It has been a while since I wrote something, and what is the point? The boom of blogging was more than a decade ago, and kids nowadays are more into social networks. However, blogging is not the purpose of the site, here we share software. So, I just write posts when I have new releases and other news.

The lack of activity

The lack of activity on the website is due to the fact that I am not a very active programmer, that is it.

I am a self-taught programmer and I learned how to write desktop applications back then when it was cool. Now it is all online and mobile applications, and games. So much games!

Some of the programs I did in the past are not the most original ideas in the wold there is a lot of similar software. And some big projects already have those functions, such as QGIS. And that is good.

I have seen software around the web that looks like mine. It is cool if they use my code as long as they give me credit, it’s open source anyway and that is the point. But, a few years ago I saw this application:

which came out around about the same time I released a previous version of my program for coordinates conversion:

Maybe it’s just a coincidence. I am not making any accusations it’s just an observation (and there is no point because my program does not look like that anymore since a few years ago). I do not own the idea of what a coordinates conversion tool should looks like. Maybe they came with the idea first. Anyway I have my code history to prove my work is my own, and it is public on my Github.

My github profile

The followers of this site might know me a little by now, and they may already know my Github profile:

https://github.com/ecoslacker

The thing is that profile has no green boxes. It’s been a while since I submitted any commits.

The first reason is that the code I do now is not mine, I have been working on other third party projects (for my own company and other people’s). Also, I am currently (2021) doing my PhD and most of the stuff I do is Python data analysis and computer modeling for academic and research purposes. I have no time for side projects anymore.

So given the circumstances, I decided to keep my old programs in the site but keep working on my most original program (that has public access), Gabbioni.

I know Gabbioni has only a bunch of users but I have been contacted by some companies that have interest on it. So I know there is useful for somebody. I don’t think I will keep working on desktop applications that much, I have only a similar project that maybe someday will see the light on a public Github repo. I don’t like the idea of Microsoft hosting my code, but hey! they made private repositories available for all, and at least for now that is something useful to me.

The idea of having my own website was to host libraries, binaries and documents that cannot be on a github repo. Now that idea is starting to become old, only big projects can afford having a website for this purposes. But I like the old way, I was excited then blogging came around. It was fun browsing in the Blogosphere to read about, Linux distros, free software, and other nerdy news. It was fun going through the blogroll of my favorite blogs. I keep using WordPress because of the nostalgia of these days.

All the projects I have nowadays are Python code that can be entirely hosted on Github and my main activity will be there. Although it does not make much sense having a dedicated website for this, I will keep my website to host my personal project. It was cool years ago and maybe some people will appreciate stepping on a project like this.

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ecoslacker

I’m happy to announce the new release of the Gabbioni software!

After months of active development I’m ready to release to the world the new and improved version of the program to design small gabion dams for soil conservation. It has been a long path but finally the new features are getting ready. That is why I am releasing a Beta version in order to test the functions and get feedback (if there are any users out there willing to share their thoughts about the software). So the purpose of this release is to test the code and look for bugs.

Some of the most exciting features are the improvements in the user interface and the multiplatform capabilities. They are both consequence of re-writing the code base in C++ and Qt libraries. The previous version of the program was coded in Python 2 and it was a bit difficult to get the application running properly by users not familiar with the language. Also the binaries were not as stable as expected. These problems are in the past now.

The core algorithms were improved and the result is a more robust software. The channel cross-section characterization, weir design, dimension creation and stability analysis algorithms were significantly improved. The Oropeza-Mota method is still the only option for stability analysis, but I have plans to include another methods for stability analysis in the future.

The data input is still based in delimited text files, such as comma separated values (CSV) and tab delimited text files. An option to copy/paste input data from spreadsheet programs was added. The final reports of the analysis are also created in these formats. The gabion dam plans are created in DXF format. So it is really easy to interact with other well known software in engineering such as spreadsheets (Excel, Calc) and computer aided design (CAD) programs.

There are a lot of features pending in the to-do list of the project. They will be included in the code eventually. With this version release I’m officially changing the status of the program to: testing.

As always the program is release under the GPL license, so you can freely download, use and distribute the software as you wish. Please consider a donation if the program (or other software in this site) is useful to you. Creating and supporting software are highly time consuming activities and I have to work hard to get the programs ready. I’m not currently making money from my programs so a donation will be nice and motivational.

Please enjoy. I’m open to any suggestions and feedback from users.

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ecoslacker

I’m happy to announce that we are starting a new stage at the irriapps project.

The start of a new year was a great time to review the progress of the project. Although it’s a personal project, I spend a lot of my free time coding, testing and updating the applications in the site. It has been hard but it has worth the effort.

This time some applications are changed its category from “Development” to “Testing”, and this are great news for the users because they are usable applications at this point. But warning, they are not yet in the “Stable” category which means they are not ready for production environment. These are small programs but they have a lot of work inside.

I make the programs because I need them for my work, and after a while I release them so they are available to everyone. The updated programs are:

• KmlTool: a new program to retrieve coordinates from KML files.
• Coordinates: the classic coordinates converter between UTM and LatLon.
• RunoffCoefficient: a program to compute the runoff coefficient for watersheds.

Now the big programs are coming next, they need a major amount of effort but I will finish them eventually so keep in touch.

The irriapps project was born in Mexico, and some tools (like this) are clearly focused in the Mexican engineering. This time a command line program for calculating the runoff coefficient was developed. This little python script uses the Mexican Norm NOM-011-CONAGUA-2015 methodology.

If you are interested in this tool, please feel free to download and use it as you wish. Just remember that some tools are under development. Although this script is old and was tested by some users, it may have errors and bugs.

The program is available in English and Español.

Hello again, this is an exciting time for this website because a new version of the program to convert between geographic coordinates (LatLon) and the UTM projection is released!

This time the user interface was updated. Now it is simpler and more attractive without all the options. A new feature to open and save text delimited files (CSV) has been added.

This release is the 0.2 version and it is for testing purposes only. The coordinates conversion tool is going to keep growing but for now I want to make sure it actually works before adding more exciting features. I will be doing a lot of testing and bug fixing, as always you are welcome to do yours and provide feedback if you want. Any help will be appreciated. Please let me know about anything weird in the contact form.

This program is free software and you can download it from here: http://www.irriapps.com/coordinates-conversion-tool/

Enjoy!

This is the new irriapps project site and the adventure continues!

There is only one purpose for this site: share some knowledge and software about irrigation engineering. Hope you find something useful, feel free to explore the site.