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• Java Generics Class Type Parameter Inference

  - by Pindatjuh

  Given the interface: public interface BasedOnOther<T, U extends BasedList<T>> { public T getOther(); public void staticStatisfied(final U list); } The BasedOnOther<T, U extends BasedList<T>> looks very ugly in my use-cases. It is because the T type parameter is already defined in the BasedList<T> part, so the "uglyness" comes from that T needs to be typed twice. Problem: is it possible to let the Java compiler infer the generic T type from BasedList<T> in a generic class/interface definition? Ultimately, I'd like to use the interface like: class X extends BasedOnOther<BasedList<SomeType>> { public SomeType getOther() { ... } public void staticStatisfied(final BasedList<SomeType> list) { ... } } Instead: class X extends BasedOnOther<SomeType, BasedList<SomeType>> { public SomeType getOther() { ... } public void staticStatisfied(final BasedList<SomeType> list) { ... } }

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• Using JavaMail to send a mail containing Unicode characters

  - by NoozNooz42

  I'm successfully sending emails through GMail's SMTP servers using the following piece of code: Properties props = new Properties(); props.put("mail.smtp.host", "smtp.gmail.com"); props.put("mail.smtp.socketFactory.port", "465"); props.put("mail.smtp.socketFactory.class","javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory"); props.put("mail.smtp.auth", "true"); props.put("mail.smtp.port", "465"); props.put("mail.smtp.ssl", "true"); props.put("mail.smtp.starttls.enable","true"); props.put("mail.smtp.timeout", "5000"); props.put("mail.smtp.connectiontimeout", "5000"); // Do NOT use Session.getDefaultInstance but Session.getInstance // See: http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5301696 final Session session = Session.getInstance( props, new javax.mail.Authenticator() { protected PasswordAuthentication getPasswordAuthentication() { return new PasswordAuthentication( USER, PWD ); } }); try { final Message message = new MimeMessage(session); message.setFrom( new InternetAddress( USER ) ); message.setRecipients( Message.RecipientType.TO, InternetAddress.parse( TO ) ); message.setSubject( emailSubject ); message.setText( emailContent ); Transport.send(message); emailSent = true; } catch ( final MessagingException e ) { e.printStackTrace(); } where emailContent is a String that does contain Unicode characters (like the euro symbol). When the email arrives (in another GMail account), the euro symbol has been converted to the ASCII '?' question mark. I don't know much about emails: can email use any character encoding? What should I modify in the code above so that an encoding allowing Unicode characters is used?

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• NSTableView don't display data

  - by Tomas Svoboda

  HI, I have data in NSMutableArray and I want to display it in NSTableView, but only the number of cols has changed. This use of NSTableView is based on tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5teN5pMf-rs FinalImageBrowser is IBOutlet to NSTableView @implementation AppController NSMutableArray *listData; - (void)awakeFromNib { [FinalImageBrowser setDataSource:self]; } - (IBAction)StartReconstruction:(id)sender { NSMutableArray *ArrayOfFinals = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; //Array of list with final images NSString *FinalPicture; NSString *PicNum; int FromLine = [TextFieldFrom intValue]; //read number of start line int ToLine = [TextFieldTo intValue]; //read number of finish line int RecLine; for (RecLine = FromLine; RecLine < ToLine; RecLine++) //reconstruct from line to line { Start(RecLine); //start reconstruction //Create path of final image FinalPicture = @"FIN/final"; PicNum = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%d", RecLine]; FinalPicture = [FinalPicture stringByAppendingString:PicNum]; FinalPicture = [FinalPicture stringByAppendingString:@".bmp"]; [ArrayOfFinals addObject:FinalPicture]; // add path to array } listData = [[NSMutableArray alloc] init]; [listData autorelease]; [listData addObjectsFromArray:ArrayOfFinals]; [FinalImageBrowser reloadData]; NSBeep(); //make some noise NSImage *fin = [[NSImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:FinalPicture]; [FinalImage setImage:fin]; } - (int)numberOfRowsInTableView:(NSTableView *)tv { return [listData count]; } - (id)tableView:(NSTableView *)tv objectValueFromTableColumn:(NSTableColumn *)tableColumn row:(int)row { return (NSString *)[listData objectAtIndex:row]; } @end when the StartReconstruction end the number of cols have changed right, but they're empty. When I debug app, items in listData is rigth. Thanks

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• java: retrieving the "canonical value" from a Set<T> where T has a custom equals()

  - by Jason S

  I have a class Foo which overrides equals() and hashCode() properly. I would like to also would like to use a HashSet<Foo> to keep track of "canonical values" e.g. I have a class that I would like to write like this, so that if I have two separate objects that are equivalent I can coalesce them into references to the same object: class Canonicalizer<T> { final private Set<T> values = new HashSet<T>(); public T findCanonicalValue(T value) { T canonical = this.values.get(value); if (canonical == null) { // not in the set, so put it there for the future this.values.add(value); return value; } else { return canonical; } } } except that Set doesn't have a "get" method that would return the actual value stored in the set, just the "contains" method that returns true or false. (I guess that it assumes that if you have an object that is equal to a separate object in the set, you don't need to retrieve the one in the set) Is there a convenient way to do this? The only other thing I can think of is to use a map and a list: class Canonicalizer<T> { // warning: neglects concurrency issues final private Map<T, Integer> valueIndex = new HashMap<T, Integer>(); final private List<T> values = new ArrayList<T>(); public T findCanonicalValue(T value) { Integer i = this.valueIndex.get(value); if (i == null) { // not in the set, so put it there for the future i = this.values.size(); this.values.add(value); this.valueIndex.put(value, i); return value; } else { // in the set return this.values.get(i); } } }

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• Pass data from thread into Activity

  - by Laimoncijus

  Hi, I am want to pass data back from a Thread to Activity (which created the thread). So I am doing like described on Android documentation: public class MyActivity extends Activity { [ . . . ] // Need handler for callbacks to the UI thread final Handler mHandler = new Handler(); // Create runnable for posting final Runnable mUpdateResults = new Runnable() { public void run() { updateResultsInUi(); } }; @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); [ . . . ] } protected void startLongRunningOperation() { // Fire off a thread to do some work that we shouldn't do directly in the UI thread Thread t = new Thread() { public void run() { mResults = doSomethingExpensive(); mHandler.post(mUpdateResults); } }; t.start(); } private void updateResultsInUi() { // Back in the UI thread -- update our UI elements based on the data in mResults [ . . . ] } } Only one thing I am missing here - where and how should be defined mResults so I could access it from both Activity and Thread, and also would be able to modify as needed? If I define it as final in MyActivity, I can't change it anymore in Thread - as it is shown in example... Thanks!

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• How do I enforce the order of qmake library dependencies?

  - by James Oltmans

  I'm getting a lot of errors because qmake is improperly ordering the boost libraries I'm using. Here's what .pro file looks like QT += core gui TARGET = MyTarget TEMPLATE = app CONFIG += no_keywords \ link_pkgconfig SOURCES += file1.cpp \ file2.cpp \ file3.cpp PKGCONFIG += my_package \ sqlite3 LIBS += -lsqlite3 \ -lboost_signals \ -lboost_date_time HEADERS += file1.h\ file2.h\ file3.h FORMS += mainwindow.ui RESOURCES += Resources/resources.qrc This produces the following command: g++ -Wl,-O1 -o MyTarget file1.o file2.o file3.o moc_mainwindow.o -L/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu -lboost_signals -lboost_date_time -L/usr/local/lib -lmylib1 -lmylib2 -lsqlite3 -lQtGui -lQtCore Note: mylib1 and mylib2 are statically compiled by another project, placed in /usr/local/lib with an appropriate pkg-config .pc file pointing there. The .pro file references them via my_package in PKGCONFIG. The problem is not with pkg-config's output but with Qt's ordering. Here's the .pc file: prefix=/usr/local exec_prefix=${prefix} libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib includedir=${prefix}/include Name: my_package Description: My component package Version: 0.1 URL: http://example.com Libs: -L${libdir} -lmylib1 -lmylib2 Cflags: -I${includedir}/my_package/ The linking stage fails spectacularly as mylib1 and mylib2 come up with a lot of undefined references to boost libraries that both the app and mylib1 and mylib2 are using. We have another build method using scons and it properly orders things for the linker. It's build command order is below. g++ -o MyTarget file1.o file2.o file3.o moc_mainwindow.o -L/usr/local/lib -lmylib1 -lmylib2 -lsqlite3 -lboost_signals -lboost_date_time -lQtGui -lQtCore Note that the principle difference is the order of the boost libs. Scons puts them at the end just before QtGui and QtCore while qmake puts them first. The other differences in the compile commands are unimportant as I have hand modified the qmake produced make file and the simple reordering fixed the problem. So my question is, how do I enforce the right order in my .pro file despite what qmake thinks they should be?

