wuetender-junger-mann.de

Category: Software, alt

  • Questionable Semantics

    I just stumbled across the concept of ZipFileSet in ant. A closer examination confirmed my suspicion. A ZipFileSet can be two pretty different things. We should stop spoiling young programmers using such outflows from a sick minds that are not capable of a single straight thought. The mainstream of java software (including the JDK) is…

  • Environment Variables Considered Harmful

    If you are getting your configuration from environment variables you are in trouble. You should always use commandline parameters to make the configuration explicit. On the other hand it seems acceptable to use envrionment variables as default values for those parameters. To rephrase it: If you have dependencies make them as obvious as your programming…

  • Longing for Meaning

    Might just be the post hangover depression, but I woke up this morning with a great longing for meaning. Why do we use all kinds of tools that actually hide the meaning and intention of our programs. I’m talking about fit and fitnesse, which actually does great amount of damage to my respect for Ward…

  • Anna Ternheim and the Java Process Class

    I just discovered Anna Ternheim, a nice Swedish Singersongwriter. I am listening to here Album Separation Road and try to call an external process from groovy which after all uses the Java API to perform such tasks. Given the slightly depressing nature of the music and the slight drizzle outside, I can’t go on ranting…

  • DOS Batches from Hell

    Aforementioned idiots do also have strong propensity for crappy batchfiles. The DOS command interpreter is a truly diabolic beast. It forces you to work in a way that we know is sure to get you fucked since the days of algol 60. I just had to realize that del is not setting the ERRORLEVEL when…

  • The Perceived Generalist vs. Specialist Divide

    I recently witnessed a debate about “agile development” and the fact that you need more generalists than on “waterfall projects”. Such generalisations make me always angry. My impression over the last years is that it’s mostly the people with the broadest knowledge, who are also familiar in depth with the technologies they are using. While…

  • YAML

    Eigentlich wollte ich heute schreiben, was für ein Scheißdreck WebSphere ist, was für Zwergenhirne ant für ein tolles Tool halten und was für eine schwachsinnige Idee es ist MS SQL als Backend für eine Java Anwendung zu verwenden. All das erscheint mir aber zu negativ. Also schreibe ich über YAML eine nette Alternative zu XML.…

  • DabbleDB – Excel Killer

    Today I finally signed up for a free trial of dabbledb. It’s a web-wased Database App. It supports multiple users and has sophisticated data import and normalization options. It is aimed at all the non-numbercrunching stuff that is done in excel-sheets, that are mailed around to organize or track things. I tried to model a…

  • Seaside and Smalltalk

    When I started my studies back in 1997 Smalltalk everyone new that Smalltalk would be the next big thing in Corporate IT. So we’ve been taught using this environment. I’ve got to admit, that it challenged many of my preconceptions about programming. I had just done the transition from Turbo Pascal to Java and the…

  • Debugging JavaScript

    Today I have been pointed to Venkman the Mozilla JavaScript Debugger. It has all the nice things you expect: Breakpoints, Variables, Watches and can be installed as a Firefox-Plugin.