Three new pieces of code, each independent of one another:
- rdfdb.py: an experiment at furthering pyrple by adding database capabilities using Python's shelve module. But look out for the saucy itertools and set optimisations. Generally, you can run it by doing something like the example given in $ ./rdfdb.py --help, but it's the API and not the command line interface that matters.
- FOAFCite: a service that enables you to bring up a little RDF/XML or Notation3 FOAF-file entry for a person based on just their name or nickname. More information on the homepage, and also the source for the curious amongst you. It uses crschmidt's redlandbot CGI service.
- datauri.py: an implementation of the "data:" URI scheme as a handler for Python's urllib2 module. urllib already supports it.
Oddly enough, these hacks do find use from time to time. For example, crschmidt is using ntriples.py, and JimH is using wypy. So much Symbian hacking.
The term "bric-à-brac" was first used by William Makepeace Thackeray in 1840. According to the famous French lexicographer Paul-Émile Littré, it's derived from the phrase "de bric et de broc", i.e. by hook or by crook. Nobody's sure what by hook or crook originally meant, but it was first used by John Wycliffe in his Controversial Tracts around 1380.
Incidentally, this entry was written over two consecutive days, and was originally only meant to announce FOAFCite and datauri.py, but since I took so long in writing it I was able to develop rdfdb.py meanwhile.