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• Spring Data Neo4J @Indexed(unique = true) not working

  - by Markus Lamm

  I'm new to Neo4J and I have, probably an easy question. There're NodeEntitys in my application, a property (name) is annotated with @Indexed(unique = true) to achieve the uniqueness like I do in JPA with @Column(unique = true). My problem is, that when I persist an entity with a name that already exists in my graph, it works fine anyway. But I expected some kind of exception here...?! Here' s an overview over basic my code: @NodeEntity public abstract class BaseEntity implements Identifiable { @GraphId private Long entityId; ... } public class Role extends BaseEntity { @Indexed(unique = true) private String name; ... } public interface RoleRepository extends GraphRepository<Role> { Role findByName(String name); } @Service public class RoleServiceImpl extends BaseEntityServiceImpl<Role> implements { private RoleRepository repository; @Override @Transactional public T save(final T entity) { return getRepository().save(entity); } } And this is my test: @Test public void testNameUniqueIndex() { final List<Role> roles = Lists.newLinkedList(service.findAll()); final String existingName = roles.get(0).getName(); Role newRole = new Role.Builder(existingName).build(); newRole = service.save(newRole); } That's the point where I expect something to go wrong! How can I ensure the uniqueness of a property, without checking it for myself?? THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR ANY IDEAS!! P.S.: I'm using neo4j 1.8.M07, spring-data-neo4j 2.1.0.BUILD-SNAPSHOT and Spring 3.1.2.RELEASE.

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• Having trouble uploading a file

  - by neo skosana

  Hi I am having trouble uploading a file. First of all I have a class: class upload { private $name; private $document; public function __construct($nme,$doc) { $this->setName($nme); $this->setDocument($doc); } public function setName($nme) { $this->name = $nme; } public function setDocument($doc) { $this->document = $doc; } public function fileNotPdf() { /* Was the file a PDF? */ if ($this->document['type'] != "application/pdf") { return true; } else { return false; } } public function fileNotUploaded() { /* Make sure that the file was POSTed. */ if (!(is_uploaded_file($this->document['tmp_name']))) { return true; } else { return false; } } public function fileNotMoved($repositry) { /* move uploaded file to final destination. */ $result = move_uploaded_file($this->document['tmp_name'], "$repositry/$this->name.pdf"); if($result) { return false; } else { return true; } } } Now for my main page: $docName = $_POST['name']; $page = $_FILES['doc']; if($_POST['submit']) { /* Set a few constants */ $filerepository = "np"; $uploadObj = new upload($docName, $page); if($uploadObj->fileNotUploaded()) { promptUser("There was a problem uploading the file.",""); } elseif($uploadObj->fileNotPdf()) { promptUser("File must be in pdf format.",""); } elseif($uploadObj->fileNotMoved($filerepository)) { promptUser("File could not be uploaded to final destination.",""); } else { promptUser("File has been successfully uploaded.",""); } } The errors that I get: Warning: move_uploaded_file(about.pdf)[function.move-uploaded-file]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in... Warning: move_uploaded_file()[function.move-uploaded-file]: Unable to move 'c:\xampp\tmp\php13.tmp' to 'about.pdf' in... File could not be uploaded to final destination.

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• When should EntityManagerFactory instance be created/opened ?

  - by masato-san

  Ok, I read bunch of articles/examples how to write Entity Manager Factory in singleton. One of them easiest for me to understand a bit: http://javanotepad.blogspot.com/2007/05/jpa-entitymanagerfactory-in-web.html I learned that EntityManagerFactory (EMF) should only be created once preferably in application scope. And also make sure to close the EMF once it's used (?) So I wrote EMF helper class for business methods to use: public class EmProvider { private static final String DB_PU = "KogaAlphaPU"; public static final boolean DEBUG = true; private static final EmProvider singleton = new EmProvider(); private EntityManagerFactory emf; private EmProvider() {} public static EmProvider getInstance() { return singleton; } public EntityManagerFactory getEntityManagerFactory() { if(emf == null) { emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory(DB_PU); } if(DEBUG) { System.out.println("factory created on: " + new Date()); } return emf; } public void closeEmf() { if(emf.isOpen() || emf != null) { emf.close(); } emf = null; if(DEBUG) { System.out.println("EMF closed at: " + new Date()); } } }//end class And my method using EmProvider: public String foo() { EntityManager em = null; List<Object[]> out = null; try { em = EmProvider.getInstance().getEntityManagerFactory().createEntityManager(); Query query = em.createNativeQuery(JPQL_JOIN); //just some random query out = query.getResultList(); } catch(Exception e) { //handle error.... } finally { if(em != null) { em.close(); //make sure to close EntityManager } } I made sure to close EntityManager (em) within method level as suggested. But when should EntityManagerFactory be closed then? And why EMF has to be singleton so bad??? I read about concurrency issues but as I am not experienced multi-thread-grammer, I can't really be clear on this idea.

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• slowAES encryption and java descryption

  - by amnon

  Hi , I've tried to implement the same steps as discussed in AES .NET but with no success , i can't seem to get java and slowAes to play toghter ... attached is my code i'm sorry i can't add more this is my first time trying to deal with encryption would appreciate any help private static final String ALGORITHM = "AES"; private static final byte[] keyValue = getKeyBytes("12345678901234567890123456789012"); private static final byte[] INIT_VECTOR = new byte[16]; private static IvParameterSpec ivSpec = new IvParameterSpec(INIT_VECTOR); public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception { String encoded = encrypt("watson?"); System.out.println(encoded); } private static Key generateKey() throws Exception { Key key = new SecretKeySpec(keyValue, ALGORITHM); // SecretKeyFactory keyFactory = SecretKeyFactory.getInstance(ALGORITHM); // key = keyFactory.generateSecret(new DESKeySpec(keyValue)); return key; } private static byte[] getKeyBytes(String key) { byte[] hash = DigestUtils.sha(key); byte[] saltedHash = new byte[16]; System.arraycopy(hash, 0, saltedHash, 0, 16); return saltedHash; } public static String encrypt(String valueToEnc) throws Exception { Key key = generateKey(); Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding"); c.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, key,ivSpec); byte[] encValue = c.doFinal(valueToEnc.getBytes()); String encryptedValue = new BASE64Encoder().encode(encValue); return encryptedValue; } public static String decrypt(String encryptedValue) throws Exception { Key key = generateKey(); Cipher c = Cipher.getInstance(ALGORITHM); c.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, key); byte[] decordedValue = new BASE64Decoder().decodeBuffer(encryptedValue); byte[] decValue = c.doFinal(decordedValue); String decryptedValue = new String(decValue); return decryptedValue; } the bytes returned are different thanks in advance .

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• Aggregate path counts using HierarchyID

  - by austincav

  Business problem - understand process fallout using analytics data. Here is what we have done so far: Build a dictionary table with every possible process step Find each process "start" Find the last step for each start Join dictionary table to last step to find path to final step In the final report output we end up with a list of paths for each start to each final step: User Fallout Step HierarchyID.ToString() A 1/1/1 B 1/1/1/1/1 C 1/1/1/1 D 1/1/1 E 1/1 What this means is that five users (A-E) started the process. Assume only User B finished, the other four did not. Since this is a simple example (without branching) we want the output to look as follows: Step Unique Users 1 5 2 5 3 4 4 2 5 1 The easiest solution I could think of is to take each hierarchyID.ToString(), parse that out into a set of subpaths, JOIN back to the dictionary table, and output using GROUP BY. Given the volume of data, I'd like to use the built-in HierarchyID functions, e.g. IsAncestorOf. Any ideas or thoughts how I could write this? Maybe a recursive CTE?

