Runtime Revolution revMedia, a fresh way to intend programming.

revMedia is a new Web Platform created by Runtime Revolution (RunRev), company established in 1997 and focused on multiplatform development and programming as you can see in the Revolution Studio IDE, able to create applications based on the not so ancient model of stacks, ready to be deployed on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux with the same programming code without modification, and native UI elements. Rapid application development and visual programming seems a must for this IDE, everything is performed in minutes if not seconds. Extensive tutorials, videos, resources and samples will accompany you in what is more an amusement than a complex operation.
from RunRev press :

New, Free and Accessible Web Platform Launched
The revWeb authoring environment and revTalk are modern descendents of natural-language programming technologies such as SmallTalk, Apple's HyperCard, AppleScript, and Adobe Director Lingo."

"HyperCard was one of the original inspirations for the Web." said Robert Cailliau, who co-developed the World Wide Web along with Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN. Robert continued, "Today the Web can finally reach its full potential with a modern, powerful development language that honors the best ideas from that original concept." [...]

The impressive and funny presentation on the revMedia web page is showing on how it's simple to create a web application through its proprietary English-like programming language revTalk. In order to have a taste about revMedia "revlets" all we need to do is to install the appropriate browser plugin at the revWeb plugin page, it support Firefox, internet Explorer and Chrome, as well as the MacOS and the Linux Platform. The mandatory Hello sample will show a simple action performed by pressing a button. Subscribing to the alpha program of Revolution Media give you the ability to edit and "investigate" the interactions between stacks and cards and how it's simple to create a standalone application. A test page will be created with the revlet embedded trough the object HTML tag, as well as the JavaScript code responsible to control the presence of the revWeb plugin itself.

JetPack extending Firefox, Bespin extending project management and Firebug extending.

Mozilla Labs efforts to bring programming to a new level of simplicity seems to have joined the top with both the Bespin project and the JetPack extension for Firefox. Bespin in short is an evolved online programming pad, "an experiment to promote open standards" as well as giving a fresh experience by editing the code online featuring a simple project management interface. Relevant features are, VCS integration, collaboration, themes, Google Gears support for offline use. I recommend to look at the video from Mozilla Labs that show how to integrate Bespin VCS features using a Mercurial based repository, Bespin 0.2 version control system integration, and to digit help at the bottom command line to see the list of available commands.

The JetPack extension mimic the Bespin approach integrating editing, debugging, and testing directly through the browser, and features rapid development of extensions using HTML, CSS, and AJAX. Just to having a little taste, is enough to digit about:jetpack in the Firefox addressbar after installing the JetPack extension itself.

TIPS : JetPack is also integrated into Bespin, just digit jetpack into the bottom command line, clicking on the tips on the bottom right corner jumps to the documentation wiki.

Debugging JetPack code is provided by the Firebug extension for Firefox, a set of tools to debug, monitor and edit every aspect of a page, that can be enriched with extensions too, like CodeBurner that extends it with reference material for CSS and HTML, or the YSlow extension by Yahoo! Developer Network that "grades the page performance based on three predefined or a user defined ruleset". It seems these are ingredients for a great recipe.

SuperWaba, POSE and emulation.

I discovered SuperWaba due to my passion for emulation end discovered its support for the Palm OS. SuperWaba is actively working in the mobile scene with its new products: TotalCross (formerly SuperWaba) and LiteBase , "a simplified and low cost database management system for PDAs and smartphones compatible with the SQL language".

TotalCross (totally cross-platform) is a mobile development framework, based on Java, targeting different mobile OSs. The SDK is freely available upon registration, and i have to tell that the people belonging SuperWaba are very gentle. I was surprised for the support for the Palm OS, as stated in the docs Palm OS 3 and 4 support were dropped to allow multithread support and also the Zire 21/POSE emulation.

