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Hua Orphans Mode

By William Jeffrey Rankin, Thu Feb 13 2025

Hua has an "orphans" mode that enables the identification of files that exist in the output directory but not in the entries file. Here's an example using the sample content files:

$ pwsh hua.ps1 example.cfg -O
orphan-1.html

As there may be perfectly valid reasons for the file to exist (e.g., a file referenced in generated content like a PDF or a download) Hua takes no action beyond listing the orphan filename.

It occurred to me this mode could also be used to look for orphans in the content directory. All that's required is to change the output_dir variable value in the Hua config file to the location of the content directory. In the example.cfg file change this:

...    
output_dir     =  .\blog
...

to this:

...    
output_dir     =  .\content
...

and run Hua in the same way as above. Content is not processed in orphans mode. Don't forget to change output_dir to its prior value!

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    Running Statistics HTML Output

    By William Jeffrey Rankin, Mon Jan 13 2025

    My Rexx-based running statistics generator now features an HTML output mode. It's invoked in the following manner:

    regina rs.rex data.csv 24 jun html 1 June 2024 Running Statistics > html/sample-month.html
    

    Sample Month Report

    The example above outputs statistics for June 2024. html refers to the output mode (the other option is txt). 1 specifies the scale which effects the length of the distance profile bars (useful for year-long reports such as shown below).

    regina rs.rex data.csv 24 - html .66 2024 Running Statistics > html/sample-year.html
    

    Sample Year Report

    Download

    The latest package contains sample reports for month and year as well as styles (light and dark versions).

    wo-data.zip, 18K

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        Running Hua as a Scheduled Task (or Cron Job)

        By William Jeffrey Rankin, Thu Dec 5 2024

        Hua can be run at regular intervals using a scheduled task (on Windows) or a cron job (on Linux/Cygwin). On Windows, I use a simple batch script:

        D:
        cd Documents\Hua
        D:\PowerShell-7.4.6-win-x64\pwsh .\hua.ps1 .\hua.cfg
        

        Then I create a scheduled task. Two examples are shown below: the first runs daily, the second every hour.

        schtasks /create /sc daily /st 23:50 /tn "Hua" /tr D:\Documents\Hua.bat
        schtasks /create /sc hourly /st 08:05 /tn "Hua" /tr D:\Documents\Hua.bat
        

        On Linux and Cygwin it's a little simpler since the batch script is not necessary. The equivalent cron jobs look like this:

        50 23 * * * cd Hua; pwsh hua.ps1 hua.cfg
        5 * * * * cd Hua; pwsh hua.ps1 hua.cfg
        

        Note that in the case of Cygwin, you'll need to use the full path to pwsh:

        50 23 * * * cd Hua; /cygdrive/c/PowerShell-7.4.6-win-x64/pwsh ./hua.ps1 ./hua.cfg
        

        If you want to suppress Hua's output, direct it to /dev/null as shown below. Output is still sent to Hua's log file.

        50 23 * * * cd Hua; pwsh hua.ps1 hua.cfg > /dev/null
        

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            Hua Error Handling Enhancements

            By William Jeffrey Rankin, Sat Nov 23 2024

            Revision 195 includes improvements to Hua's handling of non-critical errors. These are instances where Hua will continue processing all content except for the suspect entries. Examples of this include zero-length (empty) article files, entries lacking a filename, and entries lacking an ID. When possible, the entry ID is shown so the record can be quickly located and fixed.

            The latest Hua download package demonstrates these errors. For example:

            jeffr@Callisto: ~/Documents/Hua $ pwsh ./hua.ps1 ./hua.cfg 
            Content file error. File (ID: 000045) is empty. Skipping.
            Entries file error. There is an entry (ID: 000040) without a filename. Skipping.
            ...
            Entries file error. There is an entry without an ID. Skipping.
            

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                The Horror of Mistvale Hall ~ Colophon

                By William Jeffrey Rankin, Thu Oct 31 2024

                The Story

                The Horror of Mistvale Hall was written using Wordperfect. In addition to the MS itself this includes story notes, chronologial and narrative outlines, and other supporting documents. Upon completion the MS was imported into LibreOffice Writer and the paperback and hardcover editions created. Body copy is Times New Roman and the title font is Rakkas, a Google font designed by Zeynep Akay.

                The Covers

                Three distinct covers (eBook, paperback, and hardcover) were created in GIMP. Vector elements (typographic and glyphs) were created using Inkscape. Rakkas was again utilized for the title and author text. The subtitle font ("A Jonathan Quint Adventure") is Futura. The back cover copy is Times New Roman.

                eBooks

                The eBooks (Kindle and EPUB) were created by importing the MS into Kindle Create. Kindle Previewer was used for initial proofing. The Kindle App (desktop and tablet) was utilized as well in the proofing stage.

                Maps & Floor Plans

                Maps and floor plans were created using Inkarnate.

                Source Control

                All files were versioned using Apache Subversion.

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