techno.blog("Dion")

Thanks to Werner Ramaekers I found the AST View for Eclipse.

After you install it, you can get exposure to the Abstract Syntax Tree that the JDT has. Isn’t it fun to see internals? :)

It’s purpose

To view to visualize the AST (abstract syntax tree) of a Java file open in the editor. Navigate from text selection to AST nodes and from nodes to selections.

Brian McCallister isn’t just an all around good egg. He has written a pragmatic opinion on Why JDO?.

His context is why he will write JDO tools for Apache OJB (he is a committer on that project).

Brian comes from his own background to these decisions, and he has obviously spent time thinking about them.

With pragmatics like Brian on the scene, JDO will hopefully prosper.

After playing with Groovy and WebWork 2, Michael Henderson has written about his Tapestry-Groovy integration.

It will be really great to be able to use Groovy as the config language (instead of XML, and even maybe instead of the SDL in HiveMind), as well as for the Components and Pages themselves. Since Tapestry is such a nice OO/component view of an application, Groovy fits in nicely. Hell, we could use Groovy instead of OGNL too (if it made sense!)

I found this academic paper Support for Distributed Pair Programming in the Transparent Video Facetop thanks to Cameron.

One of my best pairing experiences was when my coding partner was in another country (Canada eh?). We could take control of a shared desktop and pair as normal. We could also look up things in another window on a local desktop…

This was a couple of years ago, and we were using tools like NetMeeting then. This transparent stuff would be totally cool.

My Adigio co-founder’s are now blogging away on adigio.com.

Kris Thompson (Feed) had been blogging on jroller.com, but has recently moved over.

Christian Parker (Feed) has restarted his blog in adigio-land too.

Now I can learn from these guys, and see what they are really doing ;)

My Adigio co-founder Christian Parker is having fun with Groovy. We went to a talk by Rod Cope at the Boulder JUG last week, and it got us thinking about where Groovy can fit into a web application that CP is working on.

Groovy as Actions. Groovy as the View. Groovy as the XML configuration. Groovy everywhere!

In this entry Christian talks about the work he did integrating Groovy with WebWork 2. It will be really cool when you can put it in debug mode, which would enable you to tweak the Groovy action and hit reload to test. No more compile/build step!

There is a political parody This Land! which makes fun of both candidates.

It is a bit of a laugh. They have other cartoons too, but the site seems to be getting slammed at the moment :)

Jib Jab

Brian McCallister has admited it. He is Corrupted By Scheme.

This is a good thing in my opinion. Dave Thomas often talks about learning a new programming language every year or so.

What is more important:

• Keeping up with every API in “Language X”
• Learning a new language that will make you Think Differently

Once you have a few languages nicely under your belt you mould the way you do things. If you only spend time on one OO language then you will think: that language == OO.

Time to invest in the Knowledge Portfolio

Richard Monson-Haefel announced that he accepted a position as Sr. Analyst for Burton Group a few weeks ago.

Now he has publically come out to say that he is going to take a back-seat in the Java industry.

This is quite a shame in that he was deeply involved in the JCP (even on the EC itself!), various open source efforts (OpenEJB -> Geronimo, Groovy, etc), and was out and about in the community.

I hope you don’t drift too far, and that we still see you around mate!

For sure, it is early days.

But, Verizon is starting a fiber race.

The service, called Fios, will be launched in Keller, Texas, and later parts of southern California and Florida, the company said Monday. At up to 30mbps (megabits per second), Fios is a quantum leap compared with Verizon’s DSL (digital subscriber line) service, which runs at a maximum of 1.5mbps.

Fios can reach these speeds because it’s based on fiber-optic lines that serve Internet access at a much higher clip than the traditional copper wires that support DSL.

This is cool. But what I really want is the Verizon service that offers broadband speeds over the mobile networks. They have released these in DC and San Diego, and I can’t wait to have it all over. Then, no need for DSL, Cable, WiFi at home…. have it all come from the air! :)