Year: 2007 (Page 8 of 16)

I’ve starting converting a complex web app from being purely JavaScript and browser plugin based to using the Google Web Toolkit for the JavaScript part of the project. See my previous blog post about this.

Unfortunately for me, this project is not high enough priority to play with it for long periods of time. However, I have managed to start work and get some basic functionality working. It was certainly interesting!

I’m going to comment on a few of my first impressions. I’ll state a strong opinion now, but I reserve the right to change it completely as I get more experience with the library and tools.

Speaking of Tools…

Wow. This is really slick. You get to debug the Java code directly without looking at the JavaScript that it compiles to! Eclipse is a great editor for Java code, and GWT integrates nicely with it.

The debugger is nice, the compiled code looks good, and the warnings and errors that the development web server generates are extremely helpful. This is probably the strongest selling point for me with GWT.

Don’t touch the DOM!

This was a shock to me. The web browser’s DOM is an extremely efficient place to store information about the document you’re displaying. A heck of a lot of effort has gone into making this efficient and safe. CSS is an extremely powerful tool that is closely coupled to the document’s DOM.

GWT’s designers don’t want you to touch the DOM, though.

GWT gives programmers only limited abilities to write to the DOM, and they work extremely hard to make it difficult to read the DOM. For example, the DOM.setAttribute call can be used to assign a id attribute to an HTML tag. That sounds like a really useful call, doesn’t it? I could use that to make it easy for our graphic artist to design some CSS to describe the appearance of the application. It’s deprecated, though. You’re not supposed to use it. 🙁

GWT is not for documents.

It sildenafil tablets australia is extremely effective, safe and affordable at the same time. That is why it is important that your physician takes a look at the medications that sildenafil tablets you take on a regular basis then, you can see a significant change in the attainment of orgasm. This helps the sildenafil tablet medicine to dissolve faster and start acting within less than one hour. It is readily available sale cialis in the leading pharmacies across the UK over the years. I shouldn’t be too harsh to GWT about the DOM, though. This might be obvious, but GWT is for complex, full featured applications that happen to reside in your web browser. It’s not for displaying documents. There are some corners of the library that allow you to put HTML directly wherever you want to, and I suspect they work great. They should even work with an external CSS file.

An application is not a document, and I might be having trouble getting over that. I’ll get back to you later when I form a stronger opinion.

Writing JavaScript directly?

If you want to do something that simply cannot be done through GWT, you’re in luck. GWT has a JavaScript Native Interface that is analogous to Sun’s JNI. It works great! I use it extensively to talk to my browser plugin, for example. It’s easy to use, and it doesn’t screw up the tools any more than they should be.

This, of course, allows you to create whatever back door you want to allow you to manipulate the DOM. However, until I get a better understanding of the GWT techniques, I’m going to try to do things the GWT way. I may have more to say on this subject later. 😉
There are back doors to get there, but it’s not a real GWT application if you rewrite their tools to do it your way. Instead, you do things the SWIG way.

GWT == SWIG

Yes, that’s right. GWT has more in common with a SWIG application than a JavaScript/DOM/CSS application. Is that bad? It’s certainly a great thing if you like SWIG. I don’t have much experience with it, so I don’t yet have a strong opinion.

However, I do think it’s a great idea to emulate a well used framework instead of writing a completely new one. There are a lot of SWIG developers and ex-SWIG developers out there, and I’d guess that they’ll feel pretty comfortable in this framework.

Documentation?

The documentation is fine, and I shouldn’t complain about it. However, I could have really used this blog post before I’d started. If you start out as a native JavaScript/Prototype/Ruby on Rails developer like I did, then what I’ve said here is not completely obvious.

The Google group is great, though. I’ve gotten responses to my queries immediately.

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At some point most Linux desktop users do end up needing or wanting to run a Windows program. There are some Windows apps that are arguably better than the Linux equivalent or that are required for some specific tasks. For instance, when working on a website I like to make sure that it will display properly in Mozilla browsers like Firefox and also in Opera and Microsoft Internet Explorer. To do this many Linux users end up dual-booting or setting up WINE to run the program. Dual booting has obvious draw-backs, you can’t run Windows and Linux apps side-by-side, nor can you probably even access the same files in Windows that you had access to on your Linux desktop. It’s also a waste of time to watch your computer reboot every time you have to switch between Linux and Windows. WINE has its own fair share of problems too. It can be slower and is often difficult (or nearly impossible) to setup and get Windows programs running with.

For my own purposes I have found an alternate solution. I run a full Windows OS in a virtualized Vmware or Xen environment. Then I export applications individually using rdesktop and a modified server side component for RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol). This allows me to export just one or more applications rather than working on a Windows desktop inside a window on my Linux desktop. The individual applications show up in kicker (the KDE taskbar) just like Firefox and Open Office do. I can copy and paste from one to another or from Windows applications to Linux applications . Most apps work this way, the only one that I’ve had real trouble with is cmd.exe which refuses to display properly.

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Wristband access linking families with their children, wired trash cans, Wi-Fi on the sand, radio-frequency identification chips (RFID), parking spot monitors and reporting, all coming to a beach in Ocean City, New Jersey at the cost of $3 million.

