to the index page and creating the new page from a template and the contents. Removing a page is as easy as deleting a single file, and have rest2web automatically rebuild the indexes.
It includes built in functions for generating navigation trails and different types of sidebars, and an interesting macro system.
The download includes the rest2web code, and docs and a test site. The test site serves as a simple illustration of how rest2web does all it's magic.
rest2web now supports building websites without the need for restindexes or
index pages. You can build a site just from a directory of ReST documents. 
Stomping across the Worlds of Atlantis
Version 1.3.5 29th Feb 2004
This was one of my earliest projects. Atlantis is a Play By Email, turn based strategy game. And great fun it is too ! Atlantibots is a program that will read Atlantis reports and handle a lot of the routine tasks for you - like mapping, repairing roads, checking your units have the right flag settings etc. For anyone interested in developing their own 'robot' factions there is a programmers interface. This program is very useful for anyone thinking of playing Atlantis.
The Python Blog Client Tool
Firedrop2 is a cross-platform blogging tool written in
Python. It keeps your blog source files on your
computer, making it a clientside tool. This means you control your blog,
and can easily move it from one server to another, with no risk of losing data.
It also means you can manage your blog offline. 
It is fully open source, and has all the features you expect from a modern blogging program :
- RSS feed generation
- Categories
- Automatic archive generation
- A powerful set of plugins, including spell checker and emailer
- Entries can be made in text, HTML, ReST, textile or sextile markup
- HTML templating system and macros for all sorts of tricks
- Built in FTP capability for uploading your blog to a server
- Because it's written in Python, it is easy to extend Firedrop or create new plugins for it
Firedrop2 was originally created by Hans Nowak, and is now maintained by Michael Foord. Not only is it great for running your online journal (or weblog), but it has additional features for maintaining document collections.
Check Your Website for Invalid Links and Image Tags
Version 0.1.1 16th February 2005
This program is almost a recipe, but it can be very useful, so I've included it here. It was written for a friend of mine (Aidan Ashby) to check the links on his website. The problem is that when you test your website on windows, with case insensitive filenames, it can appear to work fine. When you upload it to a Linux server, mistaken capital letters become broken links and missing images.
linky is meant to be used in conjunction with a server like Xitami acting as localhost. linky will then crawl your site, checking all your local links. It can also compare the URLs in your links and img tags to the files on your hard drive. It will warn you of any case errors, that just link checking would miss. As a bonus it will also let you know about any apparently unused files saved in your web folders. This can help you find unnecessary image files etc.
All the heavy lifting of parsing the pages for links and image tags is done by Beautiful Soup. You'll need this in order to use linky. Beautiful Soup makes parsing HTML like this sooooooo easy. If you have my StandOut module, it can be used for logging the output to a file. linky doesn't check external links, but it would be very easy to modify. There's no reason why it shouldn't work online.
Download it here :
The zip has StandOut and BeautifulSoup included.
For buying techie books, science fiction, computer hardware or the latest gadgets: visit The Voidspace Amazon Store. If you're looking for a new techie job, try the Voidspace Tech Job Board. This is part of the Hidden Network of technology and programming jobs.
Last edited Fri Feb 15 13:42:08 2008.
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