“A web page is really much more sophisticated than it looks.” -Charles on the SproutCore Blog

I think the word he was looking for in “convoluted”. “Sophisticated” seems a bit of a euphemism to me.

But, it’s a very interesting article!

when running server w/ EJBs installed, I encountered the following error:

<pre>10:21:38,524 ERROR [URLDeploymentScanner] Incomplete Deployment listing:

— MBeans waiting for other MBeans —

ObjectName: persistence.units:jar=Intranet.jar,unitName=IntraPU

  State: FAILED

  Reason: javax.persistence.PersistenceException: org.hibernate.HibernateException: Hibernate Dialect must be explicitly set

  I Depend On:

    jboss.jca:service=DataSourceBinding,name=TestDb

    …</pre>

It was important to note that this was preceded by the exception

<pre>10:21:38,294 WARN  [JBossManagedConnectionPool] Throwable while attempting to get a new connection: null

org.jboss.resource.JBossResourceException: Could not create connection; - nested throwable: (com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.MySQLSyntaxErrorException: Access denied for user ”@’localhost’ to database ‘frazer_intranetjava’)

at org.jboss.resource.adapter.jdbc.local.LocalManagedConnectionFactory.createManagedConnection(LocalManagedConnectionFactory.java:179)

at org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.InternalManagedConnectionPool.createConnectionEventListener(InternalManagedConnectionPool.java:577)

at org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.InternalManagedConnectionPool.getConnection(InternalManagedConnectionPool.java:262)

at org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.JBossManagedConnectionPool$BasePool.getConnection(JBossManagedConnectionPool.java:500)

at org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.BaseConnectionManager2.getManagedConnection(BaseConnectionManager2.java:341)

at org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.TxConnectionManager.getManagedConnection(TxConnectionManager.java:315)

at org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.BaseConnectionManager2.allocateConnection(BaseConnectionManager2.java:396)

at org.jboss.resource.connectionmanager.BaseConnectionManager2$ConnectionManagerProxy.allocateConnection(BaseConnectionManager2.java:842)

at org.jboss.resource.adapter.jdbc.WrapperDataSource.getConnection(WrapperDataSource.java:88)

at org.hibernate.ejb.connection.InjectedDataSourceConnectionProvider.getConnection(InjectedDataSourceConnectionProvider.java:47)

…</pre>

The problem was I had not allowed the appropriate permissions for the <strong>test</strong> user in the MySQL database (though I had created the database needed)

“Firstly download our specially created “Dr. Dobb’s Challenge’ games for either Windows and Windows Mobile.” - Dobbs Challenge

The rare either/and sentence construction, combined with the “firstly download” and the atrocious add for Visual Studio on the page, and I think I just may unsubscribe from the Dr. Dobb’s RSS feed.

It, of course, is not in the object APIs - which it totally where you’d expect it to be. Originally there was a “for each” loop, and searching the Net will lead you more likely to that solution. That loop only iterates over dynamic variables (as such an mechanism should imply to you).

Now there is a kind of slapped on utility that will provide XML introspective data of a class.

in flash.utils:

public function describeType(value:*):XML

There are several examples that will show you the E4X that will grab the properties for you, and adding a bit more, this will get them into an array for you:

var description:XML = describeType(entity);
var d2:String = description..accessor.@name.toXMLString();
var accessors:Array = d2.split("\n");

You can then iterate over them.

The XML formatted information is an annoying cop-out to providing actual introspection of classes.

A Google spokesperson responded to questions about the reason for the compatibility issues with Safari and how Google plans on addressing them by noting the company’s commitment to making its applications available across different platforms. “We want to provide great products and services to the tens of millions of Mac users around the world, because it’s the right thing to do, and because Mac users inside and outside of Google demand it,” the spokesperson said. “As part of our ongoing commitment to innovation, Google constantly tests new tools, features and interfaces to improve our Mac feature offering and provide additional benefit to our users who use the Mac platform.”

The correct response would be to say Google refused to answer the question.  Instead the magazine became a marketeer.

“You can also call the setRemoteCredentials() method for Remoting Service destinations that are managed by an external service that requires user name and password authentication, such as a ColdFusion Component (CFC).” - Passing credentials from client-side components, livedocs.adobe.com

I’m not using ColdFusion Components, but an EJB application server. There should be a way to use the Flex remote object credential passing, but I can’t find documentation anywhere!

