DevLOG3001

Fixing standalone Nokia Help browser based on Eclipse (pre 3.7) x64/JDK 7

2011-11-10T18:55:00.001+01:00

The documentation browser provided by the Nokia SDK for Java 1.0/1.1 and the Web Developers Library (dowloadable) are based on versions of the Eclipse Platform pre 3.7, and does not start out of the box if you are using an x64 JVM or JDK 7. The simple solution is to install the JDK or the JRE based on the Java SE 6 32-Bit. Next we need to find the eclipse executable eclipse.exe, through our installation directory [Installation PATH]Nokia_SDK_1_1_Java\doc\docbrowser\eclipse\ for the Nokia SDK for Java 1.0 and create the eclipse.ini file adding a couple of lines in it responsible to launch the doc browser with the correct VM:

-vm[Attention no spaces][RETURN]
[PATH to your Java 6 32-Bit SDK]\bin\javaw.exe

The same applies to the Web Developers Documentation, place the eclipse.ini in the same directory where the eclipse.exe executable resides. This fix is inteded to whom wants to use the standalone doc browser for a quick take and can be launched also through the emulator (it does not work on the SDK 1.0), since the documentation provided by the Nokia SDK for Java greatly integrates into Eclipse and NetBeans IDEs, the installer will asks to choose the appropriate directory at the installation time.

Installing MonoDevelop Add-ins from Repository on Windows (TIPS)

2010-12-02T12:20:00.018+01:00

A new version of MonoDevelop is out, it's very well made. I recommend to install it onto the default directory, otherwise it will not work (at least for me). During use i found a minor issue about the Add-ins management, i refer to the repository listed by default that it seems to be not in the correct form or leading to a non-existent page. To make things done you have to remove the default ones and replace it with http://addins.monodevelop.com/Stable/Win32/2.4/, you can also try to add a new repository entry replacing "Stable" with "Alpha" or "Beta" for other releases. Doing this you can look at the MonoDevelop Add-in Repository directly. I think that this little adjustment is necessary due to the nature of the repository at this moment in beta. You can find any related information as well as publish your Add-in for MonoDevelop at the Community Add-in Repository for MonoDevelop .

After this little step installing Add-ins is very simple, (menu) Tools --> Add-in Manager --> (button) "install Add-ins..." and click on the "Refresh" button if it's necessary. There are few and growing to select from. Relevant ones are: Compilation support for different versions of GTK# (2.10,2.8,2.6,2.4) to allow building application for different targets, SpecFlow support for MonoDevelop IDE, aside a more recent version of the Subversion Version Control (already installed), as well as other Alphas and Betas that i suggest to review at the website.

23:00 - 01-12-2010 GMT+1 : "At time of writing adding custom repositories seems to be broken since restarting MonoDevelop cause the default repositories entries to be re-added, but the problem afflicting the wrong addresses seems to be gone. Try to disengage yourself with these tips, I'm sure the guys behind Mono will sudden correct this issues."

12:00 - 02-12-2010 GMT+1 : "Lluis Sanchez from Novell communicated that averything as been fixed. Great response. I have sent a Bug Report only a couple of days ago. Very happy. I tested everything on the Windows and Linux side, no Mac here sorry (emulator?), and everything is working very well."

A word about SpecFlow and BDD (Behavior Driven Development): formally it represent a development technique focused on Unit Testing, an approach to create code that try to fix every possible "breakable" element (unit) as it is created (failing by default) by the programmer himself. We can consider BDD as well as Test-driven development (TDD), part of the Agile software development methodologies in turn part of the Extreme Programming software development philosophy. Obviously it was not possible to orientate myself too in this new interesting discover without Wikipedia, i think it's time for a donation. Things to eat at Breakfast.

Updated, 09 Nov 2011

Visual Studio Help Viewer Aids

2010-07-03T15:07:00.024+02:00

I have to admit, the new Visual Studio Help system is not what you can call an evolution. I remember how fabulous was to see the MSDN Library totally integrated into Visual Studio 2008. I will not investigate this choice, that to be frank (and sad), is not remotely comparable to the one offered by Eclipse, in term of visual feedback, maintaining the same approach: consulting Help documentation through the browser. Fortunately some tools are trying to fill the gap.

