A similar thing has happened with Java. A few programmers, some employed by RedHat, got together to produce clean-room implementation of the class libraries under the classpath umbrella.
Outsiders scoffed at the insurmountable task they were undertaking, saying it was a waste of time given Sun's implementation.
Now, with nothing to lose, Sun is on the verge of releasing Java under the same license that classpath uses!
Well... Testers can't be replaced by unit testing, nevertheless unit testing does have some merit. When a tester spots a bug, a unit test might be written to document the behaviour, that the developer didn't think of, thereby reducing regressions.
In additional to 'bugs', testing is useful in checking whether an application performs a task as dictated by a specification, i.e. missed functionality. Unit testing won't catch bugs in code that hasn't been written in the first place!
As for the 'design work' matter, the development ought to be a collaborative effort between the Business Analyst, UI Designer/Usability specialist, Tester and Coder. The tester is often the first person to see the application. If a user interface isn't usable in the eyes of a tester it probably won't be to the end user either. But rather than delegate enhancements to the coder, the tester ought to refer these thoughts back to the usability person. As in the example, if the UI specialist agrees that yes, "it'd be great if this screen had a 'quick user lookup' field" then that could be written as a requirement in the specification in consultation with the BA. - e.g. 'the system shall provide quick user lookup'.
Agreed, it's not the role of testers, and hence developers, to go adding features just for coolness sake. That's how projects never get finished. But in testing that the software meets requirements in a specification they're also, to some degree, testing that the specification is complete and workable. And if the spec is set in stone then at least suggested enhancements can be documented for a future revision.
I had the same problem. It seemed useless developing a wifi application for handhelds which wouldn't survive more than a few minutes without plugging them into the electricity grid!:-(
brainstorming here, forgive me if it isn't at all feasible...
My rational is something along the lines of how Apple may have implemented hardware assisted vector operations; falling back to scalar equivalents when altivec wasn't available.
On kernel startup (or dynamically, assuming hot swapping GPUs!) the system could load a configuration for a shared library to take advantage of GPU acceleration. Whether this happened when coding to a specific API or could somehow be trapped in the platform c lib or at a kernel level I'll leave as an exercise for the reader. [I wouldn't know, I just program for a well know virtual machine. But as that VMmight soon be GPLed, hopefully some well meaning soul would transparently integrate such a technology, at least for its math libraries. e.g. Offloading work to a GPU has already seen massive improvements in Swing's performance without touching a line of application level code, or recompiling for that matter. Effectively that virtual machine saw a HW upgrade!]
On a positive note, one of the side effects of this development is that a population shift may occur from 'over-populated' regions of the planet to currently uninhabited regions.
Take Central Australia, for example. Unable to sustain a large number of human lives - there's insufficient water. Extract water from the sea, irrigation follows...
Being able to use a 'fat' client for email is the selling point for me. (Only ever had access to IMAP once, so POP3 suffices).
Many providers offer free web mail (advertising revenue).Some offer free POP3. I've signed up for these twice and been stung. All of a sudden I can receive mail but not send. Turns out, via an obscure note on their website that SMTP is now a premium service! This is a problem because:
If you're outside your home ISP you may not be able to piggyback off a known SMTP server (think wireless hotspot)
Spam filters do block emails that aren't sent from the same SMTP server
I hope that gmail's SMTP remains free or I'll be looking for yet another free service.
As previous posts have hinted, the problem with gadgets is you can't carry all of them at once. Device convergence is our best hope.
Of today's gadgets I own a
phone
flash based mp3
digital camera
I never bought an iPod because the primary purpose of the mp3 player was as a thumb drive. I can't fit an iPod and a phone in my jeans!
The phone has an FM radio which is generally okay except when the train goes under a tunnel.:( My camera has more memory than the mp3 player!
A friend has an O2 XDA which according to an OSNews Review looks fairly fully featured.
A couple of relatives, none of whom are particularly IT savvy, have started using skype. If such a device can communicate with them, over wifi, I might consider buying one for when I move interstate.
Still, the screen of the nokia 770 would be preferable for reading PDFs.
they're using 5400 rpm drives. There are 7200rpm laptop drives (built to order option for the MacBook Pro) that aren't even offered as an option here.
