Slashdot Mirror

Another rebuttal of the claims is here. Looks like any similarities are either chance, or from the two implementations being derived from a common ancestor.

...see this post to TheServerSide. A lot of these look like common design patterns and standard Java/J2EE naming conventions.

You can also see Jim Jagielski's response to some questions here about this issue. Sounds pretty reasonable.

> and they're even up to date!

Well, they're one version behind now that 1.3.29 is out... but they're pretty close.

Lightweight: mod_tcl
Heavyweight: OpenACS

Monopoly != popularity. Monopoly is taking market share by force rather than by normal market behavior.

1 : exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of supply, or concerted action
2 : exclusive possession or control
3 : a commodity controlled by one party

Well there's always web accelerating in squid and ProxyPass in Apache. Which, I agree, are hacks. But they work.

According to their platform groupings, they lump Apache Coyote together with Apache httpd.

Since Coyote is the Connector component that allows Tomcat to function as a standalone webserver, I wonder how many of "Apache" sites are running Tomcat versus httpd.

Seems to me that they do see this as a problem worth addressing; they already have a fix.

In related news, the 2.48 version of apache was also released. Was this a slashdot moment, as well? Did I miss a memo? I'm assuming I have. I recently read the O'Reilly book on this topic and two things seemed clear. 1) That the authors of the book really preferred the 1.3.x series of httpd to the 2.x series and that 2) BSD is the way to be for Apache (though Linux is an "okay" substitute.) Which really surprised me because threading in Linux is better than BSD.

So my questions are: If they are updating the 2.x series why are they *also* updating the 1.3.x series? Isn't the idea that 2.x will supplant/replace the earlier series? What do you get out of using the older version that you don't with the newer? Other than the ability to work with a tool that's more familiar to you becasue you've been using it for so long...Wouldn't the technological advantages of using the newer version outwiegh the inconvenience of yet another learning curve?

The Slashdot story said, "... are pleased to announce the release of version 1.3.29 of the Apache HTTP Server ("Apache")."

However, that link references only a copy of the release info on a commercial bulletin board, BSDForums.org, that has plenty of advertisements.

The Slashdot story could have said, "... are pleased to announce the release of version 1.3.29 of the Apache HTTP Server ("Apache")", which is the official announcement on the apache.org site.

You forgot cocoon and XSP, and what that means for building a cross-device website. There's also SMIL and SVG along with the other XML technologies, and what that means for getting rid of Flash.

J2EE really wanted to be implemented in ruby, or Python if that's your thing. it is so obvious.

J2EE is as ridiculous as the complete over-abuse of XML (Jelly and XSL comes to mind).

• Composite files built at request time,
• The results of running a script,
• Interaction with a web application 1 2 3 4,
• Remote procedure calls and object access 1 2,
• Instant messenger communications, and sometimes
• Static files.

There's also a TeX to PDF converter called pdftex .

And, of course, pdf is really just a wrapper around Postscript so its pretty easy to convert Postscript to PDF.

My current favorite for PDF generation is to build an XML document programatically. This document has no layout information, so I use Saxon and an XSLT stylesheet to translate it to XSL Formatting Objects. From there, I use FOP to translate to PDF.

The best part is that the XML document contains the content, while the XSLT stylesheet describes how to make a document out of it. If I need a screen version all I have to do is write another stylesheet to translate to HTML.

Lol, I'd be willing to bet if Sun went under there would be some major difficulties in the industry.

How much money are you willing to lose on that bet?

There are plenty of free or open source and third party sources for Java compilers, JVMs, bytecode compilers, class libraries and related apps.

Sun could disappear tomorrow and Java would continue.

Sort of. .NET's remoting works more like Java's AltRMI from what I've seen of it, i.e. less focus on specifying every method as throwing RemoteException and more focus on writing code which works..

Nothing that can't already done with any number of form automation/templatting systems already out there. And where's the docs?

