nothing, i have found
is everywhere, if you look around
nothing is that space
between you and some place
if nothing could be used
it surely would be abused
because the nothing that was
would become the something that is
—
Poem I wrote in high-school…not sure why it just popped in my head.
There is a post on stylegala about generating css files dynamically instead of using css hacks. First, this isn’t nearly new…we’ve all done something like it in the past: a bit of custom/browser-specific content generated from the server for scripting or whatever. This may sound like a good idea at first: “Ooo no css will validate” but it has its problems.
Bottom line is it will take longer to do, it will not perform as well (generated and caching issues), designers have to be more code-friendly, and it isn’t natural (doesn’t feel OR look right).
Just tried out googles portal. MAN! I know its just a portal, but it really feels more like the web-based konfabulator idea I’m tinkering with…maybe because of the drag-n-drop (which is pretty cool). I think what really drives it in that direction is the driving directions ‘portlet’ (ok…that was weird).
Some random thoughts (ok terms…) milling about in my head:
I think its neat to see some of the ‘top’ blogs out there…however leave room in the readers for we little guys.
I love it when blogs I read link to other blogs (I know, I know…thats how it all works right). Anyway, Matt linked to Forever Geek’s post about the MDX “Beta” (mountain dew drinkers should click that link). So I hit his site (after signing up, of course) and found some good stuff. I subscribed.
Spring just got a new look. I don’t really like it (not the point, but thought I’d throw it out there). I do appreciate the need to move to a CMS…or should I say AMS (Article Management Site…I feel a lot of tools mis-label themselves CMS). When I read that they were using Drupal, I reeled. Not because I don’t like drupal…its OK (I settled on PhpWebsite for the community site I do…it was just fit better for me…but I’m sure drupal has a larger developer community and it is certainly prettier). I reeled because the springframework guys…guys I respect for great java code/ideas/contribution, have settled on a PHP-based tool for their website/cms tool.
This isn’t new in the java world…I’ve heard similar gripes about many other java sites. Why does this happen? A short list of reasons:
Argument #1 is becoming less and less an issue (compared to what it used to be anyway)…but it still isn’t low enough for the average-joe tinkerpage. However, I think it is reasonable for a significant community site or Open Source project.
Then again, if you have something people want…but its java…people will probably look for (or write!) a php/perl solution for it first…just because it is still far cheaper to host php/perl apps. Which leads into Argument #2. My only answer for this is that we’ve seen what php and perl have done in this space…now lets see what open source java can do. We may wind up with a tool that is slick enough to warrant paying the higher hosting prices (which in turn would lower the hosting prices because of increased popularity/familiarity/competition). Ultimately leading to a boom in java-based solutions for average web pages (sounds ridiculous…but could happen…eventually).
Finally argument #3…kind of because of the previous arguments…there are not many java solutions in this space. The only one I know of is nukes for jboss…and I pretty much hate php-nuke. Even in the php world, there are many better solutions (like drupal and phpwebsite) I would never have made any kind of decision to mimic that system in java. This DOES need to be remedied.
We need a java-based solution to emerge on to the scene…if only to make me feel better.
Update: Found a few here. Guess I just haven’t looked very hard 
From what I’ve read (generically) none of them compare with the ease of use that the php ones have evolved into…I’ll have to look into that.
Tiger finally arrived. I installed it in the ol’ powerbook and got j2se 1.5, eclipse + webtools, tomcat, and firefox all installed. Then whipped up a simple web project and ‘deployed’ it to tomcat (via the servers in eclipse). Bit of a glitch at first but got it working not sure what went wrong…wasn’t compiling jsps. I basically just restarted tomcat and all was well.
I may have a follow up post with a walk-through on getting it setup the way I did.
I posted this here too…just felt it necessary to duplicate.
Sunday, Slashdot had a post about the Serenity screening
that I’d sent an email around about last week. I had no idea at the
time, but I must have caught the promo right around when it started.
There were still tickets available when I looked (then). I just thought
it was something that had been known for awhile…I could have got
tickets. I am a moron.
Update: looks like I missed it again…sigh.
The laptop has arrived.
