Global Loggers

It seems that all existing logging libraries assume that you want a single global Log Manager, tied to the class loader. Only static methods are provided to access the Log Manager or Logger instances.

I have been rigorously removing all static objects from SimpleDBM, so that the entire object graph of SimpleDBM is rooted in the main Server object. Doing this not only makes the code more robust, it also allows multiple instances of SimpleDBM to coexist in the same classloader without conflict. But where this model has broke down is in the Logger implementation, which is a wrapper for either Log4J or JDK Logging, and neither of these allow non global instances of the Log Manager.

Much as I would loathe to do this, it seems the only solution is to roll out my own ...

Is anyone else facing this issue? 

Life is too short

Life is too short to be able to master multiple programming languages and tools. So while I would love to learn the new Go Programming Language, Python, AJAX, and a few other cool new things, I keep going back to what I already know, the Java programming language. I can write a small utility faster in Java than if I wrote the same utility in Python; not because Java is particularly productive, but because I do not have to spend time figuring out how to do something in Java.

This is where I think something like the Google Web Toolkit is a Godsend for someone like me. Being able to create a web user interface in Java, without having to know the intricacies of  AJAX, JSP, Java Server Faces, etc. is way too cool. Of course, there is a learning curve here too, but it is a less steeper curve because the language is already familiar.

I am using GWT to create a small application to demonstrate the use of SimpleDBM. I am just loving the experience. Kudos to the Google team for coming out with GWT!

Network client/server update

I am still testing the new network client server implementation. Apologies for the delay in publishing this enhancement.

I am also working on a simple sample web application to illustrate the network API. Learning all about GWT (Google Web Toolkit) which is a lot of fun.

Java versus Google Go

An interesting new systems programming language was announced by Google at the end of last year - The Go Programming Language (www.golang.org). Is this what Java should have been?

Go is of course new and old. It is a new language that derives a lot from the past work done by its creators at Bell Labs. You can even see copyright notices from Plan 9 etc. all over the place. Therefore although the language is new, it is built upon years of experience.

In general I like the new language. Two features are particularly nice:

• Any object can be cast to an interface as long as the object implements the signature of the interface (sorry for using Java terminology here).
• Go routines are cool as it overcomes the problem that equating a thread with a process flow creates. In other languages, if your thread blocks, your program halts. In Go, a routine that is blocked is moved out and some other routine takes it place on the thread. This will be very good for servers that need the ability to multiplex processing over a limited set of threads.

There are a few ugly things too. My dislikes are the built in allocation functions new() and make() and the  pointer type. Why this mess? Java is so neat you either have primitives or references. References are like pointers except that you cannot do any pointer operations with them.

The top feature that is missing is an exception handling mechanism. I have programmed many years in C and now in Java, and I can tell you that it is far easier to create robust error handling in Java. Of course, checked exceptions were a mistake (I have changed my mind about them) and I think Go should avoid them.

I wish I had the luxury of rewriting SimpleDBM in Go. It would be an interesting and fun thing to do. But I have better things to do...  I am hoping that I can at least create a network client in Go, so that it is possible to talk to the SimpleDBM server from Go.