I'll stick to mod_perl, CGI::Application, HTML::Template and CGI.pm. But that's my opinion. Everything I could possibly need for dynamic forms with flexible presentation.

OK, you had me worried for a bit (no pun intended)!

I had to Google for "HTTP Authentication" to come up with this: Apache reference page. It DOES use MD5, but I don't really know how popular this digest authentication is... I know my web host supports it, but I don't remember how I ended up figuring that out.

With kernel modules this is different again, as you can link non-GPL'ed with the kernel (like nvidia's prop driver does), and even then you don't have to distribute the module's code. You only have to distribute the code of the kernel if you've changed it, or one of the already existing GPL-licensed modules, directly.

IANAL, of course. But if Linksys had modified and distributed Linux directly, they should just release the code and be done with it. Forbes does have a point (FSF suing Cisco, while SCO is suing IBM, as we do balk at the latter but not at the first), but the GPL needs to be enforced by someone if it wants to maintain it's credibility and keep us holding hands and singing our marxist songs while coding away. IMHO, the FSF shouldn't settle, or have settled, it should sue to get the code opened. That should be it's goal, nothing less...

For all I care, SCO can rot, but if the article is anywhere near true it does indicate that we should be watchful, even regarding the FSF. There's nothing wrong with a good dose of self-criticism.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Apache is not licensed under the GNU General Public License. Apache is licensed under the Apache Software License. Also, just because they are running Apache doesn't mean they are using GPL licensed software. I am all for free software, but this is not accurate.

These are some of the free (speech or beer) software I'd install on a family, non-gaming machine:

• Web Browser: Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird
• E-mail: Mozilla (cross-platform), Mozilla Thunderbird (cross-platform), Evolution (Gnome), or KMail (KDE)
• Office Suite: OpenOffice.org
• Media Player: QuickTime (Windows), Zinf (cross-platform), RealPlayer (cross-platform), WinAmp (Windows), MPlayer (Windows), XMMS (Linux)
• Image Viewer: IrfanView (Windows)
• Instant Messaging: Gaim (cross-platform)
• Personal Information Management: Palm Desktop Software (great PIM suite even if you don't own a Palm)
• Other: Acrobat Reader (although I'm weary of their DRM), Java 2 Runtime Environment, Macromedia Flash and Shockwave players, Ad-Aware (spyware remover for Windows), ZoneAlarm, Sygate Personal Firewall (firewall, alternative to ZoneAlarm), Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus, FileZilla, WinRAR (not free, shareware with nag window), Ofoto desktop software (basic photo album and touch-ups, even if you don't use Ofoto's online services)

Some other software I'd install on my own desktop (dev), in decreasing order of importance:

• Cygwin, bascially all packages
• UltraEdit32 (45-day trial shareware)
• TightVNC
• Ghostscript and GSView
• Java 2 SDK
• Eclipse
• Borland JBuilder Personal
• ActiveState Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk (yes, even though they are in Cygwin), Jython
• GIMP
• POV-Ray
• At least one of Apache, Tomcat, or Plone (Zope)
• HTTrack (a website copier)

These are some of the free (speech or beer) software I'd install on a family, non-gaming machine:

• Web Browser: Mozilla or Mozilla Firebird
• E-mail: Mozilla (cross-platform), Mozilla Thunderbird (cross-platform), Evolution (Gnome), or KMail (KDE)
• Office Suite: OpenOffice.org
• Media Player: QuickTime (Windows), Zinf (cross-platform), RealPlayer (cross-platform), WinAmp (Windows), MPlayer (Windows), XMMS (Linux)
• Image Viewer: IrfanView (Windows)
• Instant Messaging: Gaim (cross-platform)
• Personal Information Management: Palm Desktop Software (great PIM suite even if you don't own a Palm)
• Other: Acrobat Reader (although I'm weary of their DRM), Java 2 Runtime Environment, Macromedia Flash and Shockwave players, Ad-Aware (spyware remover for Windows), ZoneAlarm, Sygate Personal Firewall (firewall, alternative to ZoneAlarm), Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus, FileZilla, WinRAR (not free, shareware with nag window), Ofoto desktop software (basic photo album and touch-ups, even if you don't use Ofoto's online services)

