A couple weeks ago I posted about a python program that I was making in order to make things a bit easier when I make up a photographic web site, like the ones for RCFM and MFF. Then, it needed quite a bit of work. I might be done (if any program is really ever done) now.

I've dubbed it AnthroSite as:
1. The name wasn't being used by some other program as far as Google knows.
2. The sites I've been making and wanted it for are full of anthropomorphic creatures.
3. I like the pun which I justify as at times it seemed like I was groping in the dark like my lamp went out in a coal mine.

What does it look like now? Well, if you peak behind the cut you'll see: ( BIG screen shot. )

I made it just for myself, but I could see others having use for it. It does not fully automate everything. It requires that the images be named a certain way, and expects them to be already be sized and oriented properly. I edit the image files anyway (some things are best cropped out of shot, after all), so I don't see that as an issue. Others might disagree, but then I suppose if everything is to be automatic there's always Flickr or such.

I suppose I could write up a page on how it works as while I know how it works, not everything is apt to obvious to someone else. That is, if anyone else will ever use it. As the program is written in python, I think (but don't know for sure) that it will run on any system that python (and the python image library) will install on - and python will install on Linux, *BSD, Windows, Mac, and I don't know what all else.

I've seen discussions, or rather arguments, about whether MixedCaseVariableNames are better or if underscore_linked_variable_names are better. I have dealt with both. From my Forth background, I rather prefer the MixedCaseVariableNames as one of the Forth tools I have results in printouts with underlines, which make underscores indistinguishable from spaces - this is a Bad Thing when trying to debug. Of course, in Forth I can use ~Variable-Names-With*Unusual-Characters-in-Them! if I am so inclined.

Now that my bias has been revealed, I'll address one of the notions of some of the underscore users. The idea is that say, this_is_a_test won't have the missing capital problem that ThisIsATest might if someone flubs and uses ThisIsaTest instead. This error could be found with a system that demands all variables be explicitly created. But not all systems are like that. Many are, or can be, quite lax and let the first instance of something substitute for an explicit declaration.

But the problem is not even that. The problem is that of case sensitivity. In an ideal system, case would be preserved, but not distinguished between. That is, if I make a variable named CustomerID the system editor won't go changing it on me to be customerid or CUSTOMERID but will leave it alone as CustomerID. But it will also accept CUSTOMERID and customerid and customerID and they will all point to the same information as CustomerID. Not that the programmer should go around not caring about case. Ideally each instance of the variable would look like all the other instances of the variable - but that's something the search-and-replace function of an editor can handle if need be.

"But that means you can't use each separately!" That's right. Which means I'd have to think up names that won't overlap in mental name-space and be confusing. It would require that I not obfuscate my code, at least not by abusing case.

Now, MiXedcAsevaARiabLeNAMe is something that does deserve to be editted out of any respectable program. Unlike MixedCaseVariableName, nothing is gained in readability by random capitalization. Rather, it just makes the programmer look like an idiot.