Java Snippets

Obsolete

This is an obsolete/abandoned project. If you wish to claim the name, you may do so. My apologies.

Overview

A collection of Unix scripts (and snippets) for randomly displaying snippets, fetching news, and RSS feeds from various sites.

Includes over 250 Java snippets/hints/tips (including updates relating to Java 1.4.2)
Scripts to fetch, format and display news from Yahoo and other sites
Script to display words from dictionary.com
Script to display latest releases from freshmeat.net
Script to display top downloads from sourceforge.net
Script to display blogs and news from artima.com
Script to display latest softwares from IBM Alphaworks
Script to display system processes, memory usage and other information
Some scripts are programmed not to fetch RSS feeds more than once in 30 minutes, due to site policies
Admin script to add more tips
And finally one script to bind them all ... This one randomizes the above.

Usage

These may be linked to your screensaver (phosphor) or mail client or web page etc. I have currently attached them to phosphor (my screensaver) and to mutt (my email client).

printrandom: use this as the program name in your screensaver, if you want all the scripts to be randomly executed

print-tips.sh JTIPS: use this if you want only Java tips to print

print-tips.sh LOST: use this if you want only Linux tips to print. These are from the LOST project. I've added a few of my own.

addtip.sh: Use this to add a tip to the tips collection

findmissing.sh: Use this if you delete any tips and you wish to compact your directory

Configuration

Modify the DIR variable in printrandom, print-tips.sh and addtips.sh to point to the root folder where the tips are residing. This will be the folder above JTIPS or LOST.
Modify the SNIPPET_PATH variable in printrandom to point to where the other scripts exist.
The program called by the screen-saver or mail client should either be in your path or mentioned with absolute path.

Limitations

Runs on Unix only (at present)
Currently requires some programming to extend (you cant just add URLs to a file). But that shd be easy to add
Currently RSS feeds are NOT parsed using an XML parser. I just grep and sed from those files.

Dependencies

wget: for fetching web content. This can be replaced with a perl script in near future
sed and grep for parsing

Content Sources

I cannot claim originality here. I have taken content from various sites and books. Some content comes from Jack Shirazi's performance tuning site (free tips).
A lot of the new content comes from tutorials and other papers on java.sun.com.

Future

Maybe ported to Perl, Python or Java at a future stage if it catches on.
Need to pick from a config file. Users should not have to code in URLs or other stuff
Proper XML parsing of RSS feeds
reduce dependencies (for example, wget)
improve randomizer script

Download

Latest files are:
scripts-1_0a.tar.gz jtips-1_0a.tar.gz, unix-1_0a.tar.gz (updated LOST tips)

The files:
scripts.*: contains the unix scripts that should be in the path
jtips*: contains the Java tips.
others*: contains other jokes, one-liners, fortunes etc, which you may use along with, or in place of, jtips.

Download Latest Files from here

Background

I originally used LOST for adding a random signature to my mails.
I then modifed that to pick random snippets from a Java folder, without prompting.
Then modified that to display snippets from specific folders depending on the mail recipient.
Finally I have replaced the lost file with print-tips.sh.
Then added scripts to fetch and format content, and then one to bind them all.