Even though Microsoft Help Viewer Power Tool is a beta version, it offers the way to access the downloaded Library books in-browser or within a simple WPF interface, and works seamlessly also through Visual Studio 2010 Express but not for the TFS (Team Foundation Server) version as stated on the web site. To make it work you have to set the modality you want to make the Help System react, hlpvwpt.exe standaloneviewer=true for the standalone viewer, otherwise, false, for the in-browser (default).

"The program resides between your Microsoft Help Viewer directory, and i managed it to work only with Visual Studio fired up, and not with the sole Help Library Agent "daemon" tray running."

For those not accustomed with the new Help System flow, the documentation above all needs to be downloaded, or installed from disk through the Help Library Manager in order to be accessible. To download Library Books for offline installation a little tool called Visual Studio 2010 Help Downloader could be very useful, it is well made and functional as well as supporting localized books discover.

SuperWaba and Garnet OS emulation

2009-05-15T10:02:00.139+02:00

I discovered SuperWaba due to my passion for emulation and i found its support for the "old" Palm OS. The SuperWaba team is actively working in the mobile scene with its new products. Particularly interesting is LiteBase, "a simplified and low cost database management system for PDAs and smartphones compatible with the SQL language", that seems to be unique in its genre.

TotalCross (totally cross-platform) is a mobile development framework, based on Java, targeting different mobile OSs. The SDK is freely available upon registration, and i have to tell that the people belonging SuperWaba are very gentle. I was surprised for the support for the Palm OS , as stated in the docs Palm OS 3 and 4 support were dropped to allow multithread support.

"During my Linux exploration i was very attracted to the Palm OS Emulator, POSE for friends. POSE was well supported by the community and the emulator was available directly within the package repositories of the majority of Linux Distributions."

Linux Packages of the Palm OS emulator can still be found at the project page of the Palm OS Emulator hosted by SourceForge.net , the Open Source community. To proper functioning it the ROMs were supplied by the Palm Development Center, always upon registering. ACCESS Developer Network offers the same approach and an extensive set of tools, the Development Suite based on Eclipse IDE includes the Emulator and the Simulator and the Platform ROMs for the latest version of the Garnet OS, everything at an high level of usability, and a great documentation. Skins and source code for the Emulator can be also downloaded separately, as well as other SDKs and tools and the Netfront Browser for Garnet OS SDK. To whom is emulation addicted, this is nice starting point to meet the handhelds' pioneer.

Updated, 29 Oct 2011

Qt SDK in evidence

2009-03-26T10:46:00.050+01:00

This release of Qt SDK (4.5) packed with revamped tools and libraries, is new adaptable framework, it marks the time through releases, with an enhanced set of features and improvements.

The Qt Development Tools overview and the features highlight summary shows a very complete set of functionality to play with: HTML5, WebKit, ODF support, just to mentioning few. A very well context-sensitive help system, integrated within the Qt Creator Cross-Platform IDE, performance improvements and benchmarking, support for Cocoa API for 64-bit Macs, an advanced C++ editor and a Visual Debugger are a small part of the features of this collection that everyone should try. Qt Creator's sibling Qt Designer, the GUI layout and forms builder, also improves the experience of installing and looking through the SDK, with its capability to generate C++ or Java code from your interface prototypes, and a remarkable Reference Documentation represent a secure addition.

The SDK expandability is granted by third party Add-Ons like specialized widgets and controls and platform specific components and tools. The Qt SDK is fully cross-platform, supporting Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in favor of the portability of code. Furthermore the Qt Eclipse Integration for C++ plugin and the Qt Visual Studio Add-in let us manage Qt projects directly within the tools. Especially source code for the Visual Studio Add-in can be obtained from the Qt Git repository, a great wolkthrough about building it from source can be found at Qt Wiki --> QtVSAddin | Qt Wiki | Qt Developer Network .

Updated, 25 Oct 2011

madExcept, debugging inside.

2009-03-16T00:18:00.068+01:00

A Pindaric Flight pointed me to install an application called SoundMaven, it returns to you interesting informations about the song that is playing, artist information, iTunes, Last.fm, AllMusic links and more. After a program crash the application suggested me to submit a bug report trough a small interface that i have never seen, its the case of madExcept.

