Current Projects
Google Application Engine
I have been playing around with the Java version of the Google App Engine. I got user access ages ago but didn’t have the time or an idea of how I would use it.
Since then I have written a few Android applications and from quite a few of the comments on my traffic application I can see that it would be a nice idea to provide a service in the ‘cloud’ which:
- downloads, processes spatial data (like traffic data) and stores it.
- provides a service to dish up requests for spatial data. In this case traffic events which are in the current area of interest.
The main reason for this is that my isp is just a simple provider. There is no Tomcat server or anything like that. I could write a CGI script to process data which is sitting in xml files (say) but that won’t be fast enough really.
Looking at what the App Engine provides it should be possible to write a service which presents a number of servlets which deal with such requests.
So, I have been working on an application which downloads the HA traffic RSS data and dishes up data according to the users gps position. In fact I have this working but I want to present the code so anyone else can learn from it. To that end I have been writing some GWT code for what must the first time in two years. I can’t believe it’s been so long. I recently went on to the GWT forum and was amazed that some of the same people are still there. That used to be my haunt de jour until I went off on a tangent into writing Flex applications. The code is coming together but as usual I have got obsessed over making minor details perfect. This kind of attitude is both a blessing and a curse as any developer will tell you. The devil is in the details but sometime you just want something to work. I have noticed though that the stuff which gets attention tend to have some polish on it so I would always say it’s worthwhile as long as it doesn’t go on forever.
The ultimate aim is to write an Android application which uses this data.
Palm Pre Mojo Debugger
I can’t think of a project in recent memory which I have spent so much time on and then abandoned. Yet, it would be a shame to completely ditch it. I spent about two months of lunchtimes and weekends intensively developing this and now I seem to have hit a brick wall.
What am I going to do with this code? It uses the Mojo SDK jars so I can’t put it up on Google Code without a lot of explanation and I am worried that I won’t find any Java developers within the Palm Pre community who have the ‘chops’ to get their heads around it and make the necessary improvements like parsing the GDB output. The next steps need some hardcore skills which I don’t have the time or inclanation to get into. It would make an ideal project for a CS student.
So that’s it. That’s the current state of play. I find myself slowing down a bit because I am taking on bigger projects and they take time to get right.
Flex: IFrame 1.3.4
I am very pleased to announce that there is a new version of the Flex IFrame. This is the work of Julien Nicoulaud . Julien works on the open-source project OW2 JASMINe which uses the IFrame as part of a sub-project Kerneos.
As well as bringing his own additions to the code he has brought together the many fixes posted on the issues sections of the Google code page. Also, (as if that wasn’t enough) he has re-factored the codebase and added comments and documentation plus added some amazing new examples. There is also a new Google group where users can discuss the component here.
I had a look over the code on Friday and was really impressed at how much it was improved. I have been lax at keeping the code up to date and Julien has made an completely fantastic job of it.
Many many thanks to Julien for taking this on.