The Google Web Toolkit has a new stable release. You can read all about it here. It will be used for the new synformation web site, too.
I’ve started to use GWT since version 1.0 came out (August 25, 2006). It was easy to use and since I’m not very good at JavaScript programming, leave alone all the little things you have to know to make sure your JavaScript is compatible with all the different browsers, it was the right thing for me as a Java developer.
I’ve decided, that the new web site will support at least two languages: English and German. That’s because I have a little knowledge of both of theses languages. Developing for these two languages is nearly the same as developing for n languages (it’s not, but we assume this for now). So how do I support more than one language?
Synformation supports I18N in many ways. In fact, there are so many ways, that it can be confusing at times when you have to choose one of them for a specific project. A so called content object in synformation is an object that normally has its content (e.g. binary data like pictures, text) and all the meta-data that comes with it (e.g. date, language, valid-until, relationship to other objects) to describe it further. These content objects are normally used for articles, documents, user generated comments, etc. That’s why they have this name.
Today, Sun Microsystems, Inc. has released key Java implementations under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It wouldn’t be true to say I was always confident, that this was going to happen eventually. But now it did happen indeed. It’s the right move by Sun. Beside many other points, it makes sure that the .NET platform will always have viable competition.
Someone might ask: why does it make such a big difference to have most of Java under the GPL? To find the answer, you have to understand what the GPL is, what it gives you, and what you can do with it. What its intent is. What Richard Stallman wanted.
I’ve set up a blog with WordPress to write and get feedback about the development for the new home of the enterprise web application framework synformation. synformation is an adaptable, secure and 100% Java based web application development framework. The new web site will be developed entirely with synformation. The blog functionality will be modeled after WordPress. Here is a random screenshot (I just wanted to include an image):
Although synformation and the related technology will be the main focus, I’ll write about other things I’m interested in, too.