"madExcept was built to help you locating crashes in your software. Whenever there's a crash/exception in your program, madExcept will automatically catch it, analyse it, collect lots of useful information, and give the end user the possibility to send you a full bug report. (...)"

Programmed through the glorious Borland Delphi , its peculiarity is the speed on how to find bugs and the friendly way it shows to you the submission form. Sincerely i prefer programs that works, and i think submitting bugs is a great way for a programmer to have a sudden feedback, but the process is sometimes still very annoying, well in this case no. Everything is compacted, at first, in a minimal interface, guiding you to a pleasant form to submit the bug. I suggest to look inside its features because of its degree of customization and take a look at the video section to have a glimpse of this friendly tool.

P.S. Soundmaven is still a little buggy but it works and i like it very much, especially when it disappear at the top of screen when the song change (both worth a try), an is accompanied by the homonym website where you can discover more artists and is a new effort to the music scene.

Updated, 25 Oct 2011

Developer's Channels and Reference Cards

2008-08-04T05:37:00.074+02:00

It's probably useless to introduce Javalobby, one of the most active Developer's Channel regarding Java. As part of the DZone Network, textually "fresh links for developers" everyone will be able to propose new links and to vote the most interesting. It seems a new and always updated source for programming resources dressed informal and easy to assimilate.

DZone since January has started a new service dedicate to Developers, publishing a series of Reference Cards named Refcardz. They basically consist in a kind of evolved Cheat Sheets in PDF format, with rooms for examples, created by eminent authors and experts regarding different topics about programming. Variedness of these subjects is wide and is possible to remain constantly updated about new Refcardz by the RSS feed accessible at the dedicated page. Refcardz are FREE downloadable rich content and the Dzone membership is required, they can be also "examined" on page through an efficient HTML preview.

Highlighting code and the Web

2008-07-30T13:51:00.047+02:00

textsnip motto states: "You give us your text. We give you a quick link pointing to it. You keep your formatting." and is true. It is a very clean online service where you can easily share your text or your code without loosing formatting. It gives you the ability to have your own URL, your own custom snip and an account to keep track of your published URLs. The resulting output is a well formatted and colored code with proper tabs, depending on the chosen language. Most of common languages are supported, HTML, C#, CSS, XML, just for a quick pick. The site is very simple and immediate, put your code into the text area and the job is done. You can also take a look at the examples, at the about page.

textsnip's Syntax Highlighting code processing is performed by SyntaxHighlighter, a well known client side syntax highlighter. To publish code and customize its appearance we need to include some CSS and JavaScript scripts to our web page, being careful to add the appropriate script, called brush, for the language we want to colorize. Apart the error fallback feature, that renders a normal tag if a script problem occurs, the autoloader is capable to dynamically load only the brushes (scripts) needed by our language, smart.

Highlight, is another way to color/indent/highlight your code, in the form of a platform independent application and is a little more challenging than the previous solutions. It outputs selected file/s to HTML, XHTML, LaTeX, TEX, RTF, XML. Through the Highlight Demo page you can test its features an see the resulted formatting. The Application and web plugins page on the Wiki will show you how powerful this utility can do: command-line, language definitions, color themes, plugins and utilities, what more.

Updated, 21 Oct 2011

Be useful within Eclipse, eLaunch and Cmake Editor

2008-07-13T17:05:00.131+02:00

It's rare to find "a tool for a tool that is, the tool", when you need it, of course. eLaunch is a little application for Windows aimed to manage multiple Eclipse installations, configuration settings and command line parameters. Could be useful sometimes to directly open a desired Workspace, and, with this utility is possible to do it also within Windows Explorer context menu. Launching the Eclipse IDE in all its flavors is very simple, once you selected the desired binary location, you will be able to launch almost everything is Eclipse based, for example Aptana Studio and the Spket IDE or another third part distribution like Genuitec's MyEclipse. You have to set the relative workspace and parameters and you are done.

