F.R.E.S.H Edward's Weblog

So Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04) has been released. I've developed JDK on older version of Ubuntu for a while, this is a chance to give latest Ubuntu a try.

And guess what, you can apt-get JDK the whole Java stack from Sun! Isn't it fantastic? At the same time downloading Feisty Fawn, you may also want to check out more informations about Java on Ubuntu here, or here.

Gregor Hohpe from ThoughtWorks talked about asynchronous messaging in TSS. It's informative. For example, Gregor identified 6 so-called root patterns:

• channel
• message
• routing. Loose coupling means making less assumptions so we also make no assumptions about where the message ends up.
• transformation. Wants to integrate with existing system? Try translator pattern; it's all about how to transform existing data.
• end point. End point is really the intersection between the messaging world and the object-oriented world - about how a Java application puts a message on the channel and how that connection point works.
• system management, to address common challenges of system management, debugging and monitoring.

A very good guideline for anyone who wants to make a mind shift before being used to asynchronous stuff.

It is a library from Hans Boehm of SGI. He calls it "constructive reals." Go taste it here. Not check it thoroughly yet, but definitely will do that later.

P.S. is that the same Boehm who developed a GC for C++?

P.P.S. There're several applet showcases of the library. I love the new Java applet splash when a applet lodaing.

I bet many of you have read Joshua Bloch's poem about Tiger. So how about a audio version of it? ;-)

For your convenience, I also post the poem here:

Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
Like a geek who works all night
What new-fangled bit or byte
Could ease the hacker's weary plight?

To the most despised cast
We'll bid a fond farewell at last
With generics' burning spear
The need for cast will disappear

While Iterators have their uses
They sometimes strangle us like nooses
With enhanced-for's deadly ray
Iterator's kept at bay

When from collections ints are drawn
Wrapper classes make us mourn
When Tiger comes, we'll shed no tears
We'll autobox them in the ears

The int-enum will soon be gone
like a foe we've known too long
With typesafe-enum's mighty power
Our foe will bother us no more

And from the constant interface
we shall inherit no disgrace
With static import at our side,
our joy will be unqualified

O joyless nights, o joyless days
Our programs cluttered with arrays
With varargs here, we needn't whine;
We'll simply put the args inline

And as for noble metadata
I'll have to sing its praises later
Its uses are so numerous
To give their due, I'd miss the bus

Tiger, Tiger burning bright
Like a geek who works all night
What new-fangled bit or byte
Could ease the hacker's weary plight?

java.net is full of wonderful articles. This 3 installment article is such one.

It's a article with serious thoughts, I think. It's interesting, too. Read this (I just copy and paste it):

The on-board Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) was about 1 cubic foot with 2K of 16-bit RAM and 36K of hard-wired core-rope memory with copper wires threaded or not threaded through tiny magnetic cores. The 16-bit words were generally 14 bits of data (or two op-codes), 1 sign bit, and 1 parity bit. The cycle time was 11.7 micro-seconds. Programming was done in assembly language and in an interpretive language, in reverse Polish. Scaling was fixed point fractional. An assembly language ADD took about 23.4 micro-seconds. The operating system featured a multi-programmed, priority/event driven asynchronous executive packed into 2K of memory." -- Apollo 11: 25 Years Later by Fred H. Martin, Intermetrics, Inc., July 1994

For short it's about an OS within 2K memory! Totally crazy from today's point of view :-)