tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29813066175590165812024-02-20T12:48:57.377-08:00The Cobra Programming LanguageNews and thoughts about the Cobra programming language for .NET and Mono.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-38568940996451598112013-12-23T11:08:00.001-08:002013-12-23T11:08:44.929-08:00I'm happy to announce that Cobra 0.9.6 has been released full of refinements and fixes. As usual, there is a package for Windows and another for Mac/Linux/Unix-like.<br />
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Thanks to everyone who contributed through patches, bug reports, help with the web site, satellite projects like MonoDevelop/Xamarin, etc. Credits are on the release notes wiki page.<br />
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There have also been a number of improvements to the MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio add-in for Cobra. The latest version includes support for mouseover tooltips, method parameter completion tooltips, support for building a Cobra project file using MSBuild or XBuild, and a new Go To Declaration right-click command.<br />
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You can now install the add-in using the MonoDevelop Add-In Manager. Add the <a href="http://mdrepo.ramonrocha.com/">http://mdrepo.ramonrocha.com/</a> repository using the Add-In Manager to install the precompiled add-in package. This repository hosts the latest stable versions of the add-in. If you prefer the latest development version, you can install from source using the master branch on the GitHub repository at <a href="https://github.com/ramon-rocha/MonoDevelop.CobraBinding">https://github.com/ramon-rocha/MonoDevelop.CobraBinding</a>. See the README.md file for more details on installing from source and how you can help contribute with development or testing.<br />
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Please help get the word out to friends and colleagues.<br />
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<a href="http://cobra-language.com/downloads/">http://cobra-language.com/downloads/</a><br />
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<a href="http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/wiki/ReleaseNotes_0.9.6">http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/wiki/ReleaseNotes_0.9.6</a><br />
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Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-23008871440588346932013-05-24T11:13:00.001-07:002013-05-24T11:13:44.710-07:00<p><a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5010">Cobra 0.9.4 has been released today.</a> Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. Codes fast, runs fast.</p>
<p>Cobra is a community-driven, open source project under the MIT license.</p>
Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-55285674909447464822012-11-26T09:11:00.001-08:002012-11-26T09:11:57.326-08:00Cobra 0.9.2 is released.<p>This <a href="http://cobra-language.com/downloads/">point release of Cobra</a> has 30 refinements and fixes. Enjoy.</p>
<p>Cobra runs on .NET 2.0+ and Mono 2.6+. A JVM back-end is underway.</p>
<p>Cobra is a community-driven, open source project under the MIT license.</p>Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-27166191571667887422012-09-27T02:40:00.001-07:002012-09-27T02:40:52.868-07:00Cobra 0.9 has been released<p>The newly released <a href="http://cobra-language.com/downloads/">Cobra 0.9</a> provides language refinements, library additions, new samples, new koans, an improved @help directive and expanded documentation. Of course, plenty of bugs have been squashed and locked out with an expanded test suite. See the official release notes for full details.</p>
<p>Cobra runs on .NET 2.0+ and Mono 2.6+. A JVM back-end is underway.</p>
<p>Cobra is a community-driven, open source project under the MIT license.</p>
Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-59596415601509489302011-08-15T02:15:00.000-07:002011-08-15T02:19:23.879-07:00Update for August 2011Well apparently I'm not a consistent blogger. I do, however, participate in the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=4">Cobra discussion group</a> and the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/wiki/IrcChannel">Cobra IRC channel</a> on a regular basis. I have also been applying patches and making improvements which you can see on the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/timeline">Trac Timeline page</a>.
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<br />Finally, I encourage people to take a look at the latest <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=875">Help Wanted</a> post to see if something catches your interest.
