Malcolm Davis's Blog

September 2005 Archives

Programmers are not the only ones throwing around titles

In my blog 'How do you classify yourself?' I discussed that programmers throw around titles. I further conveyed that U.S. states reserve the use of certain titles to licensed individuals. For instance, you can’t sell and market yourself as a medical doctor, unless you are licensed by the state as a medical doctor.

In Canada, Microsoft has caught grief about the Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MSCE). The Superior Court ruled that the title engineer, alone or with descriptors, is reserved by the Engineers Act.

http://www.oiq.qc.ca/whatsnew/afficher-communiques.html?441

PDFCreator for Windows

PDFCreator installs a virtual printer driver that allows applications to print to PDF files rather than a printer. I’ve found it useful for several tasks:

• Bookmark alternative: Bookmarked pages have a tendency to disappear or move. The Google cache may or may not have the page. When I really want a page for reference later on, initially I did a browser ‘save as’ to remedy the disappearing page problem. However, using the print functionality is easier, and the text inside the PDF is selectable for copying.
• Document distribution: Sometimes free viewers don’t exist for a particular file format. Yet, I can print and send a PDF file. PDFCreator is not as feature rich as the commercial Adobe product, but an inexpensive alternative to creating PDF documents for distribution.
• Print testing: When adding printing to an application, I use the PDF printer to test formatting and print behavior.

PDFCreator is my default printer. To make it easier to use, I’ve configured PDFCreator to automatically print to a specific folder using a configurable naming convention. No need for the annoying popup asking for filename and location. PDFCreator can also be configured to write to other formats including JPEG, BMP, PCX, PNG, PS, TIFF, and EPS.

PDFCreator can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator

I use version 0.8 dated March 31, 2004. I've had multiple problems with PDFCreator 0.8.1 release candidates (RC). One version blew away a directory containing files. Even though I enjoy being on the bleeding edge, the RC was a little too much blood.

Eclipse 3.2M1

Eclipse 3.1 looked rushed. [Possibly trying to get ready for JavaOne.] I read the bug fixes for Eclipse 3.2 M1, which seemed to contain a large number of fixes for an ‘M’ release. I noticed a difference right from the start with a different startup screen. I haven’t detected any major flaws after several weeks of usage. [Still some SWT grips from 3.1]

All my Eclipse 3.1 plug-ins work. I haven’t noticed any plug-in structural changes like from 2.0 to 3.0, and 3.0 to 3.1. Even the Visual Interface (VI) editor works. Generally the VI editor broke with every incremental change in 3.1. M1 to M2 VI broke, M2 to M3 VI broke, RC1 to RC2 VI broke, etc… What a nightmare.

I think 3.2 M1 works better with the 3.1 plug-ins then 3.1. :-)

You can download Eclipse 3.2 M1 from http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/index.php

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.