I found it very useful, above all the context menu integration, unfortunately it doesn't work on 64-bit machines and on Windows 7 you have to install Microsoft .NET Framework Version 1.1 that as stated by the installation process has some incompatibilities with IIS services. I managed to install it plus the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Service Pack 1 for testing , forcing the installation, and it made eLaunch works with minor glitches. In case of problems on installing Microsoft .NET 1.1 on Windows 7 follow this howto, Installing Dotnet Framework 1.1 on Windows 7 beta edition , no problems on Windows XP at all, maybe someone involved enough could create something similar, it's an invite.

From the same author i liked very much CMake Editor, an Eclipse plugin aimed to aid the creation of cross-platform makefiles. This plugin also has a command reference integrated in the Eclipse Help system, minimal but very useful.

"To use CMake Editor i suggest to create a generic project in Eclipse, and then select the folder containing your CMakeLists.txt or *.cmake files from eclipse as location (where they are stored), instead the default one proposed by the dialog."

CMake is a set of tools to build, test and package source code. In conjunction with native build tools like GNU Make, Microsoft Visual Studio and Xcode for example, it can satisfy different targets creating platform independent configuration files. It is often used in Open Source projects and produce a enjoyable output. You can find more informations on CMake and its related tools CTest and CPack through the Kitware Public Wiki or browse trough different articles under the Publications page on the website and have a taste of the Mastering CMake: A Cross-Platform Build System book searching for topics through the preview.

Updated, 06 Oct 2011

java.net, Look and Feel, Resources and Guidelines

2008-06-13T20:00:00.093+02:00

Look and feel under Java was not a simple thing. Many things changed from past. Swing looked fine since it was born, growing to hit the best possible integration within the host OS, under Windows is almost perfect by default. I will not expose how to set up the default Java Look and Feel (LAF) for your Java application for different motivations, cause it's a thing i have done heavily in the past, cause it's fun to try by yourself and lastly is very well explained in the article How to Set the Look and Feel through The Java™ Tutorials page. This is not to be irritating, i feel the need of a customization tool.

Seems to me that the java.net community is migrating to Project Kenai , because some projects are already there. If you are new to Project Kenai i will suggest to take a deep look at this community, a developer network with Java inside that is also strongly integrated through the NetBeans IDE with developers chat and bug reports.

"Duke Images at Project Kenai is dedicated to Duke, where you can browse and download images and 3D models showing the Java ambassador in real life moments."

Since i focalize myself on visuals and I'm not a programmer i can only suggest ways. Could be fine to have a way to change fonts globally within the JDK itself, abstracting selected L&F, a preference panel. Few people tried it. I have to mention the TKPLAFUtility and the LAFManager that surprisingly worked and changed the swing.defaultlaf line in the swing.properties file, normally resident into javaHomeDirectory\lib directory, but as states the How to use "undocumented secret" Swing properties article, not every application reacts to this change.

I feel very well when i think the Swing UI has reached this level of visuals itself, and not to forget speed improvements and reliability of the Java SE. It's right to say that many developers worked heavily to change the look of Java before the Swing advent, enjoying us with their custom classes, JGoodies, L2FProd.com, the Kunststoff Look&Feel and many others that you can find at javootoo.com, well categorized into Skinnable, Free and Commercial, in an easy way to browse with screenshots and, where possible accompanied by a .jnlp to launch directly within the browser via Java Web Start.

Updated, 02 Oct 2010

Probably the best tutorial on Earth

2008-06-07T22:07:00.049+02:00

Finding tutorials like these help us to re-engage lost skills. Another CSS tutorial? You are wrong. It's important to say that CSS is "alive and kicking", and in a great state of health. I would have intentional say, Cascading Style Sheet in 5 minutes, if this kind of titles sometimes results in a quick and dirty presentation. This is not the case.

5 tomes: Listamatic, Listamatic2, Listutorial, Floatutorial, Selectutorial, reading and interacting with it is a real pleasure. Sincerely i would like to hardly suggest listen to the spoken/written words of the same author, his book, CSS in 10 minutes, by Russ Weakley.

Another point of interest could be the introduction to CSS 3 , covered and well exposed. The quality of this tutorial is important, and is possible to say that aim to be a brain training rather than simple way to learn.

