Evaluation of COM to Java bridges
At work we needed to access a COM object in a DLL from Java. We started out using the open source Jawin tool, but unfortunately we never got it stable. My unit tests failed about every second time. So...
View ArticleJava history was made today!
Today Java overtook C++ as the language with most projects on SourceForge! Here is the current list for languages with more than 1000 projects:Java (16738 projects)C++ (16731 projects)C (15934...
View ArticleBadly missing book: JavaScript for Java programmers
I'm really lost when I code in JavaScript! I stumble on each and every small difference between Java (which I know well enough to do in my sleep) and JavaScript. It can't be just me! I wish there was...
View ArticleThe Java Web Framework Grand Challenge
Ajax has certainly stirred things up! This last summer I was thrilled about Wicket, as the lean and mean new kid on the web frameworks block. I never got to know it in detail, and now I'm not so sure...
View ArticleMy Swedish Ajax site is now online
Registered the domain about 2 months back, then spent much too much time experimenting with the layout and CSS. I'm sure as hell an amateur at web design, but it's fun. Finally it is online at...
View ArticleJava Open Source CMS
I've known about the pretty amazing Open Source CMS site for a while, but recently bumped into the CMS Matrix. I spent an hour or so browsing throgh all the entries, ten by ten, listing all of the...
View ArticleAll exception constructors should take a String parameter
I've spent several days in code reviews. I kept seeing Exception classes with empty constructors, and that just drives me nuts. I also saw exception constructors taking only a Throwable. That drives...
View ArticleTools for debugging Ajax
When Joe Walker (the creator of DWR) visited Stockholm last week, he got a question during the Ajax seminar what tools there were for debugging Ajax. He whipped up this list of tools and...
View ArticleBruce Tate pimping Ruby on Rails again
Bruce Tate is at it again, pimping Ruby on Rails. If he was pumping a stock, wouldn't everyone notice that he just bought one million shares of RUBY? He would, after all, stand to make a great living...
View ArticleI'm going to JavaOne!
I wish someone paid my expenses, but I have to do it myself since I am now a contractor. I will probably also go to that Ajax conference the week before, The Ajax Experience 2006. It would be great to...
View ArticleI'm going to The Ajax Experience 2006, too!
It seemed a bit rediculous not to go to The Ajax Experience 2006 conference in San Francisco when it is set to go the week before JavaOne 2006, which I have already signed up for. So, I'll be in San...
View Article12 perfect cases for Ajax
I've spent quite some time creating a 2 hour long Ajax course in Swedish. At the end of the course I list 12 cases where I think Ajax is a perfect fit, inspired by Alex Bosworth's 10 Places You Must...
View ArticleAjax lesson: Forget Submit
Over the last 9 or so months I've looked at many Ajax examples. Hundreds. Recently it suddenly dawned on me that designing for Ajax is to some extent to forget the submit button. You still need forms...
View ArticleSet tab to 7 spaces!
In my project they've decided to use 3 spaces as indentation. I actually think 3 is pretty optimal; 2 is too little, 4 is a bit too much. Unfortunately it is tempting to some to set their IDE tab...
View ArticleThe road to process hell is paved with good intentions
Creating a process for software development is very delicate. In a large project there are so many steps that might go wrong. It makes much sense to add process to minimise risk in these steps. But,...
View ArticleJavaScript Date parsing fun
Just bumped into an amusing anomaly in how Mozilla does date parsing in its JavaScript Date constructor. Quick, what date is returned by this code: document.write(new Date("31 03 2006")) The result...
View ArticleGabbly - my mind is racing
Just bumped into Gabbly and my mind haven't settled yet for all the ways this stuff can be used for. Haven't been this pumped for a year or so. I'd LOVE to show this stuff on Sand Hill Road. It would...
View ArticleThe Ajax/Java education problem
I've been asked to create a one to two day Ajax course for Java developers. The problem is that I don't really know what is the best way to do this. I've created a 3 hour introduction where I show in...
View ArticleNew version of State Of The Art In Server Side Java document
Just finished a new version of my State of the Art in Server Side Java document. I removed some irrelevant stuff, and added some pages about JAXB 2.0. I also updated all examples to follow the latest...
View ArticleHumour: The weight of software
I heard this story of this guy writing software for fighter planes in the 50s. In the same project they had this other guy responsible for keeping the overall weight of the fighter down. He once asked...
View ArticleJust say no to JSR 294
I've read what is available about this JSR, here and here. It tries to solve the problem that you often need to make more classes and functions public than necessary, because classes in different...
View ArticleThe Ajax Experience, Day One
So, finally, I'm at the first Ajax conference ever, The Ajax Experience. Held at the fancy schmancy Westin St. Francis hotel by Union Square in San Francisco. Arrived a day before the conference...
View ArticleThe Ajax Experience, Day Two
Slept like a baby all night, thanks to a really good bed and that I managed to turn down the temperature to a healthy 61F/17C. Over breakfast I talked to one of the Atlas guys. It turns out Atlas is...
View ArticleThe Ajax Wittgenstein Connection
The Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951) is best known for his 1921 book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The first lines in the book are:1 The world is all that is the case.1.1 The...
