Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend

While I'm on the subject of tools, here's another one you might like. When I'm doing HTML development I used to use HomeSite. It was very straightforward, just a text editor combined with IE. They added some nuances over the years but nothing that special.

When Mozilla came out a few years ago I liked doing HTML work under the Composer app that came with it. Since I don't run full blown Mozilla anymore (I run Firefox instead) I don't get the Composer app with my browser. That's why I like Nvu. It is based on Mozilla Composer but it adds more features. It'll also install side by side with Firefox so I can have both the browser I like and the HTML editor I like.

Posted by John Munsch at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At the moment I'm doing some technical illustrations for a project and I needed a good vector graphics editor but I can't really afford to shell out for Adobe Illustrator. Plus, it would be nice to have the drawings I do be in SVG format rather than locked up in some proprietary format. I N K S C A P E . Draw Freely appears to come from the same stock as Sodipodi but I like the interface better. They have a glitch in the Windows version of it at the moment that can cause a crash after you've used it a while but they froze the code so they could fix it. Even without the fix, it's good software. I recommend it.

Posted by John Munsch at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I ran across this list a while back but I didn't remember all of them: Enhancements to Java Web Start Technology in J2SE 1.5.0

I really look forward to those improvements. Especially things like being able to associate my apps with specific data files and shortcuts for Web Start apps on Linux desktops.

Posted by John Munsch at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Neat article at the Seattle Times about one of my favorite comic strips. The Penny Arcade takes razor-sharp jabs at video-game industry talks about how well they are doing at making a living doing nothing but a comic strip on the web.

Posted by John Munsch at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, that's right, because SWT just roxxors. Except when it doesn't as with this little glitch: Bug 24796 - DCR - No printing on Linux GTK

I develop on Linux and SWT doesn't have printing support under GTK. It kind of sucks when you want to print out a file and can't ever do it. However, my Swing apps continue to print just fine. Since the most recent update to this bug indicated that there was still quite a bit of work to go, I doubt I'll see my eclipse "Print..." menu item ungrayed before this bug hits its second birthday in October.

I know this sounds a little snarky, I'm just a little irritated.

Posted by John Munsch at 04:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sure that if you are here at my site you're someone interested in Java or Linux and you're probably already a Mozilla or Firefox user or you've at least looked at them. If, by some chance, you aren't familiar with the best web browser out there, go get a copy of Firefox and try it out.

Tabbed browsing, fast, standards compliant, popup killing...

Posted by John Munsch at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)