Playing with Linux the past i was very attracted about the Palm OS and the POSE, the Palm OS emulator. The POSE was well supported by the community and the emulator was available directly within the package management system of Debian. To proper functioning it the ROMs were supplied by the Palm Development Center, always upon registering. The ACCESS Developer Network is now offering the same approach, offering the same ROMs, to which is amarcord addicted, a great documentation and nice starting point to meet the pioneer.

Qt SDK 4.5 in evidence

The new Qt SDK release seems to be a very adaptable framework, with an "overflow" of new features and improvements as described at the What’s New? page. You will be guided through a nice and little "pseudo-walktrough" rich of videos and simple to read.

The developer tools overview and the features highlight summary of this SDK sport a very complete set of functionality to play with: HTML5, WebKit, ODF support, just to mentioning few. A very well context-sensitive help system, integrated within the Qt Creator IDE, as shown in this video, performance improvements and benchmarking, support for Cocoa API for 64-bit Macs, an advanced C++ editor and a Visual Debugger adjust this collection that everyone should try. Qt Creator's big brother, Qt Designer, the GUI layout and forms builder, could also improve the experience of installing and looking through the SDK, with its capability to generate C++ or Java code from your interface prototypes and a remarkable documentation help system is a secure addition.

As of Nokia unit, the Qt Software offers different licensing forms and support. Its expandability is granted by Qt solutions and third party Add-Ons like specialized widgets and controls and platform and industry-specific components and tools. The Qt SDK is fully cross-platform, supporting Windows XP, Windows Vista, Linux, and Mac OS X in favor of the portability of code. Embedded support is expected later this year, and i suggest to sign-up to Forum Nokia for the Developer Newsletter to have the right directions and mobile development.

Suggested Readings
Digitizor : What HTML5 has to offer?

madExcept, debugging inside.

A Pindaric Flight pointed me to install a compendium tool for Winamp called soundmaven, it returns to you interesting informations about the song is playing, artist information, iTunes, Last.fm, AllMusic links and more. Cause the program is a little bit buggy it suggested me to submit a bug report trough an interface i have never seen, its the case of madExcept.

from madshi.net Website:

"madExcept was built to help you locating crashes in your software. Whenever there's a crash/exception in your program, madExcept will automatically catch it, analyze it, collect lots of useful information, and give the end user the possibility to send you a full bug report." (...)

Programmed through Borland Delphi its peculiarity is the speed on how to find bugs and the friendly way it shows to you the submission form. Sincerely i prefer programs that works, and i think submitting bugs i a great way for a programmer to have a sudden feedback, but the process is sometimes still very annoying, well in this case no. Everything is compacted, at first, in a minimal interface, guiding you to a pleasant form to submit the bug. The videos could be more clarifying and i suggest to look at the features because of its degree of customization.

Soundmaven is still a little buggy but it works and i like it very much, especially when it disappear at the top of screen when the song change (both worth a try), an is accompanied by the homonym website (http://soundmaven.com/) where you can discover more artists and is a new effort to the music scene.

Developer's Channels and Reference Cards

It's probably useless to introduce Javalobby, one of the most active Developer's Channel regarding Java. As part of the DZone Network, textually "a free link-sharing community for developers" where everyone will be able to propose new links and to vote the most interesting, seems a new and always refreshing source dressed informal e easy to assimilate.

The Javalobby's newsletter is particularly captivating and affordable, and i strongly suggest to subscribe, the news about Eclipse are the most updated around, and the topics presented sweep from tutorials to products announcements, new Java components and applications, and updates, always in a simple and "non-representational" manner just to not frighten too much who is being approaching this programming language as vast as its growing and many-sided minded, maintaining its friendly aspect mark of distinction.

DZone since January has started a new service dedicate to Developers publishing a series of Reference Cards named Refcardz. They basically consist in a kind of evolved Cheat Sheets, with room for examples, created by eminent authors and experts regarding different topics of programming. Variedness of these subjects is wide and is possible to remain constantly updated about new Refcardz by the RSS feed accessible at the dedicated page. Refcardz are FREE downloadable rich content and the Dzone membership is required.