Why do I ever bother with Mono? Why? Well I have a belief that large complicated software should be written in an appropriate language. At the moment, that either means a JVM-based language (like Java) or C#. Java doesn't really work on the Desktop (even though I'm a user of Eclipse, Oracle SQL Developer, and many Telco products that are Java desktop apps) as running many, small memory footprint apps for more than a few hours at a time is the desktop experience - and that isn't Java's forte.
On Linux, we have a top quality CLI/CLR implementation and bindings to write desktop apps in Mono. The only problem is, we don't have the tools. :-( Monodevelop is flaky, unstable and let's face it, unusable. Perhaps it's better on (open)SUSE, but 1.0 RC1 on Fedora 9 is, um, crap. Sorry to be so blunt.
Now, it may be because I have some legacy crud in my home dir, but it is confusing, freezes, claims to build solutions when it hasn't, gives cryptic error messages, and is just not ready for prime time. What are add-ins for (I knid of know)? Why are mine "wrong"? What is the correct repo URL? Why don't they update?
For Java, there's Eclipse, Netbeans, and (non-free) Idea all of which are excellent. I've used the Express editions of Visual Studio, and while they're not as good as Eclipse (!) they do the job well. (Another thing: why isn't VS free to download? If you want more decent Windows apps, don't raise the barrier to entry). (Aside: Oracle SQL Developer 1.5 is pretty fantastic for writing PL/SQL. As good as Toad? Well, better than the old, shonky version (7.x?) I had ... obviously it doesn't have Toad's DBA functions, but still. It rocks).
So, the moral is - stop f_cking around writing Moonlight or whatever - fix the development environment.
Showing posts with label linux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label linux. Show all posts
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Why all PCs need 2GB RAM
Mem: 2065992k total, 1615628k used, 450364k free, 24k buffers
Swap: 5242872k total, 1118284k used, 4124588k free, 209792k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
22034 nic 20 0 2087m 803m 26m S 0 39.8 9:52.67 java
15540 nic 20 0 375m 206m 22m S 27 10.2 93:32.82 firefox-bin
And I'd just shut down Jetty... Grails programming in Eclipse
Swap: 5242872k total, 1118284k used, 4124588k free, 209792k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
22034 nic 20 0 2087m 803m 26m S 0 39.8 9:52.67 java
15540 nic 20 0 375m 206m 22m S 27 10.2 93:32.82 firefox-bin
And I'd just shut down Jetty... Grails programming in Eclipse
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
No, not April Fools.
While I sit here, hopefully upgrading our BusinessObjects installation, I thought I'd note a few things. Things that have either been on my mind, through my mind or out of my mind.
First, let us talk of Adobe AIR, and indeed AIR for Linux. Now here's a turn up for the books, while many apps seem to be going "on to the web" and running in a browser, AIR shows us a new way. Lots of apps that can run on a desktop. No, not klunky, minimal widgets, but full featured apps that read/write to apps "out there" in web-land. Pretty, damn schweet.
Now, some smart-arses may be thinking that this is nothing new. Indeed, this is what I thought MS were going to do with .NET and Windows 6/Longhorn/Vista, when .NET was initially mooted, but no. They chickened out. Which is a shame, because the .NET runtime (a.k.a CLR), C# and VB.NET aren't bad (being MS rewrites of the JVM, Java, and er.. a .NET-ified, "it's a proper language now" version of VB, respectively). However, the Adobe AIR runtime seems a lot better at memory management than the JVM, or my limited experience of Mono's CLR implementation - this makes it more suitable for desktop-based RIAs. Maybe there aren't enough, really rich apps out there yet for AIR to tell, but I'm sold.
Talking of .NET apps: why do I run more .NET (Mono) apps on Linux than I run .NET apps on Windows? On Linux:
On Windows XP:
(Small interruption while BO thinks it's upgraded - let's see... Now redeploying wars...).
Mentioning .war files, I've been playing once more with Grails, now it's hit it's 1.0(.2!) release. It's a lot more polished and very, very cool. At this point in time, both Java and experienced, MVC-using PHP programmers can either choose to try (J)Ruby on Rails or Grails. Neither is perfect, but if you do bother learning one or the other your (future) productivity will rocket.
JRuby has the distinct advantage in Sun sponsorship, with Netbeans integration etc. Grails has the advantage of being written in Groovy/Java and thus you can get at all the Java classes for free. Grails also has the fine, familiar underpinnings of Spring, Hibernate, SiteMesh, GSP (which are so like JSP) which most Java-heads have dabbled with at least.
Groovy at least isn't particularly performant (as some recent bloggers have shown) but neither was Java all those years ago... (Unsure about Grails, which has large parts written in Java - my own apps aren't accessed often enough to tell).
It's funny how things come around: when I was a full-time postgrad (1992-6), Java 0.9 came about, but most "powerful" machines only had 32MB RAM and well-sub-100MHz CPUs. We were all LISP fans/programmers - OO stuff was used, but among the some of the faculty, Functional programming was often looked upon as some sort of god-like beauty. Now, Java 7, Groovy, Scala, ... are all closure/Functional-programming obsessed. The Art of the Meta Object Protocol will always stick in my mind because of how much a couple of people were excited by it (and it had a great cover) and look at all that lovely MOP in Groovy.
(BO upgrade/using wdeploy failed to notice previous version and duplicated entries in conf/server.xml - crap).
