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Some stuff and things 'n whatever

A week of travel and presenting combined with staying up way too late, sleeping too little, and maybe having a little too much fun has kicked my ass.

The problem is that, even though I barely have the energy to tap the keys right now, I'm in the mood to communicate. Maybe not to "sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world," but at least to "whisper my pretty laid-back yawp over a few RSS readers in the nerdhood."

Microsoft answers about Mono

The yahoos over at searchvb.techtarget.com put some questions to a Microsoft exec over Mono, and the answers were, unfortunately, not very interesting.

I feel like the Mono situation is complicated enough that the questions and answers ought to be very interesting. There's so much about Mono that is potentially good and bad for Microsoft. I would have liked to have seen an acknowledgment that aspects of Mono are good for the company - that it's "bad" is obvious, and we all already knew it.

At the same time, though, if I were the person who answered (Amanda Morgan, Group Product Manager, Microsoft Global Positioning), what would I have said?

Actually, I know what I would have said, but I don't have a family or a mortgage. It's easy for me to say that I would have rocked the boat, and it isn't fair for me to judge everybody as though they were just unattached renters who don't even own a sofa, let alone the structure in which they live.

The whole topic is crazy sensitive, and I can't blame the people responsible for taking a certain "safe" stance.

That said, I want to see Microsoft succeed, and I think it's important to explore all the possibilities of how Mono affects Microsoft's business - not to just take the expected stance right off the bat.

Like I said, though, that's easy for me to say.

Microsoft OS X "Tiger"

Apple is peeling away more of the curtain and allowing some extended peek-a-boo action surrounding its next release of OS X, code-named "Tiger."

I must say that this release looks a hell of a lot better than the bug-ridden feature-poor $129.00 patch that Apple put out last time (Panther).

One thing that looks really cool is an app called "Automator." It looks like a way for regular users to create the equivalent of batch files through a menu-driven interface.

I, for one, am thrilled to see this. When I was a consultant, there was nothing lamer than getting a call from a customer who "just" wanted to copy a bunch of files from directory A to directory B, package them up, and then archive them somewhere, and "could [I] please come out tomorrow and write an application to do this?"

You might think, "Hey - that sounds like easy money."

Yeah. It's easy money, but it drags you away from the real projects, and you'll do it, too, because you don't want your client to start shopping around for another person to do it.

I'd like to see an app like this for Windows.

Another cool thing is RSS integration with Apple's Safari web browser.

And, yes, I know, this is already available in the Mozilla world, but I don't care. For me, it's not about who gets there first - it's about it getting to enough places that it will become adopted and mainstream.

Plus, I strongly prefer Safari to Mozilla, so this makes me happy where finding the functionality in Mozilla was just "ho-hum."

Java development on the PocketPC

There's a really cool article on Java development for the PocketPC over at informit.com.

However, if you're a busy person who doesn't have time to read the entire article, allow me to summarize:

- It's hard

- It sucks

So, it's like developing Java apps for any other platform, which means that your knowledge and extraordinarily high threshold for pain should be readily transferable to this new context.

Crap.

It's only 5:45 PM, and I'm ready for bed.

