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Wenn ich in Ruby entwickle hatte ich immer Probleme mit dem Encoding. So wurden Umlaute wie äüö usw. im NetBeans Editor korrekt angezeigt, bei der Ausgabe jedoch nicht. Zuerst dachte ich das Problem ist Ruby. Nach ein wenig probieren, stellte sich jedoch heraus Ruby ist nicht das Problem. Dann überprüfte ich die NetBeans Einstellungen. Zum Beispiel kann man in den Projekt Einstellungen das Encoding einstellen:

Jedoch löste dies das Problem nicht. Nach einigem Googlen, entdeckte ich schließlich diesen Blogeintrag. Darin steht, dass NetBeans standardmäßig nicht UTF8 Encoding für Dateien benutzt. Mein erster Gedanke war, warum nicht? Dh, obwohl die Projekt Einstellungen auf UTF8 gesetzt sind, verwendet NetBeans nicht dasselbe Encoding für Dateien! Um das Datei Encoding ebenfalls umzustellen, muss man folgendes machen:

1. gehe in das Verzeichnis etc in dem NetBeans Verzeichnis
2. öffne die Datei netbeans.conf
3. und füge zu den netbeans_default_options folgenden Eintrag hinzu -J-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8

Nachdem funktioniert alles richtig und Deutsche Umlaute werden im Editor und im Ausgabefenster richtig angezeigt.

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Here is an English translation:

Debian-based system – the browser in full screen mode – navigation in the headline

Beyond a very poor facts announcement, Google has not yet divulged all too much about its future netbook OS ChromeOS. Actually, Google wanted to reveal first details in the next few weeks. But the fact that a central part of the software is being developed fairly open, means that now the first concrete information has leaked.

Chromium

Under the Chromium project, the base of the Google Chrome browser, added recently builds, in addition to normal Windows, Linux and Mac versions, also a separate version for ChromeOS. This can be downloaded from the servers of the project and brought up to current Linux systems to run.

Browser Central

It turns out quickly that Google Chrome seems to actually become the central planning – and exclusive – interface of the operating system. Accordingly, Chrome has a clock built into the title bar, including information such as battery level and the current network connection to display here.

Compact-Nav

Since some of the functions that are usually accessed via a menu bar are now duplicated in the title line of Chrome, it must be assumed that the browser operates in full-screen mode under ChromeOS. There is also a new compact-Nav-bar-mode by both URL line as well as navigation is also migrate into the browser’s frame.

Google OS Compact Navigation

Applications

Also new is a button on the left upper end of the title bar. It links to a login at Google Short, a service that is related to the Google Apps service, meant to gather clear links to websites. It can be assumed that Google will use this overview in ChromeOS as a kind of menu for the various online applications.

Options

Google OS System Settings

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When I added Whenever, I got a warning every time I started Rails:

.../vendor/rails/railties/lib/rails/version.rb:3: warning: already initialized constant MAJOR
.../vendor/rails/railties/lib/rails/version.rb:3: warning: already initialized constant MINOR
.../vendor/rails/railties/lib/rails/version.rb:3: warning: already initialized constant TINY
.../vendor/rails/railties/lib/rails/version.rb:3: warning: already initialized constant STRING

The problem was that I added a require statement in environment.rb:

require 'whenever'

which isn’t necessary in Rails 2.1 and above. I know it stands in the install instructions, but when I am in a rush, I sometimes doesn’t read it carefully. Even if I should. So if you use the Whenever gem and Rails 2.1 and above and you get the warning from above, it is your fault and not Whenever’s. That said, Whenever does quite a good job for TimeWhale. I am using it for running a Twitter Job that handles tracking time directly from Twitter.

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I consider this very good news. Engine Yard has always been a very strong force behind Ruby and Rails. They already employ a bunch of very good developers and now they got themselves a bunch of geniuses more. This not only means that JRuby future looks bright, no, it is shining. Thanks JRuby guys and Engine Yard!

As a side note, Nick Sieger is leaving Project Kenai (another product with an uncertain future I guess) and returning to JRuby full time. Ola Bini is still working on JRuby at ThoughtWorks.

Source:

Sun’s JRuby team jumps ship to Engine Yard

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Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is an open source set of tools that allows web developers to create and maintain complex JavaScript front-end applications in Java. It is licensed under the Apache License version 2.0. The GWT’s mission statement focuses on radically improving the web experience for users, by enabling developers to use existing Java tools to build no-compromise AJAX for any modern browser.

