Raible Designs

Hibernate's New Site

I can tell I've been out of the loop for awhile. Hibernate has improved their site and moved to their domain (hibernate.org). Cool - looks very nice fellas. I especially dig the fact that you're now hosting your own user forums.

I'm not doing much Hibernate work these days - my new gig already has all the persistence layer written with JDBC DAO's, so there's not much reason to re-write them. The funny part is that if I need to write a new DAO, it'd probably be faster for me to do it with Hibernate, but since politics require all technologies be approved - it'd never happen. Why do the tools developers use have to be approved? So new (and existing) developers don't have to constantly learn new stuff. Bad for brain, good for business.

California Rocks, Family Rocks

We just got back into Denver a few hours ago. It's great to be home, but it sucks that vacation is over. 10 days of driving up the cool California coast - aaaahhhhh blissful... We had an awesome time seeing my parents and sister, as well as a few old friends (and their families). It reminded me of two things: 1) don't sink your life into your job - it can disappear at any time, family and friends are forever, and 2) the United States is a beautiful country. We're actually thinking about moving to San Diego in the next 6 months.

Tonight the e-mail reading, blog reading, and tech support begins. I feel like it's a 2nd job. I feel like I need to put in 2-3 hours per night to keep up. However, with my just-got-back-from-vacation mindset, the motivation just isn't there. It feels good to be de-motivated, rather than technology obsessed - too bad it won't last very long.

Sunset on Fisherman's Wharf

Last night, we had a scrumptious dinner at the Crab House on Pier 39. While walking home, we were honored to see a beautiful yellow and gold sunset along the water. Today, we're heading out to Alcatraz and possibly a on winery tour.

Made it to San Francisco

We just checked into a hotel on Fisherman's Wharf - should be a good night! Saturday and Sunday was spent in San Diego (highlights: Mission Bay, Sea World). Yesterday, we drove like mad to Big Sur, only to discover that all the cabins and hotels were full (WTF - aren't kids in school!). So we ended up staying in Monterey Bay last night, checked out the Monterey Aquarium today, and arrived in San Fran a few minutes ago. It's pretty cool to be here. The California coast has been mesmerizing so far - a very cool place for a road trip.

Wi-Fi (walkwire) in the lobby, but couldn't get on.

On Vacation...

After working 12 days straight, this is gonna be fantastic...
(Returning September 2nd)

Maven vs. Ant

I presented my views on why we should use Maven over Ant today in a meeting. My basic reasons are simple: 1) the ability to download jars (and have a central repository for all projects) and 2) to have a standard directory structure and build/test/deploy mechanism. It's going over like a fart in a crowded room so far. The major pushback is because supposedly you can convert JBuilder's .jqx files to Ant build files. Has anyone does this? How does it work? They mentioned that if there is a converter for .jqx -> maven build files, then they'd be happy to try it.

If we do use Ant (high probability), now begins the arduous task of standardizing across projects, as well as creating a "lib" module in CVS to store all the jars for the different projects. Good thing I'm on vacation next week! ;-)

PHP vs. Java - which is better?

I have a former client that has a customer. This customer asked them - "so when are you migrating from Java to PHP?" So evidently this person has the impression that the next wave of web applications will be written in PHP. My former client has asked me to provide an answer for their customer. If I translate it, I think they mean to ask "what is different between Java and PHP and why should we use Java over PHP." Here are my opinions - please add yours as you see fit. I must admit I don't know a whole lot about PHP, except that it's widely popular among the Linux/Apache/MySQL crowd and that it's similar to ASP in it's lack of a MVC architecture (yes, I know about the PHP MVC project).

• I think Java is more of an industry standard, whereas PHP seems to be popular among hackers and hobbyists.
• Java provides better separation of layers - key for testability. PHP has all the code embedded in the page, so you have to run it through a browser to test if database connections work (for instance).
• Java is more scalable.
• More folks know Java and it's easier to qualify someone's Java skills. How do you test someone knows PHP? Is there a certification?
• More for-profit organizations use it.

If you're a Java or a PHP-lover, I'd love to hear your opionions (facts are always better). I'm going to point my client to this post, so keep it clean.

Maven Questions: Webapp best practices and local repositories

I can't seem to subscribe to the Maven User Mailing List for the life of me, so I'll ask my questions here, and hopefully get some answers. The first question is regarding local repositories. Ideally, I'd like to put this on a network drive, so all developers can get to it by mapping a drive or something. When I try to use a network drive, I get the following error (WinXP, Maven CVS pull from yesterday):

Artifact '\\server\share\repository\velocity\jars\velocity-1.4-dev.jar' 
    not found to add to classpath 
java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: velocity 
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:199) 

The reason I'd like to use a network share (over an FTP server or HTTP server) is because then we can easily add the .jar files to the classpath in Eclipse or JBuilder. If Maven downloads the files to each user's local hard driver - then we can use an FTP server. Another option is to use the default (~/.maven/repository), but then each developer has to copy javamail and our custom jars onto their hard drive.

My second question is regarding webapp best practices with Maven. The Maven Tomcat Plugin seems nice, but it mangles my server.xml file. I'd like a solution similar to the way I've done it with Ant. I use a context.xml file and place this in $CATALINA_HOME/webapps and then I "deploy" the expanded war into Tomcat. Tomcat detects when any files change under WEB-INF/ and reloads the app. Works great. A better solution would be to point the docBase to target/webappName. So I guess what I'm saying is - should I just create a context.xml file and make my own custom "setup-tomcat" task (which does an ant:copy)? Then use war:webapp to refresh the app's files from source? How are you experts doing it?

Good Comedy for the Road?

One thing I've found that's enjoyable on road trips is a good comedy track. I don't like the books on tape because you have to pay attention and I tend to day dream while I drive (or play passenger). Comedy routines are great because you only have to catch a line or two - and you're good to go. So any recommendations out there? I'd love to download some for the ol' iPod.

Make money drinking beer and discussing MySQL

I got a call from a nice lady from a Market Research company on the way home from a mountain bike ride this afternoon. She said she'd pay me $100 if I came in and discussed MySQL for 30 minutes! Sounds great, eh? She asked me if I'd attended a paid "research discussion" before. I told her, "Yes, in college we drank beer for $50."

Well, guess what - she's paying for drinking beer too. I can't attend either one because we're heading out to California next week. You should probably live in (or near) Denver to make it worth your while. For the beer taste test, contact Kari Allen at 303-980-1909 (must be male 21-29). For the MySQL Discussion, contact Christine at 303-980-2262. Good luck - hope you make some cash and catch a buzz! ;-)