I’ve always loved Groovy builders concept for handling (mostly creating) hierarchical documents. On the other hand I find StAX, pull-based processing API, to be one of my favorite methods for dealing with simple XML processing. It’s simple and fast, so what more can I ask for? Additionally, thanks to the Jettison project you can also use the StAX API to handle JSON documents. So, basically we can use one simple (standard) API to handle both XML and JSON documents in the same manner. The next logical step is to merge these two great pieces of technology into one.

I want to talk a little about Android. I am very much going to sidestep the holy war about is it or isn’t it Java, except to say, this looks a lot like something that would have been derived from the Danger stack. The commonalities are striking. As a Sidekick owner, I am terribly pleased with “Java-ish” development for that platform, and I think seeing something similar in wide deployment is great. That said…

First, lets talk about the Android UI API. I recall last year at Sun Tech Days,”The Gos” was asked what, in retrospect he would do different with Java. The first thing he came up with was the Swing API. The “747 Cockpit” feel of the API is overwhelming to new users. Frankly, Android takes this to a whole new level. Just look at the JavaDoc for the Checkbox class:

Constants inherited from class android.view.View

FOCUS_BACKWARD, FOCUS_DOWN, FOCUS_FORWARD, FOCUS_LEFT, FOCUS_RIGHT, FOCUS_UP, GONE, INVISIBLE, NORMAL_FOCUS, NO_ID, VIEW_LOG_TAG, VISIBLE, WEAK_FOCUS

			Value
int	FOCUS_BACKWARD	Use with focusSearch(int).	1	0×00000001
int	FOCUS_DOWN	Use with focusSearch(int).	130	0×00000082
int	FOCUS_FORWARD	Use with focusSearch(int).	2	0×00000002
int	FOCUS_LEFT	Use with focusSearch(int).	17	0×00000011
int	FOCUS_RIGHT	Use with focusSearch(int).	66	0×00000042
int	FOCUS_UP	Use with focusSearch(int).	33	0×00000021
int	GONE	This view is invisible, and it doesn’t take any space for layout purposes.	8	0×00000008
int	INVISIBLE	This view is invisible, but it still takes up space for layout purposes.	4	0×00000004
int	NORMAL_FOCUS	This view wants keystrokes.	0	0×00000000
int	NO_ID	Used to mark a View that has no ID.	-1	0xffffffff
String	VIEW_LOG_TAG	The logging tag used by this class with android.util.Log.	“View”
int	VISIBLE	This view is visible.	0	0×00000000
int	WEAK_FOCUS	This view wants keystrokes, but only if none of its children has focus.	2	0×00000002

Fields inherited from class android.view.View

mBottom, mContext, mLayoutParams, mLeft, mOnClickListener, mOnFocusChangeListener, mPaddingBottom, mPaddingLeft, mPaddingRight, mPaddingTop, mParent, mRight, mScrollX, mScrollY, mTag, mTop, mWindowLeft, mWindowTop

protected			int	mBottom	The distance in pixels from the bottom edge of this view’s parent to the bottom edge of this view.
protected			Context	mContext	The application environment this view lives in.
protected			LayoutParams	mLayoutParams	The layout parameters associated with this view and used by the parent ViewGroup to determine how this view should be laid out.
protected			int	mLeft	The distance in pixels from the left edge of this view’s parent to the left edge of this view.
protected			OnClickListener	mOnClickListener	Listener used to dispatch click events.
protected			OnFocusChangeListener	mOnFocusChangeListener	Listener used to dispatch focus change events.
protected			int	mPaddingBottom	The bottom padding in pixels, that is the distance in pixels between the bottom edge of this view and the bottom edge of its content.
protected			int	mPaddingLeft	The left padding in pixels, that is the distance in pixels between the left edge of this view and the left edge of its content.
protected			int	mPaddingRight	The right padding in pixels, that is the distance in pixels between the right edge of this view and the right edge of its content.
protected			int	mPaddingTop	The top padding in pixels, that is the distance in pixels between the top edge of this view and the top edge of its content.
protected			ViewParent	mParent	The parent this view is attached to.
protected			int	mRight	The distance in pixels from the right edge of this view’s parent to the right edge of this view.
protected			int	mScrollX	The offset, in pixels, by which the content of this view is scrolled horizontally.
protected			int	mScrollY	The offset, in pixels, by which the content of this view is scrolled vertically.
protected			Object	mTag	The view’s tag.
protected			int	mTop	The distance in pixels from the top edge of this view’s parent to the top edge of this view.
protected			int	mWindowLeft	The distance in pixels from the left edge of this view’s enclosing window to the left edge of this view.
protected			int	mWindowTop	The distance in pixels from the top edge of this view’s enclosing window to the top edge of this view.

Public Constructors

					CheckBox(Context context)
					CheckBox(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, Map inflateParams)
					CheckBox(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, Map inflateParams, int defStyle)

Methods inherited from class android.widget.CompoundButton

isChecked, onDraw, onKeyDown, performClick, setButtonDrawable, setButtonDrawable, setChecked, setOnCheckedChangeListener, toggle

				boolean	isChecked()
				void	onDraw(Canvas canvas)
					Implement this to do your drawing.
				boolean	onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
					Called when a key down event has occurred.
				boolean	performClick()
					Call this view’s OnClickListener, if it is defined.
				void	setButtonDrawable(int resid)
					Set the background to a given Drawable, identified by its resource id.
				void	setButtonDrawable(Drawable d)
					Set the background to a given Drawable
				void	setChecked(boolean checked)
					Changes the checked state of this button.
				void	setOnCheckedChangeListener(OnCheckedChangeListener listener)
					Register a callback to be invoked when the checked state of this button changes.
				void	toggle()

Methods inherited from class android.widget.Button

createDrawableState, onMotionEvent, performClick

				int[]	createDrawableState()
					Generate the new drawable state for this view.
				boolean	onMotionEvent(MotionEvent ev)
					Implement this method to handle MotionEvent events.
				boolean	performClick()
					Call this view’s OnClickListener, if it is defined.

Methods inherited from class android.widget.TextView

addTextChangedListener, append, append, computeHorizontalScrollRange, computeScroll, computeVerticalScrollRange, debug, getBaseline, getDisabledTextColor, getFilters, getFocusedTextColor, getHintTextColor, getInputMethod, getInterestingRect, getLayout, getLineBounds, getLineCount, getLineHeight, getMovementMethod, getNormalTextColor, getPaint, getPaintFlags, getSelectedTextColor, getText, getTextScaleX, getTextSize, getTransformationMethod, getTypeface, length, onDraw, onFocusChanged, onKeyDown, onKeyUp, onMeasure, onTextChanged, restoreState, saveState, saveStateAndText, setAlignment, setCursorVisible, setDisabledTextColor, setEms, setFilters, setFocusedTextColor, setGravity, setHeight, setHiliteColor, setHint, setHint, setHintTextColor, setHorizontallyScrolling, setIncludeFontPadding, setInputMethod, setLineSpacing, setLines, setMaxEms, setMaxHeight, setMaxLines, setMaxWidth, setMinEms, setMinHeight, setMinLines, setMinWidth, setMovementMethod, setNormalTextColor, setPadding, setPaintFlags, setScroller, setSelectAllOnFocus, setSelectedTextColor, setShadowLayer, setSingleLine, setSingleLine, setText, setText, setText, setText, setText, setText, setTextColor, setTextScaleX, setTextSize, setTextSize, setTransformationMethod, setTypeface, setWidth, windowFocusChanged

