EXE articles from December 1999

EXE archives from December 1999

Well, it had to happen.(Editorial)
December 1, 1999... We're well on the way to our goal of proving that all the `bad' things software developers habitually consume are actually good for you. Not content with fixing the reputation of chocolate, we can now reveal that caffeine - found principally in...

Better the devil you know.(Company Business and Marketing)
December 1, 1999... So, the fix is in. Microsoft is officially a naughty boy who should know better, and may yet get such a spanking. All is right with the world. Justice has been seen to be about to be done at some indeterminate point in the future. Larry Ellison...

Oracle Business Components for Java.(JDeveloper 3.0, Oracle Application Server 4.0.8)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 1999... The rapid development and deployment of Java Server Pages (JSPs) is provided by two Oracle product releases. Along with JDeveloper 3.0, the Oracle Application Server 4.0.8 supports the company's new Business Components for Java, which represent...

Digests.
December 1, 1999... The JProbe 2.5 ServerSide Edition of development tools adds suite-wide Solaris support, enhanced performance tuning capabilities, memory debugging, and thread analysis of EJBs and servlets. A Launch Pad automatically configures JProbe to work...

WML - the time is right.(Company Business and Marketing)
December 1, 1999... With the availability of WAP 1.1 (Wireless Application Protocol), the arrival of GSM phones supporting it, and the launch of WAP gateways and services by most UK GSM networks, this is the right time to consider WML - the Wireless Markup...

Rational Suite.(Rational Suite 1.5, ClearCase 4.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 1999... Rational has new versions of its Suite, v1.5, and of ClearCase, v4.0. Some new features of the Suite are present across all the products included. For instance, they're all internationalised - you can now run the suite on a non-English OS....

Business logic rules OK.(Product Information)
December 1, 1999... The value of e-business is not defined by data, but by the logic you use to run the business. This is the proposition behind Vision Software's Vision Jade, which has been launched within the UK. Taking a declarative approach to specifying...

Tamino for e-business XML.(Software AG's information server for XML data sources)(Product Information)
December 1, 1999... Tamino is Software AG's information server for XML data sources. Designed for e-business applications, the name stands for `Transaction Architecture for the Management of Internet Objects'. Because it can store XML documents natively, no...

Go fast JVM.(Product Information)(Brief Article)
December 1, 1999... The easiest way for an application server running Java to be made faster, by an order of magnitude in a short period of time, is to drop in a much faster JVM. That's the market Tower Technologies is after with its TowerJ. It claims performance...

For rent.(Industry Trend or Event)
December 1, 1999... The people who write software - you and I - see it very differently from the people who use it. We work hard to fill our software with features, we agonise over the mathematical and technical problems so the programs run smoothly, and then we...

Of stack frames.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 1999... Dear Sir, I was interested by your recent Delphi 5 review. However, one point has stuck in my mind - there is the sentence: `And, I think the statically-linked stack frame is one of the most important inventions in computers.' (Jules May,...

The study of Studies.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 1999... Dear Sir, Following on from the comment about non-Science fields (SoapFlakes, EXE, November 1999), if you want to choose a course which contains little or no serious academic study then look for one which includes the word `Studies' in the...

Home alone.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 1999... Dear Sir, According to Jules `a homeworker is four times as effective as an office-based colleague' (Mayhem, EXE, November 1999). I would be surprised if this didn't seriously under-estimate the efficiency. I would love to swap the...

The safe path to C++ exceptions; or many developers C++ exception handling is like a dark continent with poor maps and rumours of ferocious beasts. The intrepid Alan Griffiths explores the landmarks and Ffauna of this region.(Column)
December 1, 1999... In order to discuss exception safety we need to cover a lot of territory. The next section identifies the `exception safe' mountains in the distance. Please don't skip it in the hope of `getting to the good stuff' - if you don't take the time...

GUIs to go; Dave Jewell enjoys an excursion with the Qt portability toolkit.(Qt 2.0 from Troll Tech)(Product Announcement)
December 1, 1999... Qt is the name of a high-level C++ application framework created by Troll Tech, a Norwegian company. The latest version of Qt is 2.02, available for Windows, Linux, and other Unix/X11 platforms. In a nutshell, Qt allows you to create modern...

Surveying on the Web.
December 1, 1999... I've always felt that my year starts in September when I get back from my annual sleep break in August. At the end of my year, July seems to flash by. I keep gazing out the window saying `it's nice out, but sadly this needs doing so I can go...

Only connect; As well as including data access components for ADO, Delphi 5 has a set of components for connecting directly to InterBase. Mark Smith gives his judgement on these `BDE-free' developments.(Product Information)
December 1, 1999... For most programmers Delphi database connectivity has meant using the Borland Database Engine (BDE). The BDE is essentially a generalisation of the older Paradox Engine, not really intended for use in a client-server environment. The...

JavaHelp - your other overlooked friend.(Product Information)
December 1, 1999... Last month I wrote about javadoc, a very useful (but often overlooked) utility that comes with Sun's JDK and creates documentation about your code based on specially formatted comments and your program's actual structure. This month I'll look...

Working hard to keep up; There is a theory that if the true workings of the universe are ever understood then it will automatically mutate into something even more complex. Jon Perkins sometimes feels the same about Windows.(Product Information)
December 1, 1999... It seems remarkable how quickly the PC landscape has altered over the last decade. Ten years ago there were no Visual Basic developers, and the now primitive Windows 3.0 was considered by many, with the notable exception of the Apple Mac...

Sewage, lies and xenophobia.
December 1, 1999... You can't have failed to notice that the French have been in the news a lot lately. If they're not burning our lorries or banning our beef, they're feeding their cattle on the Collected Sayings of Hunter Rubbish, erm, sorry, I mean sewage....

Sleight of policy.(telecom policy in the UK)
December 1, 1999... Those wacky Government ministers are at it again. Not content with issuing stern warnings about the failure of UK business to take advantage of e-commerce, the Chancellor, Gordon `Prudent and Sensible' Brown, has been telling the great British...

Digests.(Product Announcement)
December 1, 1999... Telelogic Tau 3.6 combines UML support for requirement capture, analysis, and modelling, and SDL support for real-time system design and implementation. It compiles to C, C++, or Chill making it ideal for designing and writing comms software....