Cozmo's Dev Blog - Open Sores

The best part about FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) is not that it is free.

Thu, 07 May 2009 02:00:00-0700

I used to look at FOSS as a means to get free software: MySQL, Apache, Eclipse etc... FOSS is part of my day to day affairs and I dare say the best thing to ever happen to software and software developers. But for me, FOSS is the best programming howto guide there is. It is like a living text book that is always getting better. I have learned more from reading other peoples source code than I have from any book, blog post or article. Being an autodidact, reading source code makes much sense than reading the English words used to describe the programming concepts. Just this week I was asked to R&D a bunch of stuff and I found solutions for all the CF stuff by going to either CFLib.org or RIAForge.org. (Mad props to Ray Camden for making those sites. You saved my ass twice this week dude! Rock On with your bad ass self!) Those sites are gold mines for CF programming knowledge. I have been turned on to so many new ideas and concepts by the folks that have shared their work that I want to give a shout out and thank you to y'all.

Thank you!!

Amazing Website To Build (CF) Eclipse installs

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:16:00-0700

One of the biggest pains in the arse when dealing with some FOSS apps (LAMP especially) is dependency hell. If the app you need is not part of the package manager you can get into a day(s) long hunt for dependencies. The same is true for Eclipse (to a lesser degree). Or rather it was. Someone on CF_talk was having problems with installing CFEclipse on the latest version of Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede). In the past a few people recommended Pulse (myself included) to deal with Eclipse's dependencies. Pulse is a great app that resolves dependencies (most of the time) when building Eclipse Distros. Pulse is an excellent product but has a bad habit of downloading a gig or more of files (in my case) to its plugin cache (depending on your builds). Another option, and in my opinion a better option, is yoxos.com's On Demand website. http://yoxos.com/ondemand/ Yoxos.com's On Demand website is an online tool for building custom Eclipse distros/installs. This site is one of the most amazing web based apps I have seen to in my life. The front end is damn near that of a desk top app, and the back end is even more impressive. It allows you to pick and choose from hundreds of plugins and automatically resolves dependencies so you can create custom Eclipse installs that you can save, merge and share. I started messing around with the various plugins and found some of the most amazing tools like editors for PHP, SQL, CSS, (X)HTML, JavaScript and XML with support for Adobe AIR apps, all the major JS/AJAX libraries with code assist and inline help; wussywig HTML editors, JavaScript debuggers, XML schema editors, JavaScript/CSS/html function/property browsers, Database development tools and editors, snippets etc. etc. Not to mention Eclipse is the defacto standard for Java development and supports most of it's tool kits as well as having plugins for just about every language under the sun. And keep in mind that a lot of the above editors are not just text editors with color coding and rudimentary code complete but first class, full featured tools/IDE's like the ones that we used to (and still do) pay hundreds of dollars for. Oh yeah. It is all FREE!!! FOSS, me love you long time!!

Just added >> CF_jscalendar & FileUpload.cfc

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:13:00-0700

CF_jscalendar is a port of jscalendar from dynarch.com for CF 5 and above. FileUpload.cfc is a very simple File Upload component that uploads a file and sanitizes the file name for Windows servers. It was tested on on CF 7 and above and should work on Railo 2+ and (Open) BlueDragon 6.x and above. Update: Tuesday, 10/21/08 I added set_SQL_permissions.cfm. It is just a little throw away script that creates the SQL need to grants SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE permissions to tables for MSSQL. Setting permissions using the SQL Server Management Studio, in a word, sucks.

Running on Railo - Breaking Radio Silence

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:37:00-0700

I moved my blog to a new VPS and it is running on Railo 3.0 Community. Hell YEAH!!! I have a back log of blarg entries to get posted as well. I also posting a bunch of contributions to the community with more to come. Uploaded so far are - My CFEclipse Snippets
- Some UDFs
- CFC Generator Lite
CFC Generator Lite is a HTML front end for creating cfc's for an entire database in one shot using Brian Rinaldi's outstanding Illudium PU-36 Code Generator. In the pipe: A how-to on getting Railo 3 running in a shared hosting environment with IIS on 2003 server using a hosting Control panel (Plesk 8.3) including gotchas and their work arounds. A How-to on creating a simple ORM by abstracting your database using Brian Rinaldi's outstanding Illudium PU-36 Code Generator.