View ArticleThe Ajax Experience, Day Three
First session of the last day was, of course, DWR & Spring by Bram Smeets from Interface21, the Spring guys. Unfortunately it took him 40 minutes to rehash pretty much what Joe Walker talked about...
View ArticleJavaOne day one, part 1
Sun is treating their Alumni too well these days. I got to sit on row seven out of sixty thousand (or whatever row is at the far end of the insanely large general session hall). Alumni like me pay...
View ArticleJavaOne day one, part 2
Next session for me was Java Platform Roadmap: The Big Stuff, Today and Tomorrow. It was to some extent just a rehash of what I've had online for quite a while, but I did pick up some extra...
View ArticleJavaOne day one, part 3
Matt Raible tipped be off about a javablogger event at the Thirsty Bear at 5.30, where I ended up talking to Simon Phipps, responsible for open source at Sun. I asked him about todays announcement...
View ArticleJavaOne day two, part 1
Thomas Kurian talked about Oracles products during the Wednesday morning session. He pushed Oracles Ajax library, built with JSF. He described The Next Application Platform, comprising seven layers! I...
View ArticleJavaOne day two, part 2
Next up was Rod Cope's session about Groovy. Has support for closures, which is good. Rod showed that Groovy is very simple to use for scripting ant builds. Generally it looked quite complete. It is...
View ArticleJavaOne day three, part 1
Morning keynote with IBM, featuring Erich Gamma and John Wiegand! Wow, haven't seen them since ECOOP 1992 in Geneva. Erich is a bit of a hero of mine, since he has done so many cool things over the...
View ArticleJavaOne day three, part 2
After sleeping for 45 minutes at the hotel, it was time for the much anticipated Smackdown for AJAX Programming Models and Frameworks. I really wanted to see how everyone was going to handle the GWT...
View ArticleJavaOne day four
Friday started off as usual with General session. But it was pretty boring. Noteworthy was that both Scott McNealy and John Gage talked about poverty and malaria being the real challenges for us....
View ArticleHow good is Apache Jetspeed?
Has anyone tried it? Is Jetspeed 2 stable? The mailing list looks healthy and helpful, but I haven't had a detailed look. Any high profile deployments out there?
View ArticleBroken collarbone
Crashed on my bike two days ago. A car suddenly turned up at an intersection, and on the wet asphalt I hit the brakes, lost balance and smacked shoulder first into the ground at about 25 km/h (15...
View ArticleRSF, Click and Struts Action 2
Sigh, just when I though I knew what Java web frameworks were out there, a few more appears. This time it is RSF (Reasonable Server Faces) and Click. What made me follow the path to finding these...
View ArticleOnly 2 Ajax architects in the world
I've just added the title "Ajax Architect" to my business cards (one of the fringe benefits of running your own company). It could seem preposterous, considering hardly anyone has more than a year or...
View ArticleFirst piano concert, ever
Bought a CD today, for the first time in several years, actually. The Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach. Couldn't help myself. It turns out the 5th concerto is considered the first...
View ArticleState Of The Art In Server Side Java document updated
Just uploaded a new version of my PDF document describing new things coming in Server Side Java. The changes I've done are:Removed the outdated Hibernate sectionRemoved some rather esoteric pages...
View ArticleGreat little book about code reviews
By reasons lost in history I recently received a free copy of the book Best Kept Secrets of Peer Code Review. At just 160 pages it is an easy read, and since it is free (including free shipping...
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I've bought the ultimate laptop
After a lot of angst I've finally bought myself the second laptop of my life. The first was a Mac PowerBook 145b which I used an abused for several years, biking though Stockholm with the laptop...
View ArticleMy Ajax DWR course is now online, with source
I've uploaded S5 slides, demo-examples online, and all sources using an Apache 2.0 license. I can especially recommend a look at the example using server push (Comet), Reverse Ajax and Scriptaculous...
View ArticleMerging JavaDoc and wikis
I have for the last few years been in projects where much of the documentation was written in the form of wikis. I rather like writing documentation, but many others don't. Oddly enough, when a wiki...
View ArticleJava for C++ programmers, free course material
A year ago I held a one day seminar about Java for a bunch of C++ programmers. Since then my S5 slites have been sleeping on my hard drive. So I polished them a little, updated the material somewhat...
View ArticleJava 7 should be forked, right now
I've been sceptic to the whole open sourcing of Java, from day one. I've been worried about Microsoft and forks. The last few months I've started to feel more comfortable with the whole thing. Perhaps...
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Beryl, WOW!
Just managed to get Beryl up and running om my LG LW25 laptop with an Intel Mobile 945GM Express graphics chipset running Kubuntu 7.04. I was sceptical but my jaw dropped lower and lower while...
View ArticleGiving up on Kubuntu
I first tried out Linux sometime during the winter 1998-1999. I was pretty excited, but never really tried to migrate. It was not until I moved to the US that I tried full migration. First with a nice...
View Article5 years of blogging
Today, five years ago, I started blogging. Over the years I've mostly written about Java, but two years ago my main interest became Ajax. I've also mainly switched from English to Swedish. All in all...
View ArticleIt is time to start encrypting emails
What can I say? I am dismayed and utterly embarrassed by the new Swedish law that will unleash previously unheard of snooping of internet traffic crossing our borders. The only decent way to now...
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