CPAN search on Firefox

Adding a new search engine plugin for CPAN to Firefox is actually pretty easy, so I’ll write it down here in order not to forget it.

You just have to edit a file by the name of CPAN.xml (or something similar that strikes your fancy) and stick it in firefoxe’s searchplugins directory. You might find it somewhere around /usr/lib/firefox-XX/searchplugins or, better yet, in you own homedir at .mozilla/firefox/XXXXXX.default/searchplugins).

Enter the following content into the file:

<OpenSearchDescription xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearch/1.1/" xmlns:moz="http://www.mozilla.org/2006/browser/search/">
<ShortName>CPAN</ShortName>
<Description>Comprehensive Perl Archive Network</Description>
<InputEncoding>UTF-8</InputEncoding>
<Image width="16" height="16">data:image/x-icon,%00%00%01%00%01%00%10%10%00%00%00%00%00%00(%01%00%00%16%00%00%00(%00%00%00%10%00%00%00%20%00%00%00%01%00%04%00%00%00%00%00%C0%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%FF%FF%FF%00%7B%00%00%00%00%7B%00%00%7B%7B%00%00%00%00%7B%00%7B%00%7B%00%00%7B%7B%00%BD%BD%BD%00%7B%7B%7B%00%FF%00%00%00%00%FF%00%00%FF%FF%00%00%00%00%FF%00%FF%00%FF%00%00%FF%FF%00%00%00%00%00%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%F0%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF%FF3l%FC%BF%EF%18%E6%D7%EB%F0%F6%DB%00%00%FA%E9%00%02%F8%C3al%FC%03te%F8%02Co%F0%02r%20%E0%01%5C%D0%E0%03%11%00%E6%0F%BF%E6'%1F%00%02%07%FF%00%06%87%FF2%80%E3%FF1%E0</Image>
<Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="http://search.cpan.org/search?mode=all&amp;query={searchTerms}"/>
<moz:SearchForm>searchFormURL</moz:SearchForm>
</OpenSearchDescription>

The long line there is the funny little camel picture, and it must not be broken up.

It is actually trivial to create plugins to almost any search engine you can think of, this is just a good example that is handy for me.
If you need to add any extra parameters or so to the search, you can find the documentation for the search plugins at the mozilla developer center.

Note: Credit where it is due, I found the original example here and pretty much copied it over to this post with the minor fix of substituting the & Url element for the encoded version (&).

Guncho

Amazingly enough, in this day and age there are still some people creating moo/mud-like virtual worlds.

This year’s (2008) April’s fools day Guncho was introduced (announcement here).

It is located at guncho.game-host.org 4108 and you can create your own character at http://cp.guncho.com/.

The wiki with all the info about the “game” is at http://wiki.guncho.com/.

The concept is interesting enough: any player can create realms for others to play in and the goal is essentially to implement a virtual reality base for people to create their interactive fiction with others.
Yes, it’s been done a long time ago on many a MU[D|OO|SH]. Still, the fact that nowadays someone actually created something like this with only a text interface intrigues me deeply.

I plan to take a closer look at this virtual world and if it turns out to be as interesting as it sounds, I’ll be taking some notes here.