Binary Expressions

I recently installed PHP 4.3.11 from source (due to configuration requirements) on to an OpenBSD i386 v3.7 server. The installation went perfectly as it has many times before, however I found out that the PEAR script was not installed (normally in /usr/local/bin). I discovered this when trying to install some pear packages doing “pear install packagename”. I get a returned error of “-bash: pear: command not found”. I tried locating the PEAR script using “find / -name pear” and “/usr/libexec/locate.updatedb” then “locate -i pear”. The result came up empty with no PEAR script in the returned results. I double checked the PEAR documents, PHP documents and ./configure all three places stated PEAR is installed by default unless a parameter is provided at configure with –without-pear. I’m still not aware as to why the PEAR script was not installed however with help by SmallOne of #midgard I was able to resolve the problem manually. Here’s how it was resolved at the shell prompt.

• # cp pear.sh /usr/local/bin/pear
• # chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/pear

If anyone knows how the PEAR script could not have been installed please let me know, thanks.

Hi everyone. I know there has been a few people waiting for me to post about this. I apologize for such a delay. I’ve been really busy at work and consulting work is crazy right now. I have one screen done and I wanted to do one more for this first theme. For now I’ll give it post and see what everyone has to say. I said I’ll make something and I will. The theme has the same look/feel as midgard-project.org, but I like it. It’s original and it works. I just wanted to achieve more with the orientation of the data presented. I have a better solution on I believe for the orientation of the data. I’ll try to do that soon. Anyways enough babble… here’s the mock up theme I’ve done.

Please send in your comments, suggestions or directions.

It’s been awhile since I was able to work on my project of taking an existing site and converting it over to Midgard CMS along with web site improvements. I was put on to other projects temporally. Now I’m back on working with Midgard CMS. I’ve completed updating Midgard CMS and MidCOM. I’ve started to document my upgrading experience in my Midgard CMS Installation Guide for OpenBSD. You should soon seen an updated release of this guide shortly. Starting next week I will continue my development and on going documentation. I’m going to document as much as possible.

In my spare time I’ve started working on user interface concept designs for Midgard Administrative Interface System (AIS). I’ve pretty much completed one concept design and I want to complete one more before I release anything. I’m creating these user interface concept designs in Photoshop CS so I will be posting the concepts in jpeg (800px x 600px) once I’m completed. The design concepts will be standard compliant using XHTML/CSS/WCAG and fluid to fit any video resolution or browser window size. Let’s see lots of feedback people, I want to get these UIs perfect.

I finally feel ready to release the Midgard CMS Installation Guide for OpenBSD in PDF. I wanted to do this for those that want an offline or a nice printable edition. I realize Midgard 1.6.2 has been released and if I do find differences I will update the online edition and PDF edition. If anyone notices omissions or errors please let me know. Use the below links to read online or to download a copy in PDF.

Well my Midgard activities have changed direction some what thanks to feedback from Torben of Nehmer.net IT Services. With the size of web site I’m converting over to be used under Midgard CMS and the complexity of certain requirements I was advised by Torben to write up a web site specification document. This document would describe all the specifications on how the web site would achieve it’s functionality. The document is all from the back end perspective and not the visual look/feel. I’m roughly a week into witting the document. Now that I have come up with a way to structure the document, the documenting has been moving along a lot faster now. I hope to have most of it done in the next couple days. I hope I don’t forget anything :-). Since this type of document really should be done involving all web sites I was thinking of coming up with a template of some kind to help those that are wondering how to structure and what to put in such a document. Might be useful to some.

I’m just continually documenting everything and hopefully soon everyone will see the release of these documents. Well that’s about all for now.

Well the progress of the web site I’m trying to convert over to Midgard CMS is still on going. Things are moving a lot slower then I had hoped. One thing is for certain when I brought up the fact of using CMS, I had no idea it would take so much time and be such a huge learning curve. Ultimately though I know it will be worth it, especially with Midgard CMS by my side. One thing I am certain about is Midgard CMS will provide everything I will need and more some. I was worried at first but now after doing some reading, learning and talking there is no worry present. Since my deadline are coming so soon (end of January) we are going to bring in some more consulting with Nehmer.net IT Services (Torben). We’ve already used Nemein Oy (Henri Bergius, Piotras and Eero af Heurlin) and Nehmer.net IT Services (Torben). Thanks guys for all your help!

On the documentation side of things, I’ve started working on writing a Midgard FAQ or something of that sort. It fits as a FAQ but not. If I don’t call it a FAQ then I’m not sure what to call it :-). I have also started to document Midgard acronyms/terms. Bergie has brought to my attention the glossary that is online at, Midgard-Project.org. So I will take that and some how work that information into my document. As for the first document I did, Midgard CMS Installation Instructions for OpenBSD. I hope to have that done this week. I have a couple more things I want to do and then I will release the PDF version for those that want to print it or as a offline copy. I will announce the release of these documentations and more, so stay tuned.

If you have any comments, corrections and/or suggestions please let me know via IRC, email or my blog.

With Midgard continually improving and in my mind getting complex in certain areas I believe we need to take a step back and look at usability, accessibility and adaptability. Sure Midgard has this in some areas but not from the end user point of view in my mind. There should be a centralized point for admins, developers, users (content editors) and visitors to go to. The user whatever type they maybe opens their browser agent goes to the site and logs in. Once logged in the user interface should look similar but altered by access levels they may have. By doing this it removes confusion and adds simplicity. Even at the point of installation of Midgard the user should be pointed to there browser (once they reach a certain point) to complete the rest as in Site Creation, site settings, etc. As well changing the user interface to be simple and easy on eyes . Realistically it doesn’t matter what is on the back end at this point. Whether it be Aegir, MidCOM, etc. this should be all transparent to the user. Focusing on usability, accessibility and adaptability for the end user will create an environment of simplicity, comfort and desire to want to use the application. In return you gain a bigger user base and community of developers. Which of course everyone wants.

I’ll put my hand up and now say, “sure I’ll do what I can to help in these areas”. I too want to see a great user base and community of developers. I want to see a simplified UI like WordPress. Yes they are different I’m not meaning that, refer to Bergie’s blog entry Comparing Midgard and WordPress.

Submit your comments and lets discuss this on here and/or on Midgard’s IRC channel.

I happy to announce that my Midgard CMS blogs will now be syndicated into Planet Midgard. I have my hackergotchi/hacker head all ready as you can see below. Yes that’s me :-). I took it from the cheesy picture of me modeling my works golf shirt and sun glasses (no I don’t do modeling). For those interested in Midgard and CMS go check out Planet Midgard.

I’ve recently dived into CMS. After some research I ended up choosing Midgard CMS. I have found little documentation seems to exist, so I’m set to start writing docs to fill this gap. After quite sometime of fighting I’ve installed Midgard CMS on to a OpenBSD v3.5 i386 system. I’ve documented everything and released the document for others to use, Midgard CMS Installation Instructions for OpenBSD. I plan to release a PDF version shortly.

Watch for more documentation coming from me on the subject of Midgard CMS.