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• Mulltiple configurations in Qt

  - by user360607

  Hi all! I'm new to Qt Creator and I have several questions regarding multiple build configurations. A side note: I have the QtCreator 1.3.1 installed on my Linux machine. I need to have two configurations in my Qt Creator project. The thing is that these aren't simply debug and release but are based on the target architecture - x86 or x64. I came across http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2259192/building-multiple-targets-in-qt-qmake and from that I went trying something like: Conf_x86 { TARGET = MyApp_x86 } Conf_x64 { TARGET = MyApp_x64 } This way however I don't seems to be able to use the Qt Creator IDE to build each of these separately (Build All, Rebuild All, etc. options from the IDE menu). Is there a way to achieve this - may be even show Conf_x86 and Conf_x64 as new build configurations in Qt Creator? One other thing the Qt I have is 64 bit so by default the target built using Qt Creator IDE will also be 64 bit. I noticed that the effective qmake call in the build step includes the following option '-spec linux-g++-64'. I also noticed that should I add '-spec linux-g++-32' in 'Additional arguments' it would override '-spec linux-g++-64' and the resulting target will be 32 bit. How can I achieve this by simply editing the contents of the .pro file? I saw that all these changes are initially saved in the .pro.user file but does doesn't suit me at all. I need to be able to make these configurations from the .pro file if possible. Any help will be appreciated. 10x in advance!

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• PHP sleep() excution sequence while echoeing.

  - by Babiker

  I have the following: echo time()."<br>"; sleep(1); echo time()."<br>"; sleep(1); echo time()."<br>"; I wrote the preceding code with intention to echo time()."<br>" ln 1,echo time()."<br>" ln 4, wait a final second and then echo the final time()."<br>". Altough the time bieng echoed is correct when it comes to the intervals between time(), all echo functions are echoeing after the total of the waiting period/parameters in each sleep function. This is how the script runs: Excutes. Waits 2 secons. echoes 1275540664 1275540665 1275540666 Notice the correct incrementation in time() being echoed. My question is why is it not behaving like expected to where it echoes, waits a second, echoes again, waits one final second and then echos the last parameter? I know my question is a little confusing due to my wording, but i will try my hardest to answer any comments regarding this, thanks.

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• Java : Inner class of an interface (from google guice)

  - by bsreekanth

  Hello, I was going through the source of google guice, and found an unfamiliar piece of code. It would be great learning if someone can clarify it. I have very basic understanding of inner classes, as they keep the implementation details close to the public interface. Otherwise the inner class may pollute the namespace. Now, I see the below lines at public static final Scope SINGLETON = new Scope() { public <T> Provider<T> scope(final Key<T> key, final Provider<T> creator) { return new Provider<T>() { ......... } It assign an inner class instance to the static variable, but Scope is an interface defined as (at) public interface Scope Is it possible to instantiate the interface?? or is it a succinct syntax for an anonymous implementation of an interface?? If anyone can explain what the author is intended by multiple nested classes above (Scope and Provider), and why it make sense to implement this way, it would help me to understand. thanks.

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• JLabel wont change color twice

  - by Aly

  Hi, I have the following code: public class Test extends JFrame implements ActionListener{ private static final Color TRANSP_WHITE = new Color(new Float(1), new Float(1), new Float(1), new Float(0.5)); private static final Color TRANSP_RED = new Color(new Float(1), new Float(0), new Float(0), new Float(0.1)); private static final Color[] COLORS = new Color[]{ TRANSP_RED, TRANSP_WHITE}; private int index = 0; private JLabel label; private JButton button; public Test(){ super(); setLayout(new BoxLayout(getContentPane(), BoxLayout.Y_AXIS)); label = new JLabel("hello world"); label.setOpaque(true); label.setBackground(TRANSP_WHITE); getContentPane().add(label); button = new JButton("Click Me"); button.addActionListener(this); getContentPane().add(button); pack(); setVisible(true); } @Override public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { if(e.getSource().equals(button)){ label.setBackground(COLORS[index % (COLORS.length - 1)]); } } public static void main(String[] args) { new Test(); } } When I run it I get the label with the TRANSP_WHITE background and then when I click the button this color changes to TRANSP_RED but when I click it again I see no change in color. Does anyone know why? Thanks

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• How do I pull `static final` constants from a Java class into a Clojure namespace?

  - by Joe Holloway

  I am trying to wrap a Java library with a Clojure binding. One particular class in the Java library defines a bunch of static final constants, for example: class Foo { public static final int BAR = 0; public static final int SOME_CONSTANT = 1; ... } I had a thought that I might be able to inspect the class and pull these constants into my Clojure namespace without explicitly def-ing each one. For example, instead of explicitly wiring it up like this: (def *foo-bar* Foo/BAR) (def *foo-some-constant* Foo/SOME_CONSTANT) I'd be able to inspect the Foo class and dynamically wire up *foo-bar* and *foo-some-constant* in my Clojure namespace when the module is loaded. I see two reasons for doing this: A) Automatically pull in new constants as they are added to the Foo class. In other words, I wouldn't have to modify my Clojure wrapper in the case that the Java interface added a new constant. B) I can guarantee the constants follow a more Clojure-esque naming convention I'm not really sold on doing this, but it seems like a good question to ask to expand my knowledge of Clojure/Java interop. Thanks

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• PHP - Patterns within Arrays

  - by Toby

  I am trying to create a function which maps a recurring pattern of integers using an array. As an example if I have a starting array of (0,1,3) and I know that I want to stop the pattern when I hit 15. The pattern gets incremented by a fixed integer each time (lets say 4) so my final pattern should be.. 0 1 3 4 (0 + 4) 5 (1 + 4) 7 (2 + 4) 8 (4 + 4) 9 (5 + 4) 11(7 + 4) 12(8 + 4) 13(9 + 4) 15(11+ 4) Does anyone have any pointers on how this can be achieved? My current implementation works but is stupidly inefficient which something like this... $array = array(0,1,3); $inc = 4; $end = end($array); $final = 15; while($end < $final) { $tmp = array(); foreach($array AS $row) { $tmp = $row + $inc; } $array = merge($tmp, $array); $end = end($array); }

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• how to pass time Interval in list pref option

  - by user1748932

  <ListPreference android:entries="@array/listOptions2" android:entryValues="@array/listValues2" android:key="listprefrefresh" android:summary="set Refresh The Applciation" android:title="Set TIme Intervale" /> <item>10 </item> <item>30</item> </integer-array> <integer-array name="listValues2"> <item>10000</item> <item>30000</item> </integer-array> public static final String PREF_BEER_SIZE2 = "listprefrefresh"; Preference beerPref2 = (Preference) findPreference(PREF_BEER_SIZE2); beerPref2 .setOnPreferenceChangeListener(new Preference.OnPreferenceChangeListener() { public boolean onPreferenceChange(Preference preference, Object newValue) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub final ListPreference listrefresh = (ListPreference) preference; final int idx = listrefresh .findIndexOfValue((String) newValue); if (idx == 0 ) { handler.post(timedTask); // } else if (idx == 1) { // System.out.println("2"); } return true; } }); This is my code i want Pass Time how can i implement right now? I am passing Integr value.please tell me

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• Unusual "static" method declaration

  - by Jason

  public class Card { public enum Rank { DEUCE, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN, JACK, QUEEN, KING, ACE } public enum Suit { CLUBS, DIAMONDS, HEARTS, SPADES } private final Rank rank; private final Suit suit; private Card(Rank rank, Suit suit) { this.rank = rank; this.suit = suit; } public Rank rank() { return rank; } public Suit suit() { return suit; } public String toString() { return rank + " of " + suit; } private static final List<Card> protoDeck = new ArrayList<Card>(); // Initialize prototype deck **static** { for (Suit suit : Suit.values()) for (Rank rank : Rank.values()) protoDeck.add(new Card(rank, suit)); } public static ArrayList<Card> newDeck() { return new ArrayList<Card>(protoDeck); // Return copy of prototype deck } } I have a quick question. The code block that starts right after the static keyword declaration, what type of method is that ? I haven't ever seen that before. If anyone could enlighten me, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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• How do I remove an old JPanel and add a new one?

