Yesterday I subscribed to Oreilly's Safari Bookshelf. Today I used it for the first time & I'm already happy. I just happened to notice that David Progue's "Missing Manual..." series has a volume on switching to the mac.
I can't tell if I'm getting the smallest ibook, the big power mac or something in between, but I'm finally, after 22 or so years, making the switch.
Enough of that, the point is because I have Safari, checking out the book is simple with no marginal cost.
Plus, I'm saving a tree.
December 11, 2006
November 18, 2006
November 09, 2006
ajax support in eclipse
The Ajax Tools Framework (ATF) is improving Ajax support in eclipse.
- A few flash demos are available.
- There is a little traffic on Planet Eclipse.
October 30, 2006
October 20, 2006
Scripting Java :: JavaScript
Interaction between the JVM based object system and another object system has many possible uses. For example
EclipseMonkey
Aptana
BIRT
.
- end users in many industries are already familiar with JavaScript and can use it to extend behavior of Java objects w/o learning Java, the constraints of Java, etc.
- Java developers may use it for exploratory programming
- Ajax is a special case
- WebMonkey at eclipse appears to be stalled, but its intent was to allow much faster development of user interfaces in eclipse by going from JavaScript to to the RCP plugins
- An entire JavaScript development environment has been built using this idea.
- BIRT, a reporting framework for eclipse, provides java/javascript integration.
EclipseMonkey
Aptana
BIRT
.
September 18, 2006
Java, Groovy, and (J) Ruby
So, you want to learn few scripting and dynamically typed language(s) for the Java platform? The following will get a Java programmer started with Groovy and (J)Ruby. It is said that you can write Fortran in any language! While you still have to learn language specific idioms, naming, coding conventions/styles etc., the table below would help you with "quick start". To re-iterate: you need to pick up language specific idioms as Reg Braithwaite notes in his comment below.
I wrote simple script samples and tried the same with command line wrappers of jrunscript. If you CVS checked out script engines from scripting.dev.java.net, these scripts are in
bindirectories of respective script engine directories. I used Groovy 1.0 JSR 06 and JRuby 0.9.0 versions respectively.
A. Sundararajan's Weblog
NetBeans is paying a lot more attention to dynamic languages than eclipse foundation
August 05, 2006
eclipse plugin hangups
Nothing serious. A couple nits and some weirdness. Pretty much all user error.
- I had a devil of a time getting access to some classes (CoreException) that should not have been a problem. Problem cleared up when I deleted the trailing empty line of .classpath. Help!
- Used Clayberg/Rubel to get some easy testing of a View. Cool. Remember to make sure the View is visable (probably a new accessor) from the source code and from the plugin manifest. Clearly that should be easy to remember.
July 31, 2006
How to set up Eclipse
How to set up Eclipse
Interesting page layout and concept. Really it covers ant, apache, svn, and junit as a package before installing eclipse.
I have not attempted to follow it, but the concept alone is valuable. The page is divided into three columns:
--summary & download
--installation tips
--background
Very cool.
Interesting page layout and concept. Really it covers ant, apache, svn, and junit as a package before installing eclipse.
I have not attempted to follow it, but the concept alone is valuable. The page is divided into three columns:
--summary & download
--installation tips
--background
Very cool.
July 30, 2006
So Big and Healthy Grandpa Wouldn’t Even Know You - New York Times
So Big and Healthy Grandpa Wouldn’t Even Know You - New York Times: "By GINA KOLATA
Valentin Keller enlisted in an all-German unit of the Union Army in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1862. He was 26, a small, slender man, 5 feet 4 inches tall, who had just become a naturalized citizen. He listed his occupation as tailor.
A year later, Keller was honorably discharged, sick and broken. He had a lung ailment and was so crippled from arthritis in his hips that he could barely walk.
His pension record tells of his suffering. “His rheumatism is so that he is unable to walk without the aid of crutches and then only with great pain,” it says. His lungs and his joints never got better, and Keller never worked again.
He died at age 41 of “dropsy,” which probably meant that he had congestive heart failure, a condition not associated with his time in the Army. His 39-year-old wife, Otilia, died a month before him of what her death certificate said was “exhaustion.”
People of Valentin Keller’s era, like those before and after them, expected to develop chronic diseases by their 40’s or 50’s. Keller’s descendants had lung problems, they had heart problems, they had liver problems. They died in their 50’s or 60’s.