There’s information on “J2EE and JAAS” access elsewhere on the livedocs, but it only addresses WebServices and not RemoteObjects - two very different beasts.

(And while I’m at it, it’s prob’ly not a good idea to name your product after ill-reputed science.)

I’ve always preferred “real” languages to kludgey script languages. (What is a language? That’ll have to wait for another day.)

The day I stumbled upon the fact that there is no variable scoping in ActionScript reminded me of its lowly origins.

for (var i:int = 0; i<10; i++) {
	// do something
}

for (var i:int = 0; i<10; i++) {
	// do something else
}

Redeclaring a variable within a method only issues a warning. If you change the type, and error is kicjed out.

Given this language functionality, I have gravitated toward a convention of declaring all variables at the top of the method. Never an inside-the-loop definition.

var i:int;

for (i = 0; i<10; i++) {
	// do something
}

for (i = 0; i<10; i++) {
	// do something else
}

Here’s a random piece of code. It’s not specifically an example of how you might run afoul with no scoping, but it is an example of using the declaration convention.

private function handle(event:DragEvent):void {
	var source:Object = event.dragSource.dataForFormat(dataFormat)[0];
	var base:ListBase = event.target as ListBase;
	var i:int = base.calculateDropIndex(event);
	var currentItem:Object = (i >= base.dataProvider.length) ? null : base.dataProvider[i]; // dragDestination()

	if (event.type == DragEvent.DRAG_EXIT || event.type == DragEvent.DRAG_DROP)
		currentItem = null;

	if (currentItem == lastItem)
		return;

	var feedback:String = determineFeedback(event);
	DragManager.showFeedback(feedback);
	if (feedback != DragManager.NONE) {
		updateLastItem(currentItem);
		setTempValue(currentItem, source);
	} else {
		updateLastItem(null);
	}

	base.invalidateList(); // required by lists using labelFunction, they don't catch binding changes
}

To totally pick on one guy who I happened to be reading when I went over the threshold to write this:

negatives:
“we saw” - it’s awkward, and passive
“Lets” - should not be capitalized, and should have an apostrophe
“let us get introduced” - what?

obligatory positive input:
earlier article - the link is appropriately tied to the content it’s referring to

That’s just from the first paragraph.

All of the code is in a quote, is word-wrapped, and is devoid of white space - fix that!

There’s much more - I could edit it to oblivion. But I also can’t pass up: “there by”, one word, “thereby”; “invoke a method call”, just “we invoke a method”; “rhe” simple spell check-”the”; “So,whats”, don’t use contractions if you can’t use contractions- “So, what’s”; “on fail” - we begin sentences with capital letters - “On fail”. The list goes on.

The technical content is quite interesting, so kudos on that.

By the way, the ability to communicate and write effectively is at the top of my list of things you need to do to prepare for a job interview. Practicing in a blog is a great way to do it. My rule of thumb is you should re-read and edit your piece three times. I do it once before I post, once a day later (in my RSS feed - also assuring that’s working correctly), and once several days later.

Amit Mital, General Manager at Microsoft, you’re killing me softly.

Upon recent cleaning of my inbox I stumbled upon it again, and actually applied it to current theme. The designer of the current theme is someone named Bob who hates white space!

Anyway, for posterity, and so I can look for it later, here’s the code. (It may well be able to be stream lined - I’m certainly neophyte enough in CSS still to not know any better.)

pre, code {
	background:#FFFFFF url(/wp-content/themes/preback.jpg) no-repeat scroll left top;
	border: 1px solid #99CC66;
	color: #000000;
	display: block;
	font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, Fixed, monospace;
	font-size: 110%;
	font-size-adjust: none;
	font-stretch: normal;
	font-style: normal;
	font-variant: normal;
	font-weight: normal;
	line-height: 17px;
	margin: 1em 0pt;
	overflow: auto;
	padding: 0pt 20px 0pt 30px;
	text-align: left;
}

Adobe seems to be responsive on it, so far. Many of the bugs in their system are labeled as “deferred” - just hope this one doesn’t end there.

Problem is, even if it gets fixed, it’s a problem in the Flash Player and needs to be fixed and released from there - may not be until Flash Player 10 till it’s fixed.