  - by Roman

  I would like to remove an old JPanel from the Window (JFrame) and add a new one. How should I do it? I tried the following: public static void showGUI() { JFrame frame = new JFrame("Colored Trails"); frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); frame.add(partnerSelectionPanel); frame.setSize(600,400); frame.setVisible(true); } private static void updateGUI(final int i, final JLabel label, final JPanel partnerSelectionPanel) { SwingUtilities.invokeLater( new Runnable() { public void run() { label.setText(i + " seconds left."); } partnerSelectionPanel.setVisible(false); \\ <------------ } ); } So, my code update the "old" JPanel and them it makes the whole JPanel invisible. It was the idea. But it does not work. The compiler complains about the line indicated with "<------------". It writes: <identifier> expected, illegal start of type.

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• Java reflection Method invocations yield result faster than Fields?

  - by omerkudat

  I was microbenchmarking some code (please be nice) and came across this puzzle: when reading a field using reflection, invoking the getter Method is faster than reading the Field. Simple test class: private static final class Foo { public Foo(double val) { this.val = val; } public double getVal() { return val; } public final double val; // only public for demo purposes } We have two reflections: Method m = Foo.class.getDeclaredMethod("getVal", null); Field f = Foo.class.getDeclaredField("val"); Now I call the two reflections in a loop, invoke on the Method, and get on the Field. A first run is done to warm up the VM, a second run is done with 10M iterations. The Method invocation is consistently 30% faster, but why? Note that getDeclaredMethod and getDeclaredField are not called in the loop. They are called once and executed on the same object in the loop. I also tried some minor variations: made the field non-final, transitive, non-public, etc. All of these combinations resulted in statistically similar performance. Edit: This is on WinXP, Intel Core2 Duo, Sun JavaSE build 1.6.0_16-b01, running under jUnit4 and Eclipse.

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• IIS SSL Certificate Renewal Pain

