JoshBrain

There are many interesting topics on the web, and I'd like to share my thoughts and opinions about them with you, my dear anonymous reader. At first I would like to just list topics. Later, as the list grows, I anticipate needing to organize them further, but for now this would only add needless complexity. If you squint, you might find there is a pattern here. I leave it as an exercise for the reader. :-)

• The Web. This is a fundamental topic, as the web enables the delivery and construction of this site.
  • homesite.html Just some notes about using Allaire's Homsite. Kind of dated.
  • webStandardsEssay.html Thoughts about web standards.
  • www.w3.org The web standards body.
• GUIs
  • guis.html A simple note about the nature of GUIs in general
  • ooguis.html An early attempt to describe the interaction of a GUI with a domain model.
  • javaGUIFramework.html A latter attempt to define a robust GUI framework with an attempted application to physical modeling.
  • appProgWithSwing.html A recent attempt to write a Swing tutorial.
  • My favorite outside Swing resources (heaven knows there are too few)
    • java.sun.com/products/jfc Not very good, but it is the primary source.
    • java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/index.html OK for beginners, I guess.
    • www.netbeans.org Famous Swing app (and one I use all the time).
    • manning.spindoczine.com/sbe Robinson and Vorobiev's excellent Swing book resource.
    • http://www.mindspring.com/~scdrye/java/faq.html Drye and Wake's so-so Swing FAQ
• Plain Old Java
  • sdkInsights.html Notes about the SDK. Kind of interesting IMHO.
  • learningJava.html An aborted basic Java tutorial.
  • My favorite outside resources:
    • java.sun.com This is the primary source for all Java things. Frankly, I think this site needs a lot of work. There are several sub-sections which are useful:
      • developer.java.sun.com/developer/infodocs All docs
      • java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/index.html The JLS
      • java.sun.com/docs/books/vmspec/index.html The JVMS
      • java.sun.com/products/jlf/index.html The Java L&F Guidliines (ugh).
      • java.sun.com/docs/books/performance Performance tips
      • http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4/download.html JDK/JRE Downloads
    • www.javaranch.com The best forum for Java, even better than Usenet (more topical, kind).
    • www.javaworld.com The best Java magazine.
    • www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/java IBM Developer Works, Java. Perhaps the single best online resource for Java, much to Sun's chagrine.
    • www.afu.com/javafaq.html Peter van Der Linden's excellent FAQ
    • mindprod.com/jgloss.html Roedy Green's quirky but useful "Java Glossary".
• Java Tools - I use many tools during the course of development, some more than others.
  • Netbeans 3.3.1 - I also use a bunch of optional modules accessable from the update center within the program.
    • eclipseNetbeans.htm 5 June 2002. A comparison of these two excellent open source Java IDEs.
    • www.netbeans.org/ide/index.html
    • news://news.netbeans.org There is also a mailing list at nbusers-subscribe@netbeans.org. Archives can be found at www.netbeans.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=nbusers
    • In many ways Netbeans is inferior to Eclipse, and vice versa. Until Eclipse comes out with the "GDF" this is the best alternative for Swing development.
  • Ant I use the version that comes bundled with Netbeans.
  • CVS Ok, not strictly a Java tool, but handy!
  • JUnit
  • JEdit
  • Jikes
  • Windows 2000 - The operating system is critical to creating a productive development environment. I have tried KDE and Gnome under Linux, but Windows is still the most comfortable and productive for me. I reevaluate Linux distributions about every 6 months, just to be sure. Something I'd like to see is Mac OSX. I understand that it's Java GUI tools are incredible.
  • ArgoUML