Groovy JSR accepted
The JSR for Groovy has been accepted (via James).
What's really interesting is Sun's comment in the vote: "Sun is happy to see Groovy proposed as a JSR. Having additional interesting languages for the Java platform seems like a Good Thing!"
Up to now, Sun was against having multiple "official" languages for the Java platform, despite the actual number of available languages. This change is a very good sign in the competition with Microsoft's "we have more than 27 languages for the .Net platform". And crontrarily to most of .Net languages, Groovy is more than syntactic sugar.
Keep up the good work, folks!
What's really interesting is Sun's comment in the vote: "Sun is happy to see Groovy proposed as a JSR. Having additional interesting languages for the Java platform seems like a Good Thing!"
Up to now, Sun was against having multiple "official" languages for the Java platform, despite the actual number of available languages. This change is a very good sign in the competition with Microsoft's "we have more than 27 languages for the .Net platform". And crontrarily to most of .Net languages, Groovy is more than syntactic sugar.
Keep up the good work, folks!
@author tags considered harmful
Recently, the Cocoon community decided that @author tags will be removed in source files (helped in that by a very hindsightfull explanation by Dirk-Willem Van Gullick, president of the ASF)
At first, I did not like much that idea. Working on opensource projects is a personal involvment that needs some kind of reward, and visibility of your name in source files is a reward, as it flatters the ego.
But involvement isn't only about code. The motto of the ASF is that "the community is more important than the code", which comes from a very pragmatic way of seeing things: a smart code with no community and no users is dead, while a dirty code with lots of people around it will evolve and become better.
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At first, I did not like much that idea. Working on opensource projects is a personal involvment that needs some kind of reward, and visibility of your name in source files is a reward, as it flatters the ego.
But involvement isn't only about code. The motto of the ASF is that "the community is more important than the code", which comes from a very pragmatic way of seeing things: a smart code with no community and no users is dead, while a dirty code with lots of people around it will evolve and become better.
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Where is Avalon going?
A year ago, the Avalon project went through major problems when two of its main developers went into an irrational fight. One was fired out of the ASF (yes, his commiter rights were revoked) and the other one stayed.
So the "winner" became the project leader. IMO, he should have been fired also as more than a leader, he became a dictator. No future out of Merlin, and Fortress should be considered as an interim solution on the way that leads from the deprecated ECM to Merlin.
Now consider Cocoon: we've been very happy with ECM up to now and, due to its deprecation, consider moving to Fortress in Cocoon 2.2. Fortress adds some performance improvements and better object pool management. But it also comes with the need to use metadata to describe components instead of marker interfaces and explicit class naming in configuration files that are so easy to understand.
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So the "winner" became the project leader. IMO, he should have been fired also as more than a leader, he became a dictator. No future out of Merlin, and Fortress should be considered as an interim solution on the way that leads from the deprecated ECM to Merlin.
Now consider Cocoon: we've been very happy with ECM up to now and, due to its deprecation, consider moving to Fortress in Cocoon 2.2. Fortress adds some performance improvements and better object pool management. But it also comes with the need to use metadata to describe components instead of marker interfaces and explicit class naming in configuration files that are so easy to understand.
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Bye bye, Claude Nougaro
Claude Nougaro passed away today at the age of 74. He was a very well-known singer in France. Jazz, blues, rock, funk: he played all of them in a very groovy way, and was doing magic with words, which he loved above all.
Just listening to one of his interviews was like attending to a live performance: he was always improvizing, assembling words both by they sounding and their meaning, turning a conversation into a poem.
He was born in Toulouse where I live now, and was still living there as far as he was able to. The song he wrote about his hometown is so nice that my body hair raises each time I hear it.
We'll miss him.
Bertrand also.
Just listening to one of his interviews was like attending to a live performance: he was always improvizing, assembling words both by they sounding and their meaning, turning a conversation into a poem.
He was born in Toulouse where I live now, and was still living there as far as he was able to. The song he wrote about his hometown is so nice that my body hair raises each time I hear it.
We'll miss him.
Bertrand also.
Mounting zip archives?
One of the cool features of MacOSX is the ".dmg" archives, which are disk images that can be mounted as filesystems. Now most of non-Mac archives are Zip files, and I'm wondering if some utility exists to mount them in the Finder, which would allow to browse their content without expanding them nor needing a 3rd-party Zip software.