  - by Rick Strahl

  I’m in the middle of my annual certificate renewal for the West Wind site and I can honestly say that I hate IIS’s certificate system.  When it works it’s fine, but when it doesn’t man can it be a pain. Because I deal with public certificates on my site merely once a year, and you have to perform the certificate dance just the right way, I seem to run into some sort of trouble every year, thinking that Microsoft surely must have addressed the issues I ran into previously – HA! Not so. Don’t ever use the Renew Certificate Feature in IIS! The first rule that I should have never forgotten is that certificate renewals in IIS (7 is what I’m using but I think it’s no different in 7.5 and 8), simply don’t work if you’re submitting to get a public certificate from a certificate authority. I use DNSimple for my DNS domain management and SSL certificates because they provide ridiculously easy domain management and good prices for SSL certs – especially wildcard certificates, which is what I use on west-wind.com. Certificates in IIS can be found pegged to the machine root. If you go into the IIS Manager, go to the machine root the tree and then click on certificates and you then get various certificate options: Both of these options create a new Certificate request (CSR), which is just a text file. But if you’re silly enough like me to click on the Renew button on your old certificate, you’ll find that you end up generating a very long Certificate Request that looks nothing like the original certificate request and the format that’s used for this is not accepted by most certificate authorities. While I’m not sure exactly what the problem is, it simply looks like IIS is respecting none of your original certificate bit size choices and is generating a huge certificate request that is 3 times the size of a ‘normal’ certificate request. The end result is (and I’ve done this at least twice now) is that the certificate processor is likely to fail processing those renewals. Always create a new Certificate While it’s a little more work and you have to remember how to fill out the certificate request properly, this is the safe way to make sure your certificate generates properly. First comes the Distinguished Name Properties dialog: Ah yes you have to love the nomenclature of this stuff. Distinguished name, Common name – WTF is a common name? It doesn’t look common to me! Make sure this form gets filled out correctly. Common NameThis is the domain name of the Web site. In my case I’m creating a wildcard certificate so I’m using the * prefix. If you’re purchasing a certificate for a specific domain use www.west-wind.com or store.west-wind.com for example. Make sure this matches the EXACT domain you’re trying to use secure access on because that’s all the certificate is going to work on unless you get a wildcard certificate. Organization Is the name of your company or organization. Depending on the kind of certificate you purchase this name will show up on your certificate. Most low end SSL certificates (ie. those that cost under $100 for single domains) don’t list the organization, the higher signature certificates that also require extensive validation by the cert authority do. Regardless you should make sure this matches the right company/organization. Organizational Unit This can be anything. Not really sure what this is for, but traditionally I’ve always set this to Web because – well this is a Web thing after all right? I’ve never seen this used anywhere that I can tell other than to internally reference the cert. State and CountryPretty obvious. Should reflect the location of the business/organization/person or site.   Next you have to configure the bit size used for the certificate: The default on this dialog is 1024, but I’ve found that most providers these days request a minimum bit length of 2048, as did my DNSimple provider. Again check with the provider when you submit to make sure. Bit length mismatches can cause problems if you use a size that isn’t supported by the provider. I had that happen last year when I submitted my CSR and it got rejected quite a bit later, when the certs usually are issued within an hour or less. When you’re done here, the certificate is saved to disk as a .txt file and it should look something like this (this is a 2048 bit length CSR):-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- MIIEVGCCAz0CAQAwdjELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxDzANBgNVBAgMBkhhd2FpaTENMAsG A1UEBwwEUGFpYTEfMB0GA1UECgwWV2VzdCBXaW5kIFRlY2hub2xvZ2llczEMMAoG B1UECwwDV2ViMRgwFgYDVQQDDA8qLndlc3Qtd2luZC5jb20wggEiMA0GCSqGSIb3 DQEBAQUAA4IBDwAwggEKAoIBAQDIPWOFMkMVRp2Ftj9w/cCVV4OYYhoZYtl+8lTk oqDwKca0xWHLgioX/9v0rZLS6a82MHqKEBxVXu+cuCmSE4AQtB/1YH9lS4tpc/be OZDvnTotP6l4MCEzzAfROcw4CiIg6X0RMSnl8IATAvv2V5LQM9TDdt9oDdMpX2IY +vVC9RZ7PMHBmR9kwI2i/lrKitzhQKaHgpmKcRlM6iqpALUiX28w5HJaDKK1MDHN 607tyFJLHijuJKx7PdTqZYf50KkC3NupfZ2avVycf18Q13jHWj59tvwEOczoVzRL l4LQivAqbhyiqMpWnrZunIOUZta5aGm+jo7O1knGWJjxuraTAgMBAAGgggGYMBoG CisGAQQBgjcNAgMxDBYKNi4yLjkyMDAuMjA0BgkrBgEEAYI3FRQxJzAlAgEFDAZS QVNYUFMMC1JBU1hQU1xSaWNrDAtJbmV0TWdyLmV4ZTByBgorBgEEAYI3DQICMWQw YgIBAR5aAE0AaQBjAHIAbwBzAG8AZgB0ACAAUgBTAEEAIABTAEMAaABhAG4AbgBl AGwAIABDAHIAeQBwAHQAbwBnAHIAYQBwAGgAaQBjACAAUAByAG8AdgBpAGQAZQBy AwEAMIHPBgkqhkiG9w0BCQ4xgcEwgb4wDgYDVR0PAQH/BAQDAgTwMBMGA1UdJQQM MAoGCCsGAQUFBwMBMHgGCSqGSIb3DQEJDwRrMGkwDgYIKoZIhvcNAwICAgCAMA4G CCqGSIb3DQMEAgIAgDALBglghkgBZQMEASowCwYJYIZIAWUDBAEtMAsGCWCGSAFl AwQBAjALBglghkgBZQMEAQUwBwYFKw4DAgcwCgYIKoZIhvcNAwcwHQYDVR0OBBYE FD/yOsTbXE+GVFCFMmldzQvyloz9MA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBBQUAA4IBAQCK6LlsCuIM 1AU0niB6QZ9v0FTsGFxP1dYvVUnJyY6VEKNiGFiQjZac7UCs0p58yScdXWEFOE8V OsjAYD3xYNc05+ckyD67UHRGEUAVB9RBvbKW23KeR/8kBmEzc8PemD52YOgExxAJ 57xWmAwEHAvbgYzQvhO8AOzH3TGvvHbg5UKM1pYgNmuwZq5DkL/IDoeIJwfk/wrI wghNTuxxIFgbH4YrgLgv4PRvrS/LaTCRBdboaCgzATMczaOb1nd/DVNR+3fCtMhM W0psTAjzRbmXF3nJyAQa7jF/52gkY0RfFX2lG5tJnG+XDsVNvKNvh9Qa5Tlmkm06 ILKCm9ciWCKk -----END NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- You can take that certificate request and submit that to your certificate provider. Since this is base64 encoded you can typically just paste it into a text box on the submission page, or some providers will ask you to upload the CSR as a file. What does a Renewal look like? Note the length of the CSR will vary somewhat with key strength, but compare this to a renewal request that IIS generated from my existing site:-----BEGIN NEW CERTIFICATE REQUEST----- MIIPpwYFKoZIhvcNAQcCoIIPmDCCD5QCAQExCzAJBgUrDgMCGgUAMIIIqAYJKoZI hvcNAQcBoIIImQSCCJUwggiRMIIH+gIBADBdMSEwHwYDVQQLDBhEb21haW4gQ29u dHJvbCBWYWxpFGF0ZWQxHjAcBgNVBAsMFUVzc2VudGlhbFNTTCBXaWxkY2FyZDEY MBYGA1UEAwwPKi53ZXN0LXdpbmQuY29tMIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCB iQKBgQCK4OuIOR18Wb8tNMGRZiD1c9X57b332Lj7DhbckFqLs0ys8kVDHrTXSj+T Ye9nmAvfPpZmBtE5p9qRNN79rUYugAdl+qEtE4IJe1bRfxXzcKa1SXa8+TEs3zQa zYSmcR2dDuC8om1eAdeCtt0NnkvANgm1VLwGOor/UHMASaEhCQIDAQABoIIG8jAa BgorBgEEAYI3DQIDMQwWCjYuMi45MjAwLjIwNAYJKwYBBAGCNxUUMScwJQIBBQwG UkFTWFBTDAtSQVNYUFNcUmljawwLSW5ldE1nci5leGUwZgYKKwYBBAGCNw0CAjFY MFYCAQIeTgBNAGkAYwByAG8AcwBvAGYAdAAgAFMAdAByAG8AbgBnACAAQwByAHkA cAB0AG8AZwByAGEAcABoAGkAYwAgAFAAcgBvAHYAaQBkAGUAcgMBADCCAQAGCSqG SIb3DQEJDjGB8jCB7zAOBgNVHQ8BAf8EBAMCBaAwDAYDVR0TAQH/BAIwADA0BgNV 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And it didn’t work. IIS creates a custom CSR that is encoded in a format that no certificate authority I’ve ever used uses. If you want the gory details of what’s in there look at this ServerFault question (thanks to Mika in the comments). In the end it doesn’t matter  though – no certificate authority knows what to do with this CSR. So create a new CSR and skip the renewal. Always! Use the same Server Keep in mind that on IIS at least you should always create your certificate on a single server and then when you receive the final certificate from your provider import it on that server. IIS tracks the CSR it created and requires it in order to import the final certificate properly. So if for some reason you try to install the certificate on another server, it won’t work. I’ve also run into trouble trying to install the same certificate twice – this time around I didn’t give my certificate the proper friendly name and IIS failed to allow me to assign the certificate to any of my Web sites. So I removed the certificate and tried to import again, only to find it failed the second time around. There are other ways to fix this, but in my case I had to have the certificate re-issued to work – not what you want to do. Regardless of what you do though, when you import make sure you do it right the first time by crossing all your t’s and dotting your i's– it’ll save you a lot of grief! You don’t actually have to use the server that the certificate gets installed on to generate the CSR and first install it, but it is generally a good idea to do so just so you can get the certificate installed into