				void	addTextChangedListener(TextWatcher watcher)
					Adds a TextWatcher to the list of those whose methods are called whenever this TextView’s text changes.
		final		void	append(CharSequence text)
					Convenience method: Append the specified text to the TextView’s display buffer, upgrading it to BufferType.EDITABLE if it was not already editable.
				void	append(CharSequence text, int start, int end)
					Convenience method: Append the specified text slice to the TextView’s display buffer, upgrading it to BufferType.EDITABLE if it was not already editable.
				int	computeHorizontalScrollRange()
					Compute the horizontal range that the horizontal scrollbar represents.
				void	computeScroll()
					Called by a parent to request that a child update its values for mScrollX and mScrollY if necessary.
				int	computeVerticalScrollRange()
					Compute the vertical range that the vertical scrollbar represents.
				void	debug(int depth)
					Prints information about this view in the log output, with the tag VIEW_LOG_TAG.
				int	getBaseline()
					Return the offset of the widget’s text baseline from the widget’s top boundary.
				int	getDisabledTextColor()
				InputFilter[]	getFilters()
					Returns the current list of input filters.
				int	getFocusedTextColor()
		final		int	getHintTextColor()
					Return the color used to paint the hint text.
		final		InputMethod	getInputMethod()
				void	getInterestingRect(Rect r)
					The rectangle that this view would like to make visible if it is being scrolled within its parent.
		final		Layout	getLayout()
				int	getLineBounds(int line, Rect bounds)
					Return the baseline for the specified line (0…getLineCount() - 1) If bounds is not null, return the top, left, right, bottom extents of the specified line in it.
				int	getLineCount()
					Return the number of lines of text, or 0 if the internal Layout has not been built.
				int	getLineHeight()
		final		MovementMethod	getMovementMethod()
				int	getNormalTextColor()
				Paint	getPaint()
				int	getPaintFlags()
				int	getSelectedTextColor()
				CharSequence	getText()
					Return the text the TextView is displaying.
				float	getTextScaleX()
				float	getTextSize()
		final		TransformationMethod	getTransformationMethod()
				Typeface	getTypeface()
				int	length()
					Returns the length, in characters, of the text managed by this TextView
				void	onDraw(Canvas canvas)
					Implement this to do your drawing.
				void	onFocusChanged(boolean focused, int direction)
					Called by the view system when the focus state of this view changes.
				boolean	onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
					Called when a key down event has occurred.
				boolean	onKeyUp(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
					Called when a key up event has occurred.
				void	onMeasure(int widthMeasureSpec, int heightMeasureSpec)
					Measure the view and its content to determine the measured width and the measured height.
				void	onTextChanged(CharSequence text, int start, int before, int after)
					This method is called when the text is changed, in case any subclasses would like to know.
				boolean	restoreState(Bundle state)
				Bundle	saveState()
				Bundle	saveStateAndText()
				void	setAlignment(Alignment align)
					Sets the alignment of this view’s text.
				void	setCursorVisible(boolean visible)
					Set whether the cursor is visible.
				void	setDisabledTextColor(int color)
					Sets the text color for this View when it is disabled.
				void	setEms(int ems)
					Makes the TextView exactly this many ems wide
				void	setFilters(InputFilter[] filters)
					Sets the list of input filters that will be used if the buffer is Editable.
				void	setFocusedTextColor(int color)
					Sets the text color for this text view when it has focus.
				void	setGravity(int gravity)
					Sets the vertical gravity that will be used when there is extra space in the TextView beyond what is required for the text itself.
				void	setHeight(int pixels)
					Makes the TextView exactly this many pixels tall.
				void	setHiliteColor(int color)
					Sets the color used to display the selection highlight.
		final		void	setHint(CharSequence hint)
					Sets the text to be displayed when the text of the TextView is empty.
		final		void	setHint(int resid)
					Sets the text to be displayed when the text of the TextView is empty, from a resource.
		final		void	setHintTextColor(int color)
					Sets the color of the hint text.
				void	setHorizontallyScrolling(boolean whether)
					Sets whether the text should be allowed to be wider than the View is.
				void	setIncludeFontPadding(boolean includepad)
					Set whether the TextView includes extra top and bottom padding to make room for accents that go above the normal ascent and descent.
				void	setInputMethod(InputMethod input)
					Sets the input method to be used with this TextView.
				void	setLineSpacing(float add, float mult)
					Sets line spacing for this TextView.
				void	setLines(int lines)
					Makes the TextView exactly this many lines tall
				void	setMaxEms(int maxems)
					Makes the TextView at most this many ems wide
				void	setMaxHeight(int maxHeight)
					Makes the TextView at most this many pixels tall
				void	setMaxLines(int maxlines)
					Makes the TextView at most this many lines tall
				void	setMaxWidth(int maxpixels)
					Makes the TextView at most this many pixels wide
				void	setMinEms(int minems)
					Makes the TextView at least this many ems wide
				void	setMinHeight(int minHeight)
					Makes the TextView at least this many pixels tall
				void	setMinLines(int minlines)
					Makes the TextView at least this many lines tall
				void	setMinWidth(int minpixels)
					Makes the TextView at least this many pixels wide
		final		void	setMovementMethod(MovementMethod movement)
					Sets the movement method (arrow key handler) to be used for this TextView.
				void	setNormalTextColor(int color)
					Sets the text color for this View when it is unfocused and not selected.
				void	setPadding(int left, int top, int right, int bottom)
					Sets the padding.
				void	setPaintFlags(int flags)
					Sets flags on the Paint being used to display the text and reflows the text if they are different from the old flags.
				void	setScroller(Scroller s)
				void	setSelectAllOnFocus(boolean selectAllOnFocus)
					Set the TextView so that when it takes focus, all the text is selected.
				void	setSelectedTextColor(int color)
					Sets the text color for this text view when it has been selected.
				void	setShadowLayer(float radius, float dx, float dy, int color)
					Gives the text a shadow of the specified radius and color, the specified distance from its normal position.
				void	setSingleLine()
					Sets the properties of this field (lines, horizontally scrolling, transformation method) to be for a single-line input.
				void	setSingleLine(boolean singleLine)
					If true, sets the properties of this field (lines, horizontally scrolling, transformation method) to be for a single-line input; if false, restores these to the default conditions.
		final		void	setText(int resid)
		final		void	setText(int resid, BufferType type)
		final		void	setText(Cursor cursor, int column, BufferType type)
		final		void	setText(CharSequence text)
				void	setText(CharSequence text, BufferType type)
					Sets the text that this TextView is to display (see setText(CharSequence)) and also sets whether it is stored in a styleable/spannable buffer and whether it is editable.
		final		void	setText(Cursor cursor, int column)
				void	setTextColor(int color)
					Set the text color for all the states (normal, selected, focused) to be this color.
				void	setTextScaleX(float size)
					Sets the extent by which text should be stretched horizontally.
				void	setTextSize(int unit, float size)
					Set the default text size to a given unit and value.
				void	setTextSize(float size)
					Set the default text size to the given value, interpreted as “scaled pixel” units.
		final		void	setTransformationMethod(TransformationMethod method)
					Sets the transformation that is applied to the text that this TextView is displaying.
				void	setTypeface(Typeface tf)
					Sets the typeface and style in which the text should be displayed.
				void	setWidth(int pixels)
					Makes the TextView exactly this many pixels wide.
				void	windowFocusChanged(boolean hasWindowFocus)
					Called when the window containing this view gains or loses focus.

