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Thu 30 Aug 2012
MySQL & MariaDB - Stuck
Category : Technology/MySQLMaraiDB-Stuck.txt
I've finished the Pref Panes and updated all my database installers so that the user can set up alternate port numbers for each of these databases to use. And all should be fine, so I can test and then release them.
And then I fnd that I'm stuck.
MariaDB tries so hard to be a "drop-in" replacement for MySQL that it also uses the same Unix sockets - /tmp/mysql.sock.
So I'm trying to get MariaDB to start off /tmp/mariadb.sock, say, for localhost connections, which seems to work, i.e., in the sense that MariaDB now listens to connections coming through /tmp/mariadb.sock. By using a custom my.cnf, that I get MariaDB to read its custom configuration parameters from, I can also get MariaDB to listen to port 33306, say, for incoming TCP connections.
So far, so good.
Now, I just need to get MariaDB's mysql command line program to know that the ports have now been changed from the defaults.
/usr/local/mariadb/bin/mysql goes back to /tmp/mysql.sock when it attempts a database connection. So, MariaDB's own mysql client continues to talk to the existing MySQL installation, rather than to MariaDB. There's where I am stuck.
How to break this?
Posted at 4:25AM UTC | permalink
Tue 28 Aug 2012
Pref Panes With Port Number Field
Category : Technology/PrefPanesWithPortNo.txt
I've created new Pref Panes for each of the installers that we support—MySQL, PostgreSQL and MariaDB. These versions now include a Port Number field.
I built these so that I have a way to run MariaDB and MySQL at the same time (by default, they use the same port, 3306).
I'm now going back to change the way my MariaDB Installer for Mountain Lion works. In its first incarnation, it pretended to be MySQL and, if you have a running MySQL installation, the MariaDB installer will move all the databases you have on MySQL over to MariaDB.
But now, if I'm going to have MariaDB running as a separate database on its own right, the user may not want to mix the MySQL and MariaDB databases. So I'm going to make the MariaDB installer only upgrade a previous MariaDB installation and leave existing MySQL databases alone.
I'll release them when I'm done changing the MariaDB Installer.
Posted at 5:36AM UTC | permalink
Thu 23 Aug 2012
Liya & Luca
Category : Technology/LiyaAndLuca.txt
Although Luca is a paid app and Liya is free, both share the same database connector frameworks that allow the apps to access MySQL, Postgres, SQLite and, now, even MariaDB databases.
The value of keeping Liya free is that it's become very popular, especially among other software developers.
And because these developers push the use of the Liya further and deeper than any Luca user, more bugs surface and get reported about the quality of our very crucial database connectors than if I didn't have Liya widely-used in the first place.
I couldn't over-emphasise how crucial these database connectors are. They're what allows Luca to tap on to SQL databases, wherever in the world these databases are, and from whatever Mac OS X or iOS device the user happens to be running an app like Luca on.
Since the days when we were 4D (4th Dimension) developers and had to rely on third-party developers for 4D for Oracle, etc, (and to pay through our noses for them), I've been determined to build these connectors ourselves—to control their quality, their speed, and their dependability in mapping data values and data types between the client and its permanent data store.
We've reached this stage of control over our own work and I want to build on them to improve Luca and more apps like Luca in the coming months. Otherwise we would have wasted all these earlier years of hard work.
Posted at 3:33AM UTC | permalink
Liya 2.0.8
Category : Technology/Liya208.txt
I've just released version 2.0.8 of Liya. It includes one bug fix for SQLite date field handling. And I now make Liya able to open connections to MySQL and PostgreSQL databases on non-standard ports.
This version has also been tested to work with Mariadb databases. And of course, it will also work on Mountain Lion.
And I've just submitted it to the Mac App Store. The last time, it took more than two weeks to get reviewed and approved. Let's see how long it takes this time.
Posted at 2:51AM UTC | permalink
Mon 20 Aug 2012
MariaDB Installer on Mac OS X Mountain Lion
Category : Technology/MariaDBOnMountainLion.txt
As the word "drop-in" implies, you can use MariaDB, once it's installed, like you've always been using MySQL. MariaDB pretends to be MySQL and it will execute all the usual mysql commands, without your having to change a thing.
This version of the installer installs MariaDB-5.5.25 (the latest I can find) into /usr/local/mariadb-5.5.25 and makes a symlink to /usr/local/mysql which, in fact, points to /usr/local/mariadb-5.5.25.
So, all the mysql commands just work. Like if you do a
mysql --version
in the command line, you will get :
Server version: 5.5.25-MariaDB Source distribution
and a MariaDB command prompt, but other than that you can work like you've always done in MySQL.
If you have a working MySQL database, like one that was installed by our own MySQL installer, the MariaDB installer will attempt to move your current databases over (if you choose to do the Upgrade option, rather than a Clean Install).
Finally, because MariaDB's command gets called when you execute /usr/local/mysql, even the MySQL Start Up Preferences Pane (that we've built together with our MySQL installer) continues to work.
So, what's the point of all this?
Well, many develoeprs are concerned over the future of MySQL, now that it's in the arms of Oracle. The existence of MariaDB, brought into life by the original developers of MySQL, gives hope that a free, independent, quality, database option continues to be available, should Oracle decide one day to close-source or worse kill, if it comes to that, MySQL.
So, this gives us a third option to work with—MySQL, Postgres and now MariaDB. I've just tested Liya (our friendly database table editor) with MariaDB and it continues to work. If MariaDB is running on your server instead of MySQL, simply choose MySQL as the database option to access your new MariaDB database.
Obviously, in this arrangement, MySQL has to be stopped from running, in order to have MariaDB run and impersonate it.