Updated, 26 Sep 2011

SLIDES and Docs

CSS3 border-radius

by Russ Weakley

A glimpse of new features coming with CSS3 specifications. Easier than a border? Easier than this slide?

Sometimes programs come with source

2008-05-15T18:48:00.113+02:00

Sometimes programs come with source code. Programmers always accompany code with related Makefile for the the GNU toolchain or/and a Visual Studio Solution. Since GNU make is the most portable, a Visual Studio Solution (Windows Only) can only be built with relative tools from Microsoft. It's important to keep in mind to have a functional environment before to go building and maybe speed up some program with the new built one. For a functional environment we intend that all the principal dependencies must to be satisfied because missed shared libraries and includes could cause an unsuccessful compiling. Often these dependencies are suggested in a .txt file also as README, telling you which third party libraries you have to install. Depending on which way you want to build a Makefile you have to install the GNU toolchain and compilers, they could come in two flavors MinGW with MSYS shell environment (to start i suggest to install version 1.0.10 executable with msysDTK developer toolkit version 1.0.1), and Cygwin (also contain the X environment), try to install it by your self, is funny, and if you are on Linux everything is already almost done. On the other "side", with Visual Studio projects and solutions you have to install Visual Studio tools and the Microsoft Windows SDK . Installing Visual Studio tools is a painless thing. Buying the commercial version with an MSDN subscription of Visual Studio 2008 that is not a really cheap action but is suggested and worth, Visual Studio Express Edition help us to do the basics, like compiling editing learning and testing. I was very amused with this tool and i suggest to think further for the commercial one maybe with an MSDN Subscriptions that let us "play" with other features like incoming Microsoft release, support, OS's, Office and more.

(TIP) To install from an ISO image within windows you have to download an utility like Alcohol 52% (free for personal use) to create a virtual CD drive and then mount the image.

After installing the SDK and the tools we have to build "something", just to test our installation, or just for fun. Let's try with JkDefrag, a powerful and open source utility to safely and fast defrag our drive. Sometime the benefits of compiling results in faster execution by enabling compiler optimizations. Let's go opening our solution, identified by the .sln extension or a VisualC/C# project, .vcproj/.csproj. It's possible that a solution came with multiple targets in our case we have to build only the executable for JkDefrag (JkDefrag.exe), you can build also the other targets if you like, that can usefully integrated within a GUI called JKDefragGUI or MyDefragPowerGUI for the new MyDefrag an evolution of JKDefrag itself. Personally i like very much compiling programs, resolving dependencies could be a nice starting point to know libraries names and typology hopefully to jump versus your first program. Try to be virtualized, with different OS. I suggest to get accustomed with the Linux Operating System and the GCC basics, building a new distribution from scratch, like Gentoo could aid you to learn where open source was born and basic relationships between programs. You can now try to build i.e. some game binary that came with the SDK, or simply explore source code repositories to meet this fantastic world.

Updated, 29 Sep 2011

RELATED MEDIA

Cygwin Installation & Shell Execution

This video covers the installation of the Cygwin environment and the execution of the shell and the Xwin server running Xterm.

NetBeans X3D Resources

2008-05-01T23:13:00.086+02:00

I can't find a spare moment to explore the new features of the recent NetBeans release. On the contrary reading blogs of our beloved Java guys i found some interesting repositories and X3D resources you can enjoy with. Obviously the Web3D Consortium website is always the main stop, prodigal of resources and links about this format that only aim to be the successor of the glorious VRML, and formally it is.

X3DV Module Suite. "The X3DV Module Suite is a set of modules to code in X3D and VRML, the open standards for interactive and immersive 3D on Internet." This set is made of a three modules, one for supporting VRML world files, one for X3D Classic VRML encoding file format both with syntax highlighting and editing aids and a palette of code snippets that includes useful resources like materials for 3D objects. The set provided by Hyperia3D, a great source for 3D fans, appears to be richer that it seems. X3D Authoring Tool on the NetBeans Platform is an interesting article on authoring and validating X3D Scenes through the NetBeans based X3D-Edit IDE. Moreover on the X3D-Edit website you can find the instruction to install the modules through the NetBeans Update Center system, or download them for a manual install.