Methods inherited from class android.view.View

awakenScrollBars, awakenScrollBars, bringToFront, clearAnimation, clearFocus, computeHorizontalScrollExtent, computeHorizontalScrollOffset, computeHorizontalScrollRange, computeScroll, computeVerticalScrollExtent, computeVerticalScrollOffset, computeVerticalScrollRange, copyWindowBitmap, createDrawableState, debug, debug, debugIndent, dispatchDraw, dispatchKeyEvent, dispatchMotionEvent, dispatchUnhandledMove, dispatchWindowFocusChanged, draw, drawableStateChanged, findFocus, findParentViewOfType, findViewById, findViewWithTag, focusSearch, focusSearchInDescendants, forceLayout, getAbsoluteLocationOnScreen, getBackground, getBaseline, getBlockDescendantFocus, getBlockUnmatchedKeyUps, getBottom, getContext, getCurrentAnimation, getDefaultSize, getDrawableState, getDrawingRect, getDrawingTime, getFocusType, getFocusables, getGlobalVisibleRect, getGlobalVisibleRect, getHeight, getHitRect, getHorizontalFadingEdgeLength, getId, getInterestingRect, getLayoutParams, getLeft, getLocalVisibleRect, getLocationOnScreen, getMeasuredHeight, getMeasuredWidth, getOnFocusChangeListener, getPaddingBottom, getPaddingLeft, getPaddingRight, getPaddingTop, getParent, getResources, getRight, getRootView, getScrollX, getScrollY, getTag, getTop, getVerticalFadingEdgeLength, getVisibility, getWidth, getWindowBottom, getWindowFrame, getWindowLeft, getWindowRight, getWindowSession, getWindowToken, getWindowTop, hasBackground, hasFocus, hasWindowFocus, initializeFadingEdge, initializeScrollbars, invalidate, invalidate, invalidate, invalidateDrawable, isEnabled, isFocusable, isFocused, isHorizontalFadingEdgeEnabled, isHorizontalScrollBarEnabled, isLayoutRequested, isSelected, isVerticalFadingEdgeEnabled, isVerticalScrollBarEnabled, layout, measure, offsetLeftAndRight, offsetTopAndBottom, onAttachedToWindow, onDetachedFromWindow, onDraw, onDrawAfterChildren, onDrawBackground, onFinishInflate, onFocusChanged, onKeyDown, onKeyUp, onLayout, onMeasure, onMotionEvent, onScrollChanged, onSizeChanged, performClick, postInvalidate, postInvalidateDelayed, refreshDrawableState, requestFocus, requestFocus, requestLayout, requestRectangleOnScreen, resolveSize, scheduleDrawable, scrollBy, scrollTo, setBackground, setBackground, setBackgroundColor, setBlockDescendantFocus, setBlockUnmatchedKeyUps, setCurrentAnimation, setEnabled, setFocusType, setFocusable, setHorizontalFadingEdgeEnabled, setHorizontalScrollBarEnabled, setId, setKeyListener, setLayoutParams, setMeasuredDimension, setOnClickListener, setOnFocusChangeListener, setPadding, setPreferredHeight, setPreferredWidth, setSelected, setTag, setVerticalFadingEdgeEnabled, setVerticalScrollBarEnabled, setVisibility, setWillNotDraw, startAnimation, takeFocus, unscheduleDrawable, unscheduleDrawable, verifyDrawable, willNotDraw, windowFocusChanged

