Normally I program in Java, but recently I needed to write a quick program, and I turned to my favorite language for such tasks, Python. I hadn’t used Python for a while, so I’d forgotten how much I like the language — terse, clean syntax, and an elegant design. But I’m still looking for a …
Monthly Archives: June 2005
More product naming goodness
Earlier I wrote about Microsoft and IBM making their nomenclature more sane. Looks like Sun is getting also into the act. The current version of Java is “Java 2 Platform Standard Edition, version 5.0” (or J2SE 5.0), which has an internal version number of 1.5. That’s three version numbers for one product. Thankfully, the next …
Language-oriented programming
Lately there’s been a bunch of initiatives aimed at making software development easier and more robust, by having programmers create and program in domain-specific languages, instead of general-purpose ones like C or Java. Examples include Intentional Software which was spun off from Microsoft Research, the Meta Programming System by JetBrains, and Software Factories by Microsoft. …
Bay Bridge compromise
Miracle: Ahnold and the legislature leadership have finally reached a deal on the Bay Bridge replacement. Now maybe this bridge will be built before I turn 40. Sheesh.
The Great Malls of China
The Great Mall of America is nothing compared to what’s getting built in China these days. We’re talking malls over 130 acres, or 1/5 of a square mile.
A sudden outbreak of naming sanity
Two of my biggest pet peeves were recently addressed. Microsoft announced that in Longhorn, it is dropping “My” from My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places, etc. Woohoo! I’ve always thought it sounded pretty lame. I used to rename these folders myself, starting in Windows 95, but eventually I gave up. The other one is …
More about Borland
Today I went to a Borland presentation on its Java development tool, JBuilder 2005. I hadn’t played around with it for more than five years, so obviously what I saw tonight was dramatically different. It has some slick support for developing and refactoring J2EE programs. For example, if you rename a class via refactoring, JBuilder …
Opportunity escapes sand trap
After being stuck in the sand for almost 6 weeks, the NASA Mars rover Opportunity finally escaped. Kudos to the JPL engineers who got it out. It’s amazing that 14 months after NASA thought the rovers would be dead, they are both still going strong.
Borland switches JBuilder to Eclipse
In a move a lot less talked about than Mac to Intel, Borland announced that a future version of JBuilder will be based on Eclipse. This is good news both for Borland and Eclipse — Borland can focus its energies on building on JBuilder top of an IDE ecosystem, instead of trying to compete against …
Holymolyitstrue: Apple switches to Intel
Makes me wonder if I should buy a Mac in a few years. I could run Windows and Mac software full speed on the same box. (Writing the next version of Virtual PC for the Mac should become a lot easier…) It also makes me wonder who will buy a Mac for the next couple …