CJ's Technical Playground
Warning: Most of these code examples are from 15-20 YEARS ago (OLD STUFF). All projects and sites listed here in Technical Playground are currently UNMAINTAINED, not being actively updated, and are available for HISTORIC and research purposes only. Use at your own risk.
ASPCorbaJavaJavaScriptLinuxMySQLPerl
PHPPython and JythonShockwaveVRMLXML


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LINUX! Linux LINUX!
All of the projects listed on this
LINUX page are Open Source unless otherwise noted. In many cases, you will need to read the actual script and/or source code for the exact software license for that particular project. Many of these scripts will require Python 2.2 or better (with Tkinter support) and TCL-TK 8.3.3 or better, as well as PyGtk and PyGnome (try RPMFind). Finally, these programs are distributed AS IS - with no warranty whatsoever. I take no responsibility for any damages, inconveniences, or problems you may experience using this software. I am not responsible for you use (or misuse) of this software. Enjoy!


Testing:
These applications have been tested in the following environments: Pentium / i586, 166-333Mhz, 64-256 MB RAM, Mandrake 8.1, Kernel 2.4.8mdk, XFree86 3.3.6 / 4.10, IceWM 1.0.7, Gnome 1.0.4, Gtk version 1.2.8-4, KDE 1.99 (Yeah, I know I need to upgrade.), Glibc 2.2, Python 2.2, TKinter 2.2, TCL-TK 8.3.4, PyGtk 0.6.9, PyGnome 1.4.2, playmidi 2.4, plaympeg utility (SMPEG) version 0.4.0, playwav utility version 2.4, cardctl/cardmgr 3.1.20 (PCMCIA utilities), PengAOL 1.0a-1 and 0.96-1, ppp 2.4.1-3


GTK / Gnome   Tkinter / TCL-TK   Other / Console


GTK / Gnome Interfaces:


gAnim8
gAnim8
gAnim8 is, by far, the best linux program I have written thus far. (Pronounced "g-animate"). gAnim8 is an animation suite for building and manipulating animated Gifs and *small* Mpeg videos in a Gtk/Gnome environment. It is intended for Linux/Posix systems. gAnim8 is built on top of the wonderful Gifsicle program. gAnim8 is a frontend for Gifsicle/Ungifsicle and more. Say goodbye to building animations by command line! gAnim8 is NOT intended to be the next Gimp, rather it was created to help fill the relative absence of GUI tools for building and editing animated Gifs and small Mpegs. There are alot of command line utilties for animated Gifs, but few, if any, GUI tools that have a logical layout and are beyond the 'planning' stage. Command line tools do the job, but may be no fun to use when you are repeatedly editing and rebuilding animated gifs with 15-20 animation frames. So, what I did is found the best command line tool (gifsicle) and built my GUI suite on top of it. The end user has NO need whatsoever for interacting with the command line while building, editing, and managing animated Gifs. gAnim8 is written in Python, making it open source by nature, and very portable across many POSIX/Linux Systems. If you don't know about Python, all you have to know is that you won't have to compile anything, unless you choose to. gAnim8 is available as free, open source software under the W3C license. gAnim8 is officially hosted on SourceForge.

Go to the gAnim8 Web Site
Screen Shot
Go to the gAnim8 DOWNLOAD site




Ice Sound Manager
Ice Sound Manager
Ice Sound Manager was designed to ease the management of sound events, sound themes, and the IceSound server in the IceWM environment under Linux/Unix. It is also intended to be an improvement upon the noble, but primitive 'icesndcfg'. The main improvements over icesndcfg include a support for sound event "themes", more comprehensive help, easy management and configuration of the IceSound server, a cleaner GUI interface, automatic starting of the IceSound server, and a more conservative approach to disk space usage. In addition, Ice Sound Manager includes a built-in "Setup" program which runs the first time you run Ice Sound Manager. The application is written in Python (making it more easily ported across various platforms and architectures) and uses GTK through the PyGTK libraries. This application is available in both tar.gz and RPM. Ice Sound Manager is available as free, open source software under the W3C license. Ice Sound Manager is officially hosted on SourceForge. Although Ice Sound Manager is Gtk-based, neither Gnome nor the Gnome-libs is NOT required.

