October 27, 2003
A Few Thoughts as I Get Close to Finishing This (Computer) Book...
I've just about finished reading:
Designing Data-Intensive Web Applications
which goes along with a methodology:
WebML ("UML for the Web")
and a CASE tool (which I've got a 9 month "academic" license to work with):
WebRatio
Herewith, just a couple of (very positive!) thoughts about it (as I penned them in an e-mail today)...
Believe it or not, this system actually provides me a tool (and a methodology, a way of approaching the problem) to build a Struts (or, for that matter, .NET) website. Fairly amazing. I hope to use it to actually build things, but more importantly gain better understanding about how Struts, MVC(2), etc. work.
As for the WebML methodology, it is pretty interesting. The web geek software dev guru
guy who wrote the preface for their book (Adam Bosworth, chief architect at
BEA WebLogic, and inventor of MS-Access, Quattro Pro database, etc.),
described what these Italian computer science professors and database "big
brains" types have come up with as "something very nearly as simple and elegant as
the relational calculus."
---- (Let's use the (new today!!!) Amazon "Search Inside The Book" feature, to give you a link right to the page I'm talking about (and let's use tinyurl.com, to make it more palatable/clickable)):
---- http://tinyurl.com/2fdqk (See the Page in the Book!)
Also at: http://snipurl.com/webml_book
Now, I scarcely know what "the relational calculus" really means, actually, but, I do know when something's supposed to be "simple and elegant," so that works for me.
At any rate, even I, non-Adam Bosworth that I am, can appreciate how this books' contents just flow: the ideas stack up and just keep making sense, chapter after chapter. You get a feeling you know where to put things, even pretty abstract things. Nice.
With the tool, just following along their tutorial, I'm able to create what is under the hood a somewhat involved Struts application (though it's older Struts - don't know the number exactly, 1.1 (?)). Interesting. (You can do .NET too.)
Don't just take my word for it. Here's another (glowing) opinion, seen on the WebML "Community" board: THIS book is probably one of the BEST technical books I've ever picked up... (and it gets better... ;^)
What I don't yet understand is why there are NO Reader Reviews up on Amazon for this title. Hmmmm. And in bookstores, I find it sort of mis-shelved, over with books with the word "Design" in them (near CSS and site architecture and such). So, I hope it's getting around and getting known. May have to log in to Amazon and put up a review of my own, when I'm better prepared.
From the WebRatio product page:
"COMPLEXITY MADE SIMPLE"
"THE UML OF THE WEB"
"DEVELOPMENT PROCESS RESHAPED"
"SIMPLICITY NOT SIMPLIFICATION"
and finally
"SIMPLICITY IS COMPLEXITY RESOLVED.
TO ACHIEVE SIMPLICITY WE MASTERED COMPLEXITY"
You can tell they're pretty excited. But, they have reason to be!
More to follow.
Wm.
-----------------
fwiw: here's that tiny URL in all its non-tiny glory:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1558608435/ref=sib_vae_pg_6?%5Fencoding=UTF8&keywords=relational%20calculus&p=S008&twc=1&checkSum=kvwd00gcHud0ts%2FwazcCG%2FCxsldcKHYBLYtQDZloBSo%3D#reader-link See The Page Inside The Book
October 15, 2003
Mid-Morning Break Blog Entry: Info Architecture...
O.K., it's coffee break number 1 here at the User Interface Conference here in Kendall Square, Cambridge, Mass. (I'm on a Press Pass, for CMS Review)
http://www.uiconf.com/8/fullday_merholz_young.html
From Construct to Structure:
Information Architecture from Mental Models
Peter Merholz & Indi Young, Adaptive Path
Kernel Idea being presented here is a "Two-Parter":
1) "Content Model"
Basically, the bottom-up model is your stuff (content), which is the stuff you
already know, work with, hang out with, and which you are usually doing kinda
badly re: putting up on the web (organize website by company org chart, etc.
etc.)
2) "Mental Model"
The new bit here is the top-down model, which stops pretty much at the top nav
of the site (O.K., maybe nav2 level), and is all about _not_ the web but what
(the h$%&#) the user is actually thinking as they try to "get something done."
