Andrew created a new screencast on DabbleDB showing how to create an application from imported digg.com data. If you want you can help digging.
DabbleDB is also mentioned on the Dan & David Show as being used by Ismael Ghalimi, the co-founder and CEO of Intalio.
For those who dont know: DabbleDB is a new web application written Smalltalk using Squeak and the seaside web framework (both open source). It's focus is on easy application development based on structured data.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Rethinking the typing
There were some thoughts from an outsider about Smalltalk on the Squeak-dev mailinglist, I can only agree to his point of view about typing:
In dynamic languages you can focus on solving the problem - in static languages you always get distracted by annoying compiler messages...
"Before I was an effienciency/static typing junky, but smalltalk has made me
rethink the typing at least. :) After all, how many errors *has* that
really caught for me compared to all the times code didn't compile because
the compiler was confused about something that should work."
In dynamic languages you can focus on solving the problem - in static languages you always get distracted by annoying compiler messages...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Rubics Cube
There are a couple videos of a Rubik's Cube in croquet space on YouTube. Looks like this is work done by one of Robert Hirschfeld's students.
- Video 1
- Video 2
- Video 3
Robert is the author of various Squeak packages like AspectS or MethodAnnotationBrowser.
Unfortunately he now moved to Potsdam to work for the Hasso Plattner Institute. We are both native-born in Thuringia (which is one of the most beautiful landscapes in germany by the way) and I miss the endless Smalltalk discussions with him after work in Munich's beer gardens...
- Video 1
- Video 2
- Video 3
Robert is the author of various Squeak packages like AspectS or MethodAnnotationBrowser.
Unfortunately he now moved to Potsdam to work for the Hasso Plattner Institute. We are both native-born in Thuringia (which is one of the most beautiful landscapes in germany by the way) and I miss the endless Smalltalk discussions with him after work in Munich's beer gardens...
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Crashing toad
TOAD is a really usefull tool when working with databases. While working with Oracle today it suddenly crashed and displayed an interesting call stack. Did'nt know that the UI was written using Pascal:
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
The power of two
If you work in IT business then some numbers are very meaningful
if you see them in a memory dump or a code listing. If you know
about bits and bytes and the mathematics behind them then at least
the following series should be well known:
The series for 16 bits is something you could easily remember.
But whats next. Let's write a small(talk) expression to see how the
series continues up to 1000 bits:
Ooops - I didnt know that (2 raisedTo: 1000) is:
Really? Unbelievable! Next step would be to learn all of them ;)
if you see them in a memory dump or a code listing. If you know
about bits and bytes and the mathematics behind them then at least
the following series should be well known:
1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024 2048 4096 8192 16384 32768 65536 ...The series for 16 bits is something you could easily remember.
But whats next. Let's write a small(talk) expression to see how the
series continues up to 1000 bits:
(0 to: 1000) collect: [ :each | 2 raisedTo: each ]Ooops - I didnt know that (2 raisedTo: 1000) is:
10715086071862673209484250490600018105614048117055336074437503883703510511249361224931983788156958581275946729175531468251871452856923140435984577574698574803934567774824230985421074605062371141877954182153046474983581941267398767559165543946077062914571196477686542167660429831652624386837205668069376Really? Unbelievable! Next step would be to learn all of them ;)
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
StarUML
Found a nice and free Win32 UML Tool on the web. It is called StarUML.
StarUML supports Java, C++, C#, Pattern, RationalRose and XMI. Last one is especially important - so I can transform the model to anything I like. Diagrams can also be exported to JPG, EMF, WMF and BMP. It comes with full Delphi source code - so it is easily adaptable.
I like it but even with all these features I think it will not replace my hottest design tool.
StarUML supports Java, C++, C#, Pattern, RationalRose and XMI. Last one is especially important - so I can transform the model to anything I like. Diagrams can also be exported to JPG, EMF, WMF and BMP. It comes with full Delphi source code - so it is easily adaptable.
I like it but even with all these features I think it will not replace my hottest design tool.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Christo Code Coverage
Stefan Reichhart has announced "Christo" - a tool to dynamically and safely retrieve coverage of code-elements (e.g. packages, classes, methods, ...).
It adapts many different technologies to collect data. So you might apply this tool using ByteSurgeon, MethodWrappers, ObjectAsMethodWrappers, JCompiledMethods/AST (short: JAST), or ...
It's part of his Master Thesis about "Testing".
It adapts many different technologies to collect data. So you might apply this tool using ByteSurgeon, MethodWrappers, ObjectAsMethodWrappers, JCompiledMethods/AST (short: JAST), or ...
It's part of his Master Thesis about "Testing".
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Injection Rejection
Software developers should always take care for security and prevent SQL injection as explained in this funny story. :)
Seaside at OSCON
Some more notes about Avi's OSCON presentation about the Seaside web framework. I'm using the framework from it's early days and really enjoy it (especially after hard times with other "mainstream" frameworks) ...