Programming one arm short

Yesterday i broke my right arm snowboarding. I have snowboarded for 4 years and it is one of my favorite pass times besides programming an other computer related things. This is not good because it happens to be very hard to type with one hand (not mentioning very slow). I have voice recognition software but it does not work very good for programming. Although i have got it to work pretty well and am improving the quardination in my left hand. There are a few plus's to it though; I have lots of time to read more programming books and learn more. In a week or so the doctor said i will be able to type with my broken arm which is really nice. Just bcause i broke my arm doesn't mean i am going to stop my module development. So hopefully everything will go well and i will be healed up in six to eight weeks.

Another Update

Sorry i have not blogged lately, i have been very busy doing school work. I try to have a blog a day and i almost am ready to have media on my blog. Sorry for the long wait... I will have my article about Java and NetBeans on linux out very soon.

Java Studio Creator 2 Available

I do not have much experiance in the field of J2EE Programming but recently i donloaded Java Studio Creator 2. It is very simple and even though i know very little about J2EE programming i made a simple check-out. There are many new comprehensive features in Java Studio Creator 2, and the best thing is it is built off of NetBeans! Although it is built off of NetBeans 4.1 as Java Studio Enterprise is, and as i have said many times in previous posts i would love to see the tree sun IDE's built off of NetBeans come together (and still be open-source). You can download Java Studio Creator 2 here.

Update

Sorry i have not written lately, i have been very busy. Good news is i am close to solving hosting problems. More good news is NetBeans RC 2 is out!! It includes some crutical bug fixes. I am very exceited for the NetBeans 5.0 Release as many of you are as well. Be prepared for my first podcast and some other media this week or possibly next as well as an article on Java and NetBeans on Linux.

NetBeans 5.0 RC!!

Sorry i haven't writen very many atricles this week and last week...I have been swamped with work. This will be a short article but soon i will have some new article (i am preparing a podcast [it should be done by next week]).

I have been using NetBeans 5.0 as you probably know. I have enjoyed the amazing improvement in stability. My new pass time is coding NetBeans Moduals. I have been reading the tutorials and have made a search bar like the "quick search" in Mozilla FireFox. I am now working on a "Time Management" Modual. So you will soon be seing a download link on my blog.

Fun Java Fact #1

Have you ever wanted more solutions for your program? Say the pragram is to be run as an applet but the user would like to download it and use it outside a browser. I was thinking over how to do this so i made a simple program that operates as a applet and a application. This can be very usefull because users can use your program out of a browser when they are not online. It does not take very much to do this. Just a little flexability. The program is not a tough one at all; just a JButton with a label saying how many times the JButton has been clicked. Also note it is a Swing applet/application. Here is my code:
/*
* SwingAppletAndApplication.java
* Created on: Friday January 13, 2006 at 9:10
*
* @author Rekahsoft.blogspot.com
* @programmer Collin Doering
*/
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.applet.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class SwingAppletAndApplication extends JApplet implements java.awt.event.ActionListener {

//create the components to be used in the applet/application
private JButton btn;
private JLabel label;
//create a variable to keep track of the amount of button clicks
private int timesClicked = 0;

boolean DEBUG = true;

//create a constructor so that the main method can create an istance of it because it can not call the init method because it is not static
public SwingAppletAndApplication() { //default constructor
//init variables
btn = new JButton("Click me");
btn.addActionListener(this); //add an action listener to the JButton
label = new JLabel("I've been clicked: " + timesClicked + " times!!");

// Lay out the GUI (using box layout)
Container contentPane = getContentPane();
contentPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(contentPane, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
contentPane.add(label);
contentPane.add(btn);
label.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
btn.setAlignmentX(Component.RIGHT_ALIGNMENT);
}

//init method overrode from java.applet.Applet
public void init() {
new SwingAppletAndApplication(); //show the gui in a applet
}

// Action method -- executed when the user clicks the button.
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
timesClicked++;
label.setText("I've been clicked: " + timesClicked + " times!!");
}

//main method - the starting point in a application for the JVM
public static void main(String args[]) {
//Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
//creating and showing this application's GUI.
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Application form"); //create a JFrame to show the
frame.getContentPane().add(new SwingAppletAndApplication()); //Add the GUI to the application
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true); //set the JFrame visible
}
});
}

}
I explain the code with coments through out it (sorry i could not format it so it looks nice). Give me some feedback on what you think and if you already knew you could do this. I thaught it was pretty cool because i had never heard of this.