Now, though, life has changed. The family’s baby boomers are reaching middle age and beyond and are doing fine.
“I feel good,” says Keller’s great-great-great-grandson Craig Keller. At 45, Mr. Keller says he has no health problems, nor does his 45-year-old wife, Sandy.
"
Full of amazing information -- especially that on the civil war generation and the 1918 influenza survivors.
Valentin Keller enlisted in an all-German unit of the Union Army in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1862. He was 26, a small, slender man, 5 feet 4 inches tall, who had just become a naturalized citizen. He listed his occupation as tailor.
A year later, Keller was honorably discharged, sick and broken. He had a lung ailment and was so crippled from arthritis in his hips that he could barely walk.
His pension record tells of his suffering. “His rheumatism is so that he is unable to walk without the aid of crutches and then only with great pain,” it says. His lungs and his joints never got better, and Keller never worked again.
He died at age 41 of “dropsy,” which probably meant that he had congestive heart failure, a condition not associated with his time in the Army. His 39-year-old wife, Otilia, died a month before him of what her death certificate said was “exhaustion.”
People of Valentin Keller’s era, like those before and after them, expected to develop chronic diseases by their 40’s or 50’s. Keller’s descendants had lung problems, they had heart problems, they had liver problems. They died in their 50’s or 60’s.
Now, though, life has changed. The family’s baby boomers are reaching middle age and beyond and are doing fine.
“I feel good,” says Keller’s great-great-great-grandson Craig Keller. At 45, Mr. Keller says he has no health problems, nor does his 45-year-old wife, Sandy.
"
Full of amazing information -- especially that on the civil war generation and the 1918 influenza survivors.
'Sitefinder' Mobile Phone Base Station Database
'Sitefinder' Mobile Phone Base Station Database
Do we have anything like this in the US?
Do we have anything like this in the US?
July 29, 2006
MIT researchers watch brain in action - MIT News Office
MIT researchers watch brain in action - MIT News Office:
"...an unprecedented look into how genes shape the brain in response to the environment. Their work is reported in the July 28 issue of Cell.
'This work represents a technological breakthrough,' said first author Kuan Hong Wang, a research scientist at the Picower Institute who will launch his own laboratory at the National Institute of Mental Health in the fall. 'This is the first study that demonstrates the ability to directly visualize the molecular activity of individual neurons in the brain of live animals at a single-cell resolution, and to observe the changes in the activity in the same neurons in response to the changes of the environment on a daily basis for a week.'"
"...an unprecedented look into how genes shape the brain in response to the environment. Their work is reported in the July 28 issue of Cell.
'This work represents a technological breakthrough,' said first author Kuan Hong Wang, a research scientist at the Picower Institute who will launch his own laboratory at the National Institute of Mental Health in the fall. 'This is the first study that demonstrates the ability to directly visualize the molecular activity of individual neurons in the brain of live animals at a single-cell resolution, and to observe the changes in the activity in the same neurons in response to the changes of the environment on a daily basis for a week.'"
Gianni Milanesi’s Weblog � AjaxWp - An AJAX enhancement for WordPress blogs
Gianni Milanesi’s Weblog � AjaxWp - An AJAX enhancement for WordPress blogs: "AjaxWp is a lightweight JavaScript enhancement that adds AJAX functionality to WordPress blogs speeding up load times, increasing the responsiveness of the user interface and giving the blog an overall cooler look.
Out of the box AjaxWp requires minimal configuration and no additional markup, other than the script inclusions in the header file and a support PHP file. This allows AjaxWp to degrade gracefully and leave the blog fully functional even for users with JavaScript disabled."
Out of the box AjaxWp requires minimal configuration and no additional markup, other than the script inclusions in the header file and a support PHP file. This allows AjaxWp to degrade gracefully and leave the blog fully functional even for users with JavaScript disabled."
MagicDraw 11.5 Delivers UML 2 EMF Model ...
MagicDraw 11.5 Delivers UML 2 EMF Model ...: "Addressing the customers' need to use UML 2 models in major MDA tools or the exchange with other modeling tools based on Eclipse, MagicDraw 11.5 adds the export of its model to EMF based UML 2 XMI. It allows interchange of UML 2 models with most popular MDA tools such as AndroMDA, OpenArchitectureWare, Mia-Generation, Mia-Transformations and others for further manipulation and transformation. With the new version, No Magic continues to support its commitment of MagicDraw being the modeling tool of choice in the world of Model Driven Architecture. "
July 25, 2006
July 18, 2006
Google Web Toolkit get GUI / RPC IDE
Thanks to Ed Burnett, we know it will be out tomorrow.
