Monday, April 1, 2002

JavaBrowser (on OS X) is an incredibly useful tool. It allows one to browse the Java class hierarchy of any random set of classes or jars/zips to see the public API (or private/protected) of that set of classes. It has a relatively powerful search facility and, if configured correctly, can automatically display the documentation or source for any random class, if available. Configuring JavaBrowser can be a pain. The default classpath(s) and documentation path(s) are useless. Hunting down each individual jar file and adding it via the UI is painful. To make matters worse, reconfiguration has to happen fairly frequently as Apple optimizes Java on OS X (WebObjects has put various hunks of Java related stuff in different places over time as it becomes more and more Java Compliant). I wrote a little shell script that resets JavaBrowser's defaults to a useful state. It mostly works by using the 'find' command to find various jar and zip files across the system and, as such, should not need that much modification as Apple upgrades the system. As it is does reset a couple of JavaBrowser's defaults, please read the script before executing it if you are worried about what might be destroyed. Make sure you quit JavaBrowser before running the script to ensure that JB doesn't overwrite the defaults written by the script. 4:55:14 PM

I like a good April Fools joke as much as the next person... but it sucks that the Internet is basically useless on April 1st. Every major source of useful information-- typically weblog like in nature in that they collect a series of short blurbs linking to actual content-- is rife with various random joke stories. Given the ridiculous stupidity of a lot of REAL news going on these days, it is hard to sift through and figure out which are jokes. Slashdot is particular annoying in that so many of the stories posted are so disconnected with reality, gleaning something useful is always a challenge (though rewarding when you do). Doubly so today. The one joke that was actually funny hasn't reared its head in a couple of year; the chain mail that goes around claiming that the Internet will be shut down on April 1st for the annual spring cleaning.... I was kind of hoping that Eric Raymond's recent rants would prove to be April Fools jokes. If not, they are pretty clear cut examples of a complete lack of clue... 12:05:47 PM