Some other software I'd install on my own desktop (dev), in decreasing order of importance:

• Cygwin, bascially all packages
• UltraEdit32 (45-day trial shareware)
• TightVNC
• Ghostscript and GSView
• Java 2 SDK
• Eclipse
• Borland JBuilder Personal
• ActiveState Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk (yes, even though they are in Cygwin), Jython
• GIMP
• POV-Ray
• At least one of Apache, Tomcat, or Plone (Zope)
• HTTrack (a website copier)

No, it isn't the browser that allows such holes, it's the web application.

If Slashdot didn't filter out Javascript in people's comments, and someone appended their post with a quick Javascript fragment to redirect to Goatse then it'd be Slash that was at fault for mindlessly displaying the text another user had entered and not the browser for happily allowing it in a textarea.

It seems Apache agrees with this view here by pointing out that 'The most serious issue [with regards to CSS attacks] is in all the site specific code that generates dynamic content.'

It's another fine product from Apache.

It's another fine product from Apache.

most advanced software platform in existence

OK, I'll bite. :) Most advanced platform in existence? Isn't that a bit lofty? C#/.Net can be described, accurately, as Microsoft's answer to J2EE. While I'm a pragmatist about this and I find things to admire and things to dislike about both platforms, history still favors J2EE as the better platform.

If Java were just Sun, then .NET would probably quickly become a superior platform. I hate to say this. I like Sun, I dislike Microsoft. But I have to be honest with what I see. However, Java is not just Sun. There is a huge array of open source software for Java. Just tour the Apache software web site and the enormous variety of Java software available so developers don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Microsoft is often better at making software easier to use. They are often better at making software to make making GUI's easy. They are often better at making certain kinds of tools and certain kinds of integration between products.

But to those who think that Open Source is all about copying what others innovate (I'm not accusing anyone in this discussion of that), there are a great many J2SE and J2EE projects out there that disprove that straw man. (I don't know enought about J2ME to speak intelligently.)

In addition to Apache, check out Exolab. These are just a couple of the organizations creating open source J2SE and J2EE solutions. The existence of these sorts of organizations, these projects, brings great power and maturity to Java that .NET doesn't yet have.

I'm learning .NET stuff because I'm pragmatic and there are indeed some very nice features it has. One is the ability to link many languages in a native way rather than having to go through JNI. (shudder)

All of this to say that I have to question not only calling any software platform the "most advanced software platform in existence," but especially the .NET platform which has not yet caught up to J2EE in functionality. Not for web projects at any rate.

Exactly. But that's my whole argument. Running closed source software is just plain suicidal. Don't do it, kids! You can live without closed source. If you want to share your files with others, run Apache!

Well, I thank the EFF for this analysis, but I think they've missed an important tactic. Let Microsoft and Co. lock out non-MS software all they want. They're at a fundamental disadvantage. If they wish to exacerbate their tenuous position vis-a-vis monopoly, fine. If they want to gamble shareholder confidence on a risky offensive against the general good will of the net public, we should help them.

The EFF warns that Microsoft's IIS web-server could block web-browsers other than Microsoft's IE. Well, Apache can just as easily be made to block IE. After all, Apache has run the majority of Internet web-sites since 1996. In other words, if MS doesn't play nice, we shouldn't reward them by rolling out the red carpet. Kick MS off the net (maybe for just a year or so.. mercy and all). You can start sending the message now.

Warning: Too many connections in /var/www/html/pnadodb/drivers/adodb-mysql.inc.php on line 121

Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Too many connections in /var/www/html/pnadodb/drivers/adodb-mysql.inc.php on line 121
mysql://postnuke_game:@localhost.localdomain/ gamerswithjobs_com_-_main failed to connectToo many connections

• Cocoon
• Dreamweaver Extentions
• TopStyle
• etc

Stas is also behind the excellent online mod_perl guide, without which I can't imagine being able to use mod_perl in any kind of production environment. He's a great counterexample for those who complain that nobody puts together proper docs for open source projects.