Go to the Ice Sound Manager Web Site
Screen Shot
Go to the Ice Sound Manager DOWNLOAD site



GtkPengAOL
This is a Gtk-based frontend for the
PengAOL program, used by Linux users to connect to AOL (since, AOL is too lazy to create a client for Linux). This is NOT the "official" frontend for Pengaol, but rather, an alternative, lighter-weight frontend best-suited for Gnome (the gnome-terminal program is required). If you are looking for a QT-based frontend, check the official Pengaol site, which provides such a frontend. Features of GtkPengAOL include: easy GUI-based configuration of your Pengaol.conf file, support for storing of multiple phone numbers and easily swapping between phone numbers, easy configuration of screen names, and the ability to reset your modem if you are using a PCMCIA PC Card and have the cardmgr/cardctl utilities installed. The program uses a small terminal window for monitoring your connection state. The current version is 0.1a, but already appears to be very stable. It has only been tested with Pengaol versions 1.0a-1 and 0.96-1. Requirements: Gtk 1.2.8 or above, gnome-terminal, Pengaol, PyGtk 0.6.9 or above, Python 2.2 or above, and PyGnome 1.4.2 or above.

Download the Python Script (31 KB)
Screen Shot



GRealBookmarks
This is a Gtk-based bookmark organizer for the Linux version of
Real Player. Why did I create this? Well, the Linux versions of Real Player 8 and below have no means of saving bookmarks like the Windows version does. This is REALLY unacceptable. I listen to hundreds of radio stations, but found that the Linux version of Real Player had no built-in bookmarks manager. Even worse, Real Player's "recent files" list can only hold 10 URLS. So, GRealBookmarks was born. Features include a lightweight, fairly intuitive GUI, and saving of bookmarks in the very portable XML format (stored in your root directory: /greal_bookmarks.xml). Requirements: Real Player (any version, version 7 or above recommended), Gtk 1.2.8 or above, PyGtk 0.6.9 or above, Python 2.2 or above with the xml.dom.minidom class, and PyGnome 1.4.2 or above. The current version is 0.2b.

Download the Python Script (26 KB)
Screen Shot



GtkRun
GtkRun is a "Run..." dialog for Linux (very similar to the "Run..." dialog found on Windows start menus). It has all of the features you'd expect in a "Run..." dialog, including speed, and a 'memory' of recently run commands. GtkRun is written in Python, using the PyGTK library, so it does NOT need to be compiled. The program is extremely small. Although it is Gtk-based, Gnome is NOT required. GtkRun is available as free, open source software under the W3C license. Both an RPM and a .tar.gz package are available for download.

screenshot of GtkRun
Download GtkRun - RPM (6 KB)
Download GtkRun - .TAR.GZ (no need to compile) (4 KB)



Gnome Calendar
This is a quick, lightweight calendar. It does nothing fancy, but is useful for sticking on your desktop toolbar or system tray. Requirements: Gtk 1.2.8 or above, PyGtk 0.6.9 or above, Python 2.2 or above, and PyGnome 1.4.2 or above. The current version is 0.1b.

Download the Python Script (4 KB)
Screen Shot



PyMidiGtk
This is a quick, SIMPLE midi player - a frontend for the playmidi utility. The features are intentionally basic: Play, Stop, File open. It is designed to be associated with midi files in your chosen file manager (Gmc, Konqueror, Nautilus, Endeavour, etc), to provide a fast, memory-friendly means of quickly previewing files of this type with a "double click". Requirements: playmidi, Gtk 1.2.8 or above, PyGtk 0.6.9 or above, Python 2.2 or above, and PyGnome 1.4.2 or above. The current version is 0.2a. A
Tkinter version is also available.

Download the Python Script (11 KB)
Screen Shot



PyWavGtk
This is a quick, SIMPLE wav player - a frontend for the wavplay utility. The features are intentionally basic: Play, Stop, File open. It is designed to be associated with wav files in your chosen file manager (Gmc, Konqueror, Nautilus, Endeavour, etc), to provide a fast, memory-friendly means of quickly previewing files of this type with a "double click". Requirements: wavplay, Gtk 1.2.8 or above, PyGtk 0.6.9 or above, Python 2.2 or above, and PyGnome 1.4.2 or above. The current version is 0.2a. A
Tkinter version is also available.

