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I want to be remembered

26th April 2008

So I've made a new release of sift, the IMAP client/toy.

I think I named this one after looking up synonyms of "sieve", or "filter". Can't recall now.

The next time I release a toy application, tool, or hack, I will take the time to sit down and write namecheck. (Update: Too easy. Done.)

Here's what it looks like / how it should work:

skx@gold:~$ namecheck namecheck
Testing        freshmeat.net - Available
Testing      sourceforge.net - Available
Testing    alioth.debian.org - Available
Testing      code.google.com - Available
Testing     savannah.gnu.org - Available


Name is currently not claimed

I guess it just comes down to having a list of URLs and patterns to test for:

http://freshmeat.net/projects/%s     | We encounted an error
http://sourceforge.net/projects/%s   | Invalid Project
http://alioth.debian.org/projects/%s | Invalid Project

A tool like that would be useful if you're bad at picking names for projects and want a reasonable chance of uniqueness. Looking up sites by hand is just fiddly and repetitive.

Of course "namecheck" is a provisional title; until it may be used to test that its own name is not in use ;)

Today I shall be mostly smoking, drinking, and trying to fix a dying steam engine. Good times.

ObQuote: Brief Encounter

Update: Quick hack: namecheck | future home in ~/bin/.

Tags: namecheck, sift. | 14 comments.

Comments On This Entry

  1. [author] Steve Kemp Submitted at 11:36:50 on 26 April 2008

    Thanks.

    Added and updated.

    I'll probably move this into my ~/bin/ in the near future.

  2. [author] Steve Kemp Submitted at 13:13:39 on 26 April 2008

    Thanks Florent - I've added those two too.

  3. [gravitar] Florent Bayle Submitted at 13:11:03 on 26 April 2008 
    http://%s.tuxfamily.org/             | Not Found
https://gna.org/projects/%s          | Invalid Group
  4. [gravitar] Christoph Submitted at 11:29:35 on 26 April 2008 
    http://code.google.com/p/%s          | Not Found
  5. [gravitar] Niall Sheridan Submitted at 13:35:39 on 26 April 2008
    A quick hack: http://www.evil.ie/svn/trunk/scripts/namecheck.py
  6. [gravitar] Francois Marier Submitted at 13:23:48 on 26 April 2008 
    http://www.ohloh.net/projects/%s     | Sorry, the page you are trying to view is not here
  7. [author] Steve Kemp Submitted at 14:08:59 on 26 April 2008

    Thanks Francois - I've added ohloh.net now.

    Naill - thats a nice rewrite. I dont "do" python, but your code looks clean and it has to be said is shorter than mine, and just as readable.

  8. [gravitar] Darren Chamberlain Submitted at 14:43:12 on 26 April 2008
    Very nice idea. I've needed this tool a few times, don't know why I didn't think to write it myself.
  9. [gravitar] Ben Goodrich Submitted at 14:59:24 on 26 April 2008
    Nice script. You should also include Launchpad. I think it would be http://launchpad.net/%s | There’s no page with this address in Launchpad. but I am not 100% sure because it recognizes me and utilizes the beta version of the website.
  10. [author] Steve Kemp Submitted at 15:04:10 on 26 April 2008

    Ben, I don't think I need to include launchpad at all because that is just a location for centralizing the code of existing projects. (i.e. it doesn't itself host new code.)

    Original Ubuntu projects like Upstart, etc, are all hosted on their own sites .. right?

    I'm happy to add it if I'm mistaken, but it is one that I think doesn't need to be there.

  11. [gravitar] martin Submitted at 15:33:59 on 26 April 2008
    launchpad does host projects too. It's like debian's alioth.
    It would be nice if someone could host this script with an web interface too...
    Btw, this comment interface is quite unfriendly when you don't read the text under the post button (you know it works the same on most blogs...) and you didn't fill in all fields. You should change it to display the error message before removing the entered text. (yes, i don't like to enter my email address in each blog i comment, that's unfriendly too, i know ;))
  12. [author] Steve Kemp Submitted at 15:47:28 on 26 April 2008

    Thanks Martin, I've added launchpad to the list!

    As for the comment page I agree that it could be improved, but I don't think asking people to read a little instruction is unreasonable.

    (50%, or more, of people commenting enter bogus addresses. I'm completely OK with that. But I am suprised to see the text lost on a failed submission. I know when I click reload firefox keeps it in place for me..)


  13. [gravitar] Christoph Submitted at 21:17:54 on 26 April 2008
    http://developer.berlios.de/projects/%s | Invalid Project
    I do believe though that your script won't make using Google obsolete for this task.
  14. [author] Steve Kemp Submitted at 01:37:32 on 27 April 2008

    Cristoph: Agreed. I don't often google for things, but I take your point.

    Thanks for another entry for my list though!