Published Sunday, October 31, 2004 12:47 AM by Rory

Filed Under: General

Comments

	Joe Duffy said: Oy vey. So presumably Global Positioning is part of the marketing organization, which explains at least partially the firm, void-of-logic blanket statements against Mono. I absolutely love how the "reverse engineering" bit, especially that it's shortly followed by "look, look, we've standardized the platform; yeah, sure, we're publically condemning people who implement the "open" standards, but hey! It's cool, right?" Uhhh... (Yes, yes, Mono does contain above and beyond the standardized APIs in the Framework, but the successful VEE and standard API implementations are certainly amazing feats that deserve nothing but praise.) Also, wrt the Java thing... Perhaps I am simply a masochist, but I don't buy the assertion that Java==hard all of the time. In fact, there are some mobile platforms on which Java isn't all that bad, and some networks --Nextel, for instance -- has deeply integrated support for OverTheAir deployment and management of mobile Java applications. One could argue the standard maturity mantra as well, as J2ME has had decent emulators and development environments way before Microsoft had a presence in this space. And in fact some platforms still only support Java -- e.g. RIM's Blackberry. (On a tangential note, however, RIM actually provides their own graphics toolkit rather than using J2ME's primitive look&feel capabilities.) With that said, given the choice between .NET CF and J2ME on a PocketPC, I would still choose .NET CF anyday. I've had experience with both, and have come to the conclusion that once you start crossing into the world of semi-rich UI, CF just kicks J2ME's ass. However, I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say Java sucks in any situation. October 31, 2004 4:23 AM
	Rory said: Joe - "Perhaps I am simply a masochist, but I don't buy the assertion that Java==hard all of the time." I totally agree. It's just that, ever since .NET replaced Java as the managed love of my life, I've had a hard time relating to Java. It's like we've gone our separate ways, and I just don't ever want to see it again. Also, it really comes down to the fact that coding for the PocketPC is a pain in the ass unless you use the CF, in which case it's a pleasure without equal. On the AS400, on the other hand, which is a wasteland completely devoid of anything .NETish, I find Java to be a Very Good Thing. When I have to choose between Java and .NET, .NET wins. When I have to choose between RPG/CL and Java, Java wins. What it comes down to is that I'm spoiled. I want my .NET everywhere, and I'll admit that I can be a bit of a baby about not finding it where I want it (OS X [cough, cough]). October 31, 2004 5:58 AM
	Andy said: Hey bud I'm going to have to cry semi-foul on the Java thing. I hate, absolutely hate working in Java but I have to do it fairly frequently because my company requires that I do wireless mapping applications for our Nextel phones and Nextel ( Research in Motion is the OS maker ) Blackberries. J2ME and it's IDE's like Borlands JBuilder Mobile Edition, RIM's Blackberry IDE, etc all have really easy environments to work in and make using Java very painless. So to say it's hard on small devices is a bit of a misnomer. It's actually really easy. However that being said the .Net CF is much more visually rich for GUI's especially. The really big thing about J2ME for me ( aside from the richer GUI ) that makes .Net CF more appealing is the support for floating point types. J2ME doesn't support floating points so I had to write in a fixed point library for all my projects because GIS and mapping require calculations that will make you need floating or fixed points. I don't mind doing bitshifting math but I can see how this could be very frustrating for someone who just wants to fire up an IDE and start working away. This in my POO was a huge mistake on SUN's part not to build floating point types into J2ME. Now since both you and I know that most large companies use legacy AS400 type billing and customer tracking systems or Oracle and since most phones don't support the .Net CF to make a wireless app truly portable throughout an enterprise without breaking the bank it will almost have to be in Java. Because you have average Joe salesman who is given a standard Nokia phone, the managers and up all have Blackberries, and the technicians and service people are on a Nextel network and they all want to see the same maps and billing info and they only want to write one wireless app. So I think the fact that the PocketPC now supports J2ME is a great thing. Enough on the Java thing. Now since you are one of the MS people that is pushing Mappoint. I have a beef with you. I'm not sure if you guys are saying it in your demo's or if people are just hearing what they want to about Mappoint but it's quickly becoming a huge pain in my @ss. Everybody wants GIS stuff now ( this is good it's how I make my money ) but Mappoint isn't GIS it's a location service. Companies are shelling out a lot of time and cash only to find out that Mappoint doesn't do what they thought it could. I'm not sure which end the problem is on but if you could be mindfull of it when you do your presentations I'd appreciate it. Here is a link to a blog post I did on Mappoint and my issue's with it a while back: http://www.cadencoding.net/blogs/users/cornbread/permalink.aspx?id=82 The Casey I refer to in that post is this Casey: http://www.brains-n-brawn.com/ October 31, 2004 5:29 PM
	Rory said: Andy - "So to say it's hard on small devices is a bit of a misnomer. It's actually really easy." I wouldn't agree, but then I might have a different pain threshold from you. I couldn't stand the limitations of J2ME. Something else I found, though, and which I didn't think was awful was the Jeode JVM for the PocketPC - that, at least, brings "full" Java to the platform. The problem there is that, with 1.18 support (I believe), you're coding like it's 1999. One major advantage, however, of Jeode over the CF is that you can write console apps - I know it seems weird to want to do this on a PocketPC, but I found a reason for it, and Jeode was my solution (yeah, sure, I could write my own little console like thing for the CF, but I like having it there already, and being able to get at it with common APIs). Aside from that, I simply fell in love so hard with the CF that I didn't leave much room in my little heart for other tools. I used to favor Jeode over eVB, but I now favor the CF over all. "...but Mappoint isn't GIS it's a location service. Companies are shelling out a lot of time and cash only to find out that Mappoint doesn't do what they thought it could." It's my experience that a lot of people shell out dough for things before doing their research because they're mid-tier managers who feel important when inviting vendors to go golfing (I sound flippant here, but I'm actually quite serious). On the one hand, I think that customers should be made aware of what MapPoint isn't (the list could get rather extensive very quickly, though), but on the other, I feel like the people with buying power at companies should do their homework. On the MapPoint web site, it says that it's a location service! The title of the MSDN presentation we're doing is "Location Intelligence with MapPoint Web Services." Where on the MapPoint web site does it say that it's a GIS solution? I am sorry that people are spending money on MapPoint as a GIS solution, but only in the same way that I might feel sorry for people who would buy cars to use as can-openers. October 31, 2004 6:38 PM
