Moments ago I released OCRFeeder v0.3!

This version contains several improvements like:

* A setup.py script that makes installation easier
* Zoom fit option to the zoom options and its usage when an image is loaded
* German translation
* Code improvements
* Better integration of the Tesseract OCR engine
* Better desktop integration by using an application icon and desktop file
* Updated instructions in the README file
* Corrected a few issues in the OCR engines manager dialog
* Corrected engine name access
* Fixed project being cleared whether a new project is successfully loaded or not
* Correct actions availability depending on the existence of images

A big thank you to Renard Voß who was kind enough to provide you all with a German translation.

Give it a try, either download the tarball release or clone the git repository.

You too can help: either submit bugs or feature requests or translate it to your language.

For the next release I’m thinking on having a deb package to make it even more easier to install OCRFeeder.

Stay tuned!

It’s been a while since I wrote my last post but I guess this one will compensate.

When I posted about how I made OCRFeeder run in Fremantle I said I wasn’t thinking of porting the application but in later talks with some people, it was clear that OCRFeeder might come in handy for some people.
One of the use cases that we have talked about was to be able to create a contact in the address book by recognizing the contact fields from a business card.

So, for some days in these last weeks, I’ve been porting OCRFeeder to Fremantle!
(The card-to-contact feature is still to come as I wanted to have OCRFeeder “fremantelized” before)

New Respository

I had been using git-svn to develop OCRFeeder and while this was okay when there was just a branch (trunk), with the Maemo version it was clear that Google Code’s SVN repository wasn’t enough. (Yes, I know they have mercurial but I’m git user)
So, yesterday I relocated OCRFeeder’s development to Gitorious where you’ll find the branch “maemo” besides the “master” one: http://gitorious.org/ocrfeeder

Development Notes

I must say that although I had for a long time used PyGTK for my UI code, on Hildon, I am more experienced in using C. While from the theory part this is the same, on the practical side, the PyMaemo bindings had some issues that delayed the development a bit (mainly undocumented functions that differ from the direct and expected usage, as well as some bugs I found).
I must thank Lizardo and other PyMaemo folks who were kind enough to help me every time I bugged them with questions and suggestions.

I think OCRFeeder for Maemo represents another example of how a desktop targetted application can be ported to Fremantle, specially from the design point of view. The chats I had with my friend and colleague Felipe (who, by the way, has just become a Master degree student in a in User-Centered Interactive Technologies) surelly helped in this matter.

Trying OCRFeeder for Maemo

Now, you can try to use OCRFeeder but you’ll have to first compile and install pygoocanvas and Tesseract or another OCR engine like I wrote here. I hope I have time to create deb packages for both pygoocanvas and Tesseract as they’re also very useful apps to have.

As a final note, I must say that although everything was working fine on Maemo 5.0 SDK beta 2, today the final SDK was released and I tested OCRFeeder on it… and not everything works well as before. The problems are mainly related to GtkTreeViews (Hildon style) which, from the C side seem to be working okay, but from the PyMaemo side seems not to obey the selection mode I assign to it.

Some Eye Candy…

OCRFeeder for Maemo preview from Joaquim Rocha on Vimeo.

Preferences dialog

Recognized page

The wait is over, today, N900 was announced. It is the first Maemo powered cellphone and represents a long way since the first version of Maemo came out.

Now I don’t wanna be bugging you around with another post explaining how much I like what was announced but I’d leave a lacuna in my blog if I didn’t write anything at all.

So, I’d just like to say I’m proud and happy to be part of such a great team that, along with others, contributed to bring in this great piece of technology that represents another step in the history of GNU/Linux in mobile phones.

Viva o Maemo!

Since a while ago, and during my work at Igalia, I’ve been porting EOG to Maemo using the new and great Fremantle widgets!

The project is still in an *early stage* but I couldn’t wait more to let everyone know about it so today I’ve published the git repository.

The project is being done as a branch of the original EOG. You can get the source by doing:

$ git clone http://git.igalia.com/eog.git
$ git checkout –track -b mobile origin/mobile

And then, you know, inside scratchbox:

$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure
$ make
$ make install
$ run-standalone.sh eog

Thank you to the people who helped me porting EOG, mainly Claudio and Berto.

And here you have a screencast and some nice screenshots, hope you like it:

EOG for Maemo from Joaquim Rocha on Vimeo.

I was invited to give a class in the Master en Software Libre covering an introduction to Django.

So, tomorrow I’m heading south to Vigo and present our favorite web framework (“THE” web framework, for many of us) .

I’ll start by giving an overview of Django, what it’s all about and why people should use it. Then I’ll do a tiny project with the audience so they get a real feel of it.

Although this degree covers several stuff, it is indeed a good thing that they chose to have an introduction to Django as well.
It can only mean Django is getting more and more important like it deserves to be.

Hope the audience enjoys, I’ll try not to be boring!

(I’ll upload the slide afterwards)