Download the Python Script (11 KB)
Screen Shot



PyMpegGtk
This is a quick, SIMPLE Mpeg movie player - a frontend for the plaympeg (SMPEG) utility. The features are intentionally basic: Play, Stop, File open. It is designed to be associated with Mpeg files in your chosen file manager (Gmc, Konqueror, Nautilus, Endeavour, etc), to provide a fast, memory-friendly means of quickly previewing files of this type with a "double click". Requirements: plaympeg (SMPEG), Gtk 1.2.8 or above, PyGtk 0.6.9 or above, Python 2.2 or above, and PyGnome 1.4.2 or above. The current version is 0.2a. A
Tkinter version is also available.

Download the Python Script (11 KB)
Screen Shot






TKinter / TCL-TK Interfaces:

tkPCCard
For Linux. A Tkinter-based frontend to the cardctl and cardmgr utilities available for PCMCIA PC Cards. The program allows for easy suspending, resuming, ejecting, resetting, and inserting of PCMCIA cards, such as modems, removable disks, etc. The interface is intuitive, providing easy access to information about all currently inserted cards. And, yes, the program CAN handle more than 2 cards. Requirements: the cardctl/cardmgr utilities for PCMCIA cards (on RPMFind), Python 2.2 or above, TCL-TK 8.3.4 or above, and Tkinter 2.2 or above. The current version is 0.2a.

Download the Python Script (8 KB)
Screen Shot



Blackplanet.com Buddy List
Multi-platform. This is a Tkinter-based GUI, useful for users of BlackPlanet.com who need a REAL buddy list that actually tells you when your friends sign online. Requirements: an account on
Blackplanet.com, Python 2.2 or above, TCL-TK 8.3.4 or above, and Tkinter 2.2 or above. Known to work on both Linux AND Windows! (NOTE: This project is not affliated with or endorsed by Blackplanet.com in anyway.)

Download the Python Script (4 KB)
Screen Shot
This program also requires the URLRead.py Script to be in the same directory. (8 KB)



DNS Lookup
Multi-platform. A Tkinter frontend for the resolveip program, which comes with MySQL. It servers as a lightweight means of looking up IP addresses and host names. Requirements: the resolveip binary (comes with recent versions of MySQL), Python 2.2 or above, TCL-TK 8.3.4 or above, and Tkinter 2.2 or above.

Download the Python Script (4 KB)
Screen Shot



PyMidi
For Linux. The original Tkinter version. This is a quick, SIMPLE midi player - a frontend for the playmidi utility. The features are intentionally basic: Play, Stop, File open. It is designed to be associated with midi files in your chosen file manager (Gmc, Konqueror, Nautilus, Endeavour, etc), to provide a fast, memory-friendly means of quickly previewing files of this type with a "double click". Requirements: playmidi, Python 2.2 or above, TCL-TK 8.3.4 or above, and Tkinter 2.2 or above. The current version is 0.1a. A
GTK version is also available.

Download the Python Script (4 KB)
Screen Shot



PyWav
For Linux. The original Tkinter version. This is a quick, SIMPLE wav player - a frontend for the wavplay utility. The features are intentionally basic: Play, Stop, File open. It is designed to be associated with wav files in your chosen file manager (Gmc, Konqueror, Nautilus, Endeavour, etc), to provide a fast, memory-friendly means of quickly previewing files of this type with a "double click". Requirements: wavplay, Python 2.2 or above, TCL-TK 8.3.4 or above, and Tkinter 2.2 or above. The current version is 0.1a. A
GTK version is also available.

Download the Python Script (4 KB)
Screen Shot



PyMpeg
For Linux. The original Tkinter version. This is a quick, SIMPLE Mpeg movie player - a frontend for the plaympeg (SMPEG) utility. The features are intentionally basic: Play, Stop, File open. It is designed to be associated with Mpeg files in your chosen file manager (Gmc, Konqueror, Nautilus, Endeavour, etc), to provide a fast, memory-friendly means of quickly previewing files of this type with a "double click". Requirements: plaympeg (SMPEG), Python 2.2 or above, TCL-TK 8.3.4 or above, and Tkinter 2.2 or above. The current version is 0.1a. A
GTK version is also available.

Download the Python Script (4 KB)
Screen Shot






Other / Console-based:

This space reserved in case I decide to use something other than Gtk or Tkinter. Check back every so often. Sorry, Ncurses fans, nothing here for you.










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