Tobler.SoftwareArchitecture()

Announcing: Tobwiz Technologies!

2009-10-25T03:51:00Z

My wife and I have formed a new company, Tobwiz Technologies, providing products and services for software development, media development, idea development, and International communications. In particular, we would love to help you add a touch of magic to your software projects by offering the following services:

Contract software architecture and engineering
Hands on code wizardry
Independent design and code reviews
New development
Maintenance
Legacy transformations
Small projects

Telecommuting relationships preferred.

Please contact john.tobler@tobwiz.com!

Scaling the Cliffs to Scala

2009-08-18T20:26:00Z

The legendary Castle of Scalability, wherein is reputedly housed the Holy Grail of Website Performability, awaits you! Will you accept the challenge? Will you take up this noble Quest?

Recently, we have heard that the castle may be reached by scaling the high cliffs of Scala, one of the newest Object-Functional languages. Scala, like Fan, another new "scalability-oriented" language, has mutated significantly from Java, one of its prototypical influences. From what I've seen through my binoculars, Scala code can sometimes seem pretty obfuscated, so make sure you are equipped for a certain cryptic mysticism as you begin your ascent.

Take A Tour of Scala and then have a look at what Sony Imageworks intends to do with it, reported in Sony Imageworks and Scala.

Scala is indeed a serious language, and this is a serious Quest! Personally, I have already started along the path, but I must admit I'm taking the Fan with me to cool me down during the long climb!

Good luck, Noble Coder! May you reach the Castle of Scalability and claim the Coveted Prize! I hear there is enough Performability up there for all of us!

Resume Dream Catchers -- Reloaded

2009-08-14T18:22:00Z

Today, I had reason to update an old article of mine, Resume Dream Catchers, and figured I should remind my readers of this resource. Please feel free to offer your additions,corrections, and thoughts as comments, either to the article directly, or to this post. I will be happy to update the article with better information! This started out as just a quick post, back in 2004, but some people seem to like it!

Coding Cool with Fan!

2009-08-10T18:18:00Z

The most exciting new programming language I have seen in quite some time is the new Fan language. I recommend reading Why Fan and taking the Tour to have get a quick grasp of what Fan offers. Then Download Fan and StartHere!

Why am I so enthusiastic about Fan? It's Object Oriented, but also supports functions as first class objects. That makes Fan one of the new "Object-Functional" languages (see Scala for another example, although I am finding Scala a bit overly-complex for my taste). Fan is easily approachable from a C/C++/C#, Java, Python, Ruby or Smalltalk background.

Fan interoperates on the Java VM, the .NET Framework's CLR, and also supports compiling JavaScript for use in browsers. Fan's design should make it portable to Parrot and other run-time targets in future.

More than anything else, though, I like Fan's clean, and I must say rather beautiful, design. Look at this quote about the development team's approach to the Fan API's: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - but we are obsessed with making the Fan APIs beautiful." Brian and Andy Frank, Fan's two main developers, are quick to state that Fan is a practical, rather than academic language. However, I assure you a *lot* of thought and deep knowledge about the evolution of programming languages has gone into Fan's design. I consider Fan quite elegant and am very much enjoying cooling my code with Fan!

To help spread the Fan meme, I have started FanFans, a LinkedIn Group for those who want to "fan the Fan!" If you're on LinkedIn, search for "FanFans" or "Fan language" and join the group!

So, let's all Fan out and spread some cool code!

Something is squawking!

2009-07-23T22:40:00Z

After a rather long ... lull ..., I'm hearing much more noise again from the (almost mythological) realm of Pearl 6. Seems like some sort of Parrot has been squawking loudly, lately. In fact, it may have even squawked loudly enough to get me to join in the fun!

I'm a sucker for the very idea of a multi-lingual dynamic language VM that can allow different languages to use libraries written in others. Use Python and Lua libs from Ruby? Sounds wonderful to me! Here's a link to Wikipedia's article on Perl 6.

