Thursday 30 July 2015

Microsoft Surface 3

I have recently been blessed at work with a new Microsoft Surface 3, instead of the old PC I used to have (which was 5 years old).

Setup

We are currently using it as a VDI client (which seems a shame, really).




Spec sheet1

  • CPU: 1.9GHz Intel Core i5-4300U (dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.9GHz with Turbo Boost)
  • Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4400
  • RAM: 8GB LPDDR3
  • Screen: 12-inch, 2160 x 1440 multi-touch (ClearType, 3:2 aspect ratio)
  • Storage: 256GB SSD
  • Ports: One USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort, microSDXC card reader (up to 128GB), headphone/mic jack
  • Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
  • Camera: Two 5MP webcams (1080p HD video)
  • Weight: 1.76 pounds
  • Size: 7.93 x 11.5 x 0.36 inches (W x D x H)

References

TechRadar - Microsoft Surface Pro 3 review
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/microsoft-surface-pro-3-1249750/review/2

Thursday 23 July 2015

Professional Scrum Developer I

Well, I managed to get my certification for Professional Scrum Developer on Thursday, the 16th of July 2015. Wasn't terribly hard.

References

Scrum.org
https://www.scrum.org/
PSD I Assessment
https://www.scrum.org/Assessments/Professional-Scrum-Developer-Assessments/PSD-I-Assessment
Professional Scrum Developer I Certification List
https://www.scrum.org/Assessments/Certification-Lists?AssessmentName=PSD%20I

Thursday 16 July 2015

Disappearing Exceptions

Quoting from [1]:
If the catch block completes abruptly for reason R, then the finally block is executed. Then there is a choice:

If the finally block completes normally, then the try statement completes abruptly for reason R.

If the finally block completes abruptly for reason S, then the try statement completes abruptly for reason S (and reason R is discarded).
(Emphasis mine)

Conclusion

It is unwise to NOT catch Exceptions or throw Exceptions in a Finally block. An exception that is thrown in the finally block, may cause an exception in the try to be discarded. This can lead to errors that obscure the original error.

I can imagine how easy this can happen, for example, if there is an Exception in the try in such a fashion that the closing of resources in the Finally clause will also throw an Exception.

In fact, that is what happened at work, and threw me for a loop when attempting to debug.

Addendum

Luckily, with Java 72, when using the try-with-resources statement, this problem belongs to the past. Of course this only belongs to the past, if your try-catch-finally can be replaced with a try-with-resources.

To be specific, when using try-with-resources only the exception in the try is thrown. Subsequent exceptions, caused by the closing of the resources, are suppressed. But even these exceptions can still be recovered, by requesting all suppressed exceptions from the exception thrown in the try block3.

(Addendum added: 23 july 2015)

References

[1] JLS - 14.20.2. Execution of try-finally and try-catch-finally
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se8/html/jls-14.html#jls-14.20.2
[2] The Java™ Tutorials - The try-with-resources Statement
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/exceptions/tryResourceClose.html
[3] JavaDoc - Throwable.getSupressed()
http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/lang/Throwable.html#getSuppressed--

Thursday 9 July 2015

Markdown

This is just here for me as a fancy bookmark, on how to write proper Markdown formatted files for GitHub1 2.

From the source5:
Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers. Markdown allows you to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format, then convert it to structurally valid XHTML (or HTML).

Thus, “Markdown” is two things:
  1. a plain text formatting syntax; and
  2. a converter which formats the plain text to HTML.

References

[1] GitHub - Markdown Basics
https://help.github.com/articles/markdown-basics/
[2] GitHub - GitHub Flavored Markdown
https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown/
[3] Markdown Cheatsheet
https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/Markdown-Cheatsheet
[4] Original Markdown Location
http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
[5] Wikipedia - Markdown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown

Thursday 2 July 2015

Gliffy vs Plantuml

At work we have used Trac3, especially it's wiki, as well as PlantUML2, which fitted seamlessly inside Trac.

Recently we have moved over to Confluence3 and a different diagram tool called Gliffy (which company makes an excellent plugin for adding Gliffy to Confluence)1.

After working with both PlantUML as well as Gliffy, I thought I'd write down some points in favour of both.
PlantUML
UML Images are generated by interpreting a simple and intuitive language.
Gliffy
a Web-based drawing tool for diagrams

PlantUML

Pro Con Comments
Layout is handled by the tool itself Influence of user on layout is limited makes it easy to create diagrams quickly
software with required libraries without UI
possible integration via commandline, for example batch jobs, software buildscripts to generate documentation automatically (javadoc for example) difficult integration with Confluence
a simple and intuitive language makes it easy to create diagrams quickly it is a markup language, and therefore more suited to software developers
strong focus on UML limited number of diagram components, strong focus on UML
very easy to change existing diagrams, even very complex ones

Gliffy

Pro Con Comments
Layout can be adapted in every little detail You get stuck having to draw instead of simply create diagrams makes it difficult to create or change diagrams quickly
Web tool - no obvious software needs to be installed (only on the server) Responsiveness is not great in a web browser
excellent integration with Confluence by means of a plugin
even managers might be able to use it which is a really really bad idea.
lots and lots of diagram components, including UML
very difficult to change existing diagrams, sometimes things need to be redrawn5

Conclusion

If you wish to draw UML diagrams quickly, and integrate them into your build process, PlantUML is the way to go.

If you need all the flexibility you can get and you don't mind having to draw and layout things yourself, Gliffy is the way to go.

References

[1] Gliffy
https://www.gliffy.com/
[2] PlantUML
http://plantuml.sourceforge.net/
[3] Confluence
https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence
[4] TRAC - Integrated SCM and Project Management
http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/TracWiki
[5] impossible to change the type of a component in Gliffy
work around is to delete the entire component, and create a new component of the correct type