Simon Morris's Blog: July 2006 Archive

Pimp My Swing App is the Posse's alternative title for the Extreme GUI Makeover sessions at JavaOne — the idea is to play around with AWT, Swing and any other image producing API you can get your mitts on to create strange, wonderful and unique looking user interfaces. And, yes, this past weekend I spent a little time Swing app 'pimping' myself (whatever that actually means!) with some interesting results...

Okay, I was wrong!

Posted by javakiddy on July 19, 2006 at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Several people responded to my original rant, and I'm glad to say just about everyone one of them had an interesting take on the whole Java DB issue. Romain Guy and Joshua Marinacci even went as far as to blog on the topic. Some of the comments appended to all three entries are exceptionally noteworthy too. Spinning of from TOR (the original rant) is John Reynolds and Evan Summers who threw up some well made points I'll deal with below.

I wasn't planning to do a follow up blog, however some of the feedback has shifted my mind a little (just a little), and while I do still question many of the pro arguments, I have to admit I am more open to Java DB on the desktop than I was previously. I thought it was only fair to admit this publicly, after all this is a good thing — throwing out strong questions about a topic invites strong arguments in return, and if you're very very lucky someone will say something which opens your mind to a different way of looking at an issue. But don't start cheering yet — I still have many doubts.

Indeed some pro Java DB arguments still look suspiciously like solutions in search of a problem. Persistence is suddenly very easy, and therefore trendy, and everyone is looking for an excuse to use it. Any excuse to use it! Just like a few years back when we'd all use XML at the drop of a hat (and look where that got us!) And because of its EE origins, the current model is tied firmly to an RDBMS, and people don't want to explore beyond that.

So I guess I've moved from being 'mildly skeptical' to 'mostly indifferent'. Perhaps someone might reply to this blog with a comment which will cause me to upgrade to 'modestly interested'. ("Are you sure you want to go to red alert, sir? It will mean changing the light bulb." : Kryten the android, Red Dwarf.)

In Defence of the Desktop

Posted by javakiddy on July 12, 2006 at 02:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Recall the motto "when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail". One wonders whether the reverse is true? If you spent all your time banging in nails, are you inclined to judge every tool by its suitability to act as a hammer?

Reading through some of the recent comments on blogs and forums of late I've begun to wonder if there isn't a sizeable section of the Java developer audience who have forgotten the true nature of desktop software? I read comments attacking Swing as being too complex, and suggesting perhaps it should be more like those APIs used to build web application interfaces. At the same time I see a database being included as a standard part of the development kit for SE, the version of Java supposedly aimed at the desktop.

Now I realise that from a developer point of view the SE version of Java is just a generic flavour — the 'standard edition' which we can then augment with ME or EE, etc. But from a JRE point of view the 'standard edition' is aimed squarely at desktop users — Joe Soap, sat at his PC or Mac, at home or in his office. If Java DB turns up in the SE JDK, pressure will immediately begin to build it into the equivalent JRE (which is already bloated.)

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