				boolean	awakenScrollBars(int startDelay)
					Trigger the scrollbars to draw.
				boolean	awakenScrollBars()
					Trigger the scrollbars to draw.
				void	bringToFront()
					Change the view’s z order in the tree, so it’s on top of other sibling views
				void	clearAnimation()
					Cancels any animations for this view.
				void	clearFocus()
					Called when this view wants to give up focus.
				int	computeHorizontalScrollExtent()
					Compute the horizontal extent of the horizontal scrollbar’s thumb within the horizontal range.
				int	computeHorizontalScrollOffset()
					Compute the horizontal offset of the horizontal scrollbar’s thumb within the horizontal range.
				int	computeHorizontalScrollRange()
					Compute the horizontal range that the horizontal scrollbar represents.
				void	computeScroll()
					Called by a parent to request that a child update its values for mScrollX and mScrollY if necessary.
				int	computeVerticalScrollExtent()
					Compute the vertical extent of the horizontal scrollbar’s thumb within the vertical range.
				int	computeVerticalScrollOffset()
					Compute the vertical offset of the vertical scrollbar’s thumb within the horizontal range.
				int	computeVerticalScrollRange()
					Compute the vertical range that the vertical scrollbar represents.
				Bitmap	copyWindowBitmap()
					Return a copy of the bitmap holding the overall contents of the window this view is attached to.
				int[]	createDrawableState()
					Generate the new drawable state for this view.
				void	debug()
					Prints information about this view in the log output, with the tag VIEW_LOG_TAG.
				void	debug(int depth)
					Prints information about this view in the log output, with the tag VIEW_LOG_TAG.
			static	String	debugIndent(int depth)
					Creates an string of whitespaces used for indentation.
				void	dispatchDraw(Canvas canvas)
					Called by draw to draw the child views.
				boolean	dispatchKeyEvent(KeyEvent event)
					Dispatch a key event to the next view on the focus path.
				boolean	dispatchMotionEvent(MotionEvent event)
					Pass the motion event down to the target view, or this view if it is the target.
				boolean	dispatchUnhandledMove(View focused, int direction)
					This method is the last chance for the focused view and its ancestors to respond to an arrow key.
				void	dispatchWindowFocusChanged(boolean hasFocus)
					Called when the window containing this view gains or loses window focus.
				void	draw(Canvas canvas)
					Manually render this view (and all of its children) to the given Canvas.
				void	drawableStateChanged()
					This function is called whenever the state of the view changes in such a way that it impacts the state of drawables being shown.
				View	findFocus()
					Find the view in the hierarchy rooted at this view that currently has focus.
				T	findParentViewOfType(Class type)
					Finds the first parent of the specified type in this view’s hierarchy.
		final		View	findViewById(int id)
					Look for a child view with the given id.
		final		View	findViewWithTag(Object tag)
					Look for a child view with the given tag.
				View	focusSearch(int direction)
					Find the nearest view in the specified direction that can take focus.
				View	focusSearchInDescendants(View focused, int direction)
					Look for a view that is a descendant of this view to take focus from the currently focused view.
				void	forceLayout()
					Forces this view to be measured and laid out during the next layout pass.
				void	getAbsoluteLocationOnScreen(int[] location)
					Computes the coordinates of this view on the screen.
				Drawable	getBackground()
					Gets the background drawable
				int	getBaseline()
					Return the offset of the widget’s text baseline from the widget’s top boundary.
				boolean	getBlockDescendantFocus()
					Indicated if this view will block its descendants from receiving or requesting focus.
				boolean	getBlockUnmatchedKeyUps()
					Indicates whether this view will receive key up events for which it did not receive the corresponding key down.
				int	getBottom()
					Bottom position of this view relative to its parent.
		final		Context	getContext()
					Returns the context the view is running in, through which it can access the current theme, resources, etc.
				Animation	getCurrentAnimation()
					Get the animation currently associated with this view.
				int	getDefaultSize(int size, int measureSpec)
					Utility to return a default size.
		final		int[]	getDrawableState()
					Return an array of resource IDs of the drawable states representing the current state of the view.
				void	getDrawingRect(Rect outRect)
					Return the visible drawing bounds of your view.
				long	getDrawingTime()
					Return the time at which the drawing of the view hierarchy started.
				int	getFocusType()
					Gets the conditions under which this view will take focus.
				ArrayList	getFocusables()
					Find and return all focusable views that are descendants of this view, possibly including this view if it is focusable itself.
				boolean	getGlobalVisibleRect(Rect r, Point globalOffset)
					If some part of this view is not clipped by any of its parents, then return that area in r in global (root) coordinates.
		final		boolean	getGlobalVisibleRect(Rect r)
				int	getHeight()
					Return the height of your view.
				void	getHitRect(Rect outRect)
					Hit rectangle in parent’s coordinates
				int	getHorizontalFadingEdgeLength()
				int	getId()
					Returns this view’s identifier.
				void	getInterestingRect(Rect r)
					The rectangle that this view would like to make visible if it is being scrolled within its parent.
				LayoutParams	getLayoutParams()
					Get the LayoutParams associated with this view.
				int	getLeft()
					Left position of this view relative to its parent.
		final		boolean	getLocalVisibleRect(Rect r)
				void	getLocationOnScreen(int[] location)
					Computes the coordinates of this view on the screen.
				int	getMeasuredHeight()
					The height of this view as measured in the most recent call to measure().
				int	getMeasuredWidth()
					The width of this view as measured in the most recent call to measure().
				OnFocusChangeListener	getOnFocusChangeListener()
					Returns the focus-change callback registered for this view.
				int	getPaddingBottom()
					Returns the bottom padding of this view.
				int	getPaddingLeft()
					Returns the left padding of this view.
				int	getPaddingRight()
					Returns the right padding of this view.
				int	getPaddingTop()
					Returns the top padding of this view.
				ViewParent	getParent()
					Gets the parent of this view.
				Resources	getResources()
					Returns the resources associated with this view.
				int	getRight()
					Right position of this view relative to its parent.
				View	getRootView()
					Finds the topmost view in the current view hierarchy.
				int	getScrollX()
					Return the scrolled left position of this view.
				int	getScrollY()
					Return the scrolled top position of this view.
				Object	getTag()
					Returns this view’s tag.
				int	getTop()
					Top position of this view relative to its parent.
				int	getVerticalFadingEdgeLength()
				int	getVisibility()
					Returns the visibility status for this view.
				int	getWidth()
					Return the width of the your view.
				int	getWindowBottom()
					Bottom position of this view relative to its window
				void	getWindowFrame(Rect frame)
					Returns the frame surrounding the root of this view’s window tree.
				int	getWindowLeft()
					Left position of this view relative to its window
				int	getWindowRight()
					Right position of this view relative to its window
				IWindowSession	getWindowSession()
					Retrieve private session object this view hierarchy is using to communicate with the window manager.
				IBinder	getWindowToken()
					Retrieve a unique token identifying the window this view is attached to.
				int	getWindowTop()
					Top position of this view relative to its window.
				boolean	hasBackground()
					Indicates whether this view has a background or not.
				boolean	hasFocus()
					Returns true if this view has focus iteself, or is the ancestor of the view that has focus.
				boolean	hasWindowFocus()
					Returns true if this view is in a window that currently has window focus.
				void	initializeFadingEdge(StyledAttributes a)
					Initializes the fading edges from a given set of styled attributes.
				void	initializeScrollbars(StyledAttributes a)
					Initializes the scrollbars from a given set of styled attributes.
				void	invalidate()
					Invalidate the whole view.
				void	invalidate(Rect dirty)
					Mark the the area defined by dirty as needing to be drawn.
				void	invalidate(int l, int t, int r, int b)
					Mark the the area defined by the rect (l,t,r,b) as needing to be drawn.
				void	invalidateDrawable(Drawable dr)
					Invalidates the specified drawable.
				boolean	isEnabled()
					Returns the enabled status for this view.
				boolean	isFocusable()
					Returns whether this View is able to take focus.
				boolean	isFocused()
					Returns true if this view has focus
				boolean	isHorizontalFadingEdgeEnabled()
					Indicate whether the horizontal edges are faded when the view is scrolled horizontally.
				boolean	isHorizontalScrollBarEnabled()
					Indicate whether the horizontal scrollbar should be drawn or not.
				boolean	isLayoutRequested()
					Indicates whether or not this view’s layout will be requested during the next hierarchy layout pass.
				boolean	isSelected()
					Indicates the selection state of this view.
				boolean	isVerticalFadingEdgeEnabled()
					Indicate whether the vertical edges are faded when the view is scrolled horizontally.
				boolean	isVerticalScrollBarEnabled()
					Indicate whether the vertical scrollbar should be drawn or not.
		final		void	layout(int wl, int wt, int l, int t, int r, int b)
					Assign a size and position to a view and all of its descendants This is the second phase of the layout mechanism.
		final		void	measure(int widthMeasureSpec, int heightMeasureSpec)
					This is called to find out how big a view should be.
				void	offsetLeftAndRight(int offset)
					Offset this view’s horizontal location by the specified amount of pixels.
				void	offsetTopAndBottom(int offset)
					Offset this view’s vertical location by the specified number of pixels.
				void	onAttachedToWindow()
					This is called when the view is attached to a window.
				void	onDetachedFromWindow()
					This is called when the view is detached from a window.
				void	onDraw(Canvas canvas)
					Implement this to do your drawing.
				void	onDrawAfterChildren(Canvas canvas)
					Invoked by draw(android.graphics.Canvas)} after dispatchDraw(android.graphics.Canvas) is called.
				void	onDrawBackground(Canvas canvas)
					Draws this view’s background, if any.
				void	onFinishInflate()
					Finalize inflating a view from XML.
				void	onFocusChanged(boolean focused, int direction)
					Called by the view system when the focus state of this view changes.
				boolean	onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
					Called when a key down event has occurred.
				boolean	onKeyUp(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
					Called when a key up event has occurred.
				void	onLayout(boolean changed, int windowLeft, int windowTop, int left, int top, int right, int bottom)
					Called from layout when this view should assign a size and position to each of its children.
				void	onMeasure(int widthMeasureSpec, int heightMeasureSpec)
					Measure the view and its content to determine the measured width and the measured height.
				boolean	onMotionEvent(MotionEvent event)
					Implement this method to handle MotionEvent events.
				void	onScrollChanged(int l, int t, int oldl, int oldt)
					This is called in response to an internal scroll in this view (i.e., the view scrolled its own contents).
				void	onSizeChanged(int w, int h, int oldw, int oldh)
					This is called during layout when the size of this view has changed.
				boolean	performClick()
					Call this view’s OnClickListener, if it is defined.
				void	postInvalidate()
					Cause an invalidate to happen on a subsequent cycle through the event loop.
				void	postInvalidateDelayed(long delayMilliseconds)
					Cause an invalidate to happen on a subsequent cycle through the event loop.
				void	refreshDrawableState()
					Call this to force a view to update its drawable state.
		final		void	requestFocus()
					Give this view focus.
				void	requestFocus(int direction)
					Give this view focus.
				void	requestLayout()
					Call this when something has changed which has invalidated the layout of this view.
				boolean	requestRectangleOnScreen(Rect rectangle)
					Make rectangle on the screen, scrolling if necessary just enough.
				int	resolveSize(int size, int measureSpec)
					Utility to reconcile a desired size with constraints imposed by a MeasureSpec.
				void	scheduleDrawable(Drawable who, Runnable what, long when)
					Schedules an action on a drawable to occur at a specified time.
				void	scrollBy(int x, int y)
					Move the scrolled position of your view.
				void	scrollTo(int x, int y)
					Set the scrolled position of your view.
				void	setBackground(Drawable d)
					Set the background to a given Drawable, or remove the background.
				void	setBackground(int resid)
					Set the background to a given resource.
				void	setBackgroundColor(int color)
					Sets the background color for this view.
				void	setBlockDescendantFocus(boolean block)
					Sets whether this view will block its descendants from receiving or requesting focus.
				void	setBlockUnmatchedKeyUps(boolean block)
					Sets whether this view wants to receive key up events for which it did not receive the corresponding key down.
				void	setCurrentAnimation(Animation animation)
					Sets the next animation to play for this view.
				void	setEnabled(boolean enabled)
					Set the enabled state of this view.
				void	setFocusType(int focusType)
					Sets the circumstances under which this view will take focus.
				void	setFocusable(boolean focusable)
					Set whether this view can receive the focus or not.
				void	setHorizontalFadingEdgeEnabled(boolean horizontalFadingEdgeEnabled)
					Define whether the horizontal edges should be faded when this view is scrolled horizontally.
				void	setHorizontalScrollBarEnabled(boolean horizontalScrollBarEnabled)
					Define whether the horizontal scrollbar should be drawn or not.
				void	setId(int id)
					Sets the identifier for this view.
				void	setKeyListener(OnKeyListener l)
					Register a callback to be invoked when a key is pressed in this view.
				void	setLayoutParams(LayoutParams params)
					Set the layout parameters associated with this view.
		final		void	setMeasuredDimension(int measureWidth, int measuredHeight)
					This mehod must be called by onMeasure(int, int) to store the measured width and measured height.
				void	setOnClickListener(OnClickListener l)
					Register a callback to be invoked when this view is clicked.
				void	setOnFocusChangeListener(OnFocusChangeListener l)
					Register a callback to be invoked when focus of this view changed.
				void	setPadding(int left, int top, int right, int bottom)
					Sets the padding.
				void	setPreferredHeight(int height)
					Set the preferred height for this view.
				void	setPreferredWidth(int width)
					Set the preferred width for this view.
				void	setSelected(boolean selected)
					Changes the selection state of this view.
				void	setTag(Object tag)
					Sets the tag associated with this view.
				void	setVerticalFadingEdgeEnabled(boolean verticalFadingEdgeEnabled)
					Define whether the vertical edges should be faded when this view is scrolled vertically.
				void	setVerticalScrollBarEnabled(boolean verticalScrollBarEnabled)
					Define whether the vertical scrollbar should be drawn or not.
				void	setVisibility(int v)
					Set the enabled state of this view.
				void	setWillNotDraw(boolean willNotDraw)
					If this view doesn’t do any drawing on its own, set this flag to allow further optimizations.
				void	startAnimation(Animation animation)
					Start the specified animation now.
				boolean	takeFocus(int direction)
					Call this to try to give focus to a specific view or to one of its descendants.
				void	unscheduleDrawable(Drawable who, Runnable what)
					Cancels a scheduled action on a drawable.
				void	unscheduleDrawable(Drawable who)
					Unschedule any events associated with the given Drawable.
				boolean	verifyDrawable(Drawable who)
					If your view subclass is displaying its own Drawable objects, it should override this function and return true for any Drawable it is displaying.
				boolean	willNotDraw()
					Returns whether or not this View draws on its own.
				void	windowFocusChanged(boolean hasWindowFocus)
					Called when the window containing this view gains or loses focus.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

