Discursive Labs » HunterDavis.com

Tutorial: Spruce Up Your GitHub Readme with a Current Source Tree Visualization

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Dec 242012

As programmers, we’re almost universally guilty of it: Boring Readme.md files that nobody wants to read. Why then, shouldn’t we spice up our Readme.md files with some pizzazz? A source tree visualization is easy to add to a Readme.md using GitHub markup, and there’s an open source project which makes the visualization of the tree itself a breeze. While it never found a market as a product, Source Tree Visualizer (STV) has found a new life since being open sourced last spring. Below, I’ll show you how to add STV to your build process and display the most current version in your README.md file.

Here’s what the Readme.md for “The Grind” looks like:

While you read through the tutorial below, I’ll be working on sloooowly converting my ~90 GitHub projects’ README files over to this method as well.

And here’s a graph of a dinosaur, my favorite QuickGrapher promotional graph:

What if HTML5 Equations and Graphs Were Completely Free and Disgustingly Easy? QuickGrapher.com is gone, Lives on as QuickGrapher – An Open Source HTML 5 Multi Equation Solver And Grapher

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Jan 232012

QuickGrapher.com was one of the research projects spun out of Discursive Labs. One of the most promising projects we worked on, it always felt like a project without an intended audience, and it never really lifted off. I’m quite proud of the work that Mark and I did, and still think it’s a tremendously fun and important project.

You can see an outdated version of it in action here.

Check out the drake equation in QuickGrapher here.

Check out the set of video tutorials we did for it here.

(my favorite video)

Download, exploit, and contribute to the source at the github project here.

And check out the permalink page for it here.

Source Tree Visualizer – Now Open Source

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Jan 232012

As most of you know, Mark and I shelved Discursive Labs about a year ago. While the business didn’t make it, we ended up creating some really cool stuff in our research department. One of those projects was Source Tree Visualizer. We’ve decided to open source it with a BSD license, so feel free to modify the code and use it most anywhere.

Check out my gallery of some really cool trees (Google+ gallery below as well):

https://plus.google.com/photos/109597056286687737899/albums/5700658936240673073

You can see the permalink page for STV here, or see the GitHub project here:

https://github.com/huntergdavis/Source-Tree-Visualizer

Build Your Own Distributed Cluster Now Available to Purchase Online

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Mar 092011

My second eBook, Build Your Own Distributed Compilation Cluster – A Practical Walkthrough is now available for purchase online. This 60+ page tutorial walks one through the creation of a fully distributed compilation system. With practical advice and heaps of source and script examples, you can pick up this helpful eBook at Amazon and Barnes and Nobles sites and be using your own custom distributed compilation system within hours. I’ll be updating the permalink page (top-right on my WordPress theme) with shopping links once the shopping pages go live. While I remain hard at work at Discursive Labs and on a number of other projects, my next eBook project will most likely be a large collection of my hacks and this eBook should keep your e-reader in use till then.

This is the cover image for my second eBook, Build Your Own Compilation Cluster

Distributed Java, Fortran, and ARM to X86 Cross Compilation

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Jan 202011

A very cool and strange thing (for me at least) has happened. Having spent a great deal of time digging through my Google analytic reports, I can say with certainty that my personal site traffic is on the rise. What’s most interesting to me is that a good portion of that new readership linked into my site from my corporate blog. Even more interesting, our corporate blog over at www.discursivelabs.com has far eclipsed the readership of my personal blog here at www.hunterdavis.com. As such, I thought I’d share the link to my newest article.

In the fifth article in our ongoing series on low power compilation clusters, things are really starting to get interesting. I run you through a distributed Java, Fortran, and ARM->X86-64 compilation using an updated set of scripts we created in our previous articles, as well as post an update on the real-world Pogoplug compilation cluster (hint: twice as fast).

Writing Your Own Distributed Compilation System

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Jan 102011

As the title implies in our latest article over at Discursive Labs we walk you through the creation of a fully distributed compilation system (i.e. a fully federated system not based on DistCC, Sun’s DMAKE, or other existing distributed compilation tools). The scripts are available in the article and can be dropped into an existing compilation node or as a base for future development. While I have posted a few articles over at Discursive Labs since I last posted here, I thought this one in particular may be of interest to anyone wishing to make their own cluster for compilation or scientific computing. If you’re interested in cross-compiling, low power ARM clusters, virtual clusters or distributed computing and you’re not reading our continuing series then you should really catch up.

*UPDATE — These articles have been collected into the volume ‘Build Your Own Distributed Compilation Cluster’, read more at it’s information page here.

Active Compile on 6 Virtual Nodes

Using the ARM Based PogoPlug as an X86-64 Compilation Cluster – An Article Series

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Dec 062010

Are you looking for something new and interesting to run on your Pogoplug after reading that last article on emulators? Ever considered using it to compile software that runs natively on your X86-64 machine? Did you even know this was a possibility?

On our corporate blog over at Discursive Labs, I’ve posted up the first in a new article series about creating an ARM based X86-64 cross-compiling cluster. For the first in the article series, we run you through the basic configuration, compilation, and toolchain creation for ARM to X86-64 compilation. In future articles we’ll discuss issues involved in library cross-compilation, sorting through “dependency hell”, adding new compilation nodes, and the benefits of using a low-power compilation cluster in your build and CIS processes. We’ll walk you through a full cross-compile of one of our beta software products, and all of its prerequisite libraries in detail.

As always, if you’re interested in beta testing any of our upcoming software, send an email to beta@discursivelabs.com.

(Preview) – Sliders (beta) and Upcoming Beta Opportunities

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Nov 182010

First thanks to everyone who applied for beta status over at Discursive Labs. Your name is on the list and we’ve got an extra secret upcoming project that will be landing in your inbox soon . If anyone else is interested in becoming a beta tester, send us an email with “beta” in the subject line and we’ll get you on the list.

Also, on a completely separate note we’ve got another technology preview with an upcoming public beta called Sliders (beta). It’s a graphical, dynamically updating equation solving, graphing, and sharing application written in HTML5 and gRaphael. Preview it over at the Discursive Labs corporate blog.

Sliders (beta)

Source Tree Visualizer Beta 2 Media Update with Images and Video

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Nov 082010

For those of you who are not on beta list over at Discursive Labs, this is the sort of thing you are missing out on. If you follow our corporate blog over at www.discursivelabs.com, you know that Source Tree Visualizer is an entirely new way to interact and understand the complexities of source control in a meaningful, intuitive way. Rooted in the most current research in computer graphics and visualization, Source Tree Visualizer may literally change the way you think about your source tree forever. Head on over to the Source Tree Visualizer media page and find out how Discursive Labs is bringing you a whole new kind of source tree visualization.