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BlogThoughts, comments, links to software I wrote, etc. Comments welcomed.
Migrating WebObjects Applications to Eclipse I have a WebObjects application that's having some problems. It needs fixing since its a hit, you can check it out here: Apple is dropping support for WebObejcts development in Xcode, their IDE for C/C++, Objective-C, and even AppleScript. Apple also used to provide tools which create the html pages and the Java class to go with it (WO Builder) and the glue between the database and the Java code (EO Modler). These tools are depreciated since Apple has discontinued the Java/Cocoa bridge. In other words, Apple is leaving it up to the WebObjects community to find developing tools; and the community has responded with WOProject/WOLips for Eclipse. Sooner than later, there will be no Apple-built, up to date, tools to write WebObjects applications. So it's time to learn Eclipse. What better way to learn Eclipse then to port one of my applications and start debugging. It actually took me very little time to move the code and begin working on it, Eclipse did not simply open my Xcode project file. While my code compiled and ran under Xcode, it did nothing of the sort in Eclipse. Most of the problems were in the EO model, there were all kinds of upper/lower case issues. This was a problem likely because I did not exactly follow the recommendations to start with. These issues cascaded to all the the Java code that used entity names, keys and classes and methods. I renamed files which can't be done from within Eclipse which was possible in Xcode, quit Eclipse and rename the files in the Finder then reopen eclipse, refresh and clean the project. Java classes and entity names also got renamed - as EOGenerator did some of the work. It can be confusing when you need to change the case for an entity or key, and determine which is which. But after four to five days, a few days before and two days a few weeks later, my code now compiles, runs and I'm actually debugging code and not my use of Eclipse :-). The text editors/boxes are a bit odd, triple-click does not select the whole line and, in the console, double clicking on a word does not select the word. I have also see the editor collapse lines of 'imports' while I was editing in that same area, if you move the insertion point with the mouse you may end up in a different part of the code. The text editor is no BBEdit and no Emacs. What's was really helpful was the error and warning icons next to the methods in the outline perspective. When you open the EO model file in a separate window it still changes to what ever you are looking at in the first window. Not only do you have to change the perspective to EOModler but you also have to find and click on your EO model to see it. I attribute my issues to being a newbie to Eclipse. Over time I'll work out these issues. I am, however, still disappointed in Apple for dropping the developer tools for WebObjects. I have not changed my opinion that developers new to WebObjects will have a hard time writing .wo packages (.html, .wod, and .woo files). If I were a better coder I would tackle this project... 
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Webmasters using Mac OS(This article has been reposted from an older blog.)Concerning the state of web development on the Mac platform. I have started web development for the Mac when WebSTAR was still MacHTTP (http://www.machttp.org/). Now I still develop web sites on the Mac. Only now my production server is Mac OS X Server on a Xserve. It makes no difference whether a web site runs on Apache or Windows IIS. If it does not work for Mac browsers then the problem lies with the web developer, not the platform. In the end, both servers produce HTML. (Of course, ActiveX, Windows media files, etc. does not apply.) Having learned HTML in the days when there was no web development package out there at all I have faithfully stuck to BBEdit to this day. I dislike most of the WYSIWYG editors, there is so much more one can do writing HTML manually. I have developed web sites using Windows ASP (only game in town at the time) and I wrote some pages in Notepad. Learn the HTML, style sheets have simplified the HTML a lot, believe it or not. Databases on my servers are handled by WebObjects. I don't believe one has to become an accomplished Java programmer. Yes, there is a lot of learning to be done and it takes a while to 'get it,' keep add it. I would say that WebObjects is easier then web publishing with FileMaker 7/8. And Xcode is not as horrible as some suggest. WebObjects, for Mac OS only, is truly powerful. Last time I looked at WebSTAR under OS X I was less then impressed with the UI, there was little discussion at work to continue using WebSTAR or start with Apache on OS X Server (10.2 when I made the migration from WebSTAR 4/OS9). Migrating from WebSTAR to OS X took copying the files and enabling some settings in the Web part of OS X Server Admin application. My point is that ease of use does not mean you have to stick to WebSTAR. For a mail server I use CommuniGate Pro, migrated away from WebSTAR. There has been some discussions about pricing and features that Mac clients don't use. However, CommuniGate Pro is very flexible and runs on OS X Server. Mac OS X Server has a mail server built-in that can be used. Eventually I will migrate my company to the OS X Server - to cut cost. It still is all point-and-click. Phantom, yes I liked Phantom. Ran this search engine on StarNine's web site (worked there and did a lot of FileMaker Pro stuff, used Tango). For OS X Server I wrote a WebObjects application to handle search on my site. Phantom ruled. Why does Apple not promote WebObjects? This question comes up at WWDC every year. One, Apple wants to sell iPods. Two, Apple is a hardware company and wants to sell computers. What's the consumer base for WebObjects compared to iPods? The Mac platform for front and back-end development and deployment is a great platform. I support both Windows and Mac users on my site. One does not need all the tools that exist for Windows to build functional web site. The lack of Microsoft technologies with all its integrated tools is not a loss to the Mac community, really. My tools consist of plain OS X Server, Photoshop, BBEdit, and two books: HTML The Definite Guide and JavaScript The Definite Guide. The Mac web community has been given technology in use by the mainstream Internet community in the form of OS X Server (MySQL, Apache, PHP, Java, etc.). We've been invited to the rest of the Internet community that does not use Windows technology. If you're looking for what I do I'm behind dyned.com. (Also check out the WOShowcase.)
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