Articles, notes and random thoughts on Software Development and Technology
JRuby, a Ruby interpretter written in Java and that runs on the Java platform has an upgraded release, 0.9, that now supports running Rails on JRuby.
If you are interested in looking at the benefits of a dynamic language and using Rails concepts on the Java platform, take a look at Grails. Grails uses Groovy scripting language which executes on the Java VM, and the Grails framework is based on a lot of the features included in Ruby on Rails. Take a look here – its worth a look.
Ok, now this is just scary. From 2008, Microsoft are to be the sole supplier of ECUs (Engine Control Units) for Formula 1 cars. Given the reputation of Microsoft for supplying robust software, I don’t think I would want to get in one of those cars and drive 200mph knowing that Microsoft is controlling my engine. Actually, worse than this, if their software controlled the braking system, I don’t think they would ever pass the saftey tests..
Eclipse 3.2 was released last week, along with a whole collection of developer tools and utilities, bundled together in a release called ‘Callisto’.
OnJava.com has a brief overview of some of the new features in the core Eclipse tool (the article doesn’t cover any of the additional IDE add-ons included in the Callisto bundle). The article covers some interesting history behind Eclipse and it’s origins, and highlights a couple of new features that make life easier for developers using Eclipse.
Firestar software are suing RedHat, the owner of JBoss and the Hibernate ORM technology, for infringing on it’s patent regarding Object Relational Mapping technology.
Analysts are speculating why they chose to single out RedHat, and why this point in time – ORM solutions have been around for a number of years. They could have chosen to go after Oracle for Toplink, a ORM solution they acquired from WebGain, or any one of a number of implementations of the now standardized JSR220 EJB3.0 Java Persistence API, which is based on Hibernate.