Tuhinanshu’s Blog

A set of tweets about how the Sandboxing model of Windows 8 Metro / Modern apps, designed for safety of tablets, is limiting their potential for the Desktop.

I think that excluding Metro / Modern apps from Desktop is an ill mindset to have for today's Windows developers #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

And equally ill mindset for Microsoft who develops the platform. I understand their One Windows vision, and that's great #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

But each platform as its own strengths and weaknesses, and that should not be neglected in pursuit of universality #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

The largest dichotomy comes from the Desktop / Tablet fracture in Windows, vis-a-vis Win 8 Pro and Win RT #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

Because of WinRT sandboxing which makes sense (or does it?) for tablets, the WinRT apps for Desktop are feeble and useless #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

Modern apps for Desktop should be akin (somewhat) to the fullscreen apps in OS X that one can swipe through. The gesture is there #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

Here is the swipe gesture built-in to Windows 8 to facilitate that. #Win8Apps pic.twitter.com/4RYFRMkBL7

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

And #Win8Apps have the added advantage of having 0 chrome: only content. Big, beautiful content! I'd love to have a shell and a browser open

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

To focus only on my work and nothing else! But they won't let you make a real shell / console / terminal app in Metro / Modern UI #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

because of the sandboxing that is in place. #Win8Apps If there is a work around, I would love to hear it.

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

Tablets, phones, TV are certainly the next steps in OS evolution, but the Desktop is ultimately where real work is done even today #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

And Microsoft is still committed to it, as evidenced by the most recent Windows 8.1 Update 1 #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

But as long as Metro apps are shackled by the WinRT sandboxes, they will never truly break out of the window chrome #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

They are still held, pigeonholed and imprisoned in a little frame: one you can't see anymore, but one you that can definitely feel #Win8Apps

— Terence Tuhinanshu (@rajadain) April 14, 2014

Nineteen Oh Three

My first piece made using GarageBand. Thanks to David Tan and Marek Loder for their input when I was making this.

Conceptual vs Perceptual

Our identities belong permanently to the conceptual world. They can’t be seen, heard, smelled, touched or tasted. They’re merely ideas. And everything else — at the start — belongs to the sensual world, the world outside us.

Gradually we reach beyond ourselves.

We encounter the sight, smell, touch, taste and sound of our own bodies.

And of the world around us.

And we discover that objects of the physical world can also cross over —

— and possess identities of their own.

Or, as our extensions —

— begin to glow —

— with the life —

— we lend to them.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud

Continue reading “Conceptual vs Perceptual”

I am biased. About many things. I have preferences, opinions, perspectives, notions, lenses, view-points and point-of-views. I think most of us, if not all, are biased in one way or another, but I do not speak for most of us here. I only speak for myself. And I am biased.

Am I proud of my biases? Am I ashamed of them? Neither. They are just like my hands and feet: a part of me that I spend very little time thinking about. They’re just there. Just as there is physical pain when I hurt my hands or feet, there is mental anguish when I dent my biases. Just as my hands and feet are slowly changing as I grow older, so are my biases. Continue reading “Biases and Arguments”

Sorting SimpleXML Entries by Single Key

Given the following XML that has been loaded into a SimpleXML object in PHP:

<person>
  <name>Angela</name>
  <address>
    <street>123 Arbor St</street>
    <city>Ann Arbor</city>
  </address>
</person>
<person>
  <name>Becky</name>
  <address>
    <street>234 Buckingham Ave</street>
    <city>Boston</city>
  </address>
</person>
<person>
  <name>Charlie</name>
  <address>
    <street>345 Cherry Ln</street>
    <city>Charlotte</city>
  </address>
</person>

<name>Angela</name>

<street>123 Arbor St</street>

<city>Ann Arbor</city>

</address>

</person>

<name>Becky</name>

<street>234 Buckingham Ave</street>

<city>Boston</city>

</address>

</person>

<name>Charlie</name>

<street>345 Cherry Ln</street>

<city>Charlotte</city>

</address>

</person>

To sort by name, do the following:

$xml = simplexml_load_file($xmlfile);

$data = array();

foreach ($xml as $x) {
  $data[(string) $x->name] = $x;
}

ksort($data);

$xml = simplexml_load_file($xmlfile);

$data = array();

foreach ($xml as $x) {

$data[(string) $x->name] = $x;

}

ksort($data);

To sort by city, do the following:

$xml = simplexml_load_file($xmlfile);

$data = array();

foreach ($xml as $x) {
  $data[(string) $x->address->city] = $x;
}

ksort($data);

$xml = simplexml_load_file($xmlfile);

$data = array();

foreach ($xml as $x) {

$data[(string) $x->address->city] = $x;

}

ksort($data);

This is a simple technique that works when you have a single key by which you wish to sort the XML. We create the $data array and associate the key (name in the former case, city in the latter) with the actual element, and let ksort take care of the rest. ksort sorts an array by the key while maintaining the association.
Continue reading “Sorting SimpleXML Entries by Single Key”

Tuhinanshu’s Blog

Shanghai Tron

Mario’s Dream

Future Windows 8 Apps

Nineteen Oh Three

Conceptual vs Perceptual

Biases and Arguments

Sorting SimpleXML Entries by Single Key