Google is set to launch GWT 2.0 later this year. The progress of GWT has been slow but steady over the years. Let us explore the road traveled so far and what lies ahead

The miles travelled…

Google promises much more with the GWT2.0 version scheduled to release later this year. Its various versions have been made available in the following sequence, with 2.0 following…

• GWT 1.0 May 17, 2006
• GWT 1.1 August 11, 2006
• GWT 1.2 November 16, 2006
• GWT 1.3 February 5, 2007
• GWT 1.4 August 28, 2007
• GWT 1.5 August 27, 2008
• GWT 1.6 April 07, 2009
• GWT 1.7 July 13, 2009

The launch…

And in comes the GWT 2.0 scheduled to be launched later this year. There is a lot on offer for this new version as Google promises to improvise it. GWT 2.0 contains huge improvements, including dynamic script loading, a new catalog of compiler optimizations, and a new approach to hosted mode debugging that uses the native browser.

The hosted mode is a key to productive development and it helps in debugging, editing etc. The problem is that the hosted mode browser is too special e.g. on Linux, hosted browser is an ancient Mozilla, hard to simulate interactions with other technologies (e.g. Flash) and it is impossible to debug browsers on non-dev OSes (e.g. IE from Mac). The GWT solves these problems by making hosted mode work with most native browser and make it work across the network.

Another huge advantage will be the compiler enhancements that come with the new kit. This new version promises much faster compilations, size, speed and obscurity benefits.

A new feature is the developer-guided code splitting. Often the compiled script size can be a problem because it holds all the code and can grow very big. Hence, the initial download can be too slow; UI hangs during script parsing etc. GWT 2.0 provides a solution, in code splitting by using- runasync. It is intentionally developer-guided and async. It intentionally forces you to think about failure paths. The split point doesn’t necessarily split. The compiler decides how to cluster code and it is guaranteed to be correct, ordering-wise.

Another new feature is the ClientBundle which generalizes ImageBundle to arbitrary resource types. With ClientBundle not only images are bundled together, all the resources (like CSS) are getting bundled. The obvious advantage is that only one file has to be downloaded, hence, less HTTP requests and faster download. Additionally, resources like CSS are getting optimized for size. At the Google I/O presentations it was also mentioned that in later versions ClientBundle probably also handles binary resources using Base64.

In GWT 2.0 there is the possibility to create a RPC blacklists which tell the RPC subsystem to skip types that you know aren’t ever sent across the wire and so doesn’t get compiled and stuffed into the code base. GWT 2.0 also promises a faster, easier and more predictable layout (at last). The standards mode provides new leverage including constraint-based layout that actually does what you say and also you’ll never have to hook the window resize event again. There is an updated set of Panels in GWT 2.0.

Version 2.0 will bring GWT a huge step forward and boost performance for developers and clients. It is not official, but 2.0 maybe also brings a new XML based markup language to define the layout. My guess is that the syntax will be close to HTML. Let’s hope that the new version attracts more GWT developers and which hopefully results in more widget libraries and extensions.

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Neal Ford about Software and learn from history

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There are already wild speculations about the what, why, and how on the Internet, but facts are pretty rare. Facts are that the OS will be launched next year, 2010, it will be Open Source (yeah!), and the community will be involved soon. Google Chrome OS will focus on mini netbooks and desktops. So there is an overlap with Android systems, but as stated in the Google blog post, they have different goals. Google Chrome OS (the name is a bit long I think) will focus on Web applications and performance. One thing is clear, when Google talks about performance, they are quite serious about it.

So it is longer only OS X vs Windows, odds are good will leverage Linux to worthy rival.
TimeWhale Time Tracking

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I start with an overview of the new features and then with my personal opinion about the new version. Disclaimer: I am only writing my personal and subjective opinion, I didn’t do any performance tests, measurements, or statistics analysis. So if you have some objections, just leave a comment.

Before we start, I will give you an overview about the new functionality in NB. The slogan for the new release is “Connects Developers” (the slogan for NB 6.5 was “The only IDE you need”). I am not sure if the slogan is a one because only one new feature, the Kenai integration, has something to do with connecting developers:

Connected Developer Tools

• Create Kenai-hosted open source projects directly within the IDE
• Manage your Kenai project and collaborate with like-minded developers
• File issue tracking reports using both Jira and Bugzilla

Java

• Hudson services integration for Ant and Maven projects
• Generated source roots now displayed in the Projects tab
• Struts library migrated to version 1.3.8

Maven

• Library dependency graph viewer
• Improved code completion for Maven plugin parameters
• Support for Java EE, Web Services creation and consumption
• POM Editor and Navigator enhancements

Groovy and Grails

• Out-of-the-box support for Grails 1.1
• Code completion
• Disable browser opening on run and configure platforms to use with Grails projects
• Invoke Grails command or custom script from context menu item

Ruby and Rails

• Remote debugging
• Improvements to Ruby constants support
• Run and debug actions for test cases and suites included in context menu
• Support for Shoulda tests

These are only the most obvious features of NB 6.7, for a full list have a look at the release notes.

