spookypeople - programming category

Programmer's Font

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:33:00 GMT

If you do any programming at all. And by that I mean anything. HTML, Java, C/C++, Ruby, PHP, Javascript et al, do yourself a favor and download a programmer's font. I've recently switched from ProFont to Inconsolata. Why? For one thing, a real programmer's font differentiates Zero from O, 1 from i or l and has more readable punctuation.

Bad Program

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:10:00 GMT

If this is what you see when your program is running on a dual core machine, please don't try and convince me that it multi-tasks. I don't need to see the source. I don't want to debate it.

150-Year-Old Computer Brought to Life

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:27:00 GMT

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2, designed in the late 1840s, weighs five tons, is 11 feet (3.4 meters) long and seven feet (2.1 meters) high, and has 8,000 bronze, cast iron and steel parts.

150-Year-Old Computer Brought to Life [Slideshow]: Scientific American Slideshow

Needless to say, it doesn't run Vista. I remember reading about this design in college. I didn't think anyone could actually build one. Brings back memories of my attempt at an difference engine emulator. I joked that it would be an upgrade for the X11 abacus emulator I wrote.

Grace Hopper Quote

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:35:57 GMT

"It's better to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission."--The Late Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, who led the effort to create COBOL

From BYTE.com

30 Reasons Why All Programmers Are Schizophrenics

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 04:57:00 GMT

A few days back, I was lazily browsing the net - when suddenly I discovered that I have Schizophrenia. No, I did not get a hallucination that my dual monitors suddenly changed into a two headed beast. Nor did I hallucinate about anything else. What happened was that I stumbled upon a page about schizophrenia. To my shock, I had all the symptoms described in that page. Not just me - all the programmers I knew had Schizophrenia as well.

From 30 Reasons Why All Programmers Are Schizophrenics at BinnyVA

If time travel causes Schizodonniedarkosis, maybe Java programming causes Schizojavosis and perl programming causes Schizoperlosis?

Object oriented programming for cats

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:54:08 GMT

Cats think in a unique way that has been harnessed by many of the great programming languages.

From A Word In Your Ear: Object oriented programming for cats

An interesting and humorous discussion on how to develop an algorithm that mimics cat behavior.

23 Programming Languages compared through their Amazon book sales

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:54:36 GMT

Saw this link: 23 Programming Languages compared through their Amazon book sales and found it rather interesting.

Not sure what it proves. On the one hand, it might show programmer interest. I know a lot of people are really into Ruby. It also makes it clear that Java/C/C++/C# and VB are still dominant. Still, I wonder how much this may be influenced by existing code bases. Ruby being number #3 with so little legacy code is really interesting. I'm going to have to give it another look. Also, the poster was nice enough to list the problems with his survey, which is really nice.

A Programming Language Like Playing With Blocks

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:19:08 GMT

Scratch is a creativity tool from the M.I.T. Media Lab that turns abstract programming concepts like recursion into snap-together puzzle pieces. It is like a multimedia sandbox, where children 8 and up are welcomed as media producers, following the same philosophical blueprint that inspired software projects like Logo and Squeak.

A Programming Language Like Playing With Blocks - New York Times

I played with scratch last night and was totally amazed at how good it is. First off, it doesn't just teach "programming". It teaches much of the principals of Comp Sci. Second, you don't need to know anything about computer programming to pick it up.

log4j macro for eclipse

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:02:17 GMT

A lot of the code I am working with is filled with this line.

public static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(RequestProcessorMgr.class);

The problem is that only one of the classes (RequestProcessorMgr) is actually using the correct class name. The rest are using the wrong class name. This is the problem with cut-copy-paste programming. Just because the code works in one part of the program, doesn't mean it will work anywhere else. Plus, when you copy code; you copy bugs too. This is self plagiary. So if you're going to plagiarize, don't self plagiarize. At least put in the effort to copy from someone smarter than you.

So this is what I did.

In eclipse. Window->preferences
In the preferences dialog, pick "java" then "editor" then "templates"
Click on "new"
Enter "log4j" for "name"
Enter "Just say no to incorrect loggers" for "Description"
Enter public static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(${enclosing_type}.class); as the pattern
The default context should be Java. Change this if it isn't correct
Click Apply. Save.

Now, when you type log4j and hit ctrl-space you can insert a log4j property that will correctly log messages from your class.

Now back to bug fixing.

Cobol analogies

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:23:01 GMT

A Cobol analogy is to a technical discussion as a Hitler (or Stalin) comparison is to a political discussion.

Cobol Corollary to Godwin's Law: The first person to compare a technology to Cobol automatically loses the debate.

Joda Time

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 21:53:49 GMT

Joda-Time provides a quality replacement for the Java date and time classes. The design allows for multiple calendar systems, while still providing a simple API. The 'default' calendar is the ISO8601 standard which is used by XML. The Gregorian, Julian, Buddhist, Coptic and Ethiopic systems are also included, and we welcome further additions. Supporting classes include time zone, duration, format and parsing.

From Java date and time API - Home - Joda Time

Its been a long running annoyance of mine that out of the box, Java makes it easier to calculate the day the Eastern Orthodox church will celebrate Easter than the day a bond will mature. Because we all know there are more people using Java in monasteries than on Wall Street.