Updated, 29 Sep 2011

Java Tutors and Tutorials you can't miss

2008-03-22T21:07:00.073+01:00

Here is an excerpt of great links about Java learning i found and i follow made by people who really care about this. They routinely cover various aspects about Java Programming Language and worth a note also by people like me sometimes scared about approaching code without losing the fun to program with Java™.

"I think that are not topics for beginners but they are very interesting; could happen you to be amused periodically with great and complete tutorials on practical programming. But Java is fun, starting from playing with some interface customization and themes reaching its multimedia layer and so on."

On Kirill Grouchnikov's Blog you can see the progress of Substance, a cross-platform Look and Feel for Swing applications. I can surely tell you that is very impressive, i recommend to follow him, articles are well explained and simple to read and assimilate.

Geertjan's Blog is the most eclectic blog on Java i have read so far. Focused on NetBeans Platform it covers various aspects of Java programming from plugin creation to database.

A more intensive website full of high quality tutorials covering Java, in-deep Eclipse and Android among others is maintained by Lars Vogel . I was very impressed by the completeness of his tutorials that covers the treated arguments in its specificity entirely.

Updated, 06 Oct 2011

NetBeans Localization, Foxbeans and the Spket IDE

2008-03-02T02:14:00.143+01:00

NetBeans continue to impress me for its extensibility and versatility, right now it comes with new extensions, and I have to tell that I'm very happy to see this vitality in this community, but this is a personal thinking. This post aims to be a little recap.

A new and centralized Localization Development Update Center has been offered by Sun Microsystems : "communities will be able to update their IDE with localization packages based on the latest status of the localization repository". More information about localizing the NetBeans software (UI and messages) can be found at the NetBeans Localization Project page...

... through the Foxbeans NetBeans extension you can setup a full environment to create the basis to develop Firefox addons. Great, don't you. Supported applications are : Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Suite 1.x, Netscape, SeaMonkey, Flock, Sunbird, Nvu. Foxbeans can be accessed in various ways, as standalone module that can be downloaded from the main site, or within the NetBeans IDE with the aid of the great Plugin Portal Update Center Plugin, that let us access plugins available on the NetBeans Plugin Portal directly, by creating an Update Center right in the IDE. The source code can be browsed too and is available through Project Kenai at the Foxbeans Suite page.

Last but not least the Spket IDE represent a good choice if you need to develop JavaScript, XUL/XBL, Lazlo, Flex, SVG, Silverlight and Yahoo! Widgets, through an Eclipse based IDE. Available both as standalone as well as a plugin, it has interesting features regarding support for the YUI compressor as well full featured code completion, syntax highlighting and content outline of the aforementioned languages and code assist for Ext JS JavaScript library.

Updated, 29 Sep 2011

Searching for Code through IDE, Black Duck Code Sight & Koders

2008-02-19T17:14:00.155+01:00

Yes, i want to learn programming in a hard way, but i can't find a straight path to follow. I'm capable to install, configure and launch the most commonly used IDE , but the time to start programming it's a very hard path. I learned the basics of Java programming, but something seems to be broken. Some time ago i installed Visual Studio Express Edition, to give it a look and, i admit, to compile Quake 4 executable through the SDK hopefully to improve performance cause my video cards is not what you can call recent, i like to compile.

Koders Desktop IDE Plug-ins has been revamped after the acquisition by Black Duck Software corp. with interesting SCM features that let you index and search code through different source repositories, adding recently the support for Mercurial and Bazaar revision control systems. Black Duck's Code Sight that is the core of the internal indexing it's available for free testing and requires IIS to be installed. The Plug-ins then, can be "interfaced" with the server system for searching purposes.

I was not been able to test the internal features of these Plug-ins but the video at the bottom of the post will better illustrate this useful system. The Eclipse one otherwise, tested on Eclipse Helios, can also be used to do a quick contextual search of the code without the needs of the server, basically an internal web search. Black Duck Software impressed me nicely, with a real active interest on this specific kind of job, updating Plug-Ins and adding new features as Visual Studio 2010 recent update demonstrate.