Not that they have the transformations for OO.org XML to HTML, but a framework does exist that would make this procedure trivial at most.
Have a look at the Apache Cocoon project.

One thing I remember reading is that you can use anything you like to query your objects, as long as it understands objects efficiently. One answer is to use Java, or if you like you can use XPath or XQuery as suggested here.

Cheers

use apache FOP.

it's not without its bugs, but it works

The program also indexes Word and Excel files using Apache's POI library. I haven't looked at the size of that, but something makes me think it is a bit bigger than out little hack.

I know there is much hype around XML and in the end it is only half a syntax. But there are good applications of XML around and I think OOo is one of them.

Peter

The program also indexes Word and Excel files using Apache's POI library. I haven't looked at the size of that, but something makes me think it is a bit bigger than out little hack.

I know there is much hype around XML and in the end it is only half a syntax. But there are good applications of XML around and I think OOo is one of them.

Peter

See http://httpd.apache.org/docs/content-negotiation.h tml.

Basically, it's very very easy to provide pages in customized languages if the browser is configured properly. Granted, switching mozilla's default language to german doesn't work with sitefinder, and if they don't speak german they must be evil, but it would be easy for verisign to set up . . .

This guy's article is utter crap. Phillip Greenspun is either a moron or nothing more than a common troll.

JSP is fantastically simpler than "J2EE"

J2EE is a collection of java techonologies which includes JSP, not a single development paradigm. JSP can be used in a model-view-controller as a view or used to write simple stand-alone applications.

After researching how to do bind variables in Java (see the very end of http://philip.greenspun.com/internet-application-w orkbook/software-structure), which turns out to be much harder and more error-prone than in 20-year-old C interfaces to relational databases

Riiiight... Because there is only one way to do this in Java.
First off this is not an inherent problem to Java, but a problem of developer implementation.
Prepared statements are only one way to communicate with databases. You can create your SQL any way you'd like and even bind parameters yourself an then execute a regular Statement.

This is all moot anyways if you plan on teaching students what the real power of using an Object-Oriented language. Most people that have to do this sort of thing for a living would have a bstracted the database layer into objects that thier view is using. The actual method of database connectiving is not irrevelant, but certainly not a hindrance to productivity.

A project done in Java will cost 5 times as much

Good thing he provided research to back that up... Oh wait a minute, he was just trolling again.
5 times more expensive? Hmmm.. apache/tomcat is free. Eclipse is free. You can pull down an SDK from Sun for free.
Well maybe he meant that it will take 5 times a long and of course time=money. Nope. He said that it will "take twice as long ". Confusing logic to say the least.

None of the extra power of Java is useful when the source of persistence is a relational database management system such as Oracle or SQL Server.

Sure buddy, tell that to Oracle. Oracle happens to use Java for its business applications.
Applications based on Relational databases is where Java excels. The java language isn't the reason, its what is being done with Java in the real world that matters.
There are plenty of tools some free some not, that take databases with referential integrity constraints to build objects (JavaBeans, EJBs, JDO, Torque, whatever) with child-parent releation ships and automatic persistence.


Its really a shame that this guy is allowed to teach at MIT.
Here's an idea: how about teaching students to use the right tool for the job? He should leave the zealotry at home unless he could back it up something more than an uninformed tirade or a ridiculous apples-to-oranges comparison with an even more idiotic analogy.

I agree though, short of a mapper tool, you're gonna have to have SQL SOMEWHERE.

While an OM tool like Torque will allow you to remove SQL from your code, all of your database information will be in a configuration file....like someone pointed out, that information has to _somewhere_.

There is nothing special about detecting the version of Apache, since Apache reports it in every response.

