EXE articles from February 2000

EXE archives from February 2000

Digests.
February 1, 2000... JBuilder 3 Foundation (JBuilder for Linux) is a cross-platform development environment for creating Java 2 platform-based apps for Linux, Solaris and Windows. As well as the AppBrowser and CodeInsight, there is a graphical debugger. Available...

All change for the year 2000.(Intasoft AllChange 2000 configuration management tool)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2000... Intasoft, the software tools specialist, has created the next generation of its configuration management system, AllChange. With the emphasis on flexibility and ease of management, AllChange 2000 has a number of new features. As well as...

Device independent Palm readings.(Product Development)
February 1, 2000... PalmOS 3.5 has been made available under NDA to developers. This is the first full release of PalmOS that is device independent, and was developed by the newly-created Palm Computing Platform group (now distinct from Palm Devices).The main new...

Zero admin.(Centura Software Velocis Database Server 3.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2000... SMP-based scalability combined with zero administration. This is the boast of Centura Software for the major new version of its cross-platform data management server. Velocis Database Server 3.0 is targeted at e-business systems using Linux,...

SpyWright on running MFC.(Premia)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 1, 2000... With Premia's SpyWright you can examine a running application to identify C++ classes, which includes the MFC. The tool displays the class names in a graphical hierarchy, and by selecting a class name you can go directly to its source code (if...

Digests.(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... One from the `Still with us!' department: Computer Associates' Visual Objects 2.5 is designed to combine the flexibility of object programming with visual development tools and repository-based application management. You can create 32-bit...

Shake a stick at software experts.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 1, 2000... Attendees at JaCC will again be spoilt for choice of software experts. Covering important aspects of contemporary software development, the event takes place on 24 and 25 March, at the Oxford Union. The Friday sees C++, Java, and Efficient...

Crypto ASP.(Product Information)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2000... CryptoObject v 1.0 is a utility that enables cryptography from within Active Server pages. It's a COM object that wraps the base cryptography functions provided by the Microsoft Cryptographic API. This has a traditional handle-based design,...

Portable and loveable.(Technology Information)(Column)
February 1, 2000... I'm writing this month's article, as I wrote the last two, on a portable computer. You may think that's not much to talk about - portable computers have been around for a long time now - but for me it's something special because I've never...

Ariane 5.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2000... Dear Sir,I'd like to respond to Alun Williams's mention of Ariane 501's failure (Four days in Oxford: A day for enthusiasts, EXE, November 1999). As he said, the failure was down to a cast from a 64-bit floating point number to a 16-bit...

C++ into English.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2000... Dear Sir, I've just read the article Programmer intelligence - self-selection of the species? (EXE, July, 1999) and found it very interesting. I am currently working on small projects using Visual Basic but wish to move into games programming,...

Y2K winner.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2000... Dear Sir,We read a lot about the failure of the Y2K bug to strike. Well, one of my programs went belly up on New Year's Day, thanks to a two digit date.Do I win [pound]5? Simon AshworthNorth London

Exe's annual Salary Survey.
February 1, 2000... Please remember we need your help to make our Salary Survey a success. The more responses we receive the better the picture we will be able to draw. Last year's response was above our expectations, but we want to at least match it this year.The...

MFC for non-believers; Alex Telford is an ex-C programmer who returned to the profession to discover that, while he was away, Microsoft had built something called MFC. Here are his early struggles, with tips for those who must follow in his footsteps.(Technology Information)
February 1, 2000... These are the experiences of a quiet woodsman - ie a `traditional' C programmer - who has penetrated some short distance into the huge forest called the MFC, and set up a base camp in a clearing. From here, I have made excursions deeper into...

Vendor lock-in; Francis Glassborow takes Sun Microsystems to task for its handling of Java, and warns about getting your pre- and post-increment operators in a twist.(Technology Information)
February 1, 2000... One of the major motives for standards (be they `de facto' or formal) is to help with portability. Ideally, when I write a piece of source code I should not be concerned with which compiler will compile it. In addition, in so far as is...

Standardising builds; Having taken the lie of the land, our new Delphi columnist Philip Brown looks at standardising application builds.(Column)
February 1, 2000... Welcome to my first column for EXE. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it an interesting and stimulating series, exploring many facets of Delphi development. First, let me introduce myself. I'm an IT consultant and have been an active programmer...

Late binding - late danger; If profanity is a language that all programmers share, a prime Java cause can be the dangers of late binding. Lou Grinzo looks at Sun's Product Versioning Specification and presents two strategies to ensure that all is present and correct.(Technology Information)(Column)
February 1, 2000... I bet most Java programmers had the same reaction that I did when I was introduced to the language: relief and happiness over the designers having made so many obviously right decisions, such as fixed-size integers across platforms, strings as...

Drop right in; The system tray. Jon Perkins takes it from the pending pile of topics. But not before covering the automatic and manual techniques for drag and drop.(Technology Tutorial)(Column)(Tutorial)
February 1, 2000... Over the past few columns I've been giving a fair bit of coverage to the newer technologies that are of direct use to the Visual Basic developer and, judging by the feedback, this seems to be a popular approach to take. However, in the...

Kent Beck's Extreme Programming Explained; reviewed by Kevlin Henney.(Review)
February 1, 2000... In addition to being challenged by Brooks's Law (`Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later'), software development is seen as being bound to the exponential cost curve. How much does it cost to introduce a change into software?...

Back to his roots; `Bill Gates [announced] that he will step down as chief executive Microsoft said Mr Gates would take on a new role as its chief software architect. "I'm returning to what I love most - focusing on technology," Mr Gates said.' - Financial Times.(Column)
February 1, 2000... MondayThere was a big meeting at 10am in the corner conference room with the glass walls. As usual there were the regular coders in the W2K non-laser, non-impact printer driver group (which is Kyle and me and a couple of temporary guys seconded...

Extending CodeRush; Dave Jewell plugs in to the SuperComponent architecture of CodeRush 5.0.(Product Support)
February 1, 2000... For those who don't know CodeRush, it's a monster-sized, productivity boosting add-on for the Delphi IDE (I reviewed CodeRush 3 in The ultimate Delphi fashion accessory?, EXE, June 1998). As supplied, CodeRush consists of a core engine that...

Digests.(Basic Solutions JBuilder 3 Foundation)
February 1, 2000... JBuilder 3 Foundation (JBuilder for Linux) is a cross-platform development environment for creating Java 2 platform-based apps for Linux, Solaris and Windows. As well as the AppBrowser and CodeInsight, there is a graphical debugger. Available...