NetBeans 5.0 RC is here!!

After what seems to have been a very long time, NetBeans 5.0 RC has been released!! The wait was well worth it. Many improvements have been made to NetBeans 5.0 RC. To see more about the bug fixes and other features go to the following. I will be playing with NetBeans 5.0 RC, NetBeans Mobility 5.0 RC and the 5.0 RC Profiler after i finish some work. Best luck in your NetBeans 5.0 RC development ;)

P.S: Great Work NetBeans Team/community (i am also a part of the community [rekahsoft@netbeans.org] but i do not contribute many other things other than bug reports [although that will change])

Note: I have almost got my server/solution issues fixed so i will be able to get media and other thing alike on my blog.

More to NetBeans

I am a big NetBeans fan and am very excited for the release of NetBeans 5.0 RC and the final release of NetBeans 5. In one of my previous blogs (Things I like about NetBeans 5.0) i talked about some things i would like to see in the next release of NetBeans. I will list them again anf then i would like to see what other developers would like to see in the next release.
I would like to see UML support with code completion like Java Studio Enterprice 8 but better. One big one is to see the three java IDE's by sun be brought into one; so Java Studio Creator, Java Studio Enterprice 8 and NetBeans. This would make sence because they are all free and Java Studio Creator and Java Studio Enterprice 8 are both built using NetBeans. I also would love to see NetBeans add support for C++, C and languages of the alike with the same amazing features that it has for java. As well as expand on the current phenimenal features already included in NetBeans. As i said in my previous blog i would like to see NetBeans become one "Super IDE"; all the right tools in one place...NetBeans.

The Future

I do not always think in java, most of the time i do but sometimes i like to think about the furure and where technology will be. There are still many things that are undiscovered and i would love to see some of these difficulties overcome. It is very possible i live to see Quantum computers but some other things i think would be cool would be Time Travel, object travel, computers that can communicate with the human brain and recieve comunication back (via electrical pulses) and maybe being able to have a network or people by a chip that can communicate with the human brain and sattelites. These are very far fetched and may never be able to happen but there is always the possiblity. Give it some thaught, sure it's crazy but some day it might not be.

Update

Sorry i have not writen to my blog for a few days. I have been very busy and will be for the rest of the week. I will get some more on very soon. I am still sorting through hosting issues. On an end note i sugest java developers checking out Mustang. I did and was quite impressed. I will write a short article on it some time soon.

Things I like about NetBeans 5.0

For those who don't know about the amazing NetBeans IDE Sponsored by Sun Microsystems here's your chance. NetBeans and the NetBeans Platform are totaly open-source therefore enabling small companies acces to very high performace IDE's. NetBeans is created for java development mainly and can be used for developing J2SE, J2Me and J2EE applications. All though the NetBeans team will be working on support for other languages in future releases it is not implemented in the NetBeans 5.0 release. There are however plugins that enable some support for other languages. For more support visit: http://www.netbeans.org/catalogue/index.html. Another great thing about the open-source platform of NetBeans is developers can build on the NetBeans Platform which is great because it saves much time in the development stage.

As a side note i would like to see equals features for other languages like C++, C, and other languages of the alike. Another thing i would like to see is the features from Java Studio Enterprice 8 and Java Studio Creator add to the NetBeans IDE. This makes sence becase both Java Studio Creator and Java Studio Enterprice 8 are build on the NetBeans platform and have a very close design. Therefore it would not be to difficult to turn Java Studio Enterprice 8 and Java Studio Creator Moduals into NetBeans Moduals and build on them. One Modual i really want in the next release of NetBeans is UML support with code completion like that of Java Studio Enterprice 8. Anthor reason why this makes sence is because recently if you didn't know Sun Microsystems open-sourced many of thier development tools. What is the point of having three open-source IDE's made or sponsered by Sun. Why not bring all them together? I asked this question to James Gosling at the NetBeans world tour confrence in Toronto Canada. His answer was sometime in the future this is a plan. This would be a dream come true for many developers...Java, C++, C and many other languages supported by one "super IDE".

