Software

Eclipse and Tomcat

I’ve almost decided to stick with Eclipse as my new IDE of choice for Java development. I think I’m about 95% convinced to stick with it. To Eclipse’s credit, it’s lasted longer than my trial of NetBeans. Overall, though, I think Eclipse is a solid replacement for my old IDE.

The things I don’t like about Eclipse thus far (in order):
- switching “workspaces” resets Eclipse
- no built-in support for Tomcat (yes, I know there’s a plugin)
- JSP debugging is non-existant (and I only use JSPs as a template engine)
- CVS tasks (such as syncs and branching) are a little awkward
- the “Package Explorer” doesn’t remember what folders were open or closed between sessions
- some of the windows (Package Explorer, for example) are cluttered with information
- lack of good documentation (ie. not FAQs, mailing list archives or forums)

The things I do like about Eclipse:
- customizable perspectives (ways of viewing various pieces)
- plugin support (allows for unlimited possibilities for IDE changes/additions)
- integrated CVS (including integrated CVS diffs)
- the ability to configure just about anything to do with the IDE
- code folding

The interesting thing about evaluating a new IDE after such a long time with the same IDE, is that you realize that your current environment has faluts too, but that you’ve either found a way around the problem or you’ve learned to deal with it.
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Looking at Eclipse

For the past seven years I’ve been using the same IDE for all my Java development. It’s a low key IDE and although they continue to improve it, I’ve decided (again) to look at something else. I’ve used seven or eight releases of it plus the beta/trials along the way, and including their latest trial version.

Their latest beta release is quite good and offers a lot of improvements that have made me say ”Wow, how did I get by without this in the past?” But up until today, the beta didn’t have web application support so I was only able to use it for the couple of stand alone projects that I’m involved with. Today, however, they introduced webapp support but it wasn’t at all what I was expecting.

A friend who works at WestJet has been pestering me (well, not really pestering per se) to try Eclipse. I’ve been hesitant to try anything else as I’m in a bit of a rut. I’ve been using my current IDE for so long that I know everything that it does and all of it’s quirks. And as the saying goes, ”once bitten…” and NetBeans bit me hard a year ago and after two days of trying to make it work, I went back to my old IDE. But my disappointment this morning has made me once again consider another IDE.

First impressions of Eclipse are good. I’m running the latest release, 3.0.1, and it’s slick. But it has it’s quirks too. But I won’t comment on specifics yet until I’ve given Eclipse a proper evaluation.
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No More JK2

I had some issues trying to migrate from Apache 2.0.52 to 2.0.53 on one of my Gentoo servers, which is a story in itself, but while doing so, I came across this:

==============================================================================
15 November - JK2 is officially unsupported

JK2 has been put in maintainer mode and no further development will take place. The reason for shutting down JK2 development was the lack of developers interest. Other reason was lack of users interest in adopting JK2, caused by configuration complexity when compared to JK.

The latest official JK2 release is 2.0.4.

JK2 will have it’s successor within core Apache2.1/2.2 distribution. We have developed new proxy_ajp that is an addition to the mod_proxy and uses Tomcat’s AJP protocol stack. It is developed in httpd-2.1 and integrated in it. We have also developed a new proxy_balancer module for load balancing http and ajp protocol stacks. ==============================================================================

Am I the only one frustrated with things like this? First there was JServ. Then there JK. Then JK2. Oh, and also mod_webapp. So many ways to connect Tomcat to Apache. Which is fine. And it’s fine that they are creating yet another connector. My big problem is the comment about lack of user interest due to configuration complexity. I definitely found this to be the case, but for the simple reason that the documentation sucks (or at least it did; and I haven’t checked it recently). I managed to figure it out the same way everyone else seemed to; a combination of trial and error and Google searches.

I can’t wait for the struggle that will likely happen when the proxy_ajp is released and I need to figure out how to use it.
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Go back to riding donkeys

Microsoft is suddenly ”listening to their customers” but in the end, according to eWeek, Microsoft is really saying ”let’s go back to riding donkeys”. Before Firefox came along, the plan was not to release anything new in terms of IE until Long-(wait)-horn comes out in 2037. But now, with FF gaining popularity at a rapid place, Microsoft suddenly cares.

I think that a companies treatment of software when they have little or no competition is a good reflection of the company as a whole; their philosophies and the kind of service you can expect from them. And, despite my bias towards Microsoft-related issues, I think it’s safe to say that Microsoft is all about the money. Which, as a good publicly traded corporation, they should be. But they shouldn’t be all about the money while at the same time, because of their monopoly, ignoring their customers. And I don’t mean governments and other large corporation customers. I mean you, and me, and our friends.

I used to use Windows NT 4 religiously. I thought it sucked that you needed to split your services (mail, web, relational DB) across multiple servers, but I thought that it was a decent platform. I even used IE because Netscape was such a memory hog and uber slow (due to many reasons beyond their control, I know). But they never made much in the way of improvements. So when Linux came of age with the 2.x kernels in the latter part of the 1990’s, I started making the switch. And I’m sure other people will continue to do the same; and would likely do in greater numbers if they weren’t forced to purchase Windows XP with every new PC they buy.
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new JDK

When I synced up my portage this morning, I noticed that a new version of the 1.4.2 JDK has been released (officially titled J2SE v 1.4.2_07 SDK). Actually, it was released on January 27th. Not sure how I missed that, I’m usually pretty quick with new JDKs. In any case, the update to 1.4.2 means very little to me as everything I develop now is done with JDK 1.5.

But while grabbing the JDK I noticed an article about reasons to switch to JDK 1.5.

And if Java still isn’t cool enough for you, when was the last time you went to .NET conference and they used a trebuchet to distribute t-shirts?
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Upgrading Roller

I finally got around to upgrading Roller to version 1.0. It took forever, but I got it 98% upgraded.

Of course, it wasn’t simply a matter of running a SQL script of DB changes. I tried that route and ended up failing. In the end it was 4 hours of creating a new database and then copying over data from one to the other. It was a very tedious process. But I have high hopes for future upgrades. Roller developers take note: have a look at how easy it is to upgrade between production versions of Bugzilla.
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Exciting week for software releases

The release of PostgreSQL 8.0.0 has finally arrived. There are lots of new features but overall, I think the most important feature is that PostgreSQL will now run on Windows natively.

While I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Windows, I know that a lot of people are. And the more people that develop using PostgreSQL as their database on the backend, the better; whether they develop for or using Linux, Windows, MacOSX or whatever. One of the reasons that MySQL is so popular is that support for it is built right into PHP. But even more key is the fact that a developer can install MySQL on his home PC and develop and test a webapp right there on their PC. Then, when it’s time to release, they simply copy the code to the deployment machine. Done and done.

Up until today, you couldn’t quite do the “all on one PC” development using PostgreSQL on Windows. You could, but it required installing CygWin, which hasn’t always been the easiest thing to do. Plus, in today’s society, everything is about getting results now. Not “now” but only after installing three other pieces and messing around with this and that.

Oh, and we’re deploying 2.4.3 of the Zymeta Jukebox client.
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