It depends on what part of the website you read. One link on the Apple Store claims that all mac minis use 7200 drives. To see this, go to the ordering page and under Hard Drive, click Learn more.
Hopefully they'll clear up that inconsistency (with faster specs, of course!)
To naysayers who would envy core duo iMacs, the win for users is that your developers are using hardware that meets 'real-world' specs. So, client-side performance issues are discernable before they reach the wild. Though, as often happens, testers are stuck with more obsolete hardware than coders.:(
All Mac mini models include standard Serial ATA hard drives featuring data transfers up to 1.5 Gigabits per second. All hard drives run at 7,200 revolutions per minute (rpm).
Do you honestly think a celeron D is a match for a core duo?
Benchmarks have shown the previous single core Pentium-M chip to be competitive with a Pentium 4. With 2 cores the high end mac-mini would eat your celeron D for breakfast.
[Price is a factor compared to your generic PC, certainly, but Dave's comment that the dual core one will make a *fabulous* number crunching node is valid.]
Please stick to the topic at hand, namely Swing vs SWT.
The link you supplied states that the parent's phrase is a modern usage and that "Arguments over whether the newer usage should be considered incorrect are an example of debate over linguistic prescription and description."
Unless your doctorate is in linguistics, who are you to prescribe its usage?
In SWT it is easy to make plugins, because the components can and do get GC'ed after you properly dispose() of them. In Swing, many components are immortal, i.e. (J)Dialogs and (J)Frames are particularly stubborn. They are kept in some AWT Vector's inside the innermost painting loop and never die
Really? I thought that was the purpose of java.awt.Window's dispose(). If they are out of scope they should then get garbage collected.
Slashdot Mirror
3 months ago I purchased a now obsoleted gadget: the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.
The specs for the iPhone exceed the Nokia N800 in every way, except the screen size - my primary reason for buying the 770 (800 by 480).
320 x 480 is, IMHO, too small for web browsing.
Expect v2 of the iPhone to come in a flip-top version, thus 320 x 480 ==> 640 x 480.
A similar thing has happened with Java. A few programmers, some employed by RedHat, got together to produce clean-room implementation of the class libraries under the classpath umbrella.
Outsiders scoffed at the insurmountable task they were undertaking, saying it was a waste of time given Sun's implementation.
Now, with nothing to lose, Sun is on the verge of releasing Java under the same license that classpath uses!
Well... Testers can't be replaced by unit testing, nevertheless unit testing does have some merit.
When a tester spots a bug, a unit test might be written to document the behaviour, that the developer didn't think of, thereby reducing regressions.
In additional to 'bugs', testing is useful in checking whether an application performs a task as dictated by a specification, i.e. missed functionality. Unit testing won't catch bugs in code that hasn't been written in the first place!
As for the 'design work' matter, the development ought to be a collaborative effort between the Business Analyst, UI Designer/Usability specialist, Tester and Coder. The tester is often the first person to see the application. If a user interface isn't usable in the eyes of a tester it probably won't be to the end user either. But rather than delegate enhancements to the coder, the tester ought to refer these thoughts back to the usability person. As in the example, if the UI specialist agrees that yes, "it'd be great if this screen had a 'quick user lookup' field" then that could be written as a requirement in the specification in consultation with the BA. - e.g. 'the system shall provide quick user lookup'.
Agreed, it's not the role of testers, and hence developers, to go adding features just for coolness sake. That's how projects never get finished. But in testing that the software meets requirements in a specification they're also, to some degree, testing that the specification is complete and workable. And if the spec is set in stone then at least suggested enhancements can be documented for a future revision.
They'll have to explain the absence of Indy's good friend Dr Marcus Brody first.
The common way is to hover with a mouse, seeing the URL in the status bar.
This method is unavailable for 'mouse-less' environments - one cannot hover with a stylus.
I had the same problem. It seemed useless developing a wifi application for handhelds which wouldn't survive more than a few minutes without plugging them into the electricity grid! :-(
My rational is something along the lines of how Apple may have implemented hardware assisted vector operations; falling back to scalar equivalents when altivec wasn't available.