Pray for Perl 6. The Perl and Parrot communities need everyone's good wishes!

Yes, I was an Agile Manifesto signatory!

2009-07-09T18:24:00Z

Yes, I was a relatively early signatory to the Agile Manifesto. I "signed" in the 19 May to 20 June, 2003, time period. I did my first test-driven development (TDD) using the SUnit testing framework in the Smalltalk programming language. I was immediately attracted to "agile" and TDD because I had been developing software for many years and well understood the value of the new approaches. I am still agile and I still recommend TDD, although I am now aware that there are many areas of software engineering where TDD is not yet possible. As far as agile goes, I do not stand for no process, but for "just enough" process!

SmallScript is dead! Long live SmallScript!

2009-07-08T18:36:00Z

In a previous post, Before it becomes famous, I posted about S#, or SmallScript, a SmallTalk variant that was being designed that was supposed to have a version that might have worked on .NET. Now, it seems that project has pretty much died out. David Simmons, the main figure behind S#, now works for Microsoft. His role there does not seem to allow much priority for S#. Here is S# - Smalltalk :: The Next Generation, an interview with him that explains his current assignment. In that article, he projected a date for the next release of S# as "out in the fall," but that was in 2006.

So, I'm not seeing or hearing much,if anything, going on in the S# or SmallScript worlds. My conclusion is that it appears the project is dead. I still have hope that someone will develop a decent SmallTalk implementation for .NET. If you see one, please let me know!

Hot off the press! Google will develop a new operating system!

2009-07-08T17:58:00Z

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

I can feel the trembling from Redmond from here in Southern California!

New platform grows up! Google Apps is out of Beta!

2009-07-08T17:40:00Z

On The Official Google Blog, Google has announced that Google Apps is now out of beta. One important observation for software developers is that Google Apps will now cost you. No more free ride! While you can try it for free, it costs $50 per user per year after your trial period ends.

[Tools] New version of UMLet available (9.1)

2009-07-03T04:57:00Z

A newer version of UMLet is available. This free UML editor, UMLet, is my "UML as sketch" tool of choice! You can read *about* a very interesting article on the rationale behind UMLet here (note, however, that the article's authors require payment for the full article). UMLet is very capable ... and free, too!

Your Company's Next Senior Software Architect???

2009-07-02T23:08:00Z

I would *love* to join a new and exciting software development team that has a single-minded focus on delivering high-quality software products to great customers. Perhaps that team is working in your company! Please have a look at my resume (http://weblogs.asp.net/jtobler/articles/48839.aspx) to find out if my skills match your customers' needs! If interested, contact me by email so I can get to work with you as quickly as possible! I currently live in San Diego, CA, but would consider relocating to Las Vegas, NV, or the Miami Ft. Lauderdale area, FL, to join the right company with the right challenge!

[Tools] New version of UMLet available (9.03)

2009-02-11T21:54:00Z

Get your fresh new copy here: Umlet 9.03.

Time to get busy again!

2009-02-11T21:26:00Z

Well! I've let this blog sit too long without taking care of it. I'm very busy, these days, on a number of different levels. But lately, I've started doing some work and research on Open Source GIS systems and on SharePoint development, so you should start seeing some posts here again.

New Office 2007 Data Mining Add-ins!

2008-01-23T22:32:00Z

Here is a cool article on The SQL Server 2005 Data Mining Add-ins for Office 2007, some great new business intelligence tools for Excel 2007.

[Tools] New Version of UMLet is out (UMLet 8)!

2007-11-30T23:17:00Z

UMLet 8 is out! UMLet is a light-weight UML diagramming tool for those who need something for UML as sketch drawing. This is not a heavy duty code-generating MDA tool. UMLet is wonderful for sketching out your ideas without feeling so darned formal! It is one of my favorite architectural sketching tools and I can strongly recommend it.