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Sound Synth is due to start triggering an annoying message telling you to get a newer version on the 23rd of March. It will also say you can’t export to wav files with this version. That is not true wav export is still enabled. I am unfortunately not going to get a new version out before the 23rd for once not due to other commitments but due to the fact I am in the middle of refactoring the hell out of the code to get sounds effects implemented in a more expandable way and partly because I totally blew away my subversion repository with an eye to moving to Mercurial which is a task for tonight.

I originally put in the warning in before I decided to use webstart as the distribution method. I expected to have to create an installer so want to force people to upgrade. Of course once fiddled with the webstart and decided to use it I never actually hooked in the code to turn things off but also never quite got round taking the warning out. It will be gone on the next release don’t worry.

Looks like another version of gcc has been released . While I don’t normally track gcc closely I spotted the news on osnews.com and decide to take a look. OpenMp has been in for a while and they are now moving to parallel versions of the std algorithms, you have to jump though the hoop of linking the openMP lib and setting up a define. A parallel version of the STL is a fairly obvious progression for C++ I had not expected it become available for a while and gcc seems to be the first popular compiler to ship with one. Couple that with the progress gcc has made with the performance of the code if outputs both from my experience at work and from here say on the web.

Gcc looks like it is in a good position for the future. I guess the refactoring effort of the 4.0 release is starting to pay dividends. Now if MinGW could get updated to the gcc 4.3  rather than 3.x it would start to apply some pressure on other providers to open up their openMP support in improve the quality of the code their compiler generates…

Another month another version out. Ok not much added this time but figured it was time to put out another release. Obviously due to my previous post I have been taking a look at file history menu items and have a whole host of small bug fixes that are a little to small to really mention. So to play with the latest version  head over to the sound synth page and get the webstartable version. I guess at some point I should look into how webstart works with regard to letting people get a more permanent installation on there computer. anyway time.

Next up is spending a little bit of time fiddling with how effects are implemented and seeing whether I can create a more expandable UI for them. the eventual aim would be to add lots of different effects/processing nodes. Thats long term for now just need to sort out the GUI side of things.

Any bug reports are very welcome.

I recently wanted to added a file history menu to an application I am developing and as there is not much on the web on this or any helper classes that I could find I thought I would write a tutorial on developing a couple of simple classes. The time I have spent with Java is counted in months so it is possible I have missed some idioms but I have been programming for a fair while so hopefully I am not doing anything crazy or dangerous.

Continue reading ‘Implementing A File History Menu In Java’ »

Continuing my javaFX adventure I purchased “JavaFx Script: Dynamic Java Scripting for Rich Internet/client-side Applications” a book by published be APress. Being produced not long after JavaFX was officially announced it is only 216 pages long and for the most part runs as a long tutorial where you get to develop a relatively simple but none trivial application with a few jaunts into other examples where appropriate.

Given there is not a great deal of information on the web about actual application development with JavaFX is does help to move you beyond messing around with the simple scripts.

Its size does not hinder it, JavaFX is a small languages and you really do need an understanding of Java to be productive in it (You can use Java objects in JavaFX scripts) so a book devoted to JavaFX should be slim. In fact is could have been smaller as many pages are devoted to code listings and who really studies a 6 page listing of code!

The writing is up to a reasonable standard it doesn’t quite have the fluidity and polish of some books but it’s not bad either.

While I have not used it as a reference book and acknowledging its tutorial structure will limit this it looks like it should be passable as reference material until something more suitable comes along.

Overall I can just about recommend the book in part because it is small so the investment in time is not substantial, it is cheap and there is nothing else on the market that covers JavaFX – as far as I can find.