On Wed, 19 Aug 2026 22:33:27 -0800, Maria Sophia wrote:

# Prerequisite: "nova.db" SQL database file created using the
# last-known-good-version of the Tesla Coil Nova Launcher 7.0.57
# <https://mobile.softpedia.com/apk/nova-launcher/7.0.57/>

Why not provide your own commands for initializing a new database
if it doesn?t already exist? Save the user some work.

If you want to see an example of how it?s done, have look at the
?project-tags? script (yes, it?s a Python script) here <https://gitlab.com/ldo/emacs-prefs>.

cursor.execute(
"SELECT DISTINCT screen FROM favorites WHERE container = -100 ORDER BY screen ASC;"
)
screens = cursor.fetchall()

You do this sequence of execute/fetch calls 4 times in your script. I
see you reuse the same cursor to save some extra setup work each time.
You can make things a little less fiddly with the help of this routine
(also to be found in the above script):

def db_iter(conn, cmd, mapfn = lambda x : x) :
"executes cmd on a new cursor from connection conn and yields the results in turn."
for item in conn.cursor().execute(cmd) :
yield mapfn(item)
#end for
#end db_iter

With this routine, the above sequence becomes

screens = list(db_iter \
(
conn,
"SELECT DISTINCT screen FROM favorites WHERE container = -100 ORDER BY screen ASC"
))

for (screen_num,) in screens:

or better still, put the lookup directly into the loop expression:

for screen_num in db_iter \
(
conn,
"SELECT DISTINCT screen FROM favorites WHERE container = -100 ORDER BY screen ASC",
mapfn = lambda x : x[0]
) :

cursor.execute(
"SELECT _id, title FROM favorites WHERE container = -100 AND screen = ?"
" AND intent IS NULL AND title IS NOT NULL AND TRIM(title) != '';",
(screen_num,),
)
folders = cursor.fetchall()
for folder_id, folder_name in folders:

Again, this can be simplified to

for folder_id, folder_name in db_iter \
(
conn,
"SELECT _id, title FROM favorites WHERE container = -100 AND screen = %d"
" AND intent IS NULL AND title IS NOT NULL AND TRIM(title) != '';"
%
screen_num
) :

and so on.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:32:58 -0800, Maria Sophia wrote:

If I were to adapt your db_iter concept while keeping parameterized
queries safe, I'd probably modify it to accept a parameters tuple
like this:

Python
def db_iter(conn, cmd, params=(), mapfn=lambda x: x):
"""Executes cmd with parameters and yields mapped results."""
for item in conn.cursor().execute(cmd, params):
yield mapfn(item)

Yes, fair enough. I prefer to use APSW rather than the SQLite binding
in the standard library; that seems nicer in some ways, providing more flexibility in placeholders for parameter substitution <https://rogerbinns.github.io/apsw/example.html#why-you-use-bindings-to-provide-values>.

I tend to fall out of the habit of using placeholder mechanisms,
because they don?t cope with more advanced cases.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:20:33 -0000 (UTC), Chris wrote:

Especially python where the lack of whitespace consistency completely
breaks the code.

However:

def netstring_encode(s, as_str = False) :
"encodes a string or bytes object as a netstring. Returns the encoded" \
" format as a string or bytes object, depending on as_str."
if isinstance(s, str) :
sb = s.encode()
elif isinstance(s, (bytes, bytearray)) :
sb = s
else :
raise TypeError("input value should be str or bytes")
if len(sb) > MAX_NETSTRING_LEN :
raise ValueError("netstring length of %d exceeds %d bytes" % (len(sb), MAX_NETSTRING_LEN))
result = b"%d:%s," % (len(sb), sb)
if as_str :
result = result.decode()
return \
result

Hopeless gibberish. But:

def netstring_encode(s, as_str = False) :
"encodes a string or bytes object as a netstring. Returns the encoded" \
" format as a string or bytes object, depending on as_str."
if isinstance(s, str) :
sb = s.encode()
elif isinstance(s, (bytes, bytearray)) :
sb = s
else :
raise TypeError("input value should be str or bytes")
#end if
if len(sb) > MAX_NETSTRING_LEN :
raise ValueError("netstring length of %d exceeds %d bytes" % (len(sb), MAX_NETSTRING_LEN))
#end if
result = b"%d:%s," % (len(sb), sb)
if as_str :
result = result.decode()
#end if
return \
result
#end netstring_encode

Some chance of restoring meaning.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.19
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)