OpenSymphony looks pretty interesting. It's a set of J2EE components, possibly the most interesting of which is WebWork. WebWork defies one sentence explanation, but basically, it's a tool for building highly dynamic websites.
WebWork doesn't come with a tutorial, so WebWork - Gaining Core Competency was a good find (found at Pushing the envelope).
The Marner Java Launcher. Launching Java applications via an exe.
Combine with Inno or Nullsoft, and Windows users need never know that you are shipping a Java app.
For Tomcat Developers, Aspire Comes in a JAR
Utility for Data Access, Configuration, Logging, and Factory Needs.
Via Erik's Weblog.
Michael Hudson's metaclass based Autoreloader. Don't try to understand this - your brain may explode.
Via Python owns us.
Update 4th November: It's a Cookbook entry now, updated and with discussion.
I have no idea why Stereotypes is so disturbing, but it is.
Via Ned.
Good points on both sides, I think, but I tend to lean towards Russ's viewpoint, but that could well be 'cos I'm a knee-jerk Microsoft hater.
Russ certainly sparked a lot of debate...
Showing my age here - I remember The Atari Adventure!
Via Slashdot.
Perhaps the death of Java on the desktop has been exaggerated? I use (SWT using) Eclipse and (SWING using) jEdit every day. Certainly, Eclipse feels much snappier, and looks better, so I'd chose SWT over SWING where possible, but both are quite usable.
Via vsbabu.org.
VaJ is dead, long live Eclipse!
I'll get to play with WDSc soon, but I'll probably keep vanilla Eclipse around too - WDSc is based on Eclipse 1, so the Java Editor isn't going to be as good as the one in Eclipse 2. Also, many plug-ins target Eclipse 2.
aqTree2: explorer-style trees from unordered lists
What a cool little widget!
JavaScrip, yes, but everything still works with JavaScript off, so that's OK. Honest.
Java Persistence Frameworks, again
Sheesh, this all looks complicated!
I'm looking for a persistance framework for a project if my own in the near future. David's post just makes me realize how little I know....
At work, we are using raw JDBC. I've been an RDBMS man for over a decade now, so JDBC 'fits my brain'. But it's time to learn to do persistance the OO way, if only so that I can make informed decisions. But which framework to choose?
UseTheSource has compiled some interesting statistics as to the popularity of various languages in open-source development, using Freshmeat and Sourceforge as the, uh, sources for his stats.
See the Freshmeat statistics here, and the Sourceforge statistics here.
No real surprises here. C, C++, and Perl are all very big. Python is number six in both lists. VB is nowhere, whereas I think that in the commercial world, VB is big. But then, surely no one uses VB by choice, and contribution to OSS projects is usually voluntary.
Dudley Earthquake Appeal. Three areas of historic and scientifically significant litter were disturbed.
Software idea may be just crazy enough to work reports on Mitch Kapor's Chandler, a cross platform open-source PIM which might just be able to go toe-to-toe with Outlook.
Mitch Kapor designed Lotus Agenda about a million years ago.
Sound's like it's written (at least partly) in Python, too. Now that is cool!
Via Techdirt.
Update: Yup, it's in Python - see the technology page. Could this be Python's killer app at last?
Midrange Server has info on getting and using gzip on the iSeries.
The Fujitsu P2000 has got to be the sexiest mini-notebook around.
Including on-board DVD/CD-RW Combo drive, 30GB hard drive, and Wireless LAN.
I can't find one for sale in the UK, but that's OK - I couldn't afford one anyway!
Via Slashdot.
How to Run Tomcat with Apache on Win32.
Instructions for using mod_jk to run Tomcat with Apache on Win32. I need to do exactly this soon, to this is very useful info.
Via Sanjay.
The Browser will Rise Again, according to Paul Prescod.
I'd like to think so. The problem that I have it that HTML's set of controls is so limited.
Java Applets, of course, get around this to some extent, though you certainly can't assume the presence of Swing, so you have to stick with AWT. You still get Paul's big four advantages, but the downloads can be pretty big...
Update 21st October: Browser UIs - is XUL the answer?
Collected Java Practices. Very good resource, this.
Via dsuspense.
Selling newspapers in a Jimmy Eat World, by Dave Barry.
Python 2.2.2 is out.
If you are using Python 2.2, upgrading is a no-brainier, since 2.2.2 is 100% backward compatible.
Commons Lang 1.0. The standard Java libraries fail to provide enough methods for manipulation of its core classes. The Lang Component provides these extra methods.
Via Jakarta News.
