there.is.only.xul- May 27, 2005 I have spent the last few days hacking a Firefox extension. While the platform is pretty cool and extensible the documentation is sparse to say the least. Even searching the web the amount of information is very sparse. This is proably an indication of the platform maturity.However the number of extensions is however growing (a very good sign), so learning by readiing code demonstrates a key to the success of open source - building on the shoulders of giants.With a little effort I was able to...http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/thereisonlyxul.html Open Source - Software or Services- May 22, 2005 The acceleration of adoption and acceptance of open source by the mainstream is accelerating see: Investors to commercialize open source and IBM buys open-source Java outfit Gluecode. These are major chasm crossing events and should be celebrated, and congratulations to all involved. However I question that this is the best model economic model for all open source projects. In fact I will argue that if an open source application project is a technical success it inherently will undermine the..http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/open-source-software-or-services.html Dynamic Languages- May 20, 2005 In Phil Windley's Technometria The Continuing March of Dynamic Languages Phil suggests that Scheme is a great dynamic web systems. I have a fond spot for scheme as way back I worked on a system that used scheme as a dataflow language for creating analysis tools. It was based on some cool research a bunch of guys at MIT had done. It was extremely flexible and we could do anything with it. Coupled with XML I think it is a very interesting avenue to explore. I look forward to hearing more about...http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/dynamic-languages.html A small understatement from Stefan- May 19, 2005 I just LOL when I read footnote 5 in Stefan's posting RPC-style Web Services. The only thing that compares to (and exceeds) the complexity of Corba is OLE2.http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/small-understatement-from-stefan.html WSDL 2.0 - First impressions- May 18, 2005 After reading Dave Orchard's Blog: WITW WSDL 2.0 HTTP Binding I downloaded some of the WSDL 2.0 specs to read on the train. I am pleasantly surprised as compared to WSDL 1.1 it appears much more accessible. Whether my positive impressions are due to too much reading of WSDL 1.1 not sure. Mark Baker as always has a very pithy comment that aside all the people involved should be congratulated for their hard work. Congratulations aside, I question the idea of a "single SDL to bind them all". So..http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/wsdl-20-first-impressions.html Simplicity - Just ask why- May 16, 2005 One of the most powerful questions I ask myself (especially) and others in reviews is why is something in a project. As engineers we have a tendency to like shiny new things, elegant abstraction etc. As is pointed out in Quoderat Blog Archive Burden of Proof injecting simplicity is sometimes about just asking why something should be added or why is there a need for a layer of abstraction or why is there a need to make the solution completely generic. In many cases there are very good...http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/simplicity-just-ask-why.html 46,213,000,000.00 things to fix- May 12, 2005 This is classic ongoing $46,213,000,000.00. Several years ago evaluating a J2EE servers I found this to be so true, downloading, installing and running test program for JBoss - under 10 minutes. While WebSphere the download was 14 times as big and getting running was days (i.e. call IGS). Is WebSphere so much more capable than JBoss - I doubt it and given IBM's recent purchase of GlueCode they might have seen some of the light.http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/4621300000000-things-to-fix.html Dissolving boundaries - inside and outside- May 10, 2005 Phil Wainwright comments on dissolving boundaries Loosely Coupled Dissolving boundaries May 6th 2005 2:12pm. I think we need to make a clear differentiation between inside and outside boundaries. Inside the enterprise the CIO has some degree of the framework between the silos and can manage the necessary change to define the fabric to achieve loosely coupled services architecture. Outside the enterprise the CIO has little control (but has economic power) of the fabric. Here though is where.http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/dissolving-boundaries-inside-and.html Resedel - Updated- May 10, 2005 John Cowan's entry into service definition language Recycled Knowledge: Resedel. Looks good I think as I am better with Schema than RelaxNG. (Update - thanks to trang here is a XML-Schema version of Resedel resedel.xsd)Biggest question is why translate HTTP-GET et al explicitly into CRUD - expose the URL verb, another layer of abstraction can be confusing.http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/resedel-updated.html Service Descriptions - Just the docs- May 9, 2005 Couple of interesting posts: Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life - On Replacing WSDL with Something Simpler and Mark Baker- ongoing - SMEX-D. Both make the point that having an interface language for services should not do very much. From my POV I want primarily a means of getting accurate documentation on the interface (and also providing it to consumers of services). For all its warts Javadoc was a great step forward as it provided a way for developers to provide documentation will minimal...http://www.mcdowall.com/2005/05/service-descriptions-just-docs.html |