Blog
Let me preface this by saying that even though this blog has been primarily about Rails, I am still an active Java developer. After my honeymoon with Rails I came to appreciate Java again and enjoy a healthy relationship with both. In other words, I'm not just a Rubyist dogging on Java.
I've never been a big plugin based RIA proponent, I still think HTML can get you a long way. In the late 90's my friend said to me "There's this new technology that's going to make HTML obsolete in a year, it's called Flash!". Flash certainly has a place, but people tend to overreact about stuff like this. Simplicity always reigns, cause we're simple people.
However, I'm always curious about new things. When my friend wanted a Dice Roller for his DnD site, I thought it was a good excuse to dabble. JavaFX had just hit 1.0 and since I had Java exp I figured I'd give it a try. My hope was that I would end up with an architecture to support uploadable plugins for Doodlekit. I've wanted to do this for awhile, but I'm sure as heck not going to let anybody upload Ruby code. I figured an applet would be secure and atomic.
The app is pretty simple, here's the Rails version I ended up with. The JavaFX version was almost the same. My intention was to start simple and then add some more dynamic components like 3d dice.
What I liked about JavaFX
The declarative syntax was pretty cool and I liked that it was similar to JavaScript. There's no reason to invent a completely new syntax. Syntax-wize, the level of entry was pretty low (relative to other Java technologies), however I could tell it would extend gracefully. I was also pretty happy with the NetBeans support. That's about it.
What I didn't like
The first thing I noticed was how incredibly slow it was. This was about as simple as it could be. The data was stored in Doodlekit's form builder database, and the app connected through a RESTful Web Service. It took way too long to load and way too long to run. I didn't spend any time trying optimize it. I don't think I should have to with an app this simple. I guess there's the argument that weight of my app didn't warrant the use of something this heavy. I just can't figure out how Sun hasn't been able to make small simple applets really fast yet. I guess I'll wait another decade.
Being new to JavaFX, I had to look up a lot of stuff. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of stuff to be found. There's a not so useful JavaDoc kind of thingy and a handful of blog posts. The problem is that half the snippets I found in blog posts were no longer valid, I'm assuming because they'd been removed during the Beta. I believe there's one published book and a few in the pipeline. I realize it just hit 1.0 but come on, how's it going to get any traction if you can't figure out how it works?
Finally, the lack of cool components was pretty frustrating. You had the standard Swing stuff like textboxes and such, but with a hot new technology like JavaFX, I guess I expected more. Instead of just a JList, how about sortable grid components? What's the point of a slider without a label? And no I shouldn't have to make my own.
I'm sure if I looked a little harder I could find answers to a lot of these issues, but I guess that's my point. If you want a technology to catch on you have to be ready for this. Good documentation is an absolute minimum, followed by lucrative features, and maybe good performance if you are so inclined.
I plan on working at home more now that Secure Passage is moving south, so I setup a desk at home. It's also going to be nice to have a dedicated area to work on Doodlekit. Here's what I put together.
Seriously, this is my dream setup, I almost can't believe it's all mine. Here's what I've got.
- Eames Desk Unit by Herman Miller
- Eames Aluminum Group Task Chair by Herman Miller
- Some cat toys on the floor
- Macbook Pro
- Apple 23" Cinema Display
- Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mighty Mouse
- iPhone 3G
Ahahaha!
I mounted all the wires, power bricks and power strip to the underside of the desk, so all you can see is the power cord coming out the back.
Sorry, just had to show off a little. Now to get busy.
When we first bought our house, the kitchen was unusable. For quite a while we had a fridge full of Hot Pockets and a microwave. I'll never eat another hot pocket again.
The first renovation was a get something in cheap and quick. It worked, but just didn't have that finished feel to it. So last winter we bought some IKEA cabinets on eBay, and this is the fruit of our labor.
Still some work to do, but for the most part we're very happy with the results.
So I was at Sprint for 6 months, I tried to post something about it here, but was asked by my manager the next day to take it down. Creepy, eh? Anyway, my contract was up for extension, and it went down something like this.
I was told I'd be extended, cool. We were told all the projects were cancelled, great. We were told no contractors would be extended, super. I found another job, nice. Just a couple days before my last day I was told the project where re-instated, and asked if I wanted to stay, totally awesome.
I might have considered staying, but I just happened to find one of the coolest places to work in KC. Secure Passage writes Firewall Monitoring software. They've got a mix of technologies, but it seems like the main direction is to move towards Java.
Anyway, it's a small shop, about 7 developers. It's very much a get things done type of atomosphere, which I miss from the good ole Bensoft days. And best of all I get to dress casual all week. Woohoo!
I've been here for about a month. So far I'm having lots of fun.
So I bought an iPhone a month ago, and needless to say I'm very impressed by it. I knew since that day when I was spastically refreshing engadget as they posted Job's keynote, that this device was a game changer. Though my natural disdain for Apple's pretentious commercials swayed my opinion back to skeptic. "Yeah, I can check my email and surf the web on my Windows Mobile phone too, so WHAT?!" But I couldn't resist for long, and as usual I bought myself the thing that my wife was planning on buying me for Christmas.
I have to say that this is a revolutionary device. I know I'm late to the party on iPhone praise, but there are a couple interesting things I realized while I tried to find excuses to use it every hour of every day.
The first is a sort of reassurance I get through the similarities I see to Doodlekit. The design philosophies are very much the same, and it's good to see that such an opinionated device can be so widely accepted.
More importantly however, it's finally allow me to quantify why simple is better. Before I could sit down and explain examples of why simplicity is key, but it was never so clear cut.
Distraction
My old Windows Mobile device had a lot of features and applications, more than the iPhone. But here's the thing, I never used them. However I find myself using every single application on my iPhone. The problem with the WinMo phone is that I was distracted by choices. For example if I wanted to write down a note, I could create a Word document, Excel Spreadsheet, or one of the scribble pad notes. My mind would weigh the pros and cons, then I'd finally just decide to write it down on paper. On my iPhone I just have Notes, and I use them all the time now.
Cut the Unnecessary
I was kind of surprised that the iPhone didn't come with a Todo list. This seems like such an essential smartphone application. Yet I realized that wait a minute, I never used the Todo list on my old phone. My problem was that I would put things on my Todo list that were hard to remember, but I could never remember to look at my Todo list. I tried a few web based Todo lists, but ended up with a much better solution. Now when I need to remember to do something like get new tags for my car, I put it in my Calendar. This way I set a date and time that I need to do it and it reminds me that I need to do it. Not only that, but now I have a history of when I did things.
The iPhone engineers were able to step back and look at how people will really use this phone, and didn't dilute it with the unecessary 10%. So many software companies are afraid to think for their customers, when in the end, that's what the customers are paying for.
Simplicity gives way to fluid and natural actions by eliminating distractions and only focusing on what you really need. I couldn't put it into words like that before.
