Do you remember Gopher?

"[We] like to consider the hundreds of interconnected Gopher servers to be one large distributed entity; thus, we speak of "the Gopher", with its many small parts, spread throughout the Internet. The Gopher is always growing, always changing. It's everywhere, but you can't locate it; it's always there, but you can't see it. ... The Gopher is the largest and most practical example of applied pantheism in the history of mankind." 

• gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/
• gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/world
• gopher://gopher.well.com/
  

Boy, do I feel old right now!

02.08.2005, 21:42

The current.tv disappointment

When I heard that Al Gore bought the News World International channel and was planning a mix between MTV and CNN, a concept I had in the back of my mind for the last decade, I was looking forward to see how this concept would fly.

Well, current.tv is here - and while I see the mix, it's not the mix I saw. The funny thing is that they acknowledge themselves that the kind of TV they make is being replace by the Internet when they say "Right now, at this moment in history, TV is the most powerful medium in the world". My idea of a mix between MTV and CNN on the other hand would be the kind of TV that will survive the Internet. I'll carry it around with me some more.

02.08.2005, 9:02

OpenMocha Project Roadmap

The concepts OpenMocha is based on have been deployed in Mocha Objects
through versions 3, 4 and 5 for many years and are quite mature. With
OpenMocha these concepts have been moved to an open source foundation
and while OpenMocha is not yet "feature complete", the features that
are currently implemented are stable and OpenMocha 0.5 or later can be
used in production.

http://openmocha.org/openmocha /roadmap/

Coming soon: OpenMocha 0.6 as well as more documentation and examples.

01.08.2005, 12:14

MochiKit Javascript Library

• Async - manage asynchronous tasks
• Base - functional programming and useful comparisons
• DOM - painless DOM manipulation API
• DateTime - "what time is it anyway?"
• Format - string formatting goes here
• Iter - itertools for JavaScript; iteration made HARD, and then easy
• Logging - we're all tired of alert()
• Visual - visual effects and colors

27.07.2005, 12:04

Getting your feet wet with OpenMocha

Paul Adams of Webmonkey is getting your feet wet with Ruby on Rails . So, I thought we could just compare how the same exercise would play out in Mocha.

Paul starts by pointing you to the installation instructions so you can install Ruby and Rails. He says  "However you get your RoR on your system, the procedure is pretty simple once it's installed", whatever that means ;-)  Next, he points out that you also need to install a database system such as MySQL or PostgreSQL.

Then he creates a "bookmarker" database and adds a "bookmarks" table. Then he types "rails Bookmarker" to create a new Rails app. Then a "config/database.yml" file to point to the previously created database. Then he types "ruby ./Bookmarker/script/generate scaffold Bookmark" to create the app's components based on that database. Then he starts the server and goes to http://oursite.org:3000/bookmarks. Finally he edits a template to add links to the bookmarked URLs.

Now let's see what we have to do in order to get there with Mocha:

• You need to have Java installed
  
• download OpenMocha
• extract the downloaded archive
• execute ./start.sh (or start.bat on Windows)
• create an admin account at http://oursite.org:8080/register
• copy the authentication code to the server.properties file
• login at http://oursite.org:8080/login

Actually, this already completes our exercise, but lets say you want to add a new, separate Bookmarks application.

• copy apps/main to apps/bookmarks
• add "bookmarks" on a new line to the apps.properties file
  
• restart OpenMocha
• go to http://oursite.org:8080/bookmarks/login

Done. Don't believe me? Try it!

Ok, I admit this turned out to be a silly exercise. But hey, I only promised to get your feet wet - and believe me, that you did more than you realise. Welcome to OpenMocha! You really do have a working web application without writing a single line of code. And as you will see in a forthcoming example, you can now customize this application further by adding code, extending its functionality or overriding any default behavior.

25.07.2005, 13:22

People flocking to see global warming

In the Swiss Alps, a rapidly melting glacier has become the latest must-see on the travel circuit.
 
Since the beginning of the summer, the remains of the Trift Glacier have been made more easily accessible thanks to a new cable car service and the opening of a spectacular suspension footbridge .

"The glaciers in the Alps are melting," Baumberger continues. "We have almost too much water in summertime and that’s a problem. The advantage of glaciers is that they store water, regulating the circulation. If the glaciers disappear, the water will not be impeded on its way down the slope and that will cause flooding in the lowlands."

"If you want to replace the function of a glacier, you have to build a dam, which can technically regulate the flow of water," he adds.

25.07.2005, 09:25

Rails vs Struts vs Mocha

I just read " Ruby on Rails and J2EE: Is there room for both? " where Aaron Rustad compares Rails and Struts in three steps:

1. The front controller
2. The action and the model
3. The persitence framework

 So, how does our Mocha environment compare?

The "front controller" in Helma would look for a stored object whos parent node structure matches the name hierarchy of the requested URL. Unless the next element in the requested URL specifies an alternative action method, the "main" action method of that object's prototype would then be called. The URL might look something like...

    http://localhost/orders/4/delete/

...where "4" would be a child object of "orders" and "delete" would be an action method of its prototype. Similar to Rails, the file structure can be used to define this prototype structure...

    app/Order/delete.hac

...but that method can also be set anywhere else in the code, even during runtime:

    Order.prototype.delete_action = function(){
         var parent = this._parent;
         parent.removeChild(this);
         res.redirect(parent.href());
    }

While the 'list' action could be specified as a parameter of the parent.href() call, this would most likely not be necessary.  In OpenMocha, the main action of the parent object will generate that list.

So, we already covered steps 1 and 2, the front controller and the action and model. Now, what about step 3?  There is no step 3. The objects are automatically stored in the embedded db.

Alternatively, the objects can also be mapped against a relational db, controlled through a type.properties file .

18.07.2005, 22:55

>>> The JavaScript Manifesto