So either the modern computing industry is really 15 years behind theory, or... I don't know. I wonder if Order Sorted Algebra (my old field) will make it's way into modern rigorous computing! Heh.
Ah, BO is back up. All hail!
This is nic, signing off.
First, let us talk of Adobe AIR, and indeed AIR for Linux. Now here's a turn up for the books, while many apps seem to be going "on to the web" and running in a browser, AIR shows us a new way. Lots of apps that can run on a desktop. No, not klunky, minimal widgets, but full featured apps that read/write to apps "out there" in web-land. Pretty, damn schweet.
Now, some smart-arses may be thinking that this is nothing new. Indeed, this is what I thought MS were going to do with .NET and Windows 6/Longhorn/Vista, when .NET was initially mooted, but no. They chickened out. Which is a shame, because the .NET runtime (a.k.a CLR), C# and VB.NET aren't bad (being MS rewrites of the JVM, Java, and er.. a .NET-ified, "it's a proper language now" version of VB, respectively). However, the Adobe AIR runtime seems a lot better at memory management than the JVM, or my limited experience of Mono's CLR implementation - this makes it more suitable for desktop-based RIAs. Maybe there aren't enough, really rich apps out there yet for AIR to tell, but I'm sold.
Talking of .NET apps: why do I run more .NET (Mono) apps on Linux than I run .NET apps on Windows? On Linux:
On Windows XP:
- VisualBasic 2005 Express
- Trivial apps I've writting in VB.NET...
(Small interruption while BO thinks it's upgraded - let's see... Now redeploying wars...).
Mentioning .war files, I've been playing once more with Grails, now it's hit it's 1.0(.2!) release. It's a lot more polished and very, very cool. At this point in time, both Java and experienced, MVC-using PHP programmers can either choose to try (J)Ruby on Rails or Grails. Neither is perfect, but if you do bother learning one or the other your (future) productivity will rocket.
JRuby has the distinct advantage in Sun sponsorship, with Netbeans integration etc. Grails has the advantage of being written in Groovy/Java and thus you can get at all the Java classes for free. Grails also has the fine, familiar underpinnings of Spring, Hibernate, SiteMesh, GSP (which are so like JSP) which most Java-heads have dabbled with at least.
Groovy at least isn't particularly performant (as some recent bloggers have shown) but neither was Java all those years ago... (Unsure about Grails, which has large parts written in Java - my own apps aren't accessed often enough to tell).
It's funny how things come around: when I was a full-time postgrad (1992-6), Java 0.9 came about, but most "powerful" machines only had 32MB RAM and well-sub-100MHz CPUs. We were all LISP fans/programmers - OO stuff was used, but among the some of the faculty, Functional programming was often looked upon as some sort of god-like beauty. Now, Java 7, Groovy, Scala, ... are all closure/Functional-programming obsessed. The Art of the Meta Object Protocol will always stick in my mind because of how much a couple of people were excited by it (and it had a great cover) and look at all that lovely MOP in Groovy.
(BO upgrade/using wdeploy failed to notice previous version and duplicated entries in conf/server.xml - crap).
So either the modern computing industry is really 15 years behind theory, or... I don't know. I wonder if Order Sorted Algebra (my old field) will make it's way into modern rigorous computing! Heh.
Ah, BO is back up. All hail!
This is nic, signing off.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Fedora 9 alpha
So I'm posting this from Fedora 9 alpha 1 which I'm running from my USB key. Freaking schweet.
This is pretty good. a) it came up fast b) it detects hardware properly and the Intel wireless (iwl3945) driver now works (I currently use the old style ipw3945 driver under Fedora 8 - that's what Ubuntu still ships) c) The media buttons on my Dell Inspiron 6400 now work (they always did with Ubuntu, but never with Fedora).
Along with the improvements in Fedora 8 (like Codeina) - Fedora are finally on a par with Ubuntu unless you count the fact that it's a piece of cake to use less-than-legal codecs in Ubuntu, and you need some knowledge in Fedora.
Ahh - happy,
Sent using the "Blog entry poster" app on the desktop (then edited online to get the title right - darn Blogger API).
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Liberation
Having recently switched back to Fedora (8), I thought I'd try out Red Hat's free Liberation fonts, and they are beautiful. Don't get me wrong, Bistream's fonts (which they kindly gave away freely to us Unix-heads) are very nice and set a new standard, but I'm blown away at the quality of the Liberation fonts.
They're available for most platforms, and I'd strongly suggest you give them a try.
They're available for most platforms, and I'd strongly suggest you give them a try.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Ubuntu spotting
On Saturday, BBC News 24 were "driving across South Africa". They interviewed Mark Shuttleworth, showed Ubuntu (and something called a "Freedom Toaster"). Some screenshots, and facts about the importance of FOSS in poor areas.
Now The Motley Fool has got in the action, in this article. Could we be (finally) reaching the Ubuntu/FOSS tipping point? Not to mention those lovely folk at Dell. (My Inspiron loves Ubuntu). Is this why the MS super-FUD bomb has gone off?
Now The Motley Fool has got in the action, in this article. Could we be (finally) reaching the Ubuntu/FOSS tipping point? Not to mention those lovely folk at Dell. (My Inspiron loves Ubuntu). Is this why the MS super-FUD bomb has gone off?
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