				Object	clone()
					Answers a new instance of the same class as the receiver, whose slots have been filled in with the values in the slots of the receiver.
				boolean	equals(Object o)
					Compares the argument to the receiver, and answers true if they represent the same object using a class specific comparison.
				void	finalize()
					Called by the virtual machine when there are no longer any (non-weak) references to the receiver.
		final		Class	getClass()
					Answers the unique instance of java.lang.Class which represents the class of the receiver.
				int	hashCode()
					Answers an integer hash code for the receiver.
		final		void	notify()
					Causes one thread which is wait ing on the receiver to be made ready to run.
		final		void	notifyAll()
					Causes all threads which are wait ing on the receiver to be made ready to run.
				String	toString()
					Answers a string containing a concise, human-readable description of the receiver.
		final		void	wait(long time, int frac)
					Causes the thread which sent this message to be made not ready to run either pending some change in the receiver (as indicated by notify or notifyAll) or the expiration of the timeout.
		final		void	wait(long time)
					Causes the thread which sent this message to be made not ready to run either pending some change in the receiver (as indicated by notify or notifyAll) or the expiration of the timeout.
		final		void	wait()
					Causes the thread which sent this message to be made not ready to run pending some change in the receiver (as indicated by notify or notifyAll).

Methods inherited from interface android.view.KeyEvent.Callback

onKeyDown, onKeyUp

				boolean	onKeyDown(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
					Called when a key down event has occurred.
				boolean	onKeyUp(int keyCode, KeyEvent event)
					Called when a key up event has occurred.

Methods inherited from interface android.graphics.drawable.Drawable.Callback

invalidateDrawable, scheduleDrawable, unscheduleDrawable

Now, it certainly makes sense for everything to extend View, but View has a helluva lot of stuff on it. I am pretty sure my Checkbox doesn’t need scroll setting, for instance. There are also things like getDrawingRectangle() that seem like they would be better served with internal implementation to a Painter, rather than everything right there.

There is also a dearth of Interfaces to mark functionality. For example, the MenuBuilder.ItemImpl. Notice the crossover with both View and Compound button above.

Public Methods

				int	getGroup()
					Return the ordering group of this menu item.
				int	getId()
					Return the identifier for this menu item.
				Intent	getIntent()
					Return the Intent associated with this item.
				int	getShortcutAlphabeticKey()
					Return the key for this menu item’s alphabetic shortcut.
				int	getShortcutAlphabeticModifier()
					Return the modifiers of this menu item’s alphabetic shortcut key.
				int	getShortcutNumericKey()
					Return the key for this menu item’s numeric (12-key) shortcut.
				SubMenu	getSubMenu()
					Get the sub-menu to be invoked when this item is selected, if it has one.
				CharSequence	getTitle()
					Retrieve the current label text of the item.
		final		View	getView()
				boolean	hasSubMenu()
					Check whether this item has an associated sub-menu.
				void	invoke()
				boolean	isCheckable()
					Return whether the item can currently display a check mark.
				boolean	isChecked()
					Return whether the item is currently displaying a check mark.
				boolean	isFocused()
				boolean	isSelected()
				boolean	isSeparator()
					Check whether this is a separator item.
				boolean	isShown()
					Return the shown state of the menu item.
				void	sendSelectionChange(boolean selected)
				void	setAlphabeticShortcut(int modifier, int alphaKey)
					Change the alphabetic shortcut associated with this item.
				void	setCallback(Runnable callback)
				void	setCheckable(boolean checkable)
					Control whether this item can display a check mark.
				void	setChecked(boolean checked)
					Control whether this item is shown with a check mark.
				void	setClickListener(OnClickListener clickListener)
					Set a custom listener for invokation of this menu item.
				void	setIntent(Intent intent)
					Change the Intent associated with this item.
				void	setNumericShortcut(int numberKey)
					Change the numeric shortcut associated with this item.
				void	setSelected(boolean selected)
				void	setSelectionListener(OnSelectionListener selectionListener)
					Set a custom listener for selection changes of this menu item
				void	setShortcut(int numberKey, int modifier, int alphaKey)
					Change both the numeric and alphabetic shortcut associated with this item.
				void	setShown(boolean shown)
					Return the shown state of the menu item.
				void	setTitle(CharSequence title)
					Change the label text associated with this item.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

				Object	clone()
					Answers a new instance of the same class as the receiver, whose slots have been filled in with the values in the slots of the receiver.
				boolean	equals(Object o)
					Compares the argument to the receiver, and answers true if they represent the same object using a class specific comparison.
				void	finalize()
					Called by the virtual machine when there are no longer any (non-weak) references to the receiver.
		final		Class	getClass()
					Answers the unique instance of java.lang.Class which represents the class of the receiver.
				int	hashCode()
					Answers an integer hash code for the receiver.
		final		void	notify()
					Causes one thread which is wait ing on the receiver to be made ready to run.
		final		void	notifyAll()
					Causes all threads which are wait ing on the receiver to be made ready to run.
				String	toString()
					Answers a string containing a concise, human-readable description of the receiver.
		final		void	wait(long time, int frac)
					Causes the thread which sent this message to be made not ready to run either pending some change in the receiver (as indicated by notify or notifyAll) or the expiration of the timeout.
		final		void	wait(long time)
					Causes the thread which sent this message to be made not ready to run either pending some change in the receiver (as indicated by notify or notifyAll) or the expiration of the timeout.
		final		void	wait()
					Causes the thread which sent this message to be made not ready to run pending some change in the receiver (as indicated by notify or notifyAll).

Methods inherited from interface android.view.Menu.Item

getGroup, getId, getIntent, getShortcutAlphabeticKey, getShortcutAlphabeticModifier, getShortcutNumericKey, getSubMenu, getTitle, hasSubMenu, isCheckable, isChecked, isSeparator, isShown, setAlphabeticShortcut, setCheckable, setChecked, setClickListener, setIntent, setNumericShortcut, setSelectionListener, setShortcut, setShown, setTitle

Just having marker interfaces for things that support Focus, Check, etc would really help clean some of this up from a API standpoint. Now, getting around some of this Cockpit feel should be easy, since Android includes a declarative XML UI system out of the box.

