.. index:: blog; 2016/10/26

.. Modified: 2016-10-26/12:47-0400

Invited
=======

Just started in on conversations regarding taking on a co-admin role with the
Unicon project.  Honoured, and looking forward. If it works out, *and there is
no reason to think it won't*, the Unicon Programming docset will be moved to
SourceForge and become part of the Unicon project proper.

I have plans to leverage some of the offerings provided by the great people at
SourceForge.  And to continue to advocate the use of Unicon for generating
solutions to modern computing needs.


Recent news
-----------
The Unicon Programming doc set is still progressing along nicely.  The alpha
status warning has been dropped and the version bumped to 0.2.  The todo list
is shrinking, *and growing*.  Shrinking in terms of getting all the reference
material in place, growing in terms of all the nifty application potentials
for Unicon programming that await discovery and implementation.

List support in repl
....................
:ref:`clint` has recently updated the :ref:`repl` function to support
:ref:`list` data.

.. sourcecode:: unicon

    link lists
    procedure main()
        L := [1,2,3]
        write(limage(L))
        write(limage(repl(L, 3)))
    end

That code will replicate the list ``L`` three times, giving a result of

::

    [1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3]

A handy feature.

More loadfunc
.............

Created a sample that embeds ``ficl``, the Forth Inspired Command Language, a
shared library that exposes a very nice Forth engine.  ``unificl`` embeds the
interpreter for use from Unicon.

See :ref:`ficl` for all the details.

Linux Containers
................

:ref:`jafar` has created a layer that allows Unicon to interface with LXC, the
Linux Container system.  This allows sandbox operations and container
management in a few lines of Unicon source.

https://sourceforge.net/p/unicon/discussion/contributions/thread/ec34b78c/

Recommended read.

Vim editor syntax file
......................

A Unicon specific highlighter has been created for use inside the Vim editor.
Builds on the existing Icon syntax file that ships with Vim, adding in Unicon
specific (and Icon graphic) reserved words, keywords and function lists.

https://sourceforge.net/p/unicon/discussion/contributions/thread/27a00aa9/

.. literalinclude:: ../programs/unicon.vim
   :language: vim

.. only:: html

    .. rst-class:: rightalign

        :download:`../programs/unicon.vim`

Graphics fixes
..............
Reported some issues with 3D graphic support on GNU/Linux systems, and within
a few days, Clinton and Jafar had fixes posted. More attributes work properly
with the :ref:`open` function, and :ref:`WriteImage` can now be used to
capture the result of a 3D graphic canvas, saved in any of the many supported
image formats.

The Unicon project continues to improve.  Nice. 
  
*Have good, make well.*

.. post:: Oct 26 2016
   :tags: invite, loadfunc
   :category: project
   :author: Brian Tiffin
   :location: on.ca
   :language: en