That would be so cool...
That would be so cool...
Apple's hidden X11 installer
I wanted to intall OpenOffice on my PowerBook, and it requires X11. No problem, I thought, as Apple ships X11 with Panther. It's not part of the default system install, so let's get it from the DVD. However, I only got a system restore DVD which is different from an install DVD. The only way to get X11 installed with it is by reinstalling the whole system! Weird...
Should I download X11 from the Apple web site, or install XFree? Nah, there must be another way...
Exploring the hidden files of the system DVD with the terminal, I found all individual packages in
Should I download X11 from the Apple web site, or install XFree? Nah, there must be another way...
Exploring the hidden files of the system DVD with the terminal, I found all individual packages in
System/Installation/Packages. Copy the X11User.pkg directory on my HD, double-click, et voilà.PowerBook hardware impressions
Some impressions after a few days spent in my new digital home. Let's start by the hardware.
The PowerBook has many features (and non-features) that make life easy with it. Some may seem futile, but are so important when you spend the largest part of your week days with a device.
First of all, the physical contact is a sensual experience: no sharp edges, a smooth texture, nothing that can hurt. Even the screen locker that disappears when the screen is open (a magnet makes it pop out when the screen is closed).
The keyboard is comfortable, even if it lacks page up/down (which as available by combining arrow keys with command and option modifiers). The trackpad is more criticizable: it doesn't drive scrollbars (fortunately, SideTrack comes to the rescue) and has only one button (c'mon, Apple, everybody can use 2 buttons now).
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The PowerBook has many features (and non-features) that make life easy with it. Some may seem futile, but are so important when you spend the largest part of your week days with a device.
First of all, the physical contact is a sensual experience: no sharp edges, a smooth texture, nothing that can hurt. Even the screen locker that disappears when the screen is open (a magnet makes it pop out when the screen is closed).
The keyboard is comfortable, even if it lacks page up/down (which as available by combining arrow keys with command and option modifiers). The trackpad is more criticizable: it doesn't drive scrollbars (fortunately, SideTrack comes to the rescue) and has only one button (c'mon, Apple, everybody can use 2 buttons now).
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A day in the hospital
Yesterday morning, my son and I went to the hospital to control how things were going under his arm's plaster. Bad. The broken bones had moved and were no more aligned.
So instead of a simple visit, we stayed the whole day there (went out at 10pm), as the displacement had to be fixed, meaning replacing the plaster under general anaesthetic, allowing the doctor to hopefully do a better job than in the Emergency Room last week.
We'll go back there next week to again control how things are going. If they go badly, surgery will be needed and I'll have a RoboKid...
So instead of a simple visit, we stayed the whole day there (went out at 10pm), as the displacement had to be fixed, meaning replacing the plaster under general anaesthetic, allowing the doctor to hopefully do a better job than in the Emergency Room last week.
We'll go back there next week to again control how things are going. If they go badly, surgery will be needed and I'll have a RoboKid...
Switch!
Yessssss! The baby has finally arrived: a nice 15" PowerBook (the one with DVD burner and backlit keyboard). Joy! Joy! Joy!Power on, enter a few information (language, user name, etc) and it works. The first amazing experience is the network connectivity: it's easier to find a Windows PC on the network with an Mac than with a PC!!
Browse around: I already know what's there for having used my father-in-law's bipro-G4.
First impression on the hardware: soooo cool, and soooo nice! But... the trackpad button is too hard (my thumb makes me feel it), and the return and arrow keys are a bit small.
Next, install the minimal set of tools needed to work: JDK is already there (need to download the 1.4.2 upgrade, though), install Eclipse. Wow, it's fast!
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Broken arm (again)
A few months ago, my oldest son injured his two arms while iceskating. Yesterday morning, he fell strongly on hard and icy snow during his snowboard lesson (weather conditions were bad), and broke his left arm. We spent the afternoon in the hospital, where the fracture was set, and the arm nearly fully covered by a big plaster. Fortunately, no surgery was needed although the bone displacement was important.I think he definitely has to avoid activities where the probability of falling and using the arms to prevent the fall is important. Or we have to find a way for him to learn how use his arms correctly when falling...