A Little History about me and NetBeans
I have been using NetBeans since the 4.1 release because i needed a good IDE with more features than just a plain editor (JCreator). Tools like this are great when some one in new to programming but as time goes on the knowlede of the individual evolves and so should the tools he/she is using. With only one year programming experiance i headed into using a full-featured IDE. It was quite simple to use and after a little while i would use no other. Spending 6 hours a day reading my book-shelf of java books and coding brought me to a point where i have surpassed the knowledge of everybody in my class, school and even the knowledge of my teacher. I has skiped to a grade 11/12 split and still am not challenged at all (i am a grade 10 student). Now so i don't gloat any more i will give some insight on my favourite features of NetBeans 5.0.

My Favourite Features
Of course one of the first on my list is the feature everybody has been talking about...Matisse. Matisse is the new GUI builder in NetBeans and is revolutionizing the way JFC/swing is developed. As many java developers may know getting that interface just perfect can take quite a bit of the deveopment time. Matisse makes swing developent much easier so the developer can focus on the logic instead of the interface. Matisse lets developers drag and drop components into a Frame much like Microsoft Visual C++ Studio Enterprice. This is a first for java. Check out the Matisse flash demo. In NetBeans 5.0 many new refactoring have been added that help developers to safe delete code and much more!! Another feature i like about NetBeans 5.0 is the new CVS support. It has been totaly redesigned for the NetBeans 5.0 release adding many new features. To see more on the new CVS support visit: http://www.netbeans.org/kb/articles/cvs-announce.html. In the NetBeans 5.0 release the debugger has been enhanced making it even more powerfull than before. You can find problems quickly and effciently. Another few features would be faster and smarter code completion, java hint and the error stripe located on the side of the editor. Many other features have been added besides these ones but these are some of my favourites. On closing one of my favourite features of the new NetBeans 5.0 release is the new NetBeans modual support. There is extensive documention thier site to help guide developers throught the process of creating moduals (a plugin for NetBeans). You can chech out the more at http://www.netbeans.org. One thing i think is "cool" about NetBeans is how "modable it is. You can create a costom look and feel in minuites. At the moment there is a contest you can enter to show off you new NetBeans look and feel. If this intrested you visit: http://www.netbeans.org/competition/look-and-feel.html.

For more information about the new features of NetBeans visit: http://www.netbeans.org/community/releases/50/

Finaly, I have tried Eclipe and other IDE's of the alike but nothing come's close to what i and many others see in NetBeans. So make the Switch to NetBeans

Where is NetBeans 5.0 RC?

I am a big NetBeans fan and i am very much anticipating the release of NetBeans 5.0. The work that NetBeans can do so quickly and efficiently is amazing. NetBeans is also so "modable" it is phenomenal. Go to the NetBeans home page at http://netbeans.org for more information.

Sorry Song of the Day is down at the moment due to Server hosting issues and solution problems. Sorry for the Inconvienience.

Why Microsoft Sucks Part 1

I have been looking into Microsoft in comparison to other alternatives in the indistry of software and other computer products. I have found that microsoft truely "Sucks". O.K lets start off with the good things microsoft has done... There are not many but one that definitly stands out on my list is the XBox and the new XBox 360. I was very pleased with these products; they have phenomenal power and breath taking graphics. Aside from the XBox and XBox 360 i do not see anything productive from microsoft, that is why desktop versions of linux have been developed...to do everything microsoft sucks at (which is everything from security to speed). Here is a list of the major down falls i see in Microsoft:

1. Security
2. Malfunctionality
3. Very slow
4. Hides usefull processes from developers (AKA masked processes)

There are a few of the big ones. If there are any Mac/*nux users they will have noticed "hey this is cool i don't get virsures all the time" unlike when they work on the windows platform. This is because linux and other unix based system are not as suseptable as windows systems. I am hinting on the issue of security in the windows operating system. As developers/users might have experianced Windows has plenty of malfunctional software and a crappy design. Bill Gates philosophy on the design of Windows was: write crappy unorganized code, than write more crappy organized code to tie it together to get the product to the market faster. That is all have to rant and rave about Microsoft today...
To Be Continued...

My name is Collin Doering. I am 15 and was born on May 8 1990. My favourite things to do are Program (Java mainly), computer math, computers in general and snowboarding. In my blog you will hear many things to due with computers, java, and other computer releated news.