<br />Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-48746513983773421292010-10-18T12:41:00.000-07:002010-10-18T12:43:45.180-07:00Cobra 2010-10-18A new version of the Cobra programming language, dubbed <nobr><strong>"Cobra 2010-10-18"</strong></nobr>, has been released. This new version has several additions and refinements to both the language and the libraries. There have also been numerous fixes.<br /><br /><a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=672">Release notes</a> have been posted to the discussion forums and the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/downloads/">downloads are ready</a>.<br /><br />The <a href="http://cobra-language.com/how-to/">"How To"</a> and <a href="http://cobra-language.com/samples/">"Sample"</a> programs on the web site (and included in the release) have been expanded and updated.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-30219893851999193222010-04-05T15:45:00.000-07:002010-04-06T20:21:31.380-07:00Cobra 2010-04-02 ReleasedA new version of the Cobra programming language, dubbed <nobr><strong>"Cobra 2010-04-02"</strong></nobr>, has been released. This new version has several additions and refinements to both the language and the libraries. There have also been numerous fixes.<br /><br /><a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=585">Release notes</a> have been posted to the discussion forums and the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/downloads/">downloads are ready</a>.<br /><br />The <a href="http://cobra-language.com/how-to/">"How To"</a> and <a href="http://cobra-language.com/samples/">"Sample"</a> programs on the web site (and included in the release) have been expanded and updated.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-47030595831000276212009-06-10T22:02:00.001-07:002009-06-10T22:05:48.847-07:00New Cobra SlidesI presented Cobra to the Architecture SIG folks of the <a href="http://www.sandiegodotnet.com/">San Diego .NET Users Group</a>. You can view the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/docs/papers-etc/Cobra-San-Diego-2009-06-Slides.pdf">PDF Slides</a> to learn more about Cobra.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-72151545907590081742009-06-09T22:34:00.000-07:002009-06-09T22:36:35.080-07:00New Sample Program Evolves SolutionsAre you familiar with the genetic algorithm (GA)? If not, the doc string contains the requisite Wikipedia links to the topic.<br /><br /><a href="http://cobra-language.com/samples/GeneticAlgorithm/">Genetic Algorithm Sample in Cobra</a>Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-27012646035674203972009-06-08T09:51:00.000-07:002009-06-08T09:53:17.959-07:00Presentation in San DiegoI'm presenting Cobra in San Diego to a .NET group on Wed Jun 10. If you're in the area and you're new to Cobra, or you'd just like to meet up, then come join the fun.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.sandiegodotnet.com/Meetings/ArchitectureSIG/tabid/61/Default.aspx">Information here.</a>Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-10573442214358916952009-06-02T22:36:00.000-07:002009-06-02T22:40:41.038-07:00Reaping The Benefits Of CobraMSDN Magazine has published an article, <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd882513.aspx">Reaping The Benefits Of Cobra</a> by Ted Neward. There's nice coverage of key Cobra features and their advantages.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-67790242756164259932009-05-09T18:30:00.000-07:002009-05-09T18:37:41.704-07:00MSDN Low Bandwidth BookmarkletThe MSDN web site is full of great information, but runs too slow and is too awkward for my taste. If it could actually remember my preference to exclude examples for certain languages from the documentation, maybe it would be worth it. But since it cannot, it becomes an example of "too many bells and whistles".<br /><br />Fortunately, they have a "low bandwidth" version that not only loads faster, but is easier to navigate.<br /><br />Jon Galloway <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2008/08/30/msdn-low-bandwidth-bookmarklet.aspx">documented this</a> some time ago with a nice "bookmarklet" for toggling the MSDN mode. I actually expect to read more of the MSDN material now!Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-14798110989824120432009-05-04T22:41:00.000-07:002009-05-04T22:47:16.946-07:00Cobra April 2009 Update and ReleaseThe <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=357">Cobra April 2009 Update</a> has been posted and <a href="http://cobra-language.com/downloads/">Release 2009-04-30</a> was recently made. It features the usual round of improvements such as refinements to the language, more library conveniences and the occasional bug fix. Also, the installer is more robust.<br /><br />See the update for full details.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-18697440445367667172009-04-26T13:28:00.001-07:002009-04-26T13:29:41.234-07:00Counting Sheep<a href="http://www.xkcd.com/571/">Baa!</a>Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-69253723556974304722009-04-10T01:00:00.000-07:002009-04-10T01:07:45.840-07:00Cobra March 2009 UpdateThe <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=339">update for March</a> has been posted. Most notable are HTML syntax highlighting of source files and new sample programs.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-29087323945369024982009-04-07T00:43:00.000-07:002009-04-07T00:49:26.896-07:00Cobra Release 2009-04-07Due to fixes and refinements, you'll want to upgrade if you're using any previous release. Or, if you're using Cobra from a Subversion workspace, you can just update at any time and run <i>install-from-workspace</i> in the Source\ directory.<br /><br /><a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=335">Discussion thread / Announcement</a><br /><br /><a href="http://cobra-language.com/downloads/">Download</a><br /><br />See the ReadMe.text file after unzipping.<br /><br />Btw if you're using Novell Mono, do not use version 2.2. It has one or more bugs which make it unusable with Cobra. Use 2.4+ or an earlier version such as 2.0.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-2393091780637657912009-03-28T16:18:00.000-07:002009-03-29T03:34:57.229-07:00Have you played Arimaa?I found a wonderful new game called "Arimaa". It's a turn-based game, vaguely similar to chess, with an 8x8 board and different classes of pieces. It's one of those well designed games that is rather easy to learn, but challenging to master. There are many aspects of the game to discover and explore; I've only just started.<br /><br />Arimaa was actually created for AI research purposes in response to the defeat of world chess champion, Gary Kasparov, at the hands of IBM's Deep Blue chess computer. Arimaa has many more choices per turn and some other interesting properties. As a consequence, the best computer "bots" cannot currently defeat the best human players. There is a prize of $17,000 for the first bot that can. Naturally, I hope the winning bot will be written in Cobra. :-)<br /><br />Omar Syed, the creator of the game, is a computer engineer trained in artificial intelligence. He runs a great site with instructions, wiki, forums, internet game room, bot API, etc. You can even order a physical game set.