Joda is damn nice. No longer do you have to deal with months numbered 0 to 11 while the days of the week numbered 1 to 7. And a simple bond yield Calendar took about 20 minutes to put together.

Migrating to Spring

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 13:47:27 GMT

A really great article on Migrating to Spring.

This is a really nice nuts and bolts description on how to port a typical Java web application to make use of Spring's IoC and service templates. If you do Java Web development and you aren't using Spring; you really need to consider it.

Snap Circuits Electronic Educational Kits

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 17:21:47 GMT

The Snap Circuits Electronic Educational Kits reminds me of the old Radio Shack Science Fair kits.

I loved those old Radio Shack kits. My uncle bought me one every Christmas. I have many fond memories of burning my fingers with a soldering iron, adjusting the little snap-springs and searching for the tiny bits of electronic debris that would trail from room to room. Oh, and I build a radio that used a coat hanger as an antenna and my radiator for ground. Sadly, radio shack at the mall doesn't seem to carry these kits any more.

Spring 2.0 Final Released

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:54:51 GMT

More here: Spring 2.0 Final Released!

I took longer to download Spring than to port my Springframework 1.2.8 App to use Spring 2.0. No performance changes to report, but I can now try rebuilding it as a JDK1.5 App. Once I update my code to use the new Generics + Collections idioms, I should see a few gains by reducing a lot of the clutter that goes with using pre-JDK1.5 collections.

I've managed to get other developers here to use Spring to manage their applications. The selling point was the way I added confirmation email support to a set of forms in one mid-size app. I defined an interface called EmailService and implemented an a type for each of the three forms to add. I then added one line of code for each form in application-Context.xml and a whopping five lines of code in Formhandler. Now when an edit in one of those three form is saved, and the server agrees that the edit was successful; the user and his manager gets a summery email. Doing this without Spring would have resulted in at least five times more code.

What's a SQL Injection Bug?

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 22:57:29 GMT

Joel explains what a SQL Injection Bug is in a way I could take to my users.

I see this all the time at work. I've gotten into the habit of using %1%, OR 1 == 1, and other nasty bits of SQL to test the applications I have to work with.

Practically Groovy

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:53:39 GMT

Often, programmers turn to languages like Groovy for building quick utilities, rapidly writing test code, and even for creating components that make up larger Java applications because of Groovy's innate ability to remove much of the noise and complexity that accompanies typical Java-based systems. Groovy's concise, yet flexible syntax frees developers from normal Java constructs that are required for code compilation but don't necessarily help express what the program is really trying to accomplish. What's more, Groovy's relaxed typing removes perceived code complexity through the reduction of interfaces and super classes, which are required in normal Java applications to support common behavior among distinct concrete types.

From Practically Groovy: Reduce code noise with Groovy

The bigest problem with Groovy is the name. Most Java programmers aren't going to get just how like Java it is from a name so far removed from the Java naming conventions. A reasonably skilled Java programmer can pick up Groovy in about an hour, and begin to reliably guess on what the right syntax would be after ten to twenty hours of use. The same can not be said about Ruby to Jython; both of which are really nice and easy to use languages. They just have a different feel than Java. The obvious name for Groovy would be JavaScript. Sadly that name has already been taken by a language that has nothing to do with Java. The next obvious name would be Dynamic Java. Sadly this is a lie in fact despite being honest in its intentions. Groovy is not that much more dynamic than regular Java. So we are stuck with Sun adding features (like closures) to Java, that already exist in Groovy. And the Java syntax for closures is likely to be as ugly as Java syntax for generics. What about Java3? That won't work as a name either as it assumes (and wrongly so) that Groovy is a replacement for Java. It isn't and can never be. Java's static typing compromises, while annoying; makes it much easier for applications to safely scale.

My solution: Rename Groovy JavaGroovy. Yes the name sucks. I'm not going to defend that name on suck value. I'm going to defend it on the grounds that it lets users know that it is based on Java technologies and it adds to the Java language.

EclipseZone - callisto kudos

Fri, 05 May 2006 13:02:59 GMT

If you're using the recent Eclipse 3.2 RC, this link on EclipseZone describes just about everyone's experience with the Callisto project. It makes it really simple to install.

actual error message

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 22:42:31 GMT

Minimum time between pings not reached. Go have a martini and try again in a bit.

JavaBlackBelt

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:20:24 GMT

JavaBlackBelt is a community for Java & open source skills assessment. Everybody is welcome to take existing and build new exams.
This is the place where Java developers have their technology knowledge and development abilities recognized. It is dedicated to technical quizzes about Java related technologies.

From JavaBlackBelt

If someone told me they had a java blackbelt while I was interviewing them for a job; I'm not sure I could wait until the interview was over before I started laughing at them.

tomcatprobe

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:58:10 GMT

Welcome to the home of Tomcat Probe. Tomcat Probe is a FREE and powerful tool to manage a single Tomcat host in real time. It is Web based and features almost all the functionality of standard Tomcat Manager. In addition to standard functionality the Probe has a few features that would help both web developers and systems administrators to make Tomcat a more transparent server.

jstripe.com

Hands down the nicest Java Web Development tool I've seen in years. The biggest problem with development of applications in Tomcat has always been the really horrid admin and management tools for Tomcat. Allows you to monitor both database access and session objects without any additional code.