Updated, 23 Mar 2011

RELATED MEDIA

Black Duck Software: Code Sight

This quick and easy walkthrough will guide you across the basic settings of the Black Duck Code Sight source code search engine. Fucus points of this video are: 1. User access per project (privacy settings), 2. Understanding built-in reports, 3. Main Features Presentation: Version Control Providers (CVS, Git, Subversion), code analyzers and parsers 4. Adding a new project to the index 5. Selecting a specific directory to crawl.

NetBeans Plugin Portal Update Center Plugin

2008-01-30T15:09:00.081+01:00

Well, the NetBeans IDE reached version 6.0, it sports a new and redesigned interface, and a new way to manage updates and plugins. Within NetBeans is possible to program almost in every language, from C++ to Ruby, retaining NetBeans is focused on the Java Programming Language and much more (see Java EE , SOA , etc.).

Updating the IDE and adding features and plugins is very simple, open up the IDE, and then select Tools --> Plugins, from the menubar. The newly created window will show you available, downloaded and installed plugins, updates and settings.

I want you to focus the last tab on the window, Settings, where you can see a list of all available Update Centers. One thing you may notice it's the last Update Center, the one i added manually. This one, that i named Plugin Portal Update Center represent and contain plugins available trough the main NetBeans Plugin Portal on the web.

This way to register a new update center was made by adding the address http://plugins.netbeans.org/nbpluginportal/files/nbms/pluginportal-update-center.xml through the add button, this can be also feasible by loading its plugin module (.nbm), you can get it at the corresponding Plugin Portal Update Center detail page. Once added, checking the respective Update Center box lets you navigate through a huge list of plugins, the ones NetBeans Plugin Portal stores.

Updated, 29 Sep 2011

Working with Eclipse, integrating RSSOwl.

2007-12-19T23:49:00.076+01:00

Eclipse works. After some updates seems to be slow though, it's because i have installed a plenty of plugins and features, it takes some time to check mirrors, but it seems solid.

Meanwhile the new milestone of RSSOwl, one of the best RSS Readers available to date, heavily based on the Eclipse RCP platform has been released in a Plugin form and can be integrated too within this IDE, that make extensibility and versatility one of its major point of interest.

"I think having an RSS reader integrated within Eclipse could be useful to keep in touch with some project release for example or to track some news, i suggest to install it an give it a try, let me know!"

In order to add the RSSOwl update site, in brief, the process is this: Help --> Install New Software.... The new window will show you the list of all available update sites, you only need to add the http://boreal.rssowl.org/update/eclipse/ with the desired description to become available for the install. You can uncheck Group items by category, it will give you the package listing, and also Hide items that are already installed, to have a clearer view, especially if you have many packages installed, than you have to choose the RSSOwl in Eclipse item upon selecting the right update site or All Available Sites from the list, and install. Then opening a new perspective will show RSSOwl between choices.

Updated, 05 Mar 2011

Thanks to Geertjan Wielenga who wrote Parleys.com: "Building Software Using Rich Client Platforms" this is a full presentation that will illustrate the benefits on building RCP applications versus the Web based counterpart. Parleys.com is one of the newly established e-learning resource and aims to become the premier Java content publishing site of reference. There's also a nice application useful to browse for podcasts, videos, slides and articles right from the desktop or from your favorite mobile device.

Scripting Leopard OS, F-Script and AppleScript.

2007-10-27T05:24:00.183+02:00

It's a long time that i don't use a Mac, since 90's, i was a proud owner of a PowerBook Duo 230. I remember a great experience. I have recently met an interesting article about scripting around on this platform. "We" know that the substance of scripting on a Mac is well managed by AppleScript and its way to interface with every application supported, all, i think.

AppleScript is a powerful and complete friend, but is also possible to access the Cocoa API through a different end deeper approach directly to Objective-C objects and MacOS X frameworks. This is the way of scripting F-Script present to us, with a set of tools and utilities aimed to aid the beginner to walk the hard path.

As opposed as the AppleScript's easiness of use and its human speaking like language syntax, F-Script offers to us the possibility to learn the basis of Macintosh programming leaving to us the choice to further dig into Xcode specific classes and rules.