the right place right away. If you have access to the server where you need to install the certificate you might as well use it. But you can use another machine to generated the and install the certificate, then export the certificate and move it to another machine as needed. So you can use your Dev machine to create a certificate then export it and install it on a live server. More on installation and back up/export later. Installing the Certificate Once you’ve submitted a CSR request your provider will process the request and eventually issue you a new final certificate that contains another text file with the final key to import into your certificate store. IIS does this by combining the content in your certificate request with the original CSR. If all goes well your new certificate shows up in the certificate list and you’re ready to assign the certificate to your sites. Make sure you use a friendly name that matches domain name of your site. So use *.mysite.com or www.mysite.com or store.mysite.com to ensure IIS recognizes the certificate. I made the mistake of not naming my friendly name this way and found that IIS was unable to link my sites to my wildcard certificate. It needed to have the *. as part of the certificate otherwise the Hostname input field was blanked out. Changing the Friendly Name If you by accidentally used an invalid friendly name you can change it later in the Windows certificate store. Bring up a Run Box Type MMC File | Add/Remove Snap In Add Certificates | Computer Account | Local Computer Drill into Certificates | Personal | Certificates Find your Certificate | Right Click | Properties Edit the Friendly Name | Click OK Backing up your Certificate The first thing you should do once your certificate is successfully installed is to back it up! In case your server crashes or you otherwise lose your configuration this will ensure you have an easy way to recover and reinstall your certificate either on the same server or a different one. If you’re running a server farm or using a wildcard certificate you also need to get the certificate onto other machines and a PFX file import is the easiest way to do this. To back up your certificate select your certificate and choose Export from the context or sidebar menu: The Export Certificate option allows you to export a password protected binary file that you can import in a single step. You can copy the resulting binary PFX file to back up or copy to other machines to install on. Importing the certificate on another machine is as easy as pointing at the PFX file and specifying the password. IIS handles the rest. Assigning a new certificate to your Site Once you have the new certificate installed, all that’s left to do is assign it to your site. In IIS select your Web site and bring up the Site Bindings from the right sidebar. Add a new binding for https, bind it to port 443, specify your hostname and pick the certificate from the pick list. If you’re using a root site make sure to set up your certificate for www.yoursite.com and also for yoursite.com so that both work properly with SSL. Note that you need to explicitly configure each hostname for a certificate if you plan to use SSL. Luckily if you update your SSL certificate in the following year, IIS prompts you and asks whether you like to update all other sites that are using the existing cert to the newer cert. And you’re done. So what’s the Pain? So, all of this is old hat and it doesn’t look all that bad right? So what’s the pain here? Well if you follow the instructions and do everything right, then the process is about as straight forward as you would expect it to be. You create a cert request, you import it and assign it to your sites. That’s the basic steps and to be perfectly fair it works well – if nothing goes wrong. However, renewing tends to be the problem. The first unintuitive issue is that you simply shouldn’t renew but create a new CSR and generate your new certificate from that. Over the years I’ve fallen prey to the belief that Microsoft eventually will fix this so that the renewal creates the same type of CSR as the old cert, but apparently that will just never happen. Booo! The other problem I ran into is that I accidentally misnamed my imported certificate which in turn set off a chain of events that caused my originally issued certificate to become uninstallable. When I received my completed certificate I installed it and it installed just fine, but the friendly name was wrong. As a result IIS refused to assign the certificate to any of my host headered sites. That’s strike number one. Why the heck should the friendly name have any effect on the ability to attach the certificate??? Next I uninstalled the certificate because I figured that would be the easiest way to make sure I get it right. But I found that I could not reinstall my certificate. I kept getting these stop errors: "ASN1 bad tag value met" that would prevent the installation from completion. After searching around for this error and reading countless long messages on forums, I found that this error supposedly does not actually mean the install failed, but the list wouldn’t refresh. Commodo has this to say: Note: There is a known issue in IIS 7 giving the following error: "Cannot find the certificate request associated with this certificate file. A certificate request must be completed on the computer where it was created." You may also receive a message stating "ASN1 bad tag value met". If this is the same server that you generated the CSR on then, in most cases, the certificate is actually installed. Simply cancel the dialog and press "F5" to refresh the list of server certificates. If the new certificate is now in the list, you can continue with the next step. If it is not in the list, you will need to reissue your certificate using a new CSR (see our CSR creation instructions for IIS 7). After creating a new CSR, login to your Comodo account and click the 'replace' button for your certificate. Not sure if this issue is fixed in IIS 8 but that’s an insane bug to have crop up. As it turns out, in my case the refresh didn’t work and the certificate didn’t show up in the IIS list after the reinstall. In fact when looking at the certificate store I could see my certificate was installed in the right place, but the private key is missing which is most likely why IIS is not picking it up. It looks like IIS could not match the final cert to the original CSR generated. But again some sort of message to that affect might be helpful instead of ASN1 bad tag value met. Recovering the Private Key So it turns out my original problem was that I received the published key, but when I imported the private key was missing. There’s a relatively easy way to recover from this. If your certificate doesn’t show up in IIS check in the certificate store for the local machine (see steps above on how to bring this up). If you look at the certificate in Certificates/Personal/Certificates make sure you see the key as shown in the image below: if the key is missing it means that the certificate is missing the private key most likely. To fix a certificate you can do the following: Double click the certificate Go to the Details Tab Copy down the Serial number You can copy the serial number from the area blurred out above. The serial number will be in a format like ?00 a7 9b a1 a4 9d 91 63 57 d6 9f 26 b8 ee 79 b5 cb and you’ll need to strip out the spaces in order to use it in the next step. Next open up an Administrative command prompt and issue the following command: certutil -repairstore my 00a79ba1a49d916357d69f26b8ee79b5cb You should get a confirmation message that the repair worked. If you now go back to the certificate store you should now see the key icon show up on the certificate. Your certificate is fixed. Now go back into IIS Manager and refresh the list of certificates and if all goes well you should see all the certificates that showed in the cert store now: Remember – back up the key first then map to your site… Summary I deal with a lot of customers who run their own IIS servers, and I can’t tell you how often I hear about botched SSL installations. When I posted some of my issues on Twitter yesterday I got a hell storm of “me too” responses. I’m clearly not the only one, who’s run into this especially with renewals. I feel pretty comfortable with IIS configuration and I do a lot of it for support purposes, but the SSL configuration is one that never seems to go seamlessly. This blog post is meant as reminder to myself to read next time I do a renewal. So I can dot my i's and dash my t’s before I get caught in the mess I’m dealing with today. Hopefully some of you find this useful as well.© Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2014Posted in IIS7  Security   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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• Informed TDD &ndash; Kata &ldquo;To Roman Numerals&rdquo;