So what’s my view on NB 6.7? One thing that stand out, the NB team concentrated on a lot of different things, but not on Java. Of course most technologies are somewhat in the Java realm, but not specific Java. I tried a couple of times to switch my Java development to NB, after all using only one IDE would be nice. However, the Java code editor in NB always felt kind of awkward. In Eclipse I have the feeling the code editor ‘knows’ what I want to do. I mean the NB code editor is good in general, but has a lot of rough edges. Here is an example of what I mean:

NetBeans strikes you down with suggestions, and Eclipse just shows suggestions which are valid to the context.

Another case against Java in NB are missing plugins, e.g. FindBugs. I know there is NB plugin for FindBugs, but is seems fairly outdated. Also tool integration from other companies, e.g. Google GWT and Google APP, doesn’t exist in NB. So I guess NB 6.7 for Java is still a not for me.

Project Kenai is Sun’s Google Code with some extra features for issue tracking and collaboration. Although, it hosts some interesting projects, like JRuby, it is fairly unknown. The new tools allow you to create Kenai hosted open source projects, to collaborate with other developers, and track issues. I played with the tools a little bit and found them ok, but not really exciting. Equal tools are already around.

NetBeans focuses more and more on dynamic languages, like Ruby, PHP, or Groovy. Groovy and Grails are getting really pushed in NetBeans right now. I did some work with both and like them. That said, I am confused about Sun’s strategy. On one hand they push Ruby with JRuby, a lot, on the other hand their only IDE switched focus to Groovy. This is not a problem per se if the Ruby support is already that good, but it still has issues and sadly performance got worse in NB 6.7. My guess is because Groovy is popular in Europe and the core NB team is also in Europe, there is maybe some sympathy towards Groovy.
Supporting a lot of languages is great, but I am not sure if the NetBeans team has enough ressources to fully support all the languages they want. With all the downcuts and the still uncertain future of the Oracle deal, it would better to support less and let the community/partner do the rest. However, getting the community and partner on board was always Sun’s (NetBean’s) weak spot. This is were Eclipse clearly won. A note on the NetBeans RCP, Matt Thompson, Senior Director of Sun’s Developer Cloud Tools, stated the the RCP is now less of an goal. This could backfire when e4 is around.

Like I said I use NetBeans primarily for Ruby on Rails development. NetBeans was and still is the best Ruby on Rails IDE, but it lost its momentum and other IDE aren’t sleeping. The only useful new features for me is the support of the Shoulda framework. Should is an awesome Unit test framework for Rails. Useful, but for me not a feature, is the improved constant support. The rest is like NetBeans 6.5, only slower (and sometimes buggier). A couple of weeks ago NetBeans 6.7 had some serious performance problems (we discussed this in the CAT program). The NB team invested a lot of hard work and fixed many of the problems. But NB 6.7 still feels sluggish compared to NB 6.5 and doesn’t do good on scanning large projects.
Another NB Ruby/Rails caveat, NetBeans includes an outdated version of JRuby, 1.2. The actual version is 1.3.1. So it is probably best to install your own JRuby version and don’t rely on the provided one.

Conclusio

Is NetBeans 6.7 bad? No. Is NetBeans 6.7 good? Maybe, but more like ‘ok’. NetBeans 6.7 gives me the feeling that it includes a lot of features the majority doesn’t need or use (e.g. features on demand which was at the beginning a big deal and now seems just a side feature), and doesn’t care enough about improving existing ones and performance. The results of the NetBeans community survey support my thoughts. For the next version I would wish something like Snow Leopard or Windows 7, a release just to clean and speed up the base.

After this rather neutral/negative review, I want to thank the NetBeans team for their hard work and community involvement. The CAT program allowed me and others to speak up their minds and the NetBeans team listened. As a developer I know that there are a lot decisions and considerations (or politics) the user, which is in this case me, simply doesn’t see. Thanks for NetBeans 6.7 and I am looking forward to the next version.TimeWhale Time Tracking

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