Updated, 02 Oct 2011

"Automator enables the repetition of tasks across a wide variety of programs" Automator. This is an example on automating the process to attach a file to a new mail message directly from the finder. Upon creating a service the resulting action will be shown through the finder, consequently a new mail message is created and then the selected file attached. The video will show you in three simple steps the way to create this workflow. You can find other useful and well explained guides about using Automator at the macmostvideo channel too.

Thinking in CSS, clear:both.

2007-07-30T01:09:00.150+02:00

Some time ago i was wondering about the meaning of clear CSS property. Finally after many days of layout customizing on Blogger i have found with the aid of Tweako a community driven how-to's website, a little tutorial about the correct way to position custom sidebars or so called CSS blocks.

ProgrammingBulls' Cascading Style Sheets or CSS Tutorial, takes about two minutes to read, after that all of your doubt about CSS layout and positioning comes to past. Try to make a new layout following these little advices and you are done. I've also tried to create a minimal layout with two sidebars on the right using the float CSS property, that is also well covered.

The following statement represents the basis of writing CSS code and ironically is almost the only thing we have to remind to ourselves upon learning the syntax.

SELECTOR {property: value;} where SELECTOR is the HTML tag whose property like color, size you wish to change and value is the value of the property you wish to enforce. [...]

CSS is simple and have to remain simple, if you have never taken a look at your CSS template this is the moment. At first sight it seems unreadable, but after this little, lovely tutorial, and few keyboard hits, you can personalize your graphics and find your new CSS blocks right as page elements and adding widgets on it.

Updated, 12 Aug 2011

SLIDES and Docs

CSS Best practice

by Russ Weakley

Do's and Don'ts, tips and common mistakes that can occur during CSS usage in this slide by Russ weakley, only one of a collection of tutorials that can be found at the author website. A very fluent learning.

The Cheat Sheet List

2006-10-21T18:20:00.150+02:00

I knew nothing about the nature of a Cheat Sheet since a minute ago; Dr. Web Weblog helped me to discover the first one. I hope this could be interesting also for you. There are Cheat Sheet for different arguments and sincerely i found the most of them easy and immediate. I think that is properly what a Cheat Sheet has to be.

ActionScript, Apache, ASCII Character Codes, ASP, CSS, CVS, Firefox, Google, htaccess, HTML/XHTML, Java, JavaScript, LaTeX, mod_rewrite, MySQL, Oracle, Perl, Photoshop, PHP, Python, Ruby, Unix, Weblogs, XML, are the covered topics by this huge list of links.

Updated, 18 Nov 2011

RELATED MEDIA

Generating JavaDoc in Netbeans IDE 6.5

by pkgoncalves

The structure of a JavaDoc document could be ideally compared to a Cheat Sheet, this video (with annotations) will show you how to create the "Cheat Sheet" for your Java application in a very clear manner, your JavaDoc reference.

J2ME Tutorial at Java.net

2006-10-09T15:51:00.312+02:00

This is a four parts tutorial that can be considered a great starting point for a newcomer approaching MIDlets and the fantastic world of mobile programming. The first part, J2ME Tutorial, Part 1: Creating MIDlets, is aimed basically on how to deal with the Java ME Wireless Toolkit, the creation of our first MIDlet, the test. Furthermore, if you wish to follow the progress of the toolkit, The Java ME SDK Team Blog can guide you through troubleshooting and suggest useful resources. In case you encounter installation issues you can refer to this post targeted at common network configuration and 64bit systems, First aid when emulator doesn't start .

"A peculiar thing about this tutorial is the "anatomy" of a MIDlet, the way the execution processes and events interacts through its lifecycle."

The second part of the tutorial, J2ME Tutorial, Part 2: User Interfaces with MIDP 2.0 will cover the User Interface API of MIDP 2.0, with relative screenshots and code, exploring the user interaction side. The third part, J2ME Tutorial, Part 3: Exploring the Game API of MIDP 2.0, and the J2ME Tutorial, Part 4: Multimedia and MIDP 2.0 represent the juicy spot of creating MIDlets, Gaming and the Mobile Media API (MMAPI). You can find more about Vikram Goyal , the author of this tutorial, at Java.net community.

by OracleLearning

A video/slide from Oracle that shows the steps necessary to install a newly created midlet on a real device describing possible deployment scenarios.