Maybe a future version of our installer will allow MariaDB to be run on another port alongside MySQL. But I will have to improve Liya so that it will accept a port number as a connection option. (Currently it doesn't have such an option.)
So, I hope now to use more of MariaDB and see what I can learn from it. If you do download the Installer, let me know if it works for you and also what you think of MariaDB.
Posted at 8:59AM UTC | permalink
Sun 19 Aug 2012
Universal Lion & Mountain Lion SQL Installers
Category : Technology/UniversalSQLInstallers.txt
I've finally managed to build new MySQL and PostgreSQL installers that will work on both Lion and Mountain Lion.
The MySQL installer includes the latest 5.5.27 release, while PostgreSQL is now at 9.1.4.
These installers will also upgrade your current MySQL and PostgreSQL installations and bring the old databases over. You can choose to do a clean install or upgrade a previous version.
The MySQL 5.5.27 Installer is available here, and the PostgreSQL 9.1.4 Installer is available here. Remember they work on both Lion and Mountain Lion. Posted at 6:32AM UTC | permalink
Fri 17 Aug 2012
New PostgreSQL 9.1.4 Installer for Mountain Lion
Category : Technology/PostgreSQL914Installer.txt
It's now ready for download by following the link, above.
Posted at 2:13PM UTC | permalink
PostgreSQL Installer for Mountain Lion
Category : Technology/PostgresInstallerForMLProgress.txt
My PostgreSQL Installer doesn't work on Mountain Lion. I've worked two weeks to find out that the problem is caused by a security measure taken by Apple to quarantine an object that it thinks has been downloaded from the Internet.
Let's say my friend, Hai Hwee, sends me the working files for the Postgres installer over the web. I open one of the scripts using TextEdit. Now, if I make a change to the script, TextEdit will most helpfully (not!) mark that script as quarantined, so it will refuse to run if executed from the Unix command line. But it does this marking most surreptitiously, as an extended file attribute, so you can't find anything amiss just by looking at the file or even listing it in Terminal.
That's what's causing my Postgres installer to fail in Mountain Lion. The installer couldn't run one script in the package - because it had been quarantined after being edited in TextEdit.
So, I might as well work on a new version of the Installer. It'll include the very latest version of PostgreSQL.
Posted at 4:50AM UTC | permalink
Fri 10 Aug 2012
WebMon for Mountain Lion 6.0.1
Category : Technology/WebMon6dot0dot1.txt
There are bugs all over the place whenever we move from one major OS X version to the next.
This time it's WebMon. Somehow, delegate connections between a table view and its controller has to be deleted and re-created when we move from Lion to Mountain Lion. I don't know if this is pervasive or if this only hit that one unfortunate NSTableView in WebMon but it's a warning we've got to peek at every corner of our code when we move our apps to Mountain Lion.
So, the problem in WebMon's case manifests itself like this : you need to create an SSL certificate, so you change the default domain name from "localhost" to that of your main domain in the lists of domains. For convenience, I will automatically change the domain name that gets matched into the SSL cert. But in Mountain Lion, the SSL cert's domain name remains stuck at "localhost". Very fun. This has now been fixed in version 6.0.1.
I also took the opportunity to update the IP address-to-country lookup mechanism with the latest mappings, as of 10th August 2012.
WebMon for Mountain Lion version 6.0.1 is here.
Posted at 4:24AM UTC | permalink
Thu 09 Aug 2012
Apple Must Share?
Category : Technology/AppleMustShare.txt
Actually this is all pretty depressing.
How can Samsung not have been copying Apple, with "slavishly" being a most appropriate word to describe all that?
But I think Apple could still lose, the way they lost the last one with Microsoft.
Because it's Apple against the whole of human nature. It reminds me of the scene in that Ayn Rand novel, Atlas Shrugged, when the protagonist Hank Rearden succeeded in developing a high grade metal that could be used, among other things, to build good strong railway tracks. One would have thought the rail company would be excited but, no, it organised a consortium of his antagonists, the other metallurgy companies, to deprive him of the fruits of this success and, not coincidentally, the power that could fall to him, though honestly earned. How? By claiming that his invention is so good, so important to the good of mankind, that it has to be shared.
So, read the comments that accompany such articles. All the Android (and ex-Microsoft) techies are praying for Apple to lose.
Posted at 12:56AM UTC | permalink
Liya 2.0.7, finally released on the Mac App Store
Category : Technology/Liya207OnMacAppStore.txt
It's almost three weeks since I submitted it for review (and three weeks since I made 2.0.7 available on my own web site). So it shows the perils for a developer depending solely on the App Store mechanism for distribution to end users.
I believe the way forward is to still concentrate on building the quality of the software offering that I make available on my own web site.
If I build it (well), experience tells me the users will come.
Posted at 12:49AM UTC | permalink
Wed 08 Aug 2012
MailServe for Mountain Lion 6.0.3
Category : Technology/MailServeForMountainLion6dot0dot3.txt
In the previous version, 6.0.2, I changed the way de-install works by forcing the user to stop Postfix and Dovecot manually before they can do a de-install. This was to ensure I have given every Postfix process sufficient time to finish their work before I delete the Postfix directory that was set up by MailServe.
However that wasn't very popular and so I have reverted it. The users are not used to having to stop Postfix and Dovecot manually before they do a de-install. They expect the system to do it for them. I will have to find some other ways of ensuring the completion of Postfix processes before I kill the system.
This version of MailServe also introduces a new field to allow Dovecot users to control the number of concurrent connections a user can make to the server. The default is 10 but the administrator can increase it when it has multiple clients accessing the server from multiple devices.
Finally this version fixes a bug in the Spam panel whereby the procmailrc file gets saved to the system with environment variables, like $HOME, etc... getting unintentionally expanded to hard-coded paths.
Posted at 4:03PM UTC | permalink Read more ...
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