I am almost there

Sun, 04 May 2008 06:39:00-0700

I have been working on yet another code generator for ColdFusion for the last six months. I have learned a lot. When I am done.... it will read a databse and using the metadata and it will create a working app using the ENTIRE database. It is like a mini Ruby on Rails.

You point it to the data source and a destination dir, press enter, and you have a working app. You can go from zero to working admin for a 20 table database in about a minute.

It also:

Generates client side validation based on the data type (string, numeric, float, date, etc.).
Generates time and date pickers for date/time fields.
Generates inline wussywig text editors for Text fields
Automatically generates and populates drop down boxes using foreign keys .
Has optional secondary validation using key words in the column name (like email, phone, fax, zip, etc.).
It is almost entirely Object Oriented and uses a very simple MVC methodology.

I am pretty pumped and have been working on this every chance I get. When I get it done, (It really snow balled from what seemed to be a very simple idea), I will be able to crank out a working app, with a couple of clicks, in a matter of minutes. And yes, I will be releasing it open source.

It seems that I am not alone

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:19:00-0700

Are You Frustrated With Firefox?

FireFox Sucks

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:32:00-0700

I have a love hate relationship with FF. The plugins are great. But it is a ram and CPU WHORE. This is what FF does when I surf on my 2.8 gig P4 laptop. See all those EXTENDED periods where the proccessor is pegged? This is me clicking on links on standard web plain jane web 1.0 html pages. So this is the crown jewel of open source? Is it me or is something very, VERY wrong here?

I think Fire fox has a memory leak

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:57:00-0700

I could be wrong though. I often am.

Blue Dragon J2EE Goes FOSS

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 05:55:00-0700

Yes! Finally there is a mature version of CF supported by a stable company that is FOSS. I love CF. I dreaded the thought of having to go back to PHP or learning .NET or Java as main programming platform. I like PHP, ASP, .NET and Java well enough. But CF has spoiled me. It just takes so much more code/work to write apps in these languages. Besides, I know CF like the back of my hand. I *think* in CF. I dream in code. I program in my sleep and when I dream it is genearly from a CF stand point. I have been learning Java due to my FUD with "CF is dead" and the general lack of jobs for CF in my area. I just got started with Java and to bring my chops up to speed, with my CF chops, on any of the above, will not happen with out some serious effort. BTW, I never had FUD with CF until I started looking for a job outside my geek friend circle last year. But that is another story for another time. But no more. With Blue Dragon J2EE going open source it means that all the companies and dept's that balked at the $7500 per box cost for Enterprise CF have no (good) reason to do so anymore. The $1500 jump in price for Adobe's Enterprise version really pissed me off seeing that it effectively priced itelf out of the ball park for most (mom and pop or local) ISP's and hosting companies and grass root startups (like my past efforts). The one thing I have learned while learning Java is how powerful (and easy) CFML is. When I started learning Java (and OO programming in general) my eyes became wide open and realized how little I knew and that I was just scratching the surface to the potential of CF. A few years back, I had foolishly thought that I had done pretty much most every thing that could be done with CF. And at the time, just around when cf 6 was released I probably was pretty much versed in 80-95% of the language to the point where it was rote. Imagine how stupid I feel now with a ~year of OO under my belt and still not knowing shite. So I DL's the J2EE version of BD, read the docs. I deployed it on TomCat and got busy. First thoughts: TomCat was at 23 megs just sitting there. With BD it hit about 33-35 megs, again, just sitting there. It was at about 45 megs running some simple CFM's, i.e no CFC's. I did beat on it a bit (looping over 10,000 items) but it never went over 45 megs. Adobe CF 8 on tomcat hovered at easily twice that and the stand alone version (on apache) kisses 200 megs (sitting there) not including the ODBC, .NET bridge or search services, All I have to say is that I am thoroughly impressed with BD. Aside from some minor syntactical difference, and missing some minor functionality from Adobe's offering; I am very, very impressed. In fact, after reading the docs, the enhancements that BD brought to the plate (for CF 7.x) more than makes up for its compatibility issues. So hello BDJ2EE. Me love you long time.

Open Source my ass

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:54:00-0700

Open Source is starting to get on my nerves. I love open source about 90% of the time. But FF and Eclipse are turning into a bloated sacks of fark that makes MS's worst bloated sack of fark look like notepad. Let me see.... Right now FF is using 450 megs of ram and Eclipse is @ 358 megs. A browser using 450 megs of ram? I close out all but one browser window and it is still using 450 megs. Open what? Suck what? If a site has a flash video (like Youtube), FF pegs the processor of my 3 yr old (1.8 gig P4 - 1.28 gig ram) laptop and grinds it to a farking halt. Unusable. Flash videos also pegs my 2.8 gig duel processor HP box. Nice. No wonder I think that OSS zealots are idiots. "But OSS is FREE!" So is dirt. Blow me.

