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N. Alex Rupp

N. Alex Rupp studies theoretical geometry and classical literature, and writes for a number of tech rags of wide and varied (dis)repute. He is conducting ongoing research in declarative programming. More information on him may be found at http://www.alex-rupp.com

 

Articles

Ruling Out: Rule Engines and Declarative Programming Come to Java
Rule engines and declarative programming offer a markedly different style of programming, one that's particularly well-suited to certain kinds of applications. N. Alex Rupp kicks off his "Ruling Out" column with an introduction to the rule engine JSR and how this technology can be used.
The WARS Architectural Style
In December, N. Alex Rupp tore down the idea of MVC as a design pattern for servlet architectures. Now, as an alternative, he offers Workflow, Action, Representation and State, or WARS.
Beyond MVC: A New Look at the Servlet Infrastructure
Model-View-Controller (MVC) is a foundation of GUI design, but is it the right design for servlets? N. Alex Rupp argues that it has become an antipattern that needs to be laid to rest.
Multithreaded Tests with JUnit
JUnit is the glue that holds many open source projects together. But JUnit has problems performing multithreaded unit tests. This article introduces a JUnit extension library designed to enable multithreaded unit testing in JUnit.

Weblogs

Final Entry: Revisiting My First Assumption

In my first blog entry at Java.net, I wrote on August 09, 2003 that "Logic is the foundation of philosophy." I now know that this is most untrue.

This is as untrue as anything I've ever...

Looking for a home for my SnipSnap

Here's a short list of general features I'm looking for, sorted by priority:

* Tomcat 5 (what sane person would pay for tomcat 4?)
* Dedicated JVM
* MySQL Database
* 200...

New tool for writing Domain Specific Languages in Drools

When I started working on Drools in January of 2004, my goal was to eventually be able to embed Drools in a web-framework-turned-action-sequencer I was working on, called Shocks.

Software Language Makes First Step Towards AI? Hardly.

First of all, I know bad reporting very well, because I've done my share of it. The first step in writing a misleading technology article is to step out of your domain of expertise.

JPOX 1.1.0-beta-3 in Maven

For me, JDO is all about simplicity. I don't want to sit and worry too much about database schemes and such--I need a really quick solution to a simple persistence problem, and JDO's my personal...

Twin Cities IASA chapter presents "Interop City" event

RE: Twin Cities Interop Event being held on May 31st at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.

The first-of-its-kind event, Interop City brings software technology user groups together...

Notes towards an Open Source Java privacy/security/repair suite

Index.dat files are pernicious, unnecessary, and just plain frustrating. I never would have noticed them, but last week I wrote a simple maven script to flush out the standard virus and spyware...

Beating Back The Spyrus Blooms

Every day for the last several weeks, I have gotten up, trudged through subzero temperatures that can literally freeze your eyelids shut, sat down at my desk in an old NASA-funded research...

Mark Proctor added Drools DRL schema to CVS today!

For more information on DRL schema, visit the Drools Project Site

Drools is 100% JSR-94 compliant and an order of magnitude faster!

Also, in the last week we stripped bsh out of the core and replaced it with Janino. This change has made Drools an order of magnitude faster than it was (in the...

TC IASA presents "The Secrets of ROI for Software Architects" by Cris Ross

Interested in Software Architecture? Twin Cities Resident? On Monday, August 16th 2004 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM, Cris Ross, CIO of United Behavioral Health will be delivering a presentation on "...

My high school buddy got b0rked out of his GI Bill
Barstow gets b0rked out of his GI Bill.
Approaching Architecture

Warning--high buzzword content in this blog entry might cause headaches. Aspirin, cool water and a whitenoise generator recommended. For best results, do not read on an empty stomach....

I landed my dream job: Open Technology Systems

It's been a long haul since I started working with Open Source technology. There have been times when I've joked about the rice and lentils diet, only I wasn't really joking. I was putting a...

Unit Testing EJBs
TechEd 2004, Day 04

One of the major themes at TechEd this year was how to increase productivity. The marketing slogan was "Do More With Less". Early on, I mentioned how Microsoft's Visual Studio tools give them an...

TechEd 2004, Day 03

Open standards allow multiple vendors to offer their own implementation of valuable technologies. The Sun and JCP open standards are particularly good at helping small vendors participate in the...

TechEd 2004, Day 02

I don't know exactly what I was expecting from Steve Ballmer's keynote address this morning. I've never seen the man speak before, or heard his voice. In fact, I haven't even seen a photograph...

TechEd 2004, Day 01

I must admit, it was a little odd being a Java guy walking into a room full of .NET User Group Leaders from all around the country. The abundance of caffeine and general rowdiness of the 75...

What about a Shockwave Community Process?

This is pure speculation on my part, but what if Macromedia were to assemble a community-driven process based on the JCP that they could use to extend the Shockwave platform and give...

Conference Season

Why on earth would I choose TechEd over JavaOne?

Open Source Flex alternatives require broad industry support

"When a scientist says something is possible, they're probably underestimating how long it will take. But if they say it's impossible, they're probably wrong" --Nobel Prize Winner Richard Smalley...

Apache Geronimo milestone release

I spoke with a couple of Geronimo's developers this morning, and I'm told the first version of the server (with all the pieces in place) is tagged in CVS and will soon be available for binary...

Please pass the StringBeans -- IoC-3 Components and String Dependencies

It boils down to this:

Dear Alex, tell me the future

"What, exactly, do you see in the future for Java open source? How long do you think it will last? What do you see, if anything, that will take the place of the Internet?...

Writing software is like driving a bus.

The best software engineers I know make writing code the central part of their day. Like playing a sport or a musical instrument, writing software requires first that you show up.

While...

I finally get IoC-3

It doesn't make sense to clutter the action API with accessor methods for these values in a class meant to abstract actions from the framework, so I just have a generic accessor for the mdbean....

Open Source UI framework comparable to Lazlo

Now, before I go on, I want to address a very strong prejudice that I've noticed in my dealings with Open Source developers. It's the old familiar sentiment that if it isn't built in Java, it ain...

Why I won't move my projects to Apache

Noel,

Thanks for your concern about this. I license software under the AFL so I can avoid legal entanglements relating to collective ownership of my property and conflicts of control over...

Government (as it would be expressed in Java) 
package nature.law.society.human;

/**
 * Obviously, the more complex this class becomes,
 * the less efficient it becomes, so I intentionally 
 * left it simple, but you can feel free to...