Tuesday, 30 May 2006

Under Control

I've been working on the Remote Speakers output plug-in for a couple months now and there have been quite a number of changes. However, up to this point I have just been taking daily snapshots of the code base into zip files (archaic...I know!). This has left a number of changes intermixed and has made it less-than-possible to back out of anything with ease. I decided it was time to put my code into a source control repository. I've use Microsoft Visual SourceSafe in the past, but am annoyed by M$'s lack of attention to the product. It is seriously stuck in the late 80s. I could go an an "I hate VSS" rant, but I'll lay off for now. Come to work and watch my expression when I am told a mildly complex change needs to be backed out of a release if you are interested to know how I feel about SourceSafe.

Anyways, I took advantage of my time at the JavaOne conference and talked to a couple vendors of source control tools. And the one that really impressed me was Perforce. It is commercial software, however it can be used for free with certain restrictions. Perforce has the standard set of source control tool features, of course; but what really piqued my interest is: 1) support for change sets—VSS is pitiful in this area and 2) a graphical view of file history—you can see at a glance where branches, merges, renames, etc. occurred in a file's history. No more constructing a mental picture of a files history from a list—Perforce provides the picture complete with pan and zoom.

I downloaded Perforce and populated the repository with all my daily snapshots one fine Sunday. The viewer initially took some getting used to; it doesn't do things quite the same as VSS or CVS. But once I got the hang of it, I was immediately empowered. Making changes for a release can be done with far greater confidence. I can now make multiple changes at once and keep them separated with ease. And working with change sets is a dream come true for a VSS user. Thank you Perforce development team! Send me your change requests—I am ready to handle them with much greater speed. Now if I could only get Perforce installed at work...

Posted by emilles at 9:41 PM in Software

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Sunday, 28 May 2006

Blog server up and running

Memorial Day weekend is upon us and I finally got a chance to look at some blog server software and get it installed on my web application server. This should pep up the look of my site quite a bit and make it much easier to use for all. Now I don't need to mess with a lot of raw HTML. I had been wanting this pretty much since the day I revived my web site. I can't believe I didn't just start out with this. Let me know what you think of the new look and feel.

Posted by emilles at 11:48 AM in Stuff

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Tuesday, 23 May 2006

Progress continues

I continue to work towards release 1.0 of the Remote Speakers output plug-in. A number of stability issues have already been corrected, but several remain. If you are experiencing a problem with the plug-in, you should send me an email with details right away. Once I cut release 1.0, I'll be taking some time off, so the window of opportunity to have your issue fixed is closing. Thanks again to all who have submited problem reports and replied to requests for more information. Also, let me know if there is a feature you'd like included; I may not get them all into 1.0, but I'll keep them in mind for future releases.

Posted by emilles at 12:00 AM in Software

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Saturday, 13 May 2006

Perspective on JavaOne

I'm back from a busy week at the JavaOne conference in San Francosco. What an experience it was. More than 10,000 software developers were crammed into a convention center and fed substandard, catered meals and all the free caffine we could handle. I learned quite a bit and even got to meet some of the authors of the Java books I have read over time.

It looks like mobile computing is going to be the next big area of great expansion and innovation. From what the Motorola rep said at their booth, I should finally be able to get my hands on the Motodev development tools and be able to unlock my phone so I can write and put some Java apps on it. I can't wait until I get a free week to see what I can do with my phone—it is so boring with just factory stuff installed.

I am also gong to make an effort to figure out Ajax, which seems to be the next buzzword of the times. I have already got a big book and I just need to carve out a few evenings to read it through and build some demo pages/apps at home. Who knows...I might learn enough to make my lame looking web pages a little more attractive and interactive.

Posted by emilles at 12:00 AM in Stuff