phipster

Andale Mono is one of the nicer monospaced fonts for the command prompt (DOS box) on Windows. Unlike the default Lucida Console, Andale Mono has a dot in the middle of the zero character to distinguish it from the capital O. It also has much nicer proportions than the default Windows raster fonts.

Microsoft dropped Andale Mono as a default font choice from the Windows 2000 and XP DOS prompt configuration. However, some years back, a helpful fellow named Aaron Toponce wrote up a blog page with the gory details on restoring Andale Mono to the DOS prompt font list.

I had the foresight (luck) to bookmark Aaron’s instruction page using Yahoo!’s My Web social bookmarking thingy. Aaron’s domain has long since reverted to a marketing link farm, but I had the foresight (luck) again to save a copy of Aaron’s page along with the Yahoo! My Web bookmark. For this feature alone My Web is gold.

As I settled into my latest PC at work, I used Aaron’s instructions to restore Andale Mono to my command window. Here for your elucidation is my slightly edited version of Aaron’s instructions:

The Windows command prompt supports monospace TrueType and OpenType fonts. By default, only Lucida Console and Raster Fonts are installed. You can add more monospace fonts using a simple registry hack:

1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/Current Version/Console/TrueTypeFont. As you will notice, the existing Lucida Console is named ‘0′.
2. Add a new string named ‘00′ (I believe only ‘0′ can be used, although I haven’t tried anything else),
3. Modify the data to be the font name.
4. Add as many TrueType and OpenType monospace fonts as you like, just keep adding zeros to the string name.
5. Open a DOS Prompt, right-click the title bar then select Properties from the context menu.
6. Select the Font tab. Andale Mono should appear in the list of fonts. Select it, then set the size (I like 14).

A persistent error in the integration of the Subclipse SVN client with Aptana IDE prevents the initial import of a project into an SVN repository. I don’t think the problem lies with Subclipse, the client plugin, as much as a bug somewhere in the guts of the Eclipse IDE. I worked around the problem by using TortoiseSVN to perform the initial repository import, then carrying on with Subclipse in Aptana IDE.

To reproduce the problem, right-click on your project folder in the Navigator panel, then select the “Share Project…” wizard from the “Team” element of the project context menu. Aptana will display an error dialog:

The error message reads “org.eclipse.team.internal.ui.wizards.ConfigureProjectWizard cannot be cast to org.tigris.subversion.subclipse.ui.wizards.sharing.SharingWizard“

A couple of other Aptanans reported encountering the same error after I submitted it to the Aptana user forum, but the Aptana team hasn’t come forth with a solution yet.

Here’s how I worked around the problem:

1. Download and install an SVN client, e.g. I use the TortoiseSVN Windows client on my Windows PC
2. Create the new project in Aptana, e.g. “MyApp”
3. Import the project to your SVN repository, e.g. “C:\rails\myapp” -> “svn://myhost.com/svn/rails/myapp/trunk”
4. Now that the code is safely tucked up in your repository, delete the contents of the project folder, either in Windows or from Aptana.
5. Back in Aptana, right-click in the Navigator pane then select “Import…” to open the project import dialog box. Follow the instructions to check out the contents of the trunk/ directory to a new Aptana project. [Note: modified this step to use Aptana instead of TortoiseSVN]
6. You should now see Aptana’s version of the SVN status hints overlaid on the project files and folders. As well, the project name will acquire the SVN repository path, e.g. [rails/myapp/trunk]
7. That’s it, you’re good to go! Now you can use Aptana’s SVN client to manage the project.

What: Compaq Presario C506ca

Why: Windows Vista sucks.

When: Yesterday.

How: Ubuntu Live CD + apt-get + Ubuntu Wiki = done.

Ubuntu First Impressions

• What sucks: fonts, headphone jack doesn’t cut out speakers, lousy Palm support
• What rocks: wireless networking, wireless keyboard/mouse, Aptana, online support/community, resource conservation, no viri (no antivirus yet, either!)