The Complete Pasta Theory of Software.
Via The Fishbowl.
Hmmm. My current system is probably tortellini code - components, but some are too large to swallow. ;-)
Teaching Java the Extreme Way - a good intro to test-first programming.
Java examples and tools are used, but the technique is applicable to any environment.
The 2002 Ig Nobels have been announced.
Real developers use CVS. We all know it. VSS is for girls.
Darren suggests some good CVS software for Windows.
The Fishbowl's Java Peeves.
I totally agree with, uh, whatever The Fishbowl's author's name is on the primitive types and objects issue. This is being fixed in Python. I can't see Java changing so fundamentally in the near term, though.
Exceptions haven't caused me too much of a problem, but I can see his or her point. Still, it's just another one of those lots-of-boilerplate things that irritate me about Java.
Closures? Hmmm, well, useful at times, but you'd get most of the same benefit if methods were to be first class objects.
Also recently at The Fishbowl: The StringBuffer Myth and Six Rules of Unit Testing. Both worth a read.
Digester is a component for building live Java objects from XML. As Darren says, dead handy for config files.
Evesham bundles Lindows on £249 PC
£249, including VAT! No monitor, but then most of us have spare monitors lying around...
VIA C3 processor and the VIA Apollo PLE133 integrated chipset, 40Gb Hard disk, 256MB DRAM, CD drive, modem and mouse. Don't know how fast this is, but for the money, it sounds a decent spec.
Comes with Lindows. Nothing to stop you putting the Linux distribution of your choice on it, though. Naturally, no one would even think of putting a pirated copy on Windows on it. ;-)
Anthony Eden has some interesting things to say on the subject of scripting Java applications.
Naturally, there are loads of options available for scripting Java apps, and choosing the right one can be difficult. Unless you are a Python bigot, like me, in which case the answer is obvious. ;-)
The Bean Scripting Framework (BSF) looks fascinating, though. BSF is a scripting framework which allows you to use any one of a number of languages to script your Java app, of which Jython is only one.
We are hoping to get Anthony over to talk at Python 2003 on scripting Java applications with Jython.
JPublish looks interesting, too.
I have The Pragmatic Programmer, naturally, but I didn't realise that the Quick Reference Guide was on-line.
Via Sanjay.
Include this link on your page.
Via Brett Morgan.
I have mentioned Prevayler before. Now Patrick K. O'Brien is building a Python version - PyPerSyst.
I remain a little dubious about the approach used by Prevayler (and PyPerSyst), but I'll be very interested to see the results.
Via vodkabird - The fridge simply isn't big enough for cheap wine and food.
A friend of mine needs to process some XML on the '400 with RPG. I pointed him at these:
Good luck, Paul!
The worst has happened - I have to learn VB, so that I can look after some VB scripts that we use as part of our build process while our VB-head, Mark, is on honeymoon.
Then I come across this - Thirteen ways to loathe VB. Cancel the wedding, I say.
Actually, it's not quite as bad as all that. I'll get to teach everyone Python in return, and I'm confident that it will be well received. I reckon that I'll base the training on the first three chapters of Dive Into Python, then wing it on some more advanced topics. See what people are most interested in - COM, GUI building, regular expressions, web programming, Jython/Java integration, DB-API, that sort of thing.
Update 8th October: Mike Mitchell defends VB, and Verity Stob kicks the shit out of it again.
See also - Microsoft kicks the shit out of VB - VB.NET incompatibilities with VB 6.
Plenty of new stuff today:
Estne volumen in toga, an solum tibi libet me videre?
Via rebelutionary.
Update 7th October: I don't know if Handy Latin Phrases was created before or after the other page - they are clearly strongly related. But the BBC page has Ita erat quando hic adveni (It was that way when I got here) which might have to become a team motto.
Update: Ita erat quando hic adveni is now the team motto.
Minimalist GNU For Windows - GCC for Windows, basically.
Also on the MinGW site is MSYS, a command shell.
Might make a good companion to the Unix utilities for Windows.
My friend Jay Graves pointed out Quantum to me. It's a nice simple database access plug-in for Eclipse.
Built-in iSeries support!
Can't make today - tube strike. Besides, I have a Python UK 2003 committee meeting this Thursday, and a Python UK booze up next Tuesday, and there is only so much geek-boozing that a man can take!
JDK 1.4 Class Diagrams. Nifty!
Via Erik.
Life may swim within distant moons
There is something poetic about this to me.
I suspect, though, that we won't find out one way or the other in my lifetime, given our current rate of exploration.