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Blogs ยป Archive for March, 2005
Case-sensitive code
One situation I’ve witnessed numerous times is the fact that C# and the .NET platform is case-sensitive. This seems to cause problems for older Windows develoeprs that migrated from Visual Basic. One particular problem I encountered recently with an ASP.NET application was located in the Web.config file. The following line caused a problem with the application and the developer couldn’t figure out why:
Now, this is not invalid XML but it does conform to the design of the ASP.NET appSettings element. The element of a web.config file is a place to store connection strings, server names, file paths, and other miscellaneous settings needed by an application to perform work. Notice, the first letter of settings is capitalized, and the fact that it was not capitalized caused a problem. The server return the following error when the application was started:
Unrecognized configuration section ‘appsettings’
Now, it took me a few seconds to realize the problem but it illustrates the point that the .NET platform is largely case-sensitive unless you utlize VB.NET as your language (but the Web.config remains case-sensitive regardless of the language). The correct Web.config entry would be:
These issues exist in the C# and J# languages as well, but those can be …
Guide to MySQL 5 Stored Procedures
MySQL AB has published the first in a series of ebooks featuring coverage of the new functionality in version 5 of their popular database. A link to the PDF document is on the page and does not require registration.
Peter Gulutzan, one of MySQL’s software architects, has authored the intitial release. The publication stretches some 67 pages and covers stored procedures. Future pieces appear to be in the works covering Triggers and Views.
The approach is great – starting simple for those who did not come from other systems with this capability – and then wrapping up with real world examples that leverage one or more of the new features in a scenario that may have previously been seen as “undoable” or extremely difficult.
I also like the side-by-side comparison to Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB2.
A Shared Virtual Machine at Last?
Via TheServerSide.com, an article on java.sun.com discusses Project Barcelona, Sun’s research effort to implement a Multi-Tasking Virtual Machine (MVM). If successful, Barcelona will enable multiple desktop programs or Web applications written in Java to share the same Virtual Machine (VM). To each program, it will seem like it has the VM all to itself.
Up to and including Java 2 Standard Editon (J2SE) version 1.4, each Java program launched would load a new copy of the Java runtime environment (the VM) and the core Java classes into memory. J2SE 5.0 improved this situation somewhat by sharing a single copy of the core Java classes between all loaded VMs, but the resources used by those separate VMs still add up.
Many developers hope to see Mustang (the code name for Java 6.0, currently under development) take this the rest of the way and share a single VM between all active Java applications, though it may be more realistic to expect this in Java 7.0. To make this happen without breaking a lot of existing Java apps, Sun will need to share the VM without letting the apps step on each other’s toes. That’s what Barcelona is all about.
Here’s what …
Mind Bending Flash – The Zoom Quilt
I’m not sure where this fits in terms of pure web design. Probably doesn’t,.. but it uses Flash and it’s on the web. Whatever the case, it certainly fits nicely in ‘whoAA!! that’s awesome!‘ category, which is enough for me.
Apparently the project was a collaboration between 15 artist/designers, between them contributing a total of 45 frames which were then stitched together in Flash. There’s a HTML version for the ‘Flash-challenged‘ too.
Makes you think that Bosch would have really got into Flash.
Back to the big picture
I’ll be departing Sitepoint as a blogger at the end of this month. So in the week we have left together, let’s focus on the big picture and get back to basics.
The past blogs about mock ups raise a fundamental point: Nobody wants to hire a professional unless they are in pain, and even then, lots of people avoid professionals at all costs. Why? Because, as with a visit to the doctor, we hate being vulnerable, exposing ourselves, and dealing with an expert who can make us feel stupid. And — like it or not — the IT industry has a bad reputation (as that annoying computer guy on Saturday Night Live demonstrates).
This leads to a marketing challenge and opportunity. The challenge is that traditional marketing methods don’t work when selling professional services. It is simply too difficult to reach a busy, skeptical marketplace with sales pitches. As Seth Godin and other marketers have noted, if you want to get married, you don’t ask someone at a bar to marry you; you have to court them and earn their trust first. Well, the same is true in marketing your services.
