From IRC, from whence many “interesting” questions come: “If I have a 4 dimensional integer array in Java, is there a way to initialise every element in it to a particular value?” Well. First off, you don’t have a four-dimensional array. You have a one-dimensional array of one dimensional arrays of one dimensional arrays of [...]
Repost: Java’s more relevant than you think.
It’s really funny, honestly, but kids, Java isn’t cool. It hasn’t been cool for a long time. Slashdot even posted “The Struggle to Keep Java Relevant,” which … wow. Not only is Java not cool, but it’s not even relevant any more. Now, that article is … odd, because “relevant” apparently means “used by people [...]
Repost: Rocket Java: What is Inversion of Control?
From IRC: “What’s Inversion of Control?” First off: Oh, my. Here’s a quick summary: traditionally, Java resources acquired whatever resources they need, when they need them. So if your DAO needed a JDBC connection, it would create one, which meant the more DAOs you created, for whatever reason, the more JDBC connections you used. It [...]
Repost: Self-censorship.
As an artist – an artiste, thank you – I get all worried about creating stuff that people might find offensive. When I was nine or ten, for example, I wanted to write a poem that used the word “damn.” So I asked my mom – and she said I shouldn’t, that I should use [...]
Repost: It’s all about the boundaries, baby
The key to distributed – and enterprise – computing is boundary management. Even worse, it’s not conceptual boundary management – it’s real boundary management, which is a lot harder to figure out. A boundary is a barrier between things or places, right? Well, consider a web browser and a web server; the TCP/IP layer is [...]
Repost: Rocket Java: if(s==null) {s=t} vs. s=(s==null?t:s);
From online again, names concealed to protect the guilty: I’m trying to figure out the shortest way to do this: if (anotherString != null) s = anotherString; Now, if you’ll pardon the stream of consciousness, through discussion it turns out he’s trying to work out the shortest form: s=((anotherString != null)? anotherString:s); Or, paraphrasing in [...]
Repost: In search of the perfect expression
One of my … flaws, I guess, is that I consider myself an artist. I typically prefer the aural media to visual, but I’m not afraid to try visual media. I guess a few definitions are in order. Aural media is something you hear, obviously, but there are some forms that can be considered aural [...]
Repost: Rocket Java: What type should I prefer, int or byte?
From online: Is there any benefit of using byte intead of int? I have a case where the range of possible values is between 0..100, so an int would be way to much for this, a byte is also more than sufficent for this. But then I think about the 32 bit architecture of today’s [...]
Repost: Learning new languages considered harmful? No.
The Pragmatic Programmers suggest learning a new language every year (The Pragmatic Programmer, page 14). I think they’re right, but I think their blanket statement needs clarification. Here’s the actual quote: Different languages solve the same problems in different ways. By learning several different approaches, you can help broaden your thinking and avoid getting stuck [...]
Repost: I wonder why I resist repairing myself.
I was reading an essay concerning left vs. right sources of authority and something stood out: the author referred to Dr. Charles Krauthammer’s opinion on stem cell research and factored in Dr. Krauthammer’s paralysis. I didn’t know any of this. The paragraph in question that caught my eye: Take, for example, Krauthammer’s position on embryonic [...]