In looking at some of the morning's slides showing this dichotomy I was kind of
thinking back to Digitas days, as, "where John Robinson (MModel) meets William Reilly (CModel)." John (Copy, Info Arch, Content guy)
would prob. disagree (figures he's doing both). Maybe he is.
Anyway, kind of interesting. Glad it's free though ($800/day around here. Yow.)
Wm.
October 14, 2003
MS-Outlook, Office Bashing (rants by others)
Scott Johnson blogged a useful link to Chris Pirillo on "Office 2003" and his, ahem, er, "singular expression of unhappiness" with it.
Turns out Pirillo was going on about Outlook, but, I'd say either way it's worth some ink and reading time to better dissect these new offerings from Redmond.
Chris P. didn't like Outlook's interface (at all. - "gack").
For my part, I am mostly interested in knowing just how good/bad is the XML support in Office, and have to admit to enjoying some bit of schadenfreude reading Taking the Pulse of XML Editing on xml.com (Oct. 1, 2003):
" Office 2003's much-reported XML support generates less fear on the part of vendors and...less interest on the part of managers."
"...every vendor who showed XML output from its tool showed XML that was vastly cleaner and more comprehensible than any XML output I've seen from Office 2003."
I'd seen something similar-ish (though not as strongly stated) from PCMag recently.
Here's simply hoping that the big gorilla "safe choice" tool (for IT, that is) doesn't become a de facto choice for XML authoring going forward.
-- Admittedly, it might be nice if things have improved to the extent that you could design a system that could take advantage of whatever MS-Word 2003 can produce for reasonably clean XML, for your more casual contributors.
But it would not be nice to learn that corporate America might be buying into the hype and coming to regard Office 2003 as the automatic choice ("nobody ever got fired choosing...") for the ubiquitous authoring tool for content in XML. Harrumph.
Wm.
October 13, 2003
CSS + XHTML with Eric Meyer: The "Real Deal"
Couple quick notes from highly useful daylong seminar.
Eric & Holly took a page all the way down and built it all the way back up, using the modern tools of XHTML 1.1 and CSS (1). Good time had by all!
Unfortunately, the key 21 pages of good stuff going over every detail of the original HTML page, the CSS, and the re-built XHTML page are available only on paper, not electronic.
At any rate, highly instructive to see the innards of the "transitional" re-make--a task awaiting many a website...
=== TIP ============
Nifty Presentation Layer Developer's Toolbar
http://www.placenamehere.com/pnhtoolbar/screengrab.png
Mozilla + Firebird + Netscape, all platforms
"XUL + JS"
April 2003 last updated
Here, links to actual code from earlier Eric Meyer presentation:
=== CODE ====================================
CSS for Navigation (in lieu of Javascript...)
Seybold S.F., Sept.
Slides:
http://complexspiral.com/events/archive/2003/seybold/cssnav.html
Resources: CSS, HTML:
http://complexspiral.com/events/archive/2003/seybold/cssnav/
Plain, but he builds up from here...
http://complexspiral.com/events/archive/2003/seybold/cssnav/list-ex.html
Kinda out there, not all working...
http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/menus/demo.html
Other examples he cites:
http://www.serve.com/apg/workshop/cssMenu.html
http://www.surguy.net/menu/index.html
=======================================
October 10, 2003
Linux on the (notebook) desktop: joys or noise?
My first "Trackback" (!) :: (like, "I'm a first-time caller..." to your radio show)
-----------------------------------------------
Hey Gregor,
I liked your entry critiquing this 180+Kb of joys/noise(?) on "moving from Linux to Windows." That little piece sure generated a lot of Reply to This, whew.
Gregor J. Rothfuss :: Imagination is key to your dreams coming true
You and I had talked about this some.
My case? Windows user since long time; growing use of *nix last few years. But about four months ago, moved entirely from Windows to Linux on the (notebook) desktop, just for the Big Experiment of it all.
For what it's worth, I administer my site's hosting on FreeBSD, I ssh in to sundry *nix school/work systems, and at home it's been two dual-boot machines, (notebook + tower), so I can get as much Linux admin + user exposure as possible.
