You can download ShackShag from http://code.google.com/p/shackshag/downloads/list, source code is available at http://code.google.com/p/shackshag/source/checkout

Windows users may need to install Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (go to download page) in order to run ShackShag exe file.

• added handling of unexpected server response codes
• added possibility to retry upload given number of times (-n X or –retries X command line switch)
• added reporting of failed uploads (reported to stdout by default, can be saved to file)
• added verbose mode (–verbose or -v command line switch)
• fixed retrieving thumbnail links for small images
• added support for using file name masks under Windows and shells that don’t expand file masks

As usual, you can download ShackShag from http://code.google.com/p/shackshag/downloads/list, source code is available at http://code.google.com/p/shackshag/source/checkout

Have fun!

You don’t have to install anything. You don’t even need python inerpreter in your system. The shackshag-0.5.win32.zip package contains single executable and a “readme” file. Simply download the package, unzip and run ShackShag any way you like!

Good luck!

I just released a new version — 0.5. There are two major changes:

• ShackShag is now compatible with the latest ImageShack interface — in other words: it works again
• code was refactored, allowing easier integration — you can use ShackShag in your code as any other python module

As usual, you an download the latest version from the project page: http://code.google.com/p/shackshag/

Have fun!

I’d like to thank Wael, Allesio and Yannick for their reports and patch proposals. Guys, I’m sorry it took so long, but I had to face some other challenges in my life.

Since passing function pointers is possible in C, why shouldn’t it be in Perl, I asked? While my Perl skills are rather rusty (last time I used it was a few years ago) I was still able to come up with the solution after browsing Perl documentation and googling a bit. I couldn’t find a clear example of handling function references, though, and that’s why I’m writing this now.

Two simple functions for different file types, they will be passed by reference later:

# type1 requires second token in each line to be
# turned to upper case
sub type1_handler {
    my $line = shift;
    # ignore comments
    if ($line !~ m/^#/) {
        my @parts = split(/ /, $line);
        # capitalize second token in line
        $parts[1] = uc $parts[1];
        $line = join(" ", @parts);
    }
    return $line;
}

# type2 requires second token in each line to be
# turned to lower case
sub type2_handler {
    my $line = shift;
    # ignore comments
    if ($line !~ m/^#/) {
        my @parts = split(/ /, $line);
        # capitalize second token in line
        $parts[1] = lc $parts[1];
        $line = join(" ", @parts);
    }
    return $line;
}

General file handling function, it takes two parameters: reference to the line handling function and list of file names to be processed. It uses get_file_name() function (not defined here) to generate new file name for the output file. Here’s the code:

my $OUTPUT_DIR = './output/';

sub process_files {
    my ($line_handler, @files) = @_;
    foreach my $file_name (@files) {
        print "Processing: $file_name \n";
        my $new_file_name = get_file_name($file_name);
        open(INPUT, " $OUTPUT_DIR$new_file_name") or die("Could not open output file: $OUTPUT_DIR$new_file_name \n");
        while (my $line = <INPUT>) {
            print OUTPUT &$line_handler($line);
        }
    close(INPUT) or die("Could not close input file: $file_name \n");
    close(OUTPUT) or die("Could not close output file: $OUTPUT_DIR$new_file_name \n");
    }
}

As you can see, function reference can be stored in a scalar variable. Once you want to call referenced function, you use ampersand (&) before the reference name, like this: &$reference_name($param1, $param2)

How to create function references and pass them to other functions? You simply need to put a backslash and ampersand (\&) in front of the function name. Example:

#process type1 files
process_files(\&type1_handler, <*.type1>);
# process type2 files
process_files(\&type2_handler, <*.type2>);

As you can see, using function references in Perl is pretty simple, once you find out how to pass them around.

You can find the project’s page at: http://code.google.com/p/shackshag/
Feel free to check out the latest version and mess with it.

Thanks, Google!

That’s a really nice way to provide me with motivation! I’ll get back to development as soon as I finish writing my thesis (I expect that to happen by the middle of September). Account support is on top of my to-do list, and I already have working proof-of-concept code. Stay tuned.

You’ll find more details and download links on project’s homepage.

ShackShag is still in development, more features are expected soon.