Take make sure noone can tell what you're running, put this in your config:

ServerTokens Prod
ServerSignature Off

Here is the documentation for ServerTokens and ServerSignature.

There is nothing special about detecting the version of Apache, since Apache reports it in every response.

Take make sure noone can tell what you're running, put this in your config:

ServerTokens Prod
ServerSignature Off

Here is the documentation for ServerTokens and ServerSignature.

ApacheCon Ad Banners are available @ http://www.apache.org/~ceki/ac2003/ or http://www.xml-dev.com/xml/ac2003/
Please help spread the word on ApacheCon by including the Ad Banner on your websites.
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Apache runs 2/3 of the HTTP servers on the internet. Check out their site or look at netcraft to see the facts. Microsoft is the minority when it comes to web servers; therefore, open standards can still exist.
As far as the other browsers being such a small part of the market, their share will only grow as more people use Linux and OS X. Microsoft can make IE as proprietary as they want, but it won't matter at all if Apache is delivering the content.

1. 
   
   always the first place one should start
   
   Samples#1
   
   samples#2
   
   examples#3 (part of a SVG webring)
   
   examples#4 (it also answers the question. Who uses this?)
   
   ditto#2
   
   Adobe plugin (shoots down the "hasn't been updated in years" argument)
   
   Too imature for you?
   
   Oh yeah! Immature, and it has a browser plugin too
   
   

One step most of these proxies is doing is compressing HTML files. HTML is highly redundant, so compression can save alot of space. However, it's silly for the proxy to do the compressing. Instead web site owners can do the compressing! Transferring pages gzip compressed is part of the standard. No special software is needed by end users. A 3:1 reduction in bytes transferred for your web pages (the HTML itself) is a reasonable minimum. The result is that you use less bandwidth and end users get a faster web site! Every mainstream browser supports this, and those browsers that don't support it will automatically get the uncompressed version. If you're using Apache, you'll want mod_gzip to automatically compress transfers. (You can fake the effect with MultiViews, but it's a hassle to maintain two copies of every HTML file.)

(Yes, I know I don't practice what I preach. I'm working on it.)

• Castor is a free tool which allows you to convert XML to Java objects and back. If you build a servlet that returns the XML string that represents an object then you essentially have a Web Service.
• Apache Axis a free implementation of SOAP and web services. Oddly enough, if you browse the source code of Axis you'll see Castor packages.

Well, its damned easy on java if you use AltRMI.

University of Washington IMAP has known security holes (unless they recently patched it), Courier-IMAP and cyrus would probably work just fine, but as for me I'm just waiting for the James email server to finish their IMAP implementation. It is a nice, open, easy to use, non-*nix centric, and java based solution. Which supports java maillets which let you custom process each email on the server. Not to mention the fact that they have two different IMAP implementations already in CVS (all they have to do is adapt one of them which is in the process now). Just my two cents.

I would recomend some reading: first Refactoring which talks about code "smells".

One such smell is "Inappropriate Inimacy"

[classes]spend far too much time delving in each others' private parts

Next, read a good book on unit testing: Unit Testing In Java

At some point, you might get interested in Design Patterns a good alternative for Java with more practical examples.

Don't try to add all tests at once, do it on a regular basis, one by one, as needed to support your refactorings, and for regression testing. You don't want to find the same bug more than once.

Start using Ant as a build tool, automaticaly executing your test suites at least with every build.

Try to achieve an MVC (Model - View - Controler) architecture, the View (awt/swing, html/jsp, console,...) should only be responsible for showing the state of the model. The Controler should only validate user input and manipulate the Model (Mediator pattern). The Model should represent the business logic (you'll typically will find Person, PersistenceService, AuthenticationService objects here).

Just don't rush things, the goal is not to make your code compliant with The Only Right Way Of Doing Things(TM) the goal is improving your code for achieving more robustness and maintainability.

BTW, I'm speaking from experience, as Sr developer/analyst/architect in a small team and as coach/instructor. I wish you succes ;-)