Friday May 26, 2006
Simplifying a Swing Application for Dolphin
Filed under: javase7
You heard about the two new Swing JSRs, each of which aim to make developing Swing applications easier, right ?
The Beans
Binding JSR promises to simplify that large chunk of your Swing
application concerned with hooking up a GUI component to the data it
represents. This code is always concerned with keeping the data and the
GUI in sync ("do I really have that
little money in my checking account ?"), and usually its doing
type conversion ("uh, my paycheck is
in dollars, not pennies thankyou very much") and validation ("Error, you have entered an amount
exceeding your current balance. Please rethink your plan to chuck it
all in and sail round the world") as well. Scott's
blog has much more on this new work.Hans' Swing Application Framework JSR is aiming to provide standard API support for some of those chunks of code that keep popping their heads up in most all Swing applications, you know, the part that manages user preferences, or that remembers application specific state across sessions, or that preps things like databases on startup and cleans such things up on exit.
Ease of development has been a big deal for Java EE. In case you had your head in the sand, Java EE 5 is done, blossoming with a newly revamped programming model which focuses on ease of development. (Check out the before and afters from JavaOne - slides). There are of course as many opinions on ease of development as there are working styles. And working style can be a fraught area for us developers. We have on occasion been known to lose our cool in discussions thereof, particularly when personal styles become a public matter. When engaged (or occasionally enraged) in the activity of developing an application or system, our process is often very interior, solitary and introverted. While what we produce at the end can be a thing of functional or even aesthetic beauty, comparatively little of the process by which we got there remains. Were we sculptors, the floors of our studios would be waist deep with scrapings, chippings and discarded previous efforts. Were we musicians, we might laugh up our sleeves at us developers who think that 'doing our thing' in pairs is an extreme measure, or puzzle at the idea of an orchestra of soloists.
My only point being that ease of development is often an electric issue. However it appears that the main activities of development: learning, prototyping, designing, developing, enhancing and maintaining, benefit a majority of developers when they are kept brief and simple. That happens best when technology takes on some of the load, respectful of our attachment to style, for us.
I have high hopes these new JSRs will take some of the load of developing Swing applications for Java SE 7 'Dolphin', making the applications themselves shorter and simpler. And in a style that I hope will work for most everyone, not least because Scott and Hans will be joined in these efforts by some really expert luminaries of the Swing community.
That should ease development.
Friday May 19, 2006
Mastering Mustang, Developing Dolphin
Filed under: javaone javase6 javase7
Here are the slides for the presentation Mark and I gave on the upcoming and future release of the Java SE platform here:
Mastering Mustang, Developing Dolphin (PDF, 2.4mb)
Enjoy !
So as the last orange backpack leaves Moscone, we see the end of another JavaOne. Something odd happens each JavaOne, despite all the best efforts of the presenters and attendees to control the messaging, what ends up being memorable takes on a life of its own as the week progresses. For me, the two stars of the show were both technical (yay), and were
- the Ugly-Duckling-to-Swan story of Java EE 5 (which Bill
describes here)
- the activities bringing scripting languages onto Java SE (which I
have talked
about before)
Wednesday May 10, 2006
Will I see you at JavaOne ?
Filed under: javaone
And if you see me first at JavaOne next week, I hope you'll say hello !
I'm almost done getting my talks ready. I am a Visual Mathemetician so all the work of creating a presentation happens in my head as I'm drawing the pictures. I find that just as soon the pictures are just right, the bullet points write themselves.
Today is Wednesday and everything is going great. I just wish I could get the pictures right :-)
I'll be kicking off the Java SE Platform track with Mark on Tuesday at 2, and I'll be talking about NET2Java and doing crazy demos with Charles Tuesday at 6.00 in the Sun Presentation Theater.
There are lots of pre-JavaOne talk review blogs and articles around, so I won't dilute them with another. And between you and me, I haven't decided which talks I'm going to attend yet. As in past years I hope to 'feel it' on the day, equipped just with an open mind and a shiny new pen.
I'll probably bike down to Moscone to loiter for NetBeans Day on Monday. I'll also be at the Mustang Community party, at the Argent Hotel, Tuesday, 8:30pm, or the JCP party on Wednesday night at the Argent Hotel at 6.30pm.
If you won't be at JavaOne, I hope you can join in via the web.
If JavaOne is not your thing, sorry in advance: everyone is going to be blogging like crazy about it. It's going to drive you nuts.
Posted by dannycoward ( May 10 2006, 02:09:49 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]
Monday May 08, 2006
NET2Java: Extreme Makeovers for .NET Applications !
Filed under: net2java
 |
My secret agenda is to translate
every .NET program on the planet
into a Java program. So I'm announcing early access to NET2Java: a new
technology for translating .NET applications into Java
applications that behave the same way. It translates .NET source code
into Java source code. |
 |
I've blogged before about the need for this, as has Charles. So for now I'll just tell you a few highlights:
|
NET2Java
translates applications written either in Visual Basic or in C#, 2003
or 2005 editions. |
|
|
Ya, that much source code. | |
|
NET2Java creates readable Java source code; e.g. it preserves class names, method names and code comments. | |
|
Because your applications don't stand still, they will evolve. | |
|
NET2Java uses the NET2Java Library to translate .NET API calls into Java Platform API calls. | |
|
Because .NET programs usually make lots of .NET platform API calls. | |
|
NET2Java doesn't sweat it when it encounters an unknown API call: it flags it for later and keeps on translating. | |
|
Because many of your .NET applications use custom components that I've never heard of. | |
|
NET2Java includes the NET2Java NetBeans Plugin to let you 'import' a .NET project into a NetBeans project. | |
|
Because I *heart* NetBeans. | |
|
NET2Java includes some homemade .NET samples for you to try translating. | |
|
Because the best way to understand it is to try it. | |
|
I've filled the NET2Java Library with enough translations to translate the samples, and a little more. | |
|
Because I haven't had time to fill up the NET2Java Library myself. | |
|
The NET2Java Library Editor makes it super easy to add translations to the NET2Java Library. | |
|
Because I want to make it easy for us to team together to fill up the NET2Java Library with a translation for every .NET API call. | |
|
I've had a lot of fun creating NET2Java. | |
|
And I think you might have fun too. | |
|
If
you're interested in NET2Java, come help ! |
|
|
Because together we can translate all the .NET applications. | |
 |
|
|
|
|
Tuesday May 02, 2006
Rich Returns
Filed under:
Stand up and touch your toes. Are you stretching down with your upper body and arms, or are your feet pushing up from the ground ?
You probably read about our new boss in software, Rich Green, returning to Sun. He used to be my mentor, spending time with me at when he was really busy with other things. Rich inspired me to see a broader and more sophisticated perspective of what Sun was doing with Java technology at the time.
Finding balance is a lesson I continue to learn from my Yoga practice - the physical balance of some of the standing poses or arm balances, the mental balance of effort and relaxation (you know the challenge if you've ever tried some of them, relaxing while you've been in your dreaded gnarliest pose for ten slow, meditative...contemplative breaths as your body begs for mercy). Or the spatial balance of the oppositional forces in a pose. The balance of safety and risk.
Everyone needs a mentor - whether its someone in a formal program like Sun has (the rules of which probably Rich and I ought to have been more careful students), or someone nearby you admire and who inspires you.
Someone who helps you balance the daily grind with being inspired to go do something you least expect of yourself.
Who's mentoring you ?
Posted by dannycoward ( May 02 2006, 12:04:02 PM PDT ) Permalink