Evidently it integrates with the eclipse Web Tools as well. Looks like it hides most of the nasty stuff and allows one to work at an object level w/o worrying about distribution, etc.
Evidently it integrates with the eclipse Web Tools as well. Looks like it hides most of the nasty stuff and allows one to work at an object level w/o worrying about distribution, etc.
July 15, 2006
JS-Sorcerer 2.0 Released
I saw an early version at OOPSLA 2005
JS-Sorcerer™ helps you create interactive applications by quickly locating JavaScript problems and translating your standard programs to run in all popular browsers.Wonder how/if it works with GWT.JS-Sorcerer can be used as a plugin to the Eclipse IDE or via a command-line interface.
April 19, 2006
Google Mini + docs == Domain Library
Google servers have been around for some time & the mini is a low cost version that handles modest numbers of documents (50-300k). More advanced aversions like Google OneBox support tight integration with middleware from the big players (Cognos, Oracle, Salesforce.com, SAS, etc.).
Combine the Mini (~$4,000) or Google OneBox (~$30,000) with an open source CMS and get a domain specific site for almost nothing.
I can think of organizations that would spend $30,000 just deciding which $4,000 box to buy before they spent $500,000 on a proprietary CMS!
Combine the Mini (~$4,000) or Google OneBox (~$30,000) with an open source CMS and get a domain specific site for almost nothing.
I can think of organizations that would spend $30,000 just deciding which $4,000 box to buy before they spent $500,000 on a proprietary CMS!
April 16, 2006
Google Calendar & Stuff
Google has released their long-awaited calendar. It can be used as part of a larger offering, as outlined below.
Here is a simplified view of how I plan on using the calendar:
The Google anouncement (critical text):
This special beta test lets you give Gmail, Google's webmail service, to every user at your domain. Gmail for your domain is hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software for you to install or maintain.
Here is a simplified view of how I plan on using the calendar:
- Blaine's Calendar :: for my use
- Blaine's Work Calendar :: for exposing work issues for to co-workers
- Blaine's Recration Calendar :: shared with people I want to co-plan biking, flicks, dinner, etc.
- Work Calendar :: shared by all co-workers
The Google anouncement (critical text):
This special beta test lets you give Gmail, Google's webmail service, to every user at your domain. Gmail for your domain is hosted by Google, so there's no hardware or software for you to install or maintain.
- Gmail - 2 gigabytes of storage and search tools that help your users find information fast. Instant messaging from right inside their accounts.
- Google Talk - Users can call or send instant messages to their contacts for free – anytime, anywhere in the world.
- Google Calendar (coming soon) - Users can organize their schedules and share events and calendars with others. Learn more
- Control Panel - Easily manage user accounts, aliases, mailing lists, and chat settings.
April 10, 2006
Ultra-fast release cycles @ myspace
Getting frequency of release cycles right is hard.
Tension between the OSS pressure for frequent releases and IT department's desire for releases once or twice a year is an issue for companies like Red Hat and JBoss. (RH just purchased the latter.)
The mylar project at eclipse is headed in a different direction. They are inspired by things like the myspace model, in which a two week cycle is considered long.
My take:
Anyone who wants to be adopted by the under 30 set, better figure out myspace. A combination of ajax applications (not pages) and eclipse desktop clients with automatic updates allows a balance between IT and user needs.
Tension between the OSS pressure for frequent releases and IT department's desire for releases once or twice a year is an issue for companies like Red Hat and JBoss. (RH just purchased the latter.)
The mylar project at eclipse is headed in a different direction. They are inspired by things like the myspace model, in which a two week cycle is considered long.
My take:
Anyone who wants to be adopted by the under 30 set, better figure out myspace. A combination of ajax applications (not pages) and eclipse desktop clients with automatic updates allows a balance between IT and user needs.
Red Hat buys JBoss
Free software company worth $420 million.
Red Hat, a company which sells and supports a branded version of Linux, with close partnerships with companies like Oracle and IBM, announced its decision to buy JBoss, another OSS company with a world class application server. JBoss development is facilitated with an eclipse based IDE. Ed Burnett published a rough transcript of the announcement, which has interesting comments on OSS in general.