But it's been the total desktop user shiftover that has been decidely useful for my *nix skills, though yes there are desktop things that work better/easier back in the Windows side. I could see myself heading back there sometime (?), but, I couldn't tell you when. Probably still a _good_ long ways off... :^)
Anyway, to get here, I do have to admit I did go the easy route, and got the Linux guy at PCsForEveryone to install the dual-boot onto the notebook. Things looked a little too hairy on linux-on-laptops.com (and a lot of the contibutions being in German!). Red Hat install to desktop machines, O.K., but the notebook changes things.
In fact, even with the help, turns out:
1) I can't run WiFi native Centrino on the Linux side (no open code from Intel for Linux team to program to, I'm told); have to buy a PCMCIA card, etc., and even that's tricky, getting the right one, etc., I'm told.
2) The sound board is unhappy (no go) on the Linux side (that isn't killing me).
3) Battery management is there, sort of?, on Linux (dead easy automatic in Windows). Linux guy says I can "look it up on the web" how to get the (visible) icon to (actually) do something. (don't worry, I'm sort of chuckling at this -- what the hell, there is a hardware orange "idiot light" for me to see before I lose all my exciting lengthy blog entries before the power goes out on me kaput!)
4) The modem won't go on the Linux side at all, I'm told (that doesn't matter at all).
Random:
Slightly embarrassing, but took more doing than it ever should have to just get from installed 800x600 to 1024x768 resolution. That's 2 seconds in Windows.
The slightly deep voodoo of "how do I switch Workspaces without using the mouse?" also called for someone to show me where to go do it (then, it was easy, granted, but still).
Took me an also slightly embarrassing number of days to wean all off of MS PIM-ish tools onto the KDE set: e-mail; address book; organizer; notes; talk to my Palm Pilot, etc. etc. (and the Palm-2-Linux infrared is still a mystery, though it did sort of get half-way there? (useful, that)). The world of "documentation" on these sorts of things is still, ahem, a bit, eh, thin.
I finally got away from paying MS-Office (ouch, once) and use OpenOffice (which yes, I could be/should be/will be! using on Windows side too). Besides, I'm far too interested in OOs XML; and, who can afford to re-pay for Office-11, even if it does come with mo' better XML? (the which I'm reading is beginning to look less compelling, according to some in the know (some recent PCMag piece)).
And yes your lineup of Mozilla, Eclipse etc. is in line with things I do run on my Windows side (which I also do log in and run at times). Hooray for open source on the Microsoft platform. Of course.
Something Missing:
One nice (expensive; someone else paid for) tool on Windows only: Altova's XML Spy. Eclipse's XML Buddy hasn't been updated in a long while; I have to follow some links to others (off I.B.M. developerWorks, I believe). But XML Spy is quite strong and I've used it to good effect. (Likewise Corel's XMetal I've got; Win32 only. Ah well.)
As for the intellectual honesty and the crap filter and all, yep, I'd say there's a lot of knee-jerk-ness out there to be had, no question.
Thanks for your bit, on all the noise!
[Finally - I'd like to look further into that Mindmanager you mention. Interesting...]
October 01, 2003
For Phil Wolff: Oakland comes to Boston
As Red Sox fans revel, Oakland cruising on easy
Boston Globe article looks at Boston's mania (over just barely getting into the playoffs?) vs. Oakland's ho-hum response to being there ("been there, done that" - four years running now).
Phil Wolff, from Oakland--but not ho-hum!--is headed to Boston (Cambridge) for the BloggerCon. (His talk: Weblogs Behind the Firewall).
So, maybe this little article a bit of required reading ;^) for inbound visitors from that fine East Bay city, to better understand some of the nuttiness here in Beantown (including escaped gorillas).
Welcome, Phil!
Wm.
"This is the cross Oakland fans have to bear -- not losing, but being out of style."
...
"in Boston, baseball fandom is religion, a manifestation of hope, a test of endurance."
...
"That's the thing. They [the A's] win. To truly understand the joy and suffering, you might just need to be in Boston."
Another "Whim" blog ref to Phil: http://www.reilly2001.info/whim/archives/000031.html, re: "BlogChalking"...