Monday December 09, 2002

On Configuration

To comment on Jeff's continuing configuration quest, I would add my vote to trying out Betwixt/Digester as the engine. I used this to build the RollerConfig object (for Roller, duh) and it was stupid-simple. I spent a couple hours futzing around trying to get it "perfect" (Betwixt has some inclusion/exclusion rules that I was unable to get to do what I want) but it was unnecessary work. So Jeff, if you want an example, check out the Roller cvs for RollerConfig. The roller-config.xml is here if you want an example of that as well. ( Dec 09 2002, 12:19:33 PM ) Technology Permalink Comments [1] [Trackback]

Wednesday December 04, 2002

Out of Context

I've decided that will be my label for where I just want to quote someone regardless of the conversation:

Most programmers are not brilliant communicators, or we'd be salesmen...
( Dec 04 2002, 02:56:01 PM ) Entertainment Permalink Comments [1] [Trackback]

Pluggable Persistence

Dave keeps coming back to pluggable persistence layers for Roller. Somebody or other (sorry I forgot who ya waz) suggested that this was more trouble than it is worth. But Cedric's post on Interfaces and Factory pattern got me thinking: Roller already uses a set of interfaces onto Castor Impl objects. Taking this to Cedric's option 4, "Use interfaces and pluggable factories", should allow for swapping in any persistence implementation. Using this approach the implementation could even be specified as a deployment descriptor (in web.xml?) once the factory and Impls are in place. Rather than having to change code & rebuild if you wanted to use Hibernate instead of Castor (for example), you would just "pick" from the list of supported persistence layers. Cool.

I haven't the time to investigate this (nor does Dave I know), but now it's documented for us and posterity. ( Dec 04 2002, 01:44:34 PM ) Roller Permalink [Trackback] [Link]

Monday December 02, 2002

The S(e|o)x debate

Thanks to Charles for the link, but I don't think I can agree with this research. Now, I'm not saying it what way it doesn't apply to me, just that it doesn't! ( Dec 02 2002, 08:26:03 AM ) Entertainment Permalink [Trackback]

Saturday November 30, 2002

Re: Sick as a dog

Sick as a dawg

Argh. I'm sick. Hopefully its just a cold and not the flu. I hate being sick. [Evil Thoughts]

Me too. :-( [Brett Morgan's Insanity Weblog]

Me too!

And now Russell appears to have gotten ill as well!

Perhaps Java.Blogs is spreading a virus of some sort? Or is it a more sinister conspiracy? I'd heard that blogging was contagious, but this is ridiculous!

Still later (next day in fact): It is a conspiracy! Now Matt has fallen victim to the strange, blog driven, human virus! ( Nov 30 2002, 10:18:48 PM ) News Permalink [Trackback]

Start with the two-step... Since I've stated my intent to Dance With The Devil (see previous post), I remembered that I spotted a Programming C# book at the used book store I haunt. Since I'm cheap, I figure that's the best place to start, so I went and bought it today. We'll see if Jesse Liberty can teach me anything new on the bus (I'll likely read it on the bus to-and-from work). It's an old book (from July 2001), but should give me enough information to determine if I want to continue. ( Nov 30 2002, 10:09:47 PM ) Technology Permalink Comments [4] [Trackback] [Link]

Dancing With The Devil

Well, I think Andy has convinced me to spend some time learning the Devil's tune, even if I don't dance. I think Andy convinces me because I know him as a dedicated Java developer: if he takes it seriously it behooves me to do likewise. Andy follows up with a nice "rationalization" on why Apache would also do well to pay heed. ( Nov 30 2002, 10:12:22 AM ) Technology Permalink Comments [1] [Trackback] [Link]

Friday November 29, 2002

Re: I'm home with Mono

I thought Andy had gotten sick again (did you read his ApacheCon adventures?), but it's worse than that, he's dancing with the devil! (Editor's note: the preceding was sarcasm). ( Nov 29 2002, 12:12:00 PM ) Technology Permalink [Trackback]