  - by Ralf Westphal

  Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/theArchitectsNapkin/archive/2014/05/28/informed-tdd-ndash-kata-ldquoto-roman-numeralsrdquo.aspxIn a comment on my article on what I call Informed TDD (ITDD) reader gustav asked how this approach would apply to the kata “To Roman Numerals”. And whether ITDD wasn´t a violation of TDD´s principle of leaving out “advanced topics like mocks”. I like to respond with this article to his questions. There´s more to say than fits into a commentary. Mocks and TDD I don´t see in how far TDD is avoiding or opposed to mocks. TDD and mocks are orthogonal. TDD is about pocess, mocks are about structure and costs. Maybe by moving forward in tiny red+green+refactor steps less need arises for mocks. But then… if the functionality you need to implement requires “expensive” resource access you can´t avoid using mocks. Because you don´t want to constantly run all your tests against the real resource. True, in ITDD mocks seem to be in almost inflationary use. That´s not what you usually see in TDD demonstrations. However, there´s a reason for that as I tried to explain. I don´t use mocks as proxies for “expensive” resource. Rather they are stand-ins for functionality not yet implemented. They allow me to get a test green on a high level of abstraction. That way I can move forward in a top-down fashion. But if you think of mocks as “advanced” or if you don´t want to use a tool like JustMock, then you don´t need to use mocks. You just need to stand the sight of red tests for a little longer ;-) Let me show you what I mean by that by doing a kata. ITDD for “To Roman Numerals” gustav asked for the kata “To Roman Numerals”. I won´t explain the requirements again. You can find descriptions and TDD demonstrations all over the internet, like this one from Corey Haines. Now here is, how I would do this kata differently. 1. Analyse A demonstration of TDD should never skip the analysis phase. It should be made explicit. The requirements should be formalized and acceptance test cases should be compiled. “Formalization” in this case to me means describing the API of the required functionality. “[D]esign a program to work with Roman numerals” like written in this “requirement document” is not enough to start software development. Coding should only begin, if the interface between the “system under development” and its context is clear. If this interface is not readily recognizable from the requirements, it has to be developed first. Exploration of interface alternatives might be in order. It might be necessary to show several interface mock-ups to the customer – even if that´s you fellow developer. Designing the interface is a task of it´s own. It should not be mixed with implementing the required functionality behind the interface. Unfortunately, though, this happens quite often in TDD demonstrations. TDD is used to explore the API and implement it at the same time. To me that´s a violation of the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) which not only should hold for software functional units but also for tasks or activities. In the case of this kata the API fortunately is obvious. Just one function is needed: string ToRoman(int arabic). And it lives in a class ArabicRomanConversions. Now what about acceptance test cases? There are hardly any stated in the kata descriptions. Roman numerals are explained, but no specific test cases from the point of view of a customer. So I just “invent” some acceptance test cases by picking roman numerals from a wikipedia article. They are supposed to be just “typical examples” without special meaning. Given the acceptance test cases I then try to develop an understanding of the problem domain. I´ll spare you that. The domain is trivial and is explain in almost all kata descriptions. How roman numerals are built is not difficult to understand. What´s more difficult, though, might be to find an efficient solution to convert into them automatically. 2. Solve The usual TDD demonstration skips a solution finding phase. Like the interface exploration it´s mixed in with the implementation. But I don´t think this is how it should be done. I even think this is not how it really works for the people demonstrating TDD. They´re simplifying their true software development process because they want to show a streamlined TDD process. I doubt this is helping anybody. Before you code you better have a plan what to code. This does not mean you have to do “Big Design Up-Front”. It just means: Have a clear picture of the logical solution in your head before you start to build a physical solution (code). Evidently such a solution can only be as good as your understanding of the problem. If that´s limited your solution will be limited, too. Fortunately, in the case of this kata your understanding does not need to be limited. Thus the logical solution does not need to be limited or preliminary or tentative. That does not mean you need to know every line of code in advance. It just means you know the rough structure of your implementation beforehand. Because it should mirror the process described by the logical or conceptual solution. Here´s my solution approach: The arabic “encoding” of numbers represents them as an ordered set of powers of 10. Each digit is a factor to multiply a power of ten with. The “encoding” 123 is the short form for a set like this: {1*10^2, 2*10^1, 3*10^0}. And the number is the sum of the set members. The roman “encoding” is different. There is no base (like 10 for arabic numbers), there are just digits of different value, and they have to be written in descending order. The “encoding” XVI is short for [10, 5, 1]. And the number is still the sum of the members of this list. The roman “encoding” thus is simpler than the arabic. Each “digit” can be taken at face value. No multiplication with a base required. But what about IV which looks like a contradiction to the above rule? It is not – if you accept roman “digits” not to be limited to be single characters only. Usually I, V, X, L, C, D, M are viewed as “digits”, and IV, IX etc. are viewed as nuisances preventing a simple solution. All looks different, though, once IV, IX etc. are taken as “digits”. Then MCMLIV is just a sum: M+CM+L+IV which is 1000+900+50+4. Whereas before it would have been understood as M-C+M+L-I+V – which is more difficult because here some “digits” get subtracted. Here´s the list of roman “digits” with their values: {1, I}, {4, IV}, {5, V}, {9, IX}, {10, X}, {40, XL}, {50, L}, {90, XC}, {100, C}, {400, CD}, {500, D}, {900, CM}, {1000, M} Since I take IV, IX etc. as “digits” translating an arabic number becomes trivial. I just need to find the values of the roman “digits” making up the number, e.g. 1954 is made up of 1000, 900, 50, and 4. I call those “digits” factors. If I move from the highest factor (M=1000) to the lowest (I=1) then translation is a two phase process: Find all the factors Translate the factors found Compile the roman representation Translation is just a look-up. Finding, though, needs some calculation: Find the highest remaining factor fitting in the value Remember and subtract it from the value Repeat with remaining value and remaining factors Please note: This is just an algorithm. It´s not code, even though it might be close. Being so close to code in my solution approach is due to the triviality of the problem. In more realistic examples the conceptual solution would be on a higher level of abstraction. With this solution in hand I finally can do what TDD advocates: find and prioritize test cases. As I can see from the small process description above, there are two aspects to test: Test the translation Test the compilation Test finding the factors Testing the translation primarily means to check if the map of factors and digits is comprehensive. That´s simple, even though it might be tedious. Testing the compilation is trivial. Testing factor finding, though, is a tad more complicated. I can think of several steps: First check, if an arabic number equal to a factor is processed correctly (e.g. 1000=M). Then check if an arabic number consisting of two consecutive factors (e.g. 1900=[M,CM]) is processed correctly. Then check, if a number consisting of the same factor twice is processed correctly (e.g. 2000=[M,M]). Finally check, if an arabic number consisting of non-consecutive factors (e.g. 1400=[M,CD]) is processed correctly. I feel I can start an implementation now. If something becomes more complicated than expected I can slow down and repeat this process. 3. Implement First I write a test for the acceptance test cases. It´s red because there´s no implementation even of the API. That´s in conformance with “TDD lore”, I´d say: Next I implement the API: The acceptance test now is formally correct, but still red of course. This will not change even now that I zoom in. Because my goal is not to most quickly satisfy these tests, but to implement my solution in a stepwise manner. That I do by “faking” it: I just “assume” three functions to represent the transformation process of my solution: My hypothesis is that those three functions in conjunction produce correct results on the API-level. I just have to implement them correctly. That´s what I´m trying now – one by one. I start with a simple “detail function”: Translate(). And I start with all the test cases in the obvious equivalence partition: As you can see I dare to test a private method. Yes. That´s a white box test. But as you´ll see it won´t make my tests brittle. It serves a purpose right here and now: it lets me focus on getting one aspect of my solution right. Here´s the implementation to satisfy the test: It´s as simple as possible. Right how TDD wants me to do it: KISS. Now for the second equivalence partition: translating multiple factors. (It´a pattern: if you need to do something repeatedly separate the tests for doing it once and doing it multiple times.) In this partition I just need a single test case, I guess. Stepping up from a single translation to multiple translations is no rocket science: Usually I would have implemented the final code right away. Splitting it in two steps is just for “educational purposes” here. How small your implementation steps are is a matter of your programming competency. Some “see” the final code right away before their mental eye – others need to work their way towards it. Having two tests I find more important. Now for the next low hanging fruit: compilation. It´s even simpler than translation. A single test is enough, I guess. And normally I would not even have bothered to write that one, because the implementation is so simple. I don´t need to test .NET framework functionality. But again: if it serves the educational purpose… Finally the most complicated part of the solution: finding the factors. There are several equivalence partitions. But still I decide to write just a single test, since the structure of the test data is the same for all partitions: Again, I´m faking the implementation first: I focus on just the first test case. No looping yet. Faking lets me stay on a high level of abstraction. I can write down the implementation of the solution without bothering myself with details of how to actually accomplish the feat. That´s left for a drill down with a test of the fake function: There are two main equivalence partitions, I guess: either the first factor is appropriate or some next. The implementation seems easy. Both test cases are green. (Of course this only works on the premise that there´s always a matching factor. Which is the case since the smallest factor is 1.) And the first of the equivalence partitions on the higher level also is satisfied: Great, I can move on. Now for more than a single factor: Interestingly not just one test becomes green now, but all of them. Great! You might say, then I must have done not the simplest thing possible. And I would reply: I don´t care. I did the most obvious thing. But I also find this loop very simple. Even simpler than a recursion of which I had thought briefly during the problem solving phase. And by the way: Also the acceptance tests went green: Mission accomplished. At least functionality wise. Now I´ve to tidy up things a bit. TDD calls for refactoring. Not uch refactoring is needed, because I wrote the code in top-down fashion. I faked it until I made it. I endured red tests on higher levels while lower levels weren´t perfected yet. But this way I saved myself from refactoring tediousness. At the end, though, some refactoring is required. But maybe in a different way than you would expect. That´s why I rather call it “cleanup”. First I remove duplication. There are two places where factors are defined: in Translate() and in Find_factors(). So I factor the map out into a class constant. Which leads to a small conversion in Find_factors(): And now for the big cleanup: I remove all tests of private methods. They are scaffolding tests to me. They only have temporary value. They are brittle. Only acceptance tests need to remain. However, I carry over the single “digit” tests from Translate() to the acceptance test. I find them valuable to keep, since the other acceptance tests only exercise a subset of all roman “digits”. This then is my final test class: And this is the final production code: Test coverage as reported by NCrunch is 100%: Reflexion Is this the smallest possible code base for this kata? Sure not. You´ll find more concise solutions on the internet. But LOC are of relatively little concern – as long as I can understand the code quickly. So called “elegant” code, however, often is not easy to understand. The same goes for KISS code – especially if left unrefactored, as it is often the case. That´s why I progressed from requirements to final code the way I did. I first understood and solved the problem on a conceptual level. Then I implemented it top down according to my design. I also could have implemented it bottom-up, since I knew some bottom of the solution. That´s the leaves of the functional decomposition tree. Where things became fuzzy, since the design did not cover any more details as with Find_factors(), I repeated the process in the small, so to speak: fake some top level, endure red high level tests, while first solving a simpler problem. Using scaffolding tests (to be thrown away at the end) brought two advantages: Encapsulation of the implementation details was not compromised. Naturally private methods could stay private. I did not need to make them internal or public just to be able to test them. I was able to write focused tests for small aspects of the solution. No need to test everything through the solution root, the API. The bottom line thus for me is: Informed TDD produces cleaner code in a systematic way. It conforms to core principles of programming: Single Responsibility Principle and/or Separation of Concerns. Distinct roles in development – being a researcher, being an engineer, being a craftsman – are represented as different phases. First find what, what there is. Then devise a solution. Then code the solution, manifest the solution in code. Writing tests first is a good practice. But it should not be taken dogmatic. And above all it should not be overloaded with purposes. And finally: moving from top to bottom through a design produces refactored code right away. Clean code thus almost is inevitable – and not left to a refactoring step at the end which is skipped often for different reasons.   PS: Yes, I have done this kata several times. But that has only an impact on the time needed for phases 1 and 2. I won´t skip them because of that. And there are no shortcuts during implementation because of that.