Now maybe I am just missing something here, but:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!-- Demonstrates using a relative layout to create a form -->
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="https://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:background="@drawable/blue"
                android:padding="10px">
    <TextView id="@+id/label"
              android:layout_width="fill_parent"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content"
              android:text="Type here:"/>
    <EditText id="@+id/entry"
              android:layout_width="fill_parent"
              android:layout_height="wrap_content"
              android:background="@android:drawable/editbox_background"
              android:layout_below="@id/label"/>
    <Button id="@+id/ok"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_below="@id/entry"
            android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
            android:layout_marginLeft="10px"
            android:text="OK" />
    <Button android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_toLeft="@id/ok"
            android:layout_alignTop="@id/ok"
            android:text="Cancel" />
</RelativeLayout>

There seem to be a few shortcomins here. The schema URL doesn’t seem to resolve to anything meaningful. It *seems* to me, and I could be wrong here, that there is no way to use non-Android provided widgets in your UI. Compare this to the forthcoming GWT declarative UI XML:

<!-- Note how we add a new namespace for the application's package -->
<app:ButtonTree
  xmlns:g='https://code.google.com/webtoolkit/com.google.gwt.user.client.ui'
  xmlns:app='https://code.google.com/webtoolkit/com.example.myapp.client'
/><g:Tree xmlns:g='https://code.google.com/webtoolkit/com.google.gwt.user.client.ui'>
  <g:TreeItem>
    <g:Button>Do something</g:Button>
  </g:TreeItem>
</g:Tree>

Here the namespace maps to a package, making it easy to build UIs with other components. Another thing that stands out about the declarative UI stuff is the lack of CSS. While the Android UI lets you specify design elements in:

The following values are supported for dimensions (described in TypedValue):

• px (pixels)
• dip (device independent pixels)
• sp (scaled pixels — best for text size)
• pt (points)
• in (inches)
• mm (millimeters)

Which is great. However, it seems like rather than specifying margins, paddings, alignments, etc, in the XML files, being able to define these in a CSS, or CSS-like file would seem like a better idea. Then, even, allow me to specify different CSS files based on different device UI types: screen size/aspect ratio, portrait vs landscape mode, etc. This has always been one of the failings of mobile development as long as I can remember.

So that summarizes what I don’t like. What I do like is the great separation of functionality into Intents, Activities and Views. To summarize this, you can expose functionality of your application, or use the Android base functionality, by invoking Intents. These intents can then launch something else, or not if the phone won’t do that, or the needed software isn’t there. These can take you to Activities. Activities are single screen-type states in your application with a managed lifecycle. Activities then reference Views with a clear binding pattern, and a suspend-resore lifecycle that lets not just your whole application, but sub-elements of your application (List Buddies, Chat Window, Add Buddy individually) be suspended out of the running state and navigated around. Honestly, it makes me feel better about some of my own API design, I have GWT APIs in Gwittir that look very similar. :)

While I haven’t spent a great deal of time with it yet, there are a few things that stand out as big points of pain in the current developer tooling. There is no way to toy around with the LocationManager class in a real way because the emulator just doesn’t have a way to alter this information at runtime. It is also really complicated to mock out the ApplicationContext class for unit testing your code — which seems very un-Google. While Android is easily one of the most documented new systems I have recently — maybe ever — seen, approaching the docs the first time is terribly imposing. John Lombardo at LinuxDevices.com has a great intro and guide to the guides.

The JBoss Drools boys have something cool brewing. They already have the most useful GWT (Google Web Toolkit) App that I’ve seen outside of the Googleplex. That’s a fully fledged app ready and waiting to be used in anger, not some example widget, or a test case thrown together by somebody playing with the technology. The BRMS app itself, targeted at business / professional users, allows them to catch the knowledge that they have in their heads and share it with the team.

Here’s the problem; If you’re into Rules, you’ve probably already downloaded the BRMS - ( Business Rules management system). If you’re just a casual browser, a cool GWT app it may be, but you’re not going to take the time. Why? Unless you have Tomcat or JBoss 4 ready and waiting on your PC you’re not going to bother (note ; this will work on other application servers like weblogic , with another couple minutes work, but that just proves my point).

In order to make things easy for us lazy people, the nice people at Drools are preparing a standalone BRMS; download , unzip , start and play. That’s presuming you have Java installed. You do have Java installed don’t you? But being lazy, how big a download is too big?

I’m not the best person to answer the question - I’ve already downloaded the (largish - 530mb) Red Hat Developer Studio (now at release candidate 1). So what’s your download speed and how big (small) does the BRMS have to be before you’d consider trying it out?

Answers on a postcard to the JBoss Drool Team.

It all started when I tried to find a solution for customizing an XStream instance for my ActiveMQ XStream message transformer that would be better than currently used (extending a base transformer and providing a custom factory method that will do things like alias, converter, annotation, etc. settings). I wanted an easy solution to configure XStream instance in a Spring xml configuration file used in my application and provide that instance to all beans that need it (message transformer among others).

XStream is a very nice library that I’ve used and written about before, but there is no Spring factory builder that could be used for this purpose. A little googling got me to the OXM framework, a part of Spring WS project.

Google’s Android software for Open Handset Alliance raises eyebrows of every Java developer because of its non-standards. Instead of supporting the Sun’s open source efforts on Java, Google went in a different direction and came up with its own JVM named Dalvik which executes Java programs on Android phones. It is neither Java SE, nor Java ME. It is Google’s in house version based on some of Java SE packages, apache commons, httpclient, junit and their own user interface instead of standard AWT, Swing. It also has android.* packages for Telephony APIs, power management and SMS. (List of Androids packages). In a way its similar to the GWT which uses Java as its development language but does not support the full JDK.

The byte code execution is also different. Instead of executing the .class files, Dalvik VM executes the .dex files which are optimized for minimal memory footprint. The dx tool(part of Android SDK) transforms .class files into .dex files.

We have enough problems with Java mobile development already. Not all phones support all the same Java standards, so there is no guarantee that the same software will run on multiple devices, as the “write once, run anywhere” Java tagline promises. Now Android is going to create more problems than solving. With this, programmers will have a new breed of Java to develop mobile applications, those cannot be ported to any device except Android powered phones. We already have enough versions(standards) of Java, why do we need another one?. I don’t think any Java developer is interested in developing the applications in non-standard version, unless you want to win the 10 million dollar prize? It sounds like Google is trying to bribe the Java developers to adopt this non-standard Java with 10 million dollar prize. Well, may be its another Google’s don’t be evil policy -:)

Google tweaked the JVM to improve the performance of applications for the Open Handset Alliance phones. In fact, for the same tactics, Sun sued Microsoft a while ago. Knowing this, how Google managed to get the license from Sun to tweak the JVM? In fact, they didn’t - according to MIT research scientist Stefano Mazzocchi:

But Android’s programs are written in Java, using Java-oriented IDEs (it also comes with an Eclipse plugin)… it just doesn’tcompile the java code into java bytecode but (ops, Sun didn’t see this one coming) into Dalvik bytecode.
So, Android uses the syntax of the Java platform and the java SE class library but not the Java bytecode or the Java virtual machine to execute it on the phone (and, note, Android’s implementation of the Java SE class library is, indeed, Apache Harmony’s!)
The trick is that Google doesn’t claim that Android is a Java platform, although it can run some programs written with the Java language and against some derived version of the Java class library. Sun could prevent this if they had a patent on the standard class library, but they don’t and, even if they did, I strongly doubt it would be enforceable since Android doesn’t claim to be compatible (and in fact, could very well claim that their subset/superset is an innovation on the existing patent and challenge Sun’s position).

Wow! what a smart approach! I am wondering what the Sun’s reaction is going to be!!!! As a Java developer, I don’t want to develop the applications that only run on Android even if they give 10 million dollar prize. If I did that, it would be encouraging such evil practices of creating non-standard Java.

Why Google is not following the open standards(Java is open source)? Why they are tweaking the standards? What happened to Google’s “Don’t be evil” policy?

What is your take on this?

Obie Fernandez has a great write up on the Future of Java panel at QCon with Chet Haase, Charles Nutter, Rod Johnson, Josh Bloch, and Erik Meijer.

On one point:

An audience member suggests that splitting up the JDK platform by defining core-subsets of functionality would be desirable. Chet disagrees, suggesting that it would break things. Guice Bob says Java Kernel will help, which is a small downloadable bootstrapper that downloads needed JDK components on demand instead of all in the up-front download.

The predominant topic of conversation continues to revolve around adding or removing to the Java platform — new features, language or otherwise. Rod seems in favor of adding, while Charles hints that he’s been tempted to use the Open SDK project to create a stripped-down version of the Java JDK.

Erik states matter-of-factly that it is impossible to take things out of a mature platform. “You can never take anything out!”

Josh speaks about JSR 277 and its infrastructure for addressing versioning issues.

Now Josh Block is saying we should create a new Java platform. Everyone agrees that there are real dangers in choosing that road.

