PHP code for a permutation algorithm

Since I'm currently writing yet-another-php-code-analyzer, I ended up writing a function or something to allow me to do permutation of the elements of any given array. The goal was to make a call to an anonymous function on each new iteration of the elements. Last time I did this was about 17 years ago using legacy mode, and I barely had the idea how I did it. Unfortunately that code is gone (perhaps still lying around on a CD waiting to be thrown to the trash can), so I had to start from zero.

To make this three days story short, as as TDD wanna-be practitioner, at first I tried to create an object, and as the Transformation Priority Premises states, I started using basic values at first (null, empty array, one element array and so on). But I took several wrong turns (as you can see my repository). Had to read again the TPP blog entry to see what I was doing wrong. On top of that I had a misunderstanding on how the array_splice and slice functions works so I had to write a microtest to make sure I understood them.

So my last try was to kept thing as simple as possible. Created a function to return the permuted values. Tests were up to 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 elements, once I got it tried one with 10 elements and PHP ran out of memory.

Then I went to the anonymous function version and I got it (doing TDD but using the previous code as guide). Then tried a 10 elements version (which is on the tests but commented out) and php took about 4 seconds to do it on a Core2Duo Mac 5 Notebook (Maverick). For reference, back at the time I did it for the first time, an old Pentium II with 233 mhz clock, using Quick C the same process took about 10 seconds.

Resulting code is here

script to kill a specific process by name

This one was made specifically for VLC since the stupid program sometimes hangs and there is no way to close it by normal means (Quit command, etc)

#!/bin/bash
$(echo -n kill -9 ; ps -A |grep vlc |grep -o "^ [0-9]*")

what it does is to create a command line on the fly by extracting vlc process id and then execute it.

Autofill forms for Chromium and Firefox

Why/when do you need it:

• because you use the same web page from time to time and you need to fill a form with the same data (ie: user/pass)
• related to the above, once configured with a hotkey, logging in a site in is just a second
• security is not an issue
• a natural complement to Lazarus addon for Firefox
• if you are like me, who sticks to Firefox 40-48 because many addons does not work on newer versions, you might want to use Chromium for specific web pages

Firefox version:

https://firefox.add0n.com/autofill-forms.html

for Chromium

https://add0n.com/autofillforms-e10s.html

compared with the Addon for Firefox (version 1.1.8), Chromium addon is horrible beyond belief. I feel like some software developers are treating users as if they were morons incapable of thinking for themselves so they try to spoon-feed them with fancy dialogs and buttons limiting what they can and cannot do. Proof of that is the first item on the Features list: "Easy configuration with a simple interface"