I don't know shit....

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:39:00-0700

If you are a CF developer (or web developer) and you are still using DreamWeaver or Homesite or CF studio and not using Eclipse or any other of the advanced IDE's like Komodo, Visual Studio, Aptana, NetBeans etc, *you literally have no idea what you are missing out on*. If you use F1 on DreamWeaver, Homesite or CF studio as a primary source of information about programming, CSS, HTML and your available options you are also missing a HUGE piece of information . I have been using Eclipse for about 9 months now and the one thing it has taught me is how little I know. When I first fired up CF studio some 10 odd years ago I looked at all the CF related buttons and the options and felt clueless. By using various Eclipse distros like the one provided by Pulse I feel even more clueless than I did 10 years ago. AND I have a working knowledge of web development and client and server side languages like JS, SQL, XML, XSL, HTML, XHTML, CSS, ASP, PHP, RegEx, CFML etc under my belt. As well as being exposed good doses of VB, ASP.NET, C#, ROR, Java, PERL, Python etc over the years. The one thing I am finding out that I don't know shit. At FSU the is an engraving on Dodd Hall that reads "The half of knowledge is to know where to find knowledge" Now I know the other half of knowledge is making sure that you are being exposed to *new* knowledge on a regular basis. If you explore Eclipse it will end up teaching you more than you can possibly imagine. Literally.

My new favorite things: Groovy and Grails

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:54:00-0700

I ran into it here.

http://www.barneyb.com/barneyblog/2008/02/11/barney-and-the-holy-grail/

Sean Corfield wrote on it

http://corfield.org/blog/index.cfm/do/blog.entry/entry/Grails__a_first_look

I have been looking for a replacement for CF for some time now. I am not taking any chances and started learning Java. As you might know Java is huge and it is going to take a while to get up to speed with it. I have played with ROR and and Jruby I am not fond of the syntax or the development process

Enter Groovy and Grails. Grails makes some pretty complex and advanced techniques ridiculously easy to do. And the language is similar enough to CF and CF script to make the learning curve and barrier to entry not as steep as say Ruby or Java. And since it creates Java Byte code it should (in theory) run side by side with CF (That is this weekend’s science experiment). Basically to lets you write Java apps with out having to actually write Java.

http://dev2dev.bea.com/pub/a/2006/10/introduction-groovy-grails.html

http://groovy.codehaus.org/

http://grails.org/

Some of my favorite things: CF, PHP, Java, ROR all playing together. Literally.

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:16:00-0700

I am in search of the perfect application stack. There are many things about the above app stacks to love. I like them all. I have used all of the above to varying degrees. I have been on the Java train for some time and have been trying to get my head around it for the last few months. I wrote a couple POC apps in ROR to see what the hype is about and have been using PHP for years. And CF has been by my side for the last 10 years or so... A while back I was giving jRuby a spin using GlassFish and NetBeans and I really liked it. I liked it a lot. I also liked working with Java in NetBeans. The thing is, I can't get them to play together all under one roof. CF runs on Java so that is a given. PHP can play with Java a and ROR has been ported to Java via JRubyy. CF can talk to PHP and Ruby. I just wish I could get the all to run together, on the same machine, on the same web/app server, on the same port. So I tried to install CF 8 as a WAR file on GlassFish and it worked. But CF 8 Enterprise is $7500, so I tried installing Railo and that is running fine. I am about to see if I can get JRuby and php/Java bridge to run as well. If I can get all of these to run on the same server (on the same port) I will have the perfect platform. The RAD capabilities of CF and ROR, the bazillion OS PHP web apps out there and the power of Java (and bazillion prebuilt Java apps and tags as well).