One of the things I hope is that OpenJDK will make possible big changes. Once there is an open source Java 7 that still runs Java 1.0 code, it can be there and be maintained for people who want that forever. Java itself can then move forward, perhaps even to Java 2 (:P) with real generics, adding some bloody keywords (@interface still makes me hate people), and other things that we haven’t been able to do because of this legacy requirement.

…on the ADC web site.

It wasn’t meant to be this way, but I spent most of the IJTC talking to people about Flash Killers. Technologies that look good, work in any browser and are powerful enough to deliver enterprise applications with no installation.

• Dejan Bosanac, was speaking on Scripting in the JVM. He was kind enough to give me a copy of his book which (for the first time) has got me seriously considering Groovy. Maybe I’m about 3 years behind everybody else on this , but I get there in the end! Dejan’s book (Scripting in Java: Languages, Frameworks, and Patterns) is available on Safari
• Guillaume Laforge talking on Groovy completed what Dejan had begun. Ironically, I didn’t see the talk , but it was the reaction of the people that did that got me interested.
• Xoetrope (an Irish Open Source company sponsoring the conference) was demonstrating the XUI framework. Initially I thought that the world did not need another Java presentation framework. What changed my mind is that this has two edges - the first is the IDE - a plugin for either Eclipse or Netbeans , similar in drag and drop style to Visual Basic but generating clean XML Files. The second is that you can deploy on the Desktop (as either SWT or AWT/Swing), or as JSP / HTML. You can download XUI (and IDE plugins) from sourceforge.
• Richard Bair from Sun were talking about Swing and Java FX (more below). Sun is threating to deliver on the initial promise of Java Applets (Write once, deploy anywhere).
• Strange for a Java event, but Microsoft was giving out disks containing Silverlight

None of the above technologies really solve what I’m looking for; Ideally we’d have a version of Flash (that almost everybody has installed / designers know how to make look good) with Java embedded in it (we need the processing power of the client). Think modern version of Java Applets. Realistically we’ll have to go for 2nd best as such a thing doesn’t exist.

More on the Java FX Stuff: James Weaver of the JavaFX blog was good enough to talk through these requirements. I’ve been promised a blogpost on deploying a JavaFX Script via Webstart. With that, and if Sun makes good their promises on consumer usability in the next version of Java, then maybe we have a Flash Killer. While Sun has dropped the ball in the past (note that it was Microsoft and not Sun handing out CD’s) the response times for the FX team for a casual query about Webstart (which is not their area) gives me some hope.

If you are interested in JavaFX, another good resource (you wait ages for one , then loads come along at once) is Angel Leonards introduction to JavaFX Script.

There’s a good chance that someone out there is using Slide, it used to be distributed as a WebDAV library with Tomcat 4. If this is you, or your organization, you should know that it is no longer “a project”. Here’s the announcement from Roland Weber of the Jakarta PMC:

The Apache Jakarta PMC is sorry to announce the retirement
of the Jakarta Slide subproject. After it’s last release in
December 2004, development activity was significantly reduced
and came to a total standstill this year. Without a minimum
developer community that can release security fixes, we have
no choice but to retire Slide. We’ll keep at least one of
the mailing lists open for a transition period, so users can
discuss alternatives and migration away from Slide. Further
use of the Slide codebase is discouraged.

One alternative to Slide is provided by the Apache Jackrabbit
project. Jackrabbit has a healthy, active developer community
and provides, among others things:
- a server-side content repository
- a WebDAV server component for access to the repository
- a WebDAV client component
Please visit https://jackrabbit.apache.org/ for more information.

We apologize for the inconveniences.

Nick Sieger announces the availability of a new release of ActiveRecord-JDBC on his blog in ActiveRecord-JDBC 0.6 Released! You might just let this piece of news go by unnoticed, but if you read Nick’s blog entry, you’ll see that it is a turning point for people who want to get a Rails application running under JRuby, Nick writes (emphasis mine):

..to make your application run under JRuby, no longer will you need to a) find and download appropriate JDBC drivers, b) wonder where they should be placed so that JRuby will find them, or c) make custom changes to config/environment.rb. All that’s taken care of you if you use one of the following adapters:

* activerecord-jdbcmysql-adapter (MySQL)
* activerecord-jdbcpostgresql-adapter (PostgreSQL)
* activerecord-jdbcderby-adapter (Derby)
* activerecord-jdbchsqldb-adapter (HSQLDB)

One thing that’s great about RoR is the convenience of it all. I spend about half of my time dealing with J2EE and a quarter with RoR, and the amount of setup that is involved in the J2EE world defies belief. Nick has made a point to emphasize the ease with which you can dive into the JDBC-backed ActiveRecord:

We can leverage this convention to make it easier than ever to get started using JRuby with your Rails application. So, the first thing new in the 0.6 release is the name. You now install activerecord-jdbc-adapter:

jruby -s gem install activerecord-jdbc-adapter

But wait, there’s more! We also have adapters for four open-source databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and two embedded Java databases, Derby and HSQLDB. And, for your convenience, we’ve bundled the JDBC drivers in dependent gems, so you don’t have to go hunting them down if you don’t have them handy.

…

$ jruby -S gem install activerecord-jdbcderby-adapter --include-dependencies
Successfully installed activerecord-jdbcderby-adapter-0.6
Successfully installed activerecord-jdbc-adapter-0.6
Successfully installed jdbc-derby-10.2.2.0

Mark Reinhold, Chief Engineer for the Java(TM) platform, outlines a roadmap for the OpenJDK project infrastructure on his blog:

The publication last week of our experimental Mercurial repositories heralds the first of many infrastructure projects that we hope to initiate, and in most cases complete, over the next year or so. Here’s the entire list:

2007/Q4 Code-review publication, Core community database, Public Mercurial forests
2008/Q1 Mercurial forest management, OpenGrok
2008/Q2 Improved content publishing, Process tools
2008/Q? Bug database, Distributed build system

All dates are—naturally—somewhat approximate.

The surprising part is the Bug Database, why should it take that long to figure out a solution? As an unnamed Sun engineer told me at JavaOne, the internal bug tracking system can’t move very quickly and is something of a disaster. It is unclear whether he was saying that what we see in BugParade is an extension of this system or something else entirely, but he made it sound like there were a lot of secret bits in the bug tracking system that couldn’t be exposed easily. I remember mentioning JIRA and he responded about how they had considered something like that but that the blocker was the lack of a mechanism to have a fix target multiple releases. What’s clear is that the Java project is big enough to demand some custom infrastructure (like a web review tool). It’ll be interesting to see what brews from this project.

Everyone calm down about Java 1.6 on Leopard. Calm down and get busy like Landon Fuller did this weekend. He blogged about it here FreeBSD’s 1.6 JDK on Mac OS X. And then he posted to the OpenJDK discussion list ten minutes ago. Clearly, it isn’t a satisfying answer, he reports “partial success” with some serious issues (stack alignment). If more people took initiative and didn’t sit around, blogging about whether Steve Jobs likes or dislikes Java we would probably already have something workable.

There has been a lot of discussion of creating a porting project on the OpenJDK mailing lists lately, if this is something you think is important, you can keep track of the discussions on the OpenJDK General Discussion List and there is an ongoing discussion about porting OpenJDK to other platforms

More about this over at Simon Phipp’s blog Red Hat Joins OpenJDK. If you are not already familiar with the IcedTea effort, take a look at the IcedTea Project Page. IceaTea takes the code from OpenJDK and replaces the encumbered code (binary plugs) with some code from Classpath. I’m assuming that this agreement will make it easier to incorporate some of this code back into OpenJDK project as a replacement for the encumbered code.

(Even though I’ve needled Sun about the continuing Apache dispute, this is, IMO, good news for the OpenJDK effort and for the availability of certified Java on the Linux platform.)

Jason Hunter wrote the popular Java Servlets book from O’Reilly. He just announced the availability of an interesting product named MarkMail which is based on a commercial product named MarkLogic Server. Here’s an excerpt from an email announcing the service:

For the last few months I’ve been working on a new project: a web
site for interacting with email archives. We’re using, as the
site’s initial content set, the public Apache mailing list archives
– because Apache is the community I know best and I think people
here will find the site useful. We’ve loaded a bit over 4,000,000
emails across 500 lists.

https://apache.markmail.org

For some screenshots, read the rest of the entry.