On kernel startup (or dynamically, assuming hot swapping GPUs!) the system could load a configuration for a shared library to take advantage of GPU acceleration. Whether this happened when coding to a specific API or could somehow be trapped in the platform c lib or at a kernel level I'll leave as an exercise for the reader. [I wouldn't know, I just program for a well know virtual machine. But as that VM might soon be GPLed, hopefully some well meaning soul would transparently integrate such a technology, at least for its math libraries. e.g. Offloading work to a GPU has already seen massive improvements in Swing's performance without touching a line of application level code, or recompiling for that matter. Effectively that virtual machine saw a HW upgrade!]
-
they channel the effluent directly into the Salt Lake
-
they pass a law mandating that everyone flush at the same time(s)
This should create enough wave energy to extract drinking water for the city.Hooray for Herb!
On a positive note, one of the side effects of this development is that a population shift may occur from 'over-populated' regions of the planet to currently uninhabited regions.
Take Central Australia, for example. Unable to sustain a large number of human lives - there's insufficient water. Extract water from the sea, irrigation follows...
Many providers offer free web mail (advertising revenue).Some offer free POP3. I've signed up for these twice and been stung. All of a sudden I can receive mail but not send. Turns out, via an obscure note on their website that SMTP is now a premium service! This is a problem because:
I hope that gmail's SMTP remains free or I'll be looking for yet another free service.
Of today's gadgets I own a
- phone
- flash based mp3
- digital camera
I never bought an iPod because the primary purpose of the mp3 player was as a thumb drive. I can't fit an iPod and a phone in my jeans!The phone has an FM radio which is generally okay except when the train goes under a tunnel. :( My camera has more memory than the mp3 player!
A friend has an O2 XDA which according to an OSNews Review looks fairly fully featured. A couple of relatives, none of whom are particularly IT savvy, have started using skype. If such a device can communicate with them, over wifi, I might consider buying one for when I move interstate.
Still, the screen of the nokia 770 would be preferable for reading PDFs.
Look on the bright side, still better than the 4200 parallel ATA in previous minis.
Not overly, Lenovo has the ThinkPad brand name but aside from that they just ship desktops and notebooks like every other hardware vendor.
At least with Apple's mac mini it's a different form factor.
Notebooks are so '90s. What the university ought to mandate is tablets. Handwriting recognition for notes, raw images for diagrams.
Outside of the lecture hall, dock the thing on a stand, 'attach' a keyboard and mouse via bluetooth.
Sounds familiar? Yes, a lot like a iMac [core] duo. But Steve doesn't do "handhelds".
This is not a handheld, it's a notebook replacement!
The choice between a 1kg tablet and a 3kg notebook - I know which one my shoulders and back would prefer.
It depends on what part of the website you read. One link on the Apple Store claims that all mac minis use 7200 drives. To see this, go to the ordering page and under Hard Drive, click Learn more.
Hopefully they'll clear up that inconsistency (with faster specs, of course!)
To naysayers who would envy core duo iMacs, the win for users is that your developers are using hardware that meets 'real-world' specs. So, client-side performance issues are discernable before they reach the wild. Though, as often happens, testers are stuck with more obsolete hardware than coders. :(
The store mentions
So, 5400 or 7200???Do you honestly think a celeron D is a match for a core duo?
Benchmarks have shown the previous single core Pentium-M chip to be competitive with a Pentium 4. With 2 cores the high end mac-mini would eat your celeron D for breakfast.
[Price is a factor compared to your generic PC, certainly, but Dave's comment that the dual core one will make a *fabulous* number crunching node is valid.]
Meanwhile Apple is hosting today a special event for fun new products - Wake me up when the fun arrives...
No more than Baigent.
Neither are common. Baigent sounds vaguely French (bay-gent?) but Teabing could equally be the gerund of a discontinued English verb "teab".
No, Mary Magdalene.
Please stick to the topic at hand, namely Swing vs SWT.
The link you supplied states that the parent's phrase is a modern usage and that
"Arguments over whether the newer usage should be considered incorrect are an example of debate over linguistic prescription and description."
Unless your doctorate is in linguistics, who are you to prescribe its usage?
Really? I thought that was the purpose of java.awt.Window's dispose(). If they are out of scope they should then get garbage collected.