rebelutionary
Mike Cannon-Brookes on Java, J2EE, OSX, Open Source, Australia, Atlassian, Bug Tracking, JIRA and more...

Thursday, 30 May 2002

The 802.11 Mosh Pit. Wireless access points are sprouting up, but before too long the unregulated spectrum in which they operate in will become unusable. [australia.internet.com] 5:37:35 PM  comment []      I've put up a summary of the whole Is Tomcat Crap? furor - see Bashing the Cat - A Summary of results. It's also a very interesting exploration of how an issue evolved - on weblogs, mailing lists, community sites and personal email. 3:32:38 PM  comment []      Serge wrote to me on why they chose Resin over Tomcat - with his permission I posted it online under Serge on Tomcat. He knows a lot more about Resin than I do - I'm an Orion guy historically. 3:16:42 PM  comment []      David Johnson (I'm going to have to start using surnames despite the impersonality, there are just too many Davids!) has posted a response to my Is Tomcat Crap? article called, surprisingly enough, Tomcat is not crap. He brings up three main points: Fast edit-compile-deploy loop - You can't get faster than Orion (and I think Resin is the same). Web app automatically deploys, changing any JSP file (even included ones) causes recompilation, touching web.xml auto-redeploys, everything in state (session, application scopes) is kept (no logging in every time you recompile like Tomcat - argh!) and Orion will even compile your beans for you (change the source file and reload the JSP page - it compiles the bean automatically). This covers everything David asked for! :) Make it really easy to zoom in on errors - Well, again both Orion and Resin provide line numbers in your JSP file which makes it easy to fix problems. As far as I can get it working, Tomcat only provides stack traces in the generated Java class - which is next to useless. Again, this covers everything David asked for! :) Make it really easy to configure the server - This one is quite subjective I think. I love Orion and Resin's configs - they are very easy, simple XML files. The process is simply edit the file, and the server automatically reconfigures itself when you save. I'm not sure how Tomcat works here - although the XML config file did seem perfectly understandable to me. As for GUI tools, I don't like them (too slow!) but some might want them - see JSR-88. "None of the current crop of servers really come close to supporting all of these things." To use a famous Aussie phrase - "Bullshit mate!" ;) See above - both Orion and Resin do almost everything you've asked for! "The Tomcat developers deserve our support and our thanks. They are doing a great job.  I've seen Tomcat improve by leaps and bounds over the last year and it will continue to improve - I do not doubt that one bit." I agree completely  - I hope Tomcat keeps improving, which is partly why I started this all. My only problem is that too many Tomcat users don't use other servers (as can clearly be seen above!) and therefore don't know what they're missing (or where Tomcat is lacking). 3:11:19 PM  comment []      David looks at Apache Axis vs Glue. Basically Glue wins big time. TME really are a legendary (not to mention ballsy in my opinion) company - how many people would think that they could compete (yet alone beat) with Xalan, Xerces and Axis. (Oh, and they use JIRA too which endears them to me) I'd like to convert the stuff that I have implemented here to it and do some more SOAP development using it but it does not appear to be far enough along to compete with GLUE. 2:35:12 PM  comment []      nyc bloggers is a damn good site and a cool idea. Now if only someone build www.worldbloggers.com which enabled you to drill down from globe, to continent, to country, to city... to see bloggers near you - it would be complete. Alternatively (being biased) if someone wants to build SydneyBloggers.com - I'd love you ;). Anthony? 1:20:53 PM  comment []      Totally awesome software?. "Extreme programming" sounds like no more than a marketing-driven fad, but fans are convinced that its rules hold the key to better code. Bit of a fluffy article, but a good overview for anyone looking to see where XP came from. I must admit, we're in the partial XP camp. [Salon.com] 10:01:51 AM  comment []      Compiling SWT to native Win32 EXEs - Jacek Furmankiewicz. New release of Excelsior JET compiler is supposed to allow compiling Java/SWT apps to native Win32 EXEs with no JRE required. Thought this was interesting...the ability to compile a Win32 Java SWT app to a native Win32 EXE (with no JRE). This is very interesting (but limited as it only works for SWT apps). I'd like to hear from anyone who has used it as to how well it works! [Javalobby Frontpage] 9:52:55 AM  comment []      Woo! JRun 4.0 support has been added to OSCore. I think it's time for a 1.2 release, or that's at least what JIRA tells me :) Update: OK, that means that JBoss, JRun, Orion, Pramati, and WebLogic are all supported. Any other app servers missing? Anyone want to help add support? [PSquad's Corner] 9:50:53 AM  comment []      Red card for Mac and Linux users on World Cup clips site this is just one more reason you should all watch the world Cup from within your favourite pub. [The Register] 9:46:19 AM  comment []      Linux distros to unite. Fascinating development! It looks like all the non-Red Hat Linux distributors (Caldera, Suse, TurboLinux, Conectiva) are pooling their resources to create a common distribution. Is this the first step towards merging these four companies? Given their disparate global strengths - this would create a very large (and global) Red Hat competitor IMHO. (BTW I love Red Hat, but competition can only get good) [The Register] 9:40:40 AM  comment []