ZDNet disgusts me more and more everyday

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 16:11:00-0700

Every time I get one of their "Tech updates" it has at least one story that fans the flame of the eternal (and in my opinion, STUPID) holy war. My opinion is that software (OS's included) are tools to get a job done. Look, it is a hammer, not a freaking religion. For 99% of the population computers are, much like a truck, a means to an end and not the end themselves. But of course there are always those people who become emotionally involved with their tools and have those stickers of Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes, peeing on the rival truck's logo. Ford drivers have Calvin peeing the Chevy Logo and vice versa. Most people would probably agree that the whole Chevy vs. Ford debate is a big adolescent prick wagging contest and, at its core, is pretty damn stupid. If you look at it from this vantage point, the whole Windows vs. Linux argument here is basically on the same level. It is a bunch of "grown ups" carrying on like kids on a playground except the mantra of "my dad can beat up your dad" has been replaced with "my Operating System can beat up your Operating System" I am an IT professional. In being so I keep up on the latest trends by reading blogs and subscribing to trade journals and newsletters like InfoWorld, IDG, DevShed.com, internet.com, devx.com and so on. In comparison to these journals, ZDNet reads like a gossip column. Some of these "Tech Update" have more in common with Joan Rivers's coverage of Hollywood red carpet events than IT professional's covering industry events and trends (you know who you are). Do any of the aforementioned trade journals partake in ZDNet's brand of IT yellow journalism? In a word, no. They offer sound, competent coverage of pertinent industry news, developments and tools. Often times they do have their own slant or agenda but they don't use sensationalism to drive traffic to their website's comment section. I would wager that the majority of the traffic on the ZDNet news and blog site is generated by their "discussion" section. I use Linux freakin every day. I develop on the LAMP stack, among others. It is a fantastic platform. We also develop using the Microsoft, Adobe, Sun and New Atlanta stacks. Why? There are several reasons, but mostly because it is more cost effective. Visual Studio is a fantastic product. Java is, well Java. Flash and Flex don't have viable alternatives, and we can get ColdFusion apps out the door in half the time it takes to develop them using "free" platforms like LAMP or .NET. I use Open/closed Source tools every day. For instance my primary IDE is Eclipse. Eclipse is absolutely astounding. But I also use DreamWeaver, mostly because it is the best tool for building web based GUI's. My Databases of choice are MySQL, Derby and MS SQL Server, in that order. I love MySQL. It is by far my favorite, but SQL Server's Data Transfer services make MySQL look like a child's play thing. Mind you, all of them are outstanding at what they do. They just do different things better than the other. Do I care if they are Open Source or not? Not really. Just as long as they do what I want them to do and gets me from Point A to point B in the most efficient, practical and cost effective manner. I use Windows as my OS of choice. Why? One reason is that a good portion of my day in, day out tools run on Windows with out having to kludge together a work around or have some apps be crippled or semi functional, like I would with Linux. Another is that Macs, while very nice, are still too expensive. The other reason is that *I don't like* the Linux desktop environment. I have tried to like it. I really have. I tried to switch in earnest. I used it almost exclusively for three months, so I know. But after 12 weeks of kludging together a work-arounds and a few rounds of dependency hell, I finally said screw it. I need to get some work done. What really bothers me is that I have been played for a fool by the editors of ZDNet. Once again they have sucked me into this time wasting and ultimately futile debate, AGAIN. I stopped get the ZDNet news letters a year or two back for the same reason. But I started to do so again, despite the flame bait that they use to drive traffic to their site, because they do have items of professional and personal interest. It is rather insidious how they drag you into the fray. But now I am going to back off and port the energy that I have wasted in this mindless debate into developing my skills on BOTH Windows and *nix platforms. And remember, you are being played as a fool in order to pad another mans bank account. Y'all have fun pounding sand. One day it might turn into glass.

FireFox is a P... I.... G.... PIG

Sun, 06 May 2007 15:05:00-0700

I love Firefox. There are a couple of things I don't like about it, but for the most part it is fantastic. I can't see myself functioning with out PlugIns like Google toolbar, Webdeveloper, FireBug and Gspace. But the thing is a ram PIG. It has SERIOUS memory issues. I don't know if it is the plugins or what, but when my system is running slow at work I am usually pretty sure it is Firefox sucking 400-900 megs of RAM. Sure I have 15 browser windows open (IE doesn't get that bad) but DAMN if that thing doesn't sucks down ram like College Freshmen suck down free beer. But here is the kicker, I lock my workstation at the end of the day I just lock it and leave my apps running so I can pick up where I left off. I have come back the next day and and my box will be sluggish (Mind you this is a brand new Dell business class box with 2 gigs of ram and two P4 Duel Core 2.8 GHz processors). I look at the task manager and sure enough it is Firefox gobbling up ram. One time it sucking up 1.9 GIGS of RAM!!!