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• Down Tools Week Cometh: Kissing Goodbye to CVs/Resumes and Cover Letters

  - by Bart Read

  I haven't blogged about what I'm doing in my (not so new) temporary role as Red Gate's technical recruiter, mostly because it's been routine, business as usual stuff, and because I've been trying to understand the role by doing it. I think now though the time has come to get a little more radical, so I'm going to tell you why I want to largely eliminate CVs/resumes and cover letters from the application process for some of our technical roles, and why I think that might be a good thing for candidates (and for us). I have a terrible confession to make, or at least it's a terrible confession for a recruiter: I don't really like CV sifting, or reading cover letters, and, unless I've misread the mood around here, neither does anybody else. It's dull, it's time-consuming, and it's somewhat soul destroying because, when all is said and done, you're being paid to be incredibly judgemental about people based on relatively little information. I feel like I've dirtied myself by saying that - I mean, after all, it's a core part of my job - but it sucks, it really does. (And, of course, the truth is I'm still a software engineer at heart, and I'm always looking for ways to do things better.) On the flip side, I've never met anyone who likes writing their CV. It takes hours and hours of faffing around and massaging it into shape, and the whole process is beset by a gnawing anxiety, frustration, and insecurity. All you really want is a chance to demonstrate your skills - not just talk about them - and how do you do that in a CV or cover letter? Often the best candidates will include samples of their work (a portfolio, screenshots, links to websites, product downloads, etc.), but sometimes this isn't possible, or may not be appropriate, or you just don't think you're allowed because of what your school/university careers service has told you (more commonly an issue with grads, obviously). And what are we actually trying to find out about people with all of this? I think the common criteria are actually pretty basic: Smart Gets things done (thanks for these two Joel) Not an a55hole* (sorry, have to get around Simple Talk's swear filter - and thanks to Professor Robert I. Sutton for this one) *Of course, everyone has off days, and I don't honestly think we're too worried about somebody being a bit grumpy every now and again. We can do a bit better than this in the context of the roles I'm talking about: we can be more specific about what "gets things done" means, at least in part. For software engineers and interns, the non-exhaustive meaning of "gets things done" is: Excellent coder For test engineers, the non-exhaustive meaning of "gets things done" is: Good at finding problems in software Competent coder Team player, etc., to me, are covered by "not an a55hole". I don't expect people to be the life and soul of the party, or a wild extrovert - that's not what team player means, and it's not what "not an a55hole" means. Some of our best technical staff are quiet, introverted types, but they're still pleasant to work with. My problem is that I don't think the initial sift really helps us find out whether people are smart and get things done with any great efficacy. It's better than nothing, for sure, but it's not as good as it could be. It's also contentious, and potentially unfair/inequitable - if you want to get an idea of what I mean by this, check out the background information section at the bottom. Before I go any further, let's look at the Red Gate recruitment process for technical staff* as it stands now: (LOTS of) People apply for jobs. All these applications go through a brutal process of manual sifting, which eliminates between 75 and 90% of them, depending upon the role, and the time of year**. Depending upon the role, those who pass the sift will be sent an assessment or telescreened. For the purposes of this blog post I'm only interested in those that are sent some sort of programming assessment, or bug hunt. This means software engineers, test engineers, and software interns, which are the roles for which I receive the most applications. The telescreen tends to be reserved for project or product managers. Those that pass the assessment are invited in for first interview. This interview is mostly about assessing their technical skills***, although we're obviously on the look out for cultural fit red flags as well. If the first interview goes well we'll invite candidates back for a second interview. This is where team/cultural fit is really scoped out. We also use this interview to dive more deeply into certain areas of their skillset, and explore any concerns that may have come out of the first interview (these obviously won't have been serious or obvious enough to cause a rejection at that point, but are things we do need to look into before we'd consider making an offer). We might subsequently invite them in for lunch before we make them an offer. This tends to happen when we're recruiting somebody for a specific team and we'd like them to meet all the people they'll be working with directly. It's not an interview per se, but can prove pivotal if they don't gel with the team. Anyone who's made it this far will receive an offer from us. *We have a slightly quirky definition of "technical staff" as it relates to the technical recruiter role here. It includes software engineers, test engineers, software interns, user experience specialists, technical authors, project managers, product managers, and development managers, but does not include product support or information systems roles. **For example, the quality of graduate applicants overall noticeably drops as the academic year wears on, which is not to say that by now there aren't still stars in there, just that they're fewer and further between. ***Some organisations prefer to assess for team fit first, but I think assessing technical skills is a more effective initial filter - if they're the nicest person in the world, but can't cut a line of code they're not going to work out. Now, as I suggested in the title, Red Gate's Down Tools Week is upon us once again - next week in fact - and I had proposed as a project that we refactor and automate the first stage of marking our programming assessments. Marking assessments, and in fact organising the marking of them, is a somewhat time-consuming process, and we receive many assessment solutions that just don't make the cut, for whatever reason. Whilst I don't think it's possible to fully automate marking, I do think it ought to be possible to run a suite of automated tests over each candidate's solution to see whether or not it behaves correctly and, if it does, move on to a manual stage where we examine the code for structure, decomposition, style, readability, maintainability, etc. Obviously it's possible to use tools to generate potentially helpful metrics for some of these indices as well. This would obviously reduce the marking workload, and would provide candidates with quicker feedback about whether they've been successful - though I do wonder if waiting a tactful interval before sending a (nicely written) rejection might be wise. I duly scrawled out a picture of my ideal process, which looked like this: The problem is, as soon as I'd roughed it out, I realised that fundamentally it wasn't an ideal process at all, which explained the gnawing feeling of cognitive dissonance I'd been wrestling with all week, whilst I'd been trying to find time to do this. Here's what I mean. Automated assessment marking, and the associated infrastructure around that, makes it much easier for us to deal with large numbers of assessments. This means we can be much more permissive about who we send assessments out to or, in other words, we can give more candidates the opportunity to really demonstrate their skills to us. And this leads to a question: why not give everyone the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, to show that they're smart and can get things done? (Two or three of us even discussed this in the down tools week hustings earlier this week.) And isn't this a lot simpler than the alternative we'd been considering? (FYI, this was automated CV/cover letter sifting by some form of textual analysis to ideally eliminate the worst 50% or so of applications based on an analysis of the 20,000 or so historical applications we've received since 2007 - definitely not the basic keyword analysis beloved of recruitment agencies, since this would eliminate hardly anyone who was awful, but definitely would eliminate stellar Oxbridge candidates - #fail - or some nightmarishly complex Google-like system where we profile all our currently employees, only to realise that we're never going to get representative results because we don't have a statistically significant sample size in any given role - also #fail.) No, I think the new way is better. We let people self-select. We make them the masters (or mistresses) of their own destiny. We give applicants the power - we put their fate in their hands - by giving them the chance to demonstrate their skills, which is what they really want anyway, instead of requiring that they spend hours and hours creating a CV and cover letter that I'm going to evaluate for suitability, and make a value judgement about, in approximately 1 minute (give or take). It doesn't matter what university you attended, it doesn't matter if you had a bad year when you took your A-levels - here's your chance to shine, so take it and run with it. (As a side benefit, we cut the number of applications we have to sift by something like two thirds.) WIN! OK, yeah, sounds good, but will it actually work? That's an excellent question. My gut feeling is yes, and I'll justify why below (and hopefully have gone some way towards doing that above as well), but what I'm proposing here is really that we run an experiment for a period of time - probably a couple of months or so - and measure the outcomes we see: How many people apply? (Wouldn't be surprised or alarmed to see this cut by a factor of ten.) How many of them submit a good assessment? (More/less than at present?) How much overhead is there for us in dealing with these assessments compared to now? What are the success and failure rates at each interview stage compared to now? How many people are we hiring at the end of it compared to now? I think it'll work because I hypothesize that, amongst other things: It self-selects for people who really want to work at Red Gate which, at the moment, is something I have to try and assess based on their CV and cover letter - but if you're not that bothered about working here, why would you complete the assessment? Candidates who would submit a shoddy application probably won't feel motivated to do the assessment. Candidates who would demonstrate good attention to detail in their CV/cover letter will demonstrate good attention to detail in the assessment. In general, only the better candidates will complete and submit the assessment. Marking assessments is much less work so we'll be able to deal with any increase that we see (hopefully we will see). There are obviously other questions as well: Is plagiarism going to be a problem? Is there any way we can detect/discourage potential plagiarism? How do we assess candidates' education and experience? What about their ability to communicate in writing? Do we still want them to submit a CV afterwards if they pass assessment? Do we want to offer them the opportunity to tell us a bit about why they'd like the job when they submit their assessment? How does this affect our relationship with recruitment agencies we might use to hire for these roles? So, what's the objective for next week's Down Tools Week? Pretty simple really - we want to implement this process for the Graduate Software Engineer and Software Engineer positions that you can find on our website. I will be joined by a crack team of our best developers (Kevin Boyle, and new Red-Gater, Sam Blackburn), and recruiting hostess with the mostest Laura McQuillen, and hopefully a couple of others as well - if I can successfully twist more arms before Monday.* Hopefully by next Friday our experiment will be up and running, and we may have changed the way Red Gate recruits software engineers for good! Stay tuned and we'll let you know how it goes! *I'm going to play dirty by offering them beer and chocolate during meetings. Some background information: how agonising over the initial CV/cover letter sift helped lead us to bin it off entirely The other day I was agonising about the new university/good degree grade versus poor A-level results issue, and decided to canvas for other opinions to see if there was something I could do that was fairer than my current approach, which is almost always to reject. This generated quite an involved discussion on our Yammer site: I'm sure you can glean a pretty good impression of my own educational prejudices from that discussion as well, although I'm very open to changing my opinion - hopefully you've already figured that out from reading the rest of this post. Hopefully you can also trace a logical path from agonising about sifting to, "Uh, hang on, why on earth are we doing this anyway?!?" Technorati Tags: recruitment,hr,developers,testers,red gate,cv,resume,cover letter,assessment,sea change

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• How to remap "Dashboard" key to show the Desktop on OSX [Snow] Leopard?

  - by Mike

  I use my Desktop far more often than I use my Dashboard. However, my MacBook Pro comes with a dedicated key for Dashboard but it doesn't come with one for Desktop. Using this article, I was able to remap my Dashboard key to show the desktop by changing the values for keys 62 and 63 ("Dashboard") to the same values used by keys 36 and 37 ("Show Desktop"). Specifically, I changed the value for both array index #1s to 111. This worked great for my external (kinesis freestyle) keyboard. But when I went back to my internal macbook keyboard, I discovered that the Dashboard key still mapped to the Dashboard rather than the Desktop. How can I complete this mapping for all of my keyboards? The Kinesis Freestyle, my internal MacBook Pro keyboard, and my external Apple Aluminum Bluetooth keyboard? Update: I'm definitely not looking for a solution that involves using the Function keys instead of the special keys. I wish to keep using my Function keys as function keys as they're indispensable for other applications.

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