XUL

I'll be busy playing with XUL (Mozilla programming language) for the foreseeable future....

Java GUI: confusion reigns

When I saw the article title "SWT, Swing or AWT: Which is right for you? What to consider when choosing a GUI tool kit for new applications" I had to laugh: you need a guide to figure out which graphical took kit to use? Are we confused or what?

Why do we continously raise the complexity of programming?

Piling On the Victim

As I wrote before "Blame the victims," I saw Best Buy's Ad for Geek Squad and saw things like:

$227 advanced on site security setup
$159 on site network setup
$118 at Best Buy advanced security setup
$89 at Best Buy computer data backup

I realize that Best Buy is taking advantage of those who need handholding but why? I guess it's job security for the geeks with social skills since programmers can get their acts right (the geeks without the social skills?).

Free Game Programming Books

"Free Computer Books: Game programming" has links to many free online books. Very good idea, esp for those books out of print.

Computer Security: blame the victims

"The Sorry State of Security" pokes fun at everyone involved in the "security" business but they blame the victims the most: us users. The biggest hammer should be swung at OS (operating system) writing companies (Microsoft, Apple, etc.) not the users. OS needs to be rock solid, no matter what. Programs should be solid (maybe not as rock solid as OS, depending on the application) but OS should be able to recover from anything fatal.

I guess virtualization technology would help keep every program isolated rather than co-mingling various programs in one virtual memory space (file system is equally accessable by all programs).

But the arrogant attitudes of software developers from OS to various programs are unacceptable. And what's worse is that bugs are introduced by the developers yet us users are told to deal with it and wait for a patch or even pay for the fix! And then we aren't even allowed to fix on our own!

Granted, open soure allows more control to the underlying programs but due to babel of programming languages, you can't just fix it -- you have to learn the programming language, the programming development environment/tools and then the program itself before you can fix it.

Even if the programs were stable, programs are written by programmers for programmers so the usage are never intuitive. I know because my wife drives me up the wall trying to do something as simple as attaching photos to her email (the email program is where I'm frustrated not her -- she's got every right to her expectations: the programmers never think about usability in a real way). My wife and I complain about too many men (or women who do not have children) designed stuff that just aren't well made (like sinks which are made flat at the top surface such that water always pools there rather than draining down in the sink or worse drain way from the sink). Idiot engineers! (I'm not guiltfree but at least I'm painfully aware of these issues.)

Bricklin takes spreadsheet to the Wiki

"Software pioneer Bricklin tackles wikis" seems to have a lot of potential for future use of Wiki (with Ajax interactivity).

Too bad Ajax isn't easy to program: at least it isn't for the masses, yet.

Programming for the Masses

I found "Software Development Evolution toward product design" in Lost Garden making the right steps but fails to go all the way: telling the users do it themselves.

I like the car repair or home improvement model where you can hire pros but you can also do it yourself with the right tools and/or training. Programming should be just as straight forward: if you choose, you can do it yourself: bug fix, enhancements, optimization, you name it.

A programming system that allows one to change the underlying software itself would be a good step towards empowering the users. Smalltalk has a good foundation but something about it makes it less "useful" than, say, Java. At least it hasn't gained tractions among most programmers (C++ and Java seem to cover most paid programming jobs -- I mean stand alone programming, not scripting (I lump SQL here) or web programming).

The next step is to enable users to transform programs written in other languages (i.e., created normal way) with all those pisky EULA and bug fix and enhance them. Things like simulators would become handy but to what extent I'm not sure yet. Stay tuned!

Yahoo! gets into GUI

Yahoo! is providing GUI libraries and Design Patterns and even their GUI blog.

The problem with all this design patterns, etc. is that it makes programming unapproachable for non programmers. Sigh.

10 advice to not follow

"Top Ten of Programming Advice to NOT follow" is a list of good advice on programming but not what I was hoping for.

When you have long list of advice to worry about, things are too complex for most people to "just use it."

Krugle: hopeful source search engine

At Demo 2006, there were ten picks announced and the most interesting is: krugle.

A google like tool for searching and connecting open source code, still in beta. Interesting idea but probably not the best way to develop code since sometimes you just want the ideas (algorithm) or usage of the syntax (how to code certain ways) rather than actual code you can cut and paste or compile and link to.

No more money in IDE

Borland will get rid of their roots, their programming tools or IDE (interactive development environment) which is how Borland got started. With free tools like Eclipse they say that there is no money to be made in IDE but it seems that Microsoft isn't dumping their tools any time soon. (OK so their OS is tightly coupled with their IDE -- a slight advantage.)

There seems to be a need for a good IDE and I don't think that Eclipse is the answer.

I believe that it all comes down to language and then the supportive tools and applications, much like Smalltalk and dynabook. I don't have the answers but it just doesn't seem that companies are going in the right direction.

Flex Programming

The flex I know is gnu lex replacement tool. I thought I've heard of flex before and I googled but came up with only Flex Programming Language -- Pascal/Ada based language, but not what I was looking for.

Anyway, those were the thoughts I went to when I started reading "Join the Flex Revolution" which is a Macromedia (now owned by Adobe) tool for doing Flash related stuff. Whenever I read "easier to program" I get my antenna up since I've see all kinds, since 1980. And glancing quickly over the article, I wasn't impressed. It was just another web programming.

Games stick it to "The Man"

"Games that stick it to 'the Man'" covers how games are attacking the corporate life and the employers themselves. With games like go postal and GTA, it was only matter time for the cube workers to get back at their bosses.

Kind of funny but kind of sad commentary on where we're going.

I've played America's Army and kind of like how realistic it is to fire guns but it does forces you into the Army of thinking which is educational in and of itself, I guess....

Games via gamers

News.com's "Tomorrow's games, designed by players as they play" talks about how games are letting users do more inside the game. Sims allow users to create their society/environment while The Movie allows one to shoot any kind of movie. More controls are given (back) to the users but it isn't to the point where the users are changing the programs. The closest is the game modding but that's only on the "surface" of the games.