	Steve Loughran said: My phone does java. Its listed on the feature list after 'polyphonic ring tones', but rather than say 'java', the marketing blurb says 'downloadable games' and 'downloadable screen savers'. That being all j2me java is good for. In theory, you could do some good things with java on a pocket pc. it has lots of memory, good cpu, good networking and no phone company to screw up your life with their own strategic aims. But in practise, you cant, but I wouldnt say it is the fault of java the language itself. After all, to critique the java language is to critique C#, they are so much of a muchness. What is the problem, then? One, Sun hate MS, PPC are MS, so sun hate PPC. This is related to the Sun-hates-PCs problem; they cannot decide if they are a software company (java must succeed) or a hardware company (Solaris must succeed), and end up with neither. Because Sun dont support java on PPC, you dont get any support from them. Hey, Sun dont make laptops, which is why there are no power management APIs in java either. MS could support Java on PPC if they wanted to; they did for a while. But it is not strategic for them to do so, so we are left with win32/ce and .NET CF. Both of which are neither perfectly the same as the desktop versions. Which is fine, if only when installing the MSDN disks you'd be asked "do you give a fuck about WinCE", and if I check "no, I dont" then MSDN would stop telling me about obscure details of the behaviour of ::MessageBox() on a winCE platform. I dont want that any more than I care about EBCDIC support in Java. October 31, 2004 9:33 PM
	Andy said: "I wouldn't agree, but then I might have a different pain threshold from you." - Rory That could very well be. I come from a heavy C and C++ and work in in Java only when forced to by project reqs. C++ is my prefered language and is what I write in 99% of the time. But if it comes down to somebody asking for the app to run on a PocketPC and I've already written it for a phone then I am very glad they support J2ME on the pocketPC because I hate re-writing apps. "I couldn't stand the limitations of J2ME." - Rory I wouldn't call them limitations so much as giant glaring mistakes by SUN when they wrote the language. "It's my experience that a lot of people shell out dough for things before doing their research because they're mid-tier managers who feel important when inviting vendors to go golfing (I sound flippant here, but I'm actually quite serious)." - Rory I think you probably hit the nail on the head and this is why I am seeing this issue so often. "On the one hand, I think that customers should be made aware of what MapPoint isn't (the list could get rather extensive very quickly, though), but on the other, I feel like the people with buying power at companies should do their homework. On the MapPoint web site, it says that it's a location service! The title of the MSDN presentation we're doing is Location Intelligence with MapPoint Web Services." - Rory Exactly 100% correct so I'm going to assume that it's not MS that is advertising Mappoint as a GIS solution. Because in all my reading of docs and adverts I have yet to see it advertised as such. So I am left to wonder where are these folks getting the idea from? Perhapse as you suggest they just haven't done their research. "Where on the MapPoint web site does it say that it's a GIS solution?" - Rory It doesn't and herein lies my issue. Where are they getting the idea from? "I am sorry that people are spending money on MapPoint as a GIS solution, but only in the same way that I might feel sorry for people who would buy cars to use as can-openers." - Rory Heh. If you don't mind I'm going to use that the next time one of these idiots suggests using Mappoint as a web based GIS system. in addition: Steve is correct I would pay good money for a copy of the MSDN libraries that didn't pop up CE results when I search for help on something. October 31, 2004 9:56 PM
	Joe Duffy said: "J2ME doesn't support floating points so I had to write in a fixed point library for all my projects because GIS and mapping require calculations that will make you need floating or fixed points." Fyi, this is a CLDC 1.0 thing that no longer exists in the much more widely adopted CLDC 1.1 (JSR 139). There were completely valid reasons for not supporting floating point calculations, and is simply a byproduct of where the industry was at the time. Most of the J2ME target devices did not support native floating point co-processing, and supporting this completely in software was simply too expensive to be cost-effective in the majority of cases. Several open-source free FP implementations were available for those who wanted to opt-in and pay the cost (both in storage and processing time). November 1, 2004 12:45 AM
	Andy said: "Fyi, this is a CLDC 1.0 thing that no longer exists in the much more widely adopted CLDC 1.1 (JSR 139). There were completely valid reasons for not supporting floating point calculations, and is simply a byproduct of where the industry was at the time." - Joe Agreed but there is no reason to continue it anymore. J2ME should support floating points for those devices that do have hardware floating point support. Fixed point works fine for me but like Rory's original post was talking about, it's one of those things where I can see why he would call Java unfriendly. November 1, 2004 3:20 AM
	Pandurang said: "Microsoft OS X "Tiger"" ??? November 5, 2004 1:52 AM

Some stuff and things 'n whatever

Comments

Joe Duffy said:

Rory said:

Andy said:

Rory said:

Steve Loughran said:

Andy said:

Joe Duffy said:

Andy said:

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