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Simon Morris

Simon Morris started coding professionally back when 1 MB of RAM was considered decadent. He eked a living writing games for a while, before winding up scribbling R+D code at a top UK university. In early 1996 he discovered Java, drawn immediately to its latent potential - which, he reckons, it still hasn't even begun to tap. He now owns a laptop with more than 1 Mb of RAM (but doesn't like to boast about it).

 

Articles

Kickstarting Google Web Toolkit on the Client Side
The focus of most Ajax development is the interaction between a slightly richer client and the server, with not a lot of attention paid to how much can be done on the client side. In this article, S. E. Morris takes the Google Web Toolkit and focuses exclusively on the client side, showing how to...

Weblogs

JavaFX, Android, and the psychic octopus

Surely one of the biggest announcements at JavaOne 2010 was the new roadmap for JavaFX, laying out the journey towards a 2.0 release that will be radically different from what had gone before --...

Apple iPad Not So Flash

Amidst all the hype of the Sun to Oracle transition over the last week, some of you may have missed a certain announcement by a Cupertino-based firm regarding the imminent release of a computing...

Thinking Declaratively in JavaFX

JavaOne is coming up, and with it no doubt a slew of enhancements to JavaFX. Many of you reading will have no doubt dipped your toe into the waters of Sun's new platform, but how well do you...

JavaFX in Style

One of the most touted parts of the new JavaFX API is the ability to skin UI controls using CSS-like stylesheets. However the current 1.0 release seems to be rather light on skin-aware controls,...

No Future In Java

A C++ programmer walks into a Usenet newsgroup, "I don't see the point of Java!" he announces.

"It allows your code to work on many different platforms...", replies a local...

Shocking Ideas: Coding Should Actually Be Fun!!

If you're following my recent adventures (do you have nothing better to do?) you'll know I've been spending a lot of time with JavaFX Script recently. It's a language which targets a wider...

JavaFX Script: the 100 Line Challenge

There must be a name for that particular form of programming masochism which involves wringing the maximum effect out of the minimum of code. If not, someone should invent one!

I first...

Watched Pots and JavaFX

In recent weeks I've been immersed in the strange and exciting world of the JavaFX Preview release. Some might say up to my neck, although sometimes...

When Buzzwords Go Bad

I always assumed the word "jargon" was a reasonably recent addition to the English languages, but a quick glance at the OED gives examples of its use dating back...

Flogging a Dead Horse

Today is apparently Bill Gates' first day away from Microsoft. As he leaves, some have suggested Microsoft's star is now in the descent, as Google's star climbs ever higher. Is this really the...

Knock Knock

Allegedly invented by accident, the humble Post-it Note has likely been responsible for more potential breaches in computer security than any single virus, rootkit or keylogger.

Anti-Social Networking

For a while now I've been mulling over an idea for a new type of social network, one which is actually social in nature and not just name. The key to my idea is harnessing the ad-hoc connectivity...

Occam's Razor and UI Innovation

Our illustrious editor, Chris Adamson's blog on this years...

Evolution vs Intelligent Re-design?

You know you're getting old when you find yourself complaining about how English is being butchered, instead of inventing new ways to butcher it yourself.

Languages change and evolve, they...

To the Top of the Food Chain

One of the things which slightly unsettled me after the release of Update N was the frequent mention of how much better things would now get for Java applets.

Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun to be With

Google's Android caused a minor stir when it launched a few weeks back — Java in flavour, but without a full compliment of recognised APIs to make it a bona fide Micro or Standard Edition....

Card Sharp

It's a creepy thought, but hidden amidst the garish flickering displays and eternal night of some far flung casino there may still stand a Video Poker machine running code written by yours truly...

Java ME is Dead, Long Live Java ME !

No sooner had the words slipped from James Gosling's lips than programmer friends were emailing me with "I told you so"...

Why Rich Internet Apps Will Fail

Did the title grab your attention?

The Lost Generation

It's exam results season once again in the UK, and as usual newspapers are complaining how easy modern exams are.

Web of Confusion
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'

'The...
A Rose By Any Other Name

Oscar Wilde once famously remarked that Britain and America were two nations divided by a common language*.

Making JavaFX Sing

Column inches aren't really a metric one can easily apply to the intangible world of blogging, but when it comes to JavaOne 2007 such a measurement would be largely academic.

Swing, and that New Car Smell

Car manufacturers have known for a long time that it's the little things which can make or break the sale of a vehicle. The reassuringly solid clunk of the doors as they close. The satisfyingly...

March of the Ants

I spent a little time over the Easter break playing about with the new streamlined integration of JOGL into Swing, as promoted by Chris Campbell in his...

Getting Animated

Well, given feedback from around the web it seems a lot of people liked my recent little foray into the realm...

Swing Bling

I recently watched the interesting Screencast by Adobe's James Ward, entitled "Web 2.0 Design Trend & Tools...

Justifiable Homicide

Despite not being a violent man (honest!) I've found myself increasingly being moved by the argument that programmers, and perhaps other technical staff too, should be given limited license to...

Musings on Web 2.0

David Van Couvering wrote an interesting blog entry recently which caught my attention.

Blame Java!

A couple of incidents have happened to me in the last few days which highlight Java's desperate plight on the desktop.

The first involved a currently existing Java desktop application, a...