JamesBranam's Blog

Busy Vacation

Hi all,

I'm on vacation this week, and I have to say that I've never been busier. Lots of personal stuff to take care of, errands to run, things to buy. It has been very stressful to say the least.

I'll be back at work on Monday, and I'll be just as busy. I've got a couple of tutorials to write for NetBeans 6.7 Beta.

See you soon!

--James

Posted at 08:53PM Mar 31, 2009 by branajam in Personal  | 

Still on Vacation

Hi all,

Once more week of vacation to go. Then it's back to work writing documentation for NetBeans 6.7.

And I'll be blogging more often once I get back.

See you soon

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:16PM Mar 30, 2009 by branajam in Personal  |  Comments[1]

BG Withdrawal

Hi all,

A week ago (last Friday), the last episode of Battlestar Galactica aired. At first I thought, "big deal, series end." Then this Friday it hit me: no Battlestar Galactica episode. Then the headache started, accompanied by cold sweats and bodily aches: Battlestar Galactica withdrawal symptoms. Frak!

I'm sure I'll be OK, but it might take a while.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 10:34PM Mar 28, 2009 by branajam in Personal  |  Comments[1]

Return to Blogging

Hi all,

I apologize for being offline the last couple of weeks. A lot is happening right now. I'll try to blog some more tomorrow.

NetBeans 6.7 Milestone 3 will be coming out soon, so be certain to download it once it does come out.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 10:47AM Mar 27, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[1]

NetBeans Governance Board

Hi all,

Well, it's official. NetBeans has a new Governance Board, at least for the next six months. The members are:

• Tom Wheeler
• Fabrizio Giudici
• James Branam

Your eyes are not deceiving you. Yes, I'm on the list (as the representative of Sun Microsystems).

I think it's great being a part of this. I've really enjoyed working with the NetBeans Community, and now I get to be even more involved.

Great news!

Congratulations to both Tom and Fabrizio for winning the election. I look forward to working with you.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 03:24PM Mar 09, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

Big Things Ahead

Hi all

Lots of big things are on the way. NetBeans 6.7 is being actively developed (Milestone 3 is the next release), Sun is getting more and more into Cloud Computing (you might see some of this soon), the NetBeans Governance Board election winners will be announced on Monday, and, on a personal note, my son is coming very soon (I have the feeling that he's coming tomorrow).

The baby's due date is March 12, but doctors seem to think that he's now overdue. I plan to attend the birth, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the face that has been hiding in my wife's belly for nine months. I'll let you know when it happens.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 02:30PM Mar 07, 2009 by branajam in Personal  | 

NetBeans Governance Board Elections

Hi all,

I suppose that we're all in the same boat, so to speak. The NetBeans Governance Board elections have ended, and the members have been chosen, but we still don't know who won.

Curious, aren't we?

Results will be announced on Monday, March 9. Regardless of who wins, I want to congratulate all of the candidates for being nominated:

• Toni Epple
• Ryan de Laplante
• Fabrizio Giudici
• Tonny Kohar
• Kristian Rink
• Tom Wheeler

This is a fine group of people. It was very difficult to choose only three from the list.

Well done to all!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Mar 05, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  | 

NetBeans and Django? It's Coming

Hi all,

I'm not just a blogger, but I'm also a blog reader. I read lots of blogs, and yesterday I cam across a blog entry about NetBeans being a good IDE for Python, but it's be nicer to have Django support in the IDE. Here's what I read in the blog:

I developed using VIM and konsole using Python and Django. Some time ago Carlos Ble suggest me to use and IDE. The I try Eclipse + PyDev for a time, but never felt comfortable with it. Since Netbeans team decide to include Python in the supported languages Netbeans could work with; I decide to give it a chance.

While Django is not fully supported itself, I feel Netbeans much more fluent than a Eclipse. Netbeans is not perfect but, on my view, fits my needs more than Eclipse do. I’ll try to use this platform for a while before claim to be THE IDE.

Using Django with it is possible using the same trick I used with Eclipse. Set manage.py as the main file and runserver --noreload as argument. I didn’t success trying to do step-by-step debugging (I didn’t spent more than two minutes trying).

To be the “perfect” platform for Django developing Netbeans needs:

• Be able to create a django project
• Be able to create django apps into a project
• Be able to run manage.py shell
• Be able to manage DB (At les manage.py dbshell
• Manage Django tests (manage.py test)
• Find method usage in templates
• WYSWYG template editor

The last one is not a real need but it would be great.

Even lacking all this features, I think is probably the best IDE for Django I have ever tried.

This is all coming. Just be patient. Soon, nothing will be stopping NetBeans from being the best IDE in the world.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 09:00AM Mar 04, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[4]

Wiki Woes

Hi all,

When I'm not sitting in front of a computer for work, I find myself sitting in front of a computer when I'm not working. And usually I;m messing around with something that I shouldn't have started messing around with.

MediaWiki

I manage the alumni site for my former military unit. I started the site in 2000, and it has grown tremendously to include 250 registered alumni. Not bad, eh? I'm constantly looking for ways to improve the site. I've had a guestbook and message board since the beginning, and I've also experimented with live chat (which wasn't so popular). I work a lot of hours for Sun, and it has become increasingly difficult to keep the site updated, especially the contact information for the 250 alumni. So I had what I thought was a brilliant idea: I'll create a wiki where members can keep their own contact information updated. I was a lot of work, but I finally got it up and running. This is what I had to do:

1. First, I had to download MediaWiki.
2. Then I had to make sure I had a MySQL database up and running on the web site. Luckily for me, my hosting service provides a lot of help here in the form of FAQs, a knowledge base, and 24-hour support.
3. I had to make sure that PHP was turned on on my website. This was easily done.
4. I didn't have to format the database, MediaWiki did that. I just had to make sure that the database was in place and that MediaWiki was pointing it it. When I configured MediaWiki I was able to do this easily.

That's basically it. It works now. If I had to do it all over again, I choose another Wiki. I don't like the formatting rules in MediaWiki, and I'm still learning about manipulating styles, etc. It will be a few weeks or so before I let the community know that wiki is available.

So, keep your fingers crossed for me.

Cheers!

--James

Posted at 04:45PM Mar 03, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[2]

NB Community Docs: 300 Contributions

Hi all,

Today is an important day for the NetBeans Community Docs program. The program was created officially on March 1, 2007, exactly two years ago from today.

The program also reached another important milestone today: 300 contributions. Wow!

As the program moves forward, it will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Congratulations to all participants of the program for making it a huge success.

Hats off to all of you!

See you tomorrow.

--James

Posted at 08:00PM Mar 01, 2009 by branajam in NetBeans  |  Comments[3]