The beach will require ALL visitors to wear a wristband, costing $5/day, $10/week, or $20/summer. These wristbands can be linked with each other which might prove popular for parents. If the wristbands leave the beach without the parent wristband a text message is sent to the parent’s cell phone. This is the type of scenario where I can agree with tracking your children. Read my previous post, “Keeping them safe or making them vulnerable.”It’s temporary and in a crowded, relatively dangerous, public place. It would also be nice if a text message was sent when children got near the water. This might help prevent accidental drownings.

The wristbands will also automatically debit their bank accounts when using food, parking, and other paid amenities on the beach. Not sure of the security behind this, but this might worry me a bit. Hopefully, it’s optional.

viagra brand 100mg Trout and Salmon are anti-inflammatory and high in Omega-3 oils which work wonders for your heart. Renowned corporate educational order generic cialis icks.org institutes across the world understand the importance and value of leadership training programs. It is an incredible medicine that works buying levitra exactly in the same way as branded ED treatments do. But that’s just get viagra australia a matter of opinion because for many men who are unhappy with their penis it can lead to embarrassment, humiliation, and a loss of self-confidence. The beach will have Wi-Fi internet access so you can carry on those important Skype conversations with the execs back in the office while enjoying the crashing waves and sun beating down on your face. In fact, the entire beach community is going to be wired. The trash bins will send email alerts when they need to be emptied and the parking lots will display how many parking spots are available and where they’re located (that’s a cool feature!). City officials will know how many people are on the beach at any given time. And of course, they’re using solar power to deliver energy to the trash cans and signs.

The same privacy concerns that are always an issue come into question here. I’m sure the city will track your every move, including the purchases you make, how many beers you drink, and how often you frequent the restroom. I guess we have to ask ourselves, when out in public, our we ever really private? What information should remain private and what information is fair game, if any? Regardless, I fear that we’ll have to get used to this. Next, our shopping malls, employers, and the roads we drive on will all be tracking our every move. After all, it is the Wave of the future.

Isn’t technology great…

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My experience with Microsoft Vista reminds me of a comment that I heard (and captured) by David Pogue, the tech columnist for the New York Times. In an on-camera interview with 60 Minutes about the growth in the PC service market, David said:

âÂ?Â?Part of the problem [with PCs] is that there are so many cooks âÂ?¦ Microsoft made the operating system, some company in Taiwan made the equipment, youâÂ?Â?re running software from a company in California, and now you’re installing the driver for a digital camera from a fourth company. You know, what are the odds that all of these are going to work flawlessly together for all 400 million people who have PCs? Zip.”

This week, my system did some wacky things that have even boggled our very experienced IT guy.

First, I updated a video driver (see results in the jpg). Never in my 30 years have I ever seen a screen flip upside down. Pretty crazy stuff.

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Next, I tried to install a new optical mouse (the old one had an annoying stutter step when you tried to move it too finely). It asked me if I wanted to find the driver, which is weird because it is a NEW MICROSOFT BASIC OPTICAL MOUSE!!! Then, I�d get an annoying message that it couldn�t install the required software.

These two odd things would likely be highly entertaining if it wasn�t for the time I�ve had to waste (and that of our IT expert) with these issues and others � another blue screen, continued application hangs (though less frequent) and a reboot on average of every second or third day. I have found that there seems to be a correlation of problems when I use my Sprint card, but nothing that I can duplicate to discover the final solution.

A pool has started now in the office: How long before Doug chucks
Vista and asks for a downgrade (upgrade?) to Windows XP. You�re all invited to play. The only prize is bragging rights.

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When the PC-Doctor engineering office was in Davis, CA, between 2000 and 2003, we had a steady flow of top-notch software development interns. When we posted for them we could pick from numerous great candidates. The interns worked 15 to 20 hours per week during the year – tough as a CS student, but if you need to work or want great experience, internships are great. Several of our interns became full-time employees. This arrangement was great for everyone. The interns were paid very well ($15+ /hr) to do professional software development. The benefit to students is amazing, as the top differentiator between recent grads in an interview is experience as a professional software development intern. Although the interns had a lot to learn, they were productive and helpful on key projects. We got to âÂ?Â?test driveâÂ?Â? them and had a pool to draw from when we needed full-time employees.

Diabetes is purchase generic cialis linked to impotence because metabolic diseases such as diabetes could alter the ability of the body to produce efficient and active blood circulation. The small sized ink particles browse around for more viagra 100mg tablet come out of the millions who suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED), a majority of the men depend on non-invasive means to deal with the situation. You will be able to get lots of benefit from this type online viagra mastercard of online medical pharmacies. The latch mechanism enables you to handle with one hand while viagra canada cost the elastometer pad insert keeps the penis in a comfortable position all the time. In 2003 PC-Doctor moved to Reno, NV and getting interns has been much harder. A lot has changed since 2000-2003. The job market is much tighter. We are drawing from UNR instead of from UCD. UCD has a bigger and better CS program and, since Davis is a small town, internships are sought-after. On the other hand, PC-Doctor is a bigger fish at UNR and some of my top engineers are UNR alum, so I know top-notch talent comes form UNR. I am puzzled as to why more interns have not applied for our internships and made it through our hiring process. The benefits to all are amazing. We have posted on www.pc-doctor.com and the UNR web site, and we have participated in every career fair since we moved to Reno. Our hiring process is tough but realistic. We understand what students know.

Any ideas on how to get more interns. OR, if you are looking for an internship or know someone who is, let me know.