I continue to believe that Maven is the first choice for build systems despite the lack of quality documentation (which is a continued problem). Why? (Or specifically, why should an open souce project use Maven above other build systems?…..)

…open source projects benefit from having the most widely portable build possible. Widely portable builds reduce the inefficiencies associated with contributing to a project. In an open source project (such as Maven) there are two distinct groups: end-users and developers. When an end-user uses a project like Maven and decides to contribute a patch to Maven, they have to make the transition from using the output of a build to running a build. They have to first become a developer, and if it is difficult to learn how to build a project, this end-user has a disincentive to take the time to contribute to a project. In a widely portable project, an end-user doesn’t have to follow a set or arcane build instructions to start becoming a developer, they can download the source, modify the source, build, and submit a contribution without asking someone to help them set up a build environment. When the cost of contributing source back to an open-source project is lower, you’ll see an increase in source code contributions, especially casual contributions which can make the difference between a project’s success and a project’s failure. One side-effect of Maven’s adoption across a wide group of open source projects is that it has made it easier for developers to contribute code to various open source projects.

In other words, even with Maven’s problems (which will shortly be addressed, I promise), it still defines a common interface that many developers are familiar with. If you continue to use some custom procedural build system (even in your closed corporate environment) you are bucking the trend. The common interface, the ability to just “sit down in the driver’s seat” and go, is more important than making sure that some highly opinionated software architect at a very large organization is happy with the “cleanliness” of the Maven repository or that someone feels that the Maven conventions can be bent to fit their own conventions.

Go ahead, adopt your own build process because you just *think* you know better, and have fun maintaining it. I know one thing about build systems, they are the last thing you need to be worrying about and your clients or employers rarely care to spend money on your clever, custom build system.

Google’s much hyped OpenSocial API finally appeared on code.google.com. For the most part it is “Yet Another GData API.” Which is good, and bad. Good in that people pretty much understand it. Bad in that it seems really half-baked to me.

Let’s start with the sample friends list. This would live somewhere like: https://{domain]/feeds/people/{person-id}/friends

<feed xmlns='https://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='https://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='https://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='https://schemas.google.com/g/2005'>
  <id>https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/14358878523263729569/friends</id>
  <updated>2007-10-28T21:01:03.690Z</updated>
  <title>Friends</title>
  <link rel='https://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/14358878523263729569/friends'/>
  <link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/14358878523263729569/friends'/>
  <author><name>Elizabeth Bennet</name></author>
  <entry>
    <id>https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/02938391851054991972</id>
    <updated>2007-10-28T14:01:03.690-07:00</updated>
    <title>Jane Bennet</title>
    <link rel='thumbnail' type='image/*' href='https://img1.orkut.com/images/small/null'/>
    <link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/Profile.aspx?uid=574036770800045389'/>
    <link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/02938391851054991972'/>
    <georss:where>
    <gml:Point xmlns:gml='https://www.opengis.net/gml'>
    <gml:pos>51.668674 -0.066235</gml:pos></gml:Point></georss:where>
    <gd:extendedProperty name='lang' value='en-US'/>
    <gd:postalAddress/>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/12490088926525765025</id>
    <updated>2007-10-28T14:01:03.691-07:00</updated>
    <title>Charlotte Lucas</title>
    <link rel='thumbnail' type='image/*' href='https://img2.orkut.com/images/small/null'/>
    <link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/Profile.aspx?uid=5799256900854924919'/>
    <link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/12490088926525765025'/>
    <georss:where>
    <gml:Point xmlns:gml='https://www.opengis.net/gml'>
    <gml:pos>0.0 0.0</gml:pos></gml:Point></georss:where>
    <gd:extendedProperty name='lang' value='en-US'/>
    <gd:postalAddress/>
  </entry>
  <entry>
    <id>https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/15827776984733875930</id>
    <updated>2007-10-28T14:01:03.692-07:00</updated>
    <title>Fitzwilliam Darcy</title>
    <link rel='thumbnail' type='image/*' href='https://img3.orkut.com/images/small/1193603277/115555466.jpg'/>
    <link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/Profile.aspx?uid=14256507824223085777'/>
    <link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='https://sandbox.orkut.com:80/feeds/people/15827776984733875930'/>
    <georss:where>
    <gml:Point xmlns:gml='https://www.opengis.net/gml'>
    <gml:pos>53.017016 -1.424363</gml:pos></gml:Point>
    </georss:where>
    <gd:extendedProperty name='lang' value='en-US'/>
    <gd:postalAddress/>
  </entry>
</feed>

So, what have we got here? Well, it is awful little. Title is obviously the person’s name. We have a gd:postalAddress field for an address, a georss:where to locate them on a map (this can be a specific location, or just a city pointer), and a thumbnail. That’s it.

This is what the People Data API specs:

Property	Type	Description
Name	atom:title	The desired display name for the user
Image link	atom:link	With rel=”thumbnail”, a small image URL to represent the user
Profile URL	atom:link	With rel=”alternate”, the standard profile URL representing the user
GeoLocation	georss:where	Geographic location of the user. This may be approximate, or rounded off to the nearest city.
email	gd:email	Email address(es) for the user
IM	gd:im	Instant messaging adress(es) for the user
Address	gd:postalAddress	Address(es) for the user.
Phone number	gd:phoneNumber	Telephone number(s) for the user
Key value parameters	gd:extendedProperty	As different social networks and other sources of People data have many different named fields, this provides a way for them to be passed on generally. Agreeing on common naming conventions is to be decided in future.

That is really not much. For instance, Given Name and Sir Name aren’t broken out into separate fields. That alone can make importing into a standard address book problematic. Secondly, the link rel=”thumbnail” use is COMPLETELY retarded. It gives no real information, and doesn’t really apply. I don’t understand why Google didn’t use MediaRSS for this, which supports multiple representations of the same media element, contains size information, etc. They already use MediaRSS on Google Video, so I can’t imagine it is a religious issue.

Also, hand-wavy stuff like this always makes me nervous:

As different social networks and other sources of People data have many different named fields, this [gd:extenedProperty] provides a way for them to be passed on generally. Agreeing on common naming conventions is to be decided in future.

Name-value pairs seem really inadequate here. I don’t understand why we can’t, much like the APP specification instructs, say that foreign markup of any nature will be preserved. If I want to sync a contact between two different services, that contact information should simply preserve whatever markup the other services wish to include. Moreover, if I wanted to do something like embedding (x/v)Cards in the entries, seems like that should be just fine.

Finally, it seems to me that doing GoogleAuth everywhere for this is less than optimal. OpenID would be much better and would encourage more adoption at the bottom level of the tech food chain — not MySpace and Six Apart, but Joe Blow’s open source project. But it all goes back to the root of the problem here:

Google didn’t design a spec for interoperability of social networks as much as they built an API for dealing with Google. I don’t think this is what people really wanted here. Aside from the fact that it works on the presumption that everyone is going to clear everything through Google, it is going to require a whole lot of user understanding to make this data really portable.

For instance, it seems to me there should be part of the specification that says profile pages have link rel=”opensocial” pointing to the users individual feed. That is easy to communicate to the user that they can point at a buddy’s page to add them as a friend. If that page also had an OpenID link on it, then cross registration outside of the Googleplex would be easy. If the Microsoft SSE extensions were used, then it would be easy for me to maintain references to my accounts on other systems from each other, so with Alice imports her Orkut contacts to MySpace, MySpace can find the myspace <id>’s from people on Orkut with dual membership and resolve that automatically. There also doesn’t seem to be anything implicit in the auth structure for *requesting* access to profile information. It is common to restrict your exposed profile data to people who are your friends. Having links between profiles on different services — presumably with something more like OpenID auth to establish profile ownership — would allow for this; you could import my full information from my MySpace page into Outlook if you were my friend on Orkut.

In short, I am sure OpenSocial will make a dent in something. But it doesn’t seem to be solving the “Give me a truely portable contact list and identity” that I would really like to have.