Using Pidgin for IRC

pidgin is quite a good irc client.

Once you have downloaded and installed pidgin:

• Accounts > Manage Accounts
• Add...
• Protocol: IRC
• Username: your preferred nickname (please use your real name)
• Server: your irc server, eg irc.freenode.org
• Password - leave blank
• Add
• Close (the "Accounts" window)

Back in the main pidgin window:

• Buddies > Join A Chat...
• Account: the one you just created
• Channel: #favouriteroom, eg #pidgin
  
• Password - leave blank
• Join

In the new chat window for the chatroom:

• Conversation > Add...
• Tick "Autojoin when account connects."
• Tick "Remain in chat after window is closed."
• Leave everything else as defaults
• Add

Now when pidgin launches you will have "#favouriteroom" in your buddy list, and you can double click to open the chatroom.

You may also want to make pidgin start when windows starts;

From the main window:

• Tools > Plugins
• Tick "Windows Pidgin Options"
• Configure Plugin
• Tick "Start Pidgin on Windows startup"
• Close
• Close (plugin window)

I also recommend enabling the Markerline plugin to help see what is new in the channel.

configuring kdiff3 as a mergetool in msysgit

How to configure kdiff3 as a mergetool in msysgit. (I think if you install kdiff3 *before* msysgit it is picked up automatically, if not, do the following after installing both).

In git bash:

git config --global merge.tool kdiff3
git config --global mergetool.kdiff3.path "c:\Program Files\KDiff3\kdiff3.exe"

double check:

cat ~/.gitconfig
[merge]
  tool = kdiff3
[mergetool "kdiff3"]
  path = c:\\Program Files\\KDiff3\\kdiff3.exe

refs:

• http://markmail.org/message/dvrnn7ilprvinrfp#query:msysgit%20kdiff3%20.gitconfig+page:1+mid:dvrnn7ilprvinrfp+state:results
• http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-config.html
  

Under cygwin, the setup would be:

git config --global merge.tool kdiff3
git config --global mergetool.kdiff3.path /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files\ \(x86\)/KDiff3/kdiff3.exe

Giving the config file contents:

[merge]
        tool = kdiff3
[mergetool "kdiff3"]
        path = /cygdrive/c/Program Files (x86)/KDiff3/kdiff3.exe

Which by the way you can view with

git config -e --global

openlayers svn into git

Initial clone:

git svn clone -T trunk/openlayers/ -t tags/openlayers/ -b branches/openlayers/ http://svn.openlayers.org/ openlayers.git

"http://svn.openlayers.org/tags/openlayers/docs-2.8/" is in the wrong place and gets pulled in by the git clone.

I should have used --no-follow-parent to avoid the docs-2.8 tag pulling in docs history but not going to re-clone now. If you are repeating this, try this instead:

git svn clone --no-follow-parent -T trunk/openlayers/ -t tags/openlayers/ -b branches/openlayers/ http://svn.openlayers.org/ openlayers.git

Find the errant docs branches & eliminate:

cd openlayers.git
for x in `git for-each-ref --format="%(refname)" 'refs/remotes/tags/docs*'`; do git update-ref -d $x; done

# http://dound.com/2009/04/git-forever-remove-files-or-folders-from-history/
# expunge old objects (I think this works)

git reflog expire --all
git gc --aggressive --prune

Then run: http://www.shatow.net/fix-svn-refs.sh to create real git tags.

If you just want the result you can download a copy complete with svn metadata from http://www.timwise.co.uk/openlayers-dev/openlayers.git.tgz

You will then be able to run

git svn fetch

to get updates from the openlayers svn server.

There is a published copy at http://github.com/timabell/openlayers, though it doesn't have the svn metadata.

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I also tackled the docs folder:

The docs directory has no matching branch or tag directories, so the following is sufficient:

git svn clone -T trunk/doc http://svn.openlayers.org/ openlayers-doc.git
git gc --aggressive --prune

You can download this from http://www.timwise.co.uk/openlayers-dev/openlayers-doc.git.tgz

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Anything else I come up with will end up at http://www.timwise.co.uk/openlayers-dev/