Red Hat, a company which sells and supports a branded version of Linux, with close partnerships with companies like Oracle and IBM, announced its decision to buy JBoss, another OSS company with a world class application server. JBoss development is facilitated with an eclipse based IDE. Ed Burnett published a rough transcript of the announcement, which has interesting comments on OSS in general.
March 22, 2006
EclipseCon 2006 :: 21 March Schedule
One cool thing about eclipseCon is the quality of the web documentation -- I especially like the capacity of anyone to post their own recommended track and the ability to see flexible color coding of recommendations. [If this is not obvious, be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page. I wish I had published my own track.
Here is what I'm looking at today:
Stein's keynote
Pollock's Your Action is My Command -- commands are new to 3.2
Franklin's Redoing Undo -- looks like it will have some material on headless eclipse -- I'm always interested in headless + Franklin is a Smalltalker. That never hurts.
Ward's keynote
Elder's Common Navigator Framework --- looks like its the best way to approach navigation
Merks' XML Binding --- I'd like to understand DOM vs EMF better.
I'll also attend the short talks in the Theater as they are more RCP oriented and
Instantiations demo of their new RCP tool at 8 pm.
Here is what I'm looking at today:
Stein's keynote
Pollock's Your Action is My Command -- commands are new to 3.2
Franklin's Redoing Undo -- looks like it will have some material on headless eclipse -- I'm always interested in headless + Franklin is a Smalltalker. That never hurts.
Ward's keynote
Elder's Common Navigator Framework --- looks like its the best way to approach navigation
Merks' XML Binding --- I'd like to understand DOM vs EMF better.
I'll also attend the short talks in the Theater as they are more RCP oriented and
Instantiations demo of their new RCP tool at 8 pm.
March 21, 2006
Thus spake Joel
Joel Spolsky has not been my favorite writer; I almost skipped this morning's keynote type talk. Fortunately I did not. If nothing else, his characterization of K. R. was worth the trip:
Fortunately, his motivation for his three principles really was well done and informative. I now know I need to study the design of the Poupidou Center, a guy named Rapaile, and the principles of misattribution.
Who is K.R.?
He is so stupid he could not empty a boot full of piss if the instructions were printed on the heel.Joel presented his magic formula for successful software:
- Make people happy
- Think about emotions
- Obsess over aesthetics.
Fortunately, his motivation for his three principles really was well done and informative. I now know I need to study the design of the Poupidou Center, a guy named Rapaile, and the principles of misattribution.
Who is K.R.?
March 15, 2006
March 11, 2006
Open Source at Eclipse: Callisto M5 and the Callisto Great Bugs Contest
Open Source at Eclipse: Callisto M5 and the Callisto Great Bugs Contest
While the plug-in archiecture of eclipse allows interoperation, or at least co-existence, between diverse tools and applications, tools are often based on different eclipse releases and conflicts are common. The Callisto project will bring several of the major projects into alignment and allow tools based on them to have a firm foundation which exploits recent progress. Callisto will be released with eclipse 3.2 which will appear in June 2006. [Major releases of eclipse appear each June.]
Projects based upon some combination of BIRT (OO Report Writer), Data Tools Platform, Eclipse Modeling Framework, Graphical Editor Framework, Graphical Modeling Framework, Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform, the Visual Editor or even the C/C++ IDE should probably start building on the current (M5) release of eclipse 3.2. There will be a few rough spots, but by the end of July a great deal of stability in the core components will exist.
While the plug-in archiecture of eclipse allows interoperation, or at least co-existence, between diverse tools and applications, tools are often based on different eclipse releases and conflicts are common. The Callisto project will bring several of the major projects into alignment and allow tools based on them to have a firm foundation which exploits recent progress. Callisto will be released with eclipse 3.2 which will appear in June 2006. [Major releases of eclipse appear each June.]
Projects based upon some combination of BIRT (OO Report Writer), Data Tools Platform, Eclipse Modeling Framework, Graphical Editor Framework, Graphical Modeling Framework, Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform, the Visual Editor or even the C/C++ IDE should probably start building on the current (M5) release of eclipse 3.2. There will be a few rough spots, but by the end of July a great deal of stability in the core components will exist.
February 16, 2006
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