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Geek
The Error Viewer and Validator extension for Epiphany rocks, but I still need to write a "View Selection Source" extension for the browser. Epiphany has improved a lot since I first bitched about it. A few of the broken or strange things I have gotten used to, but some still really need to get fixed. I'd especially love to see Evolution-Data-Server used to do form auto-completion. If only I had the time to hack it myself :(
I'm really glad I went back to Uni. It has actually come in handy twice already: doing Statistical Practice I (as suggested by Big K at the start of the year) has been useful for the reporting side of the web app I'm writing at work. Then, apart from the novelty of having programmed a microwave oven for Computer Systems, being forced to learn to do binary and hexadecimal number conversion by hand actually helped quite a bit when debugging Azure's UTF-8 encoder/decoder.
Why the hell CLDC/MIDP 1.0 didn't require UTF-8 support in the first place, I'll never know. Let's hope 2.0 does.
The J2ME Device (Issue) Database is an excellent tool for J2ME developers. If you have a Java phone, go download the SysInfo application and submit the results back to the database so we can write better software for you. Go! Do it now!
I'm now thinking of writing my ill-fated Gnome Address Book application in Java, using the Gnome Java Bindings and GCJ. Maybe that will be easier than dealing with Mono. I've been curious about Java-to-native compliation for a while now as well. Maybe I'll even end up with C#, Java and C implementations of the same app. Heh.
Comments
Yep, Epiphany is my primary browser on Linux. Why? Purely for desktop environment consistency. Stuff like clicking on a mailto link and having my mailer pop up. Application widgets looking (and behaving) like normal Gnome application widgets. Decent theme integration and a consistent file chooser.
I must be getting old; demanding creature comforts like these. :)
This is an area that is getting better for Gnome users, but up until recently m.o's products still didn't look anthing like native GTK2 apps. There is some under-the-hood integration going on as well, but in the end these products will always be non-Gnome-native, and so will always confuse users and annoy admins.
The situation is far worse for KDE users, given that m.o necessarily ignore the fact that they exist.
I assume developers write the apps for the same reason.
Posted by: Mike on May 25, 2004 01:55 AM
Right on, Mike. Overall desktop consistency should not be underrated.
Posted by: Tim Riley on May 26, 2004 10:35 PM
Oooo, surely something JWZ wrote couldn't suck? So what is it, the useless 48x48 icons finally getting you down? ;)
Apparently there is a FSF Emacs port to GTK2 in CVS, if if supports DnD and session management, I'll be a very happy camper. See, not only am I /demanding/, but I'm /getting/.
Oh, and Tim, you can cut that sarcastic tone right out.
:)
Posted by: Mike on May 31, 2004 11:04 PM
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