This means that, to be successful in your Web Design/Development Business, …
PayPal Soliciting Script Requests from Developers
The PayPal Developers Network is extending an offer to developers to submit wish lists for scripts not already included in the Perl/PHP Toolkits. Apparently they are currently limiting this to Perl and PHP, while the toolkits they offer also include ASP and Cold Fusion.
In a devtalk email out this week – Paypal will review PayPal-related script requests, selecting and coding 10 of them to be available for download. These can include (but are not limited too) IPN, PDT, Upload Cart and Subscription scripts.
Those interested in contributing who leverage PayPal for payment processing can submit requests to developer (at) paypal.com.
Additionally, for those who did not know, PayPal has an online testbed called Sandbox where PayPal users can test their sites and web applications prior to moving into production. Developers can use dummy accounts and non-valid email addresses while still completing the full transaction process. A slick internal mail system captures and routes success or failure messages to a special mailbox for each developer working in the sandbox.
Not bad to get access to a robust commerce testing facility free of charge..
Wrestling with Regular Expressions
Came across a review at Slashdot that may ease the woes of some developers needing to leverage regular expressions.
Regex is used frequently in url rewriting (among the many ways to use them) and the book includes examples covering a variety of ways to utilize regex – including coverage of additional languages beyond Perl.
According to the review it is laid out in cookbook fashion and easy to track down what web developers may need to resolve an issue.
It does not appear to reach as far into advanced territory as O’Reilly’s Mastering Regular Expressions, but should probably do the trick for what a multitude of developers use regex for.
Small Screen Usability Experiments
Came across this excellent article by Mark Frauenfelder on The Feature last night, talking about experimental techniques in small-screen usability design.
At it’s most basic, many sites try to assist small-screen users by allowing their multi-column layouts to ‘break down’ into a more usable, stacked, one-column layout on smaller screens. Although this is certainly a start, it usually requires users to do a lot of scrolling on devices that usually don’t make scrolling either fast or easy.
Patrick Baudish, a HCI researcher has done a lot of thinking in this area over the past 3 years. Some of his alternatives include:
1) Summary Thumbnails: An elegant idea that simply maintains the relative proportions of the content areas but scales the fonts up to a readable size. Obviously to achieve this, the amount of content presented has to be cropped, but surprisingly, this cropping doesn’t seem to detract much for the meaning.
2) Collapse-to-zoom: This is a little like SitePoint’s collapsing nav column, but allows the user to collapse any content area with a simple pen swipe. The font in the remaining sections then scales itself up to take advantage of the new real estate. There’s no reason you …
When do you adopt new technologies?
The latest news from Microsoft is the delay of Visual Studio 2005 until late 2005 (September is the estimate) and the release the .NET Framework 2.0 beta 2. As I received this news, I contemplated when I should begin to wholeheartedly dive into the next release of these tools. After all, I am building applications now using the .NET Framework 1.1 (plus it pays my bills). In addition, there is the consideration of how long the next technology will take to enter the mainstream after the next versions are released.
Should I wait until that time or push the envelope and tell clients what is coming down the pipeline? I am apprehensive about making such promises, since features may be removed or altered in the final product. My preferred method is staying up-to-date with respect to the technology but only digging in once it has been released. How do other developers approach this situation?
Web Applications for Machines?
Embedded systems have been around for quite a while. More recently, Linux has found to be friendly to the construction and deployment of embedded systems due to flexible licensing, low cost of entry and of course system stability.
In a roundabout way, a recent GNU GPL court victory points to what ultimately may become a mainstream market for web developers in coming years – web applications for an audience ‘other’ than the usual Internet/extranet/intranet user base.
This is an interesting sector to consider, though it is not completely new. For some time object-oriented software development techniques and capability has been bleeding into the web sphere through various Internet-ready languages. Now as legal precedent furthers the vetting and validation of open source software for critical solutions – what may have been a slim vertical development opportunity for Internet professional will open further.
More and more ‘devices’ are powered with technology logic, as in this story dealing with automobiles and the logic controlling all aspects fo their operation. Something needs to read that behavior and a technician needs a capable interface to interact with it.
We have all joked about our refrigerator notifying us when milk is low. now we just …
