Performing unit conversion queries using Google's search box.

Imagine if you could that offline, or even be able to have this functionality available to incorporate it in scripts or other programs as well. Imagine you could have this functionality as an extension in Mac’s AlfredApp.

Introducing Metric: A Unit Conversion Library for Java

I needed this functionality to develop an extension for Alfred, the most wonderful Mac launcher, and I wanted it to work offline, without having to retrieve the results from Google or another online source. So I created a Java library that’s capable of performing unit conversion queries expressed in natural English. I called it simply Metric, made it open source, and published it on Github. You can clone it, fork it, play with it or contribute back if you will. The code is fairly well documented and organized. The library includes some supporting sub-libraries that may be used independently in other projects, including a plural/singular inflector for the English language.

Metric meets Alfred

The original goal of developing a library like Metric was to use it as an Alfred extension. Alfred (http://www.alfredapp.com/) is a wonderful productivity application for Mac, much like Quicksilver or Google’s Quick Search Box, but  a little bit better in my opinion. You can grab a copy of Metric as an Alfred extension here. After you install this extension, you can type unit conversion queries on Alfred using cv as keyword.

Performing a unit conversion query with Alfred

This Alfred extension shows the results of the conversion using Growl, but I guess if you already have a Mac chances are that you Growl installed. If not, you can get it here.

Links and resources

• Metric source code repository on Github
• Unit Conversion extension for AlfredApp
• Alfred App and Growl

It allows you to select what version of Rails (and Ruby) to browse, and the most awesome part is that you can download a compressed package to browse it offline locally in your own computer. It includes Rails 3 beta and Ruby 1.9.x as well.