<br /><br />Given Arimaa's design goal of challenging AI researchers, I was expecting that it might be boring, but it was just the opposite! Arimaa is fun in and of itself.<br /><br />You can learn more about it at:<br /><ul><br /><li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arimaa">Wikipedia:Arimaa</a></li><br /><li><a href="http://arimaa.com/">Arimaa.com</a></li><br /><li><a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4616">BoardGameGeek:Arimaa</a></li><br /></ul>Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-34374734158076360272009-03-16T18:00:00.000-07:002009-03-16T18:04:57.856-07:00Cobra March 2009 Help WantedWant to help with an open source project? Today's post on <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=318">"Help Wanted"</a> outlines a number of ideas that you might find interesting.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-89008548109663046872009-03-08T11:13:00.000-07:002009-03-08T11:15:23.349-07:00Cobra February 2009 UpdateFebruary's update includes mixins, lambdas, constants and new documentation. Check out the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=310">Cobra February 2009 Update</a> for more information. Or dive in now by <a href=http://cobra-language.com/downloads/>getting the latest</a> and exploring <a href=http://cobra-language.com/docs/>the docs</a> and <a href=http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/wiki/>the wiki</a>.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-62090587992872904972009-03-01T10:43:00.001-08:002009-03-01T11:05:15.540-08:00Informal ReleasesI've decided to start a lightweight process I call "Informal Releases" which can be made quickly and which leverage the existing <i>install-from-workspace</i> script. However, you don't have to use Subversion to get such a release. You just download a zip file.<br /><br />Making such a release is much less work for me than an official one, so I expect to make 1 - 4 of these per month. They don't replace the future official releases such as Cobra 0.9, 0.9.1, 1.0, etc. But they do give you early access to new features.<br /><br />This is for folks are not comfortable installing Cobra out of a Subversion workspace. It's easy enough to do, but users may prefer to download a hand-picked snapshot instead.<br /><br />Another route could have been to fully automate the build of a nightly package, but then you don't know if you're downloading a stable package when it's blindly made at the same time every day. In contrast, I'll cut an informal release when I'm fairly confident that the Cobra source repository is stable and has something worthwhile to offer over the last one.<br /><br />You can, of course, continue to use a <a href="http://cobra-language.com/source/">Subversion workspace</a>.<br /><br />There is a <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=307">discussion thread</a> on this topic which includes the link to <b><span style="white-space:nowrap;">Cobra 2009-03-01</span></b>.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-59887276114576909312009-02-03T20:07:00.000-08:002009-02-03T20:26:46.060-08:00Cobra January 2009 UpdateJanuary's work was all about refinements. Fixes, better error messages, more docs, etc. Check out the <a href=http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=292>Cobra January 2009 Update</a> for more information. Or dive in now by <a href=http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/wiki/HowToInstallFromSource>getting the latest</a> and exploring <a href=http://cobra-language.com/docs/>the docs</a> and <a href=http://cobra-language.com/trac/cobra/wiki/>the wiki</a>.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-85366366772044638662009-01-01T18:31:00.000-08:002009-02-03T20:26:27.755-08:00Cobra December 2008 UpdateCobra now supports extension methods on generic types, along with several refinements to the language and libraries. Check out the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=266">Cobra December 2008 Update</a> for more information.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-44883206676802868402008-11-30T17:32:00.000-08:002008-11-30T17:37:01.110-08:00Cobra November 2008 UpdateCobra now has closures, streams, generic method constraints and more. Check out the <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=218">Cobra November 2008 Update</a> for more information.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-24005690996263236432008-11-29T17:34:00.000-08:002008-11-29T17:40:49.421-08:00Webware for Python 1.0Christoph Zwerschke has just announced:<br /><br /><blockquote>The historic Webware for Python version 1.0 has finally been released. It runs with all Python versions from 2.0 to 2.6.<br /><br />A lot of bugs have been fixed, and a few small improvements and changes have been made since the last release. See the release notes for WebKit, MiddleKit, TaskKit, CGIWrapper and DBUtils for details.<br /><br />Webware for Python is a suite of Python packages and tools for developing object-oriented, web-based applications. The suite uses well known design patterns and includes a fast Application Server, Servlets, Python Server Pages (PSP), Object-Relational Mapping, Task Scheduling, Session Management, and many other features. Webware is very modular and easily extended.<br /><br />Webware for Python is well proven and platform-independent. It is compatible with multiple web servers, database servers and operating systems.<br /><br />DBUtils is a suite of tools providing solid, persistent and pooled connections to a database that can be used in all kinds of multi-threaded environments like Webware for Python or other web application servers. The suite supports DB-API 2 compliant database interfaces and the classic PyGreSQL interface.<br /><br />Check out the Webware for Python home page at <a href="http://www.w4py.org">http://www.w4py.org</a>.<br /></blockquote><br />I was the original author and founder of this open source project back in 2000. Over the years we attracted several contributors and many users. Ultimately, I left and turned to Cobra. Chris took over the Webware project and has done a smash up job supporting users and improving the code base. I still use Webware on multiple projects that date back to the early 2000's and I'd use it again on any Python project.<br /><br />Congratulations to Chris and the Webware community!Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2981306617559016581.post-3348846389653025322008-10-22T18:48:00.000-07:002008-10-22T18:50:27.815-07:00Cobra October UpdateCobra has a new "install-from-workspace" script that is quite handy, and I've posted a <a href="http://cobra-language.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=189">Cobra October Update</a> in the discussion forums.Chuck Esterbrookhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12828427007919562636noreply@blogger.com0