Timasomo 2022: Week 2 Update Thread

My project is to put together a full text search library that I can use in my various Elixir projects.

I spent this week making a simple http client for lnx, testing out the different ways of querying data, working out how I want the index definition api to work for users of the library, and importing data for my first use case (importing all chapters of stories from fimfiction).

Making the client was pretty straightforward as there weren't that many endpoints to implement and they were mostly self-explanatory.
The two exceptions were the create index and search endpoints.
The documentation wasn't completely clear on the expected/allowed input (create index didn't list facet as an allowed type and it wasn't immediately clear how combining search queries worked), but this was resolved with a bit of playing around with these two endpoints to see what was allowed.

For the index definition, I decided to use a simple Protocol that just has a function that returns the index definition for the struct.
I would like to go back at some point and make it more user friendly by adding some sort of schema macro similar to the excellent Ecto library so that users don't need to know much about the underlying system, but the Protocol works for now.

Importing the chapter text from fimfiction stories was very easy.
I extracted the epub files from the zip archive with a rust function using rustler (the native erlang zip module does not implement the zip64 extension required by large zip files), extracted the html pages with another rust function, extracted the text content with Meeseeks, and then sent it all to lnx using the client I created.

Next up is to make a search page to test things out.
For this I'll be using Phoenix LiveView.

I did this (and the same again on the other side)

That is pretty much all. I had other stuff to do this week but I think making these flat (and hopefully parallel-enough) surfaces is actually the right place to start, as opposed to last week's failed attempt. Taking some time to not just charge at the mill and start throwing chips around and instead think about this has probably helped.

Oh and I ordered a new endmill with carbide inserts that should be able to chew through aluminium like a hot knife through butter. And a centre square so I can reliably locate the middle of that cylinder. Any excuse for new tools, I guess.

I wrote down some ideas on a few evenings, but sadly didn't really start creating anything yet. Hope I can record at least some music this Sunday or next weekend. I need to be catching up on a lot of stuff :(.

Not a lot of progress on my "website where I put my links" project. (Work and medical stuff for in the way.) I did play the "Flexbox Froggy" game that goog linked to last week, which was fun practice. I think I've decided to use CSC grid for a couple parts of my page instead, which will be easier. (I thought I'd need media queries for that, which seemed unnecessarily complicated for such a simple page. But then I learned about minmax with grid!)

I've also started another small project that I might include in Timasomo - a little Clone Wars fanzine called "Jedi Proverbs Found in Fortune Cookies." Most Clone Wars episodes often start with (often silly) Jedi sayings. I realized that a lot of the fortunes we've been getting in cookies sound just like them. Thus, a very silly zine idea was born~

After some humming and hawing I've added the matching system in the simplest way. I initially had more complex solutions for it in mind than what I implemented, but to avoid premature optimization I opted to keep it as simple as possible. If the performance ends up being a problem I can always go in and change it around, and if not, no harm done.

I also started on the UI yesterday and mostly worked on writing out the usage sections. I got this idea to add lists of all the matchers and redirects with examples of how they work, something like this. That should make everything clear once I get to adding more types of them.

Hello from the FUTURE! Here is a handy link to the third update.

Well, even though I had two days off this week, very little progress on my shield. I was able to get a metal bowl that I think will do nicely for the boss, and order from some Etsy sellers for the leather carrying strap and rawhide edging. Most of my time actually ended up going towards caring for my SO, who scratched her eye and has thus needed a lot of assistance the last few days. She is doing much better now, so I can hopefully spend more time on the shield.

I am also running a parallel Make Something Month over on Beehaw, if you would like to take a look.

I have the back panel and both front panels done for my 𝑻𝑰𝑴𝑨𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑶 𝑺𝑾𝑬𝑨𝑻𝑬𝑹. I started on the first sleeve, but I didn’t work on it at all over the weekend as I was bike camping and didn’t want to carry any extra weight. Should be able to get back into it tonight!

I was out for four days with a trip to a cousin's wedding, so I'm officially behind. I was considering doing a track on my OP1 but the muses didn't really allow for it, lol. The next track does have the general groundwork done that I'll build on, so I'll hopefully have some progress on it, as a reply to this comment.

I managed to glue my larger ghosts to stakes. Need to spray paint them and find a coating to put over the smaller ghosts. I'm thinking of making a cat and just getting a couple of pumpkins to put out instead of making them this year. I feel a little bad about buying pumpkins but I can at least compost or feed them to the worms.

I didn't get as much done as I wanted, and part of that was end of week/weekend plans. It also feels a little harder to get things done between work and taking a class, but I'll keep trucking along!

Working on a screenplay for Timasomo.

Every time I think I have a chunk of free time to work on something of mine, the universe decides "nope, you don't need that, here's something else that you need to do".

I've only managed to get 30 pages done, and I have at least 50-70 more to go to fill it up. I've already changed the plot around a bit since I found a bunch of flaws (read: flaws that I don't feel like addressing directly), so I also have to take that into consideration.

I'm struggling with my 3D printer a bit. I invited over a knowledgeable friend and he recommended I replace the extruder, so that's in the mail. In the meantime, he's printing the parts I need.

The basic design of the dice tray works, but there's lots of room for improvement. We'll see how the version that's currently printing works out.