Window created by Matisse (Java)

Window created by wxMatisse (C++)

Code created by Matisse

public class MatisseTest extends javax.swing.JFrame {    

/** Creates new form MatisseTest */
public MatisseTest() {
    initComponents();
}

/** This method is called from within the constructor to
* initialize the form.
* WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
* always regenerated by the Form Editor.
*/
private void initComponents() {//GEN-BEGIN:initComponents
    button2 = new javax.swing.JButton();
    button1 = new javax.swing.JButton();
    panel1 = new javax.swing.JPanel();
    button3 = new javax.swing.JButton();
    panel2 = new javax.swing.JPanel();

    setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    getContentPane().setLayout(null);
    button2.setLabel("Right button");
    getContentPane().add(button2);
    button2.setBounds(210, 310, 130, 30);
    button1.setLabel("Left button");
    getContentPane().add(button1);
    button1.setBounds(50, 310, 130, 30);
    panel1.setBackground(new java.awt.Color(204, 102, 255));
    panel1.setLayout(null);
    button3.setLabel("North button");
    panel1.add(button3);
    button3.setBounds(20, 20, 250, 60);
    panel2.setBackground(new java.awt.Color(255, 255, 0));
    panel2.setLayout(null);
    panel1.add(panel2);
    panel2.setBounds(20, 100, 250, 130);
    getContentPane().add(panel1);
    panel1.setBounds(50, 40, 290, 250);

    java.awt.Dimension screenSize = java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
    setBounds((screenSize.width-410)/2, (screenSize.height-403)/2, 410, 403);
}//GEN-END:initComponents

// Variables declaration - do not modify//GEN-BEGIN:variables

    private javax.swing.JButton button1;
    private javax.swing.JButton button2;
    private javax.swing.JButton button3;
    private javax.swing.JPanel panel1;
    private javax.swing.JPanel panel2;

// End of variables declaration//GEN-END:variables

}

Code created by wxMatisse

// File created by wxMatisse

#ifndef _MATISSETEST_H
#define _MATISSETEST_H

#include <wx/frame.h>
#include <wx/button.h>
#include <wx/panel.h>

class MatisseTest : public wxFrame { 

public:

	MatisseTest(const wxString &title);

private:

	wxPanel *wxpanel2;

	wxPanel *wxpanel1;

	wxButton *wxbutton1;

	wxButton *wxbutton2;

	wxButton *wxbutton3;

	void initComponents();

	enum {
		WXBUTTON1 = wxID_HIGHEST + 1,
		WXBUTTON2,
		WXBUTTON3,
		WXPANEL1,
		WXPANEL2
	};

};

#endif 	 /* _MATISSETEST_H */

// File created by wxMatisse

#include "matisse.h"

MatisseTest::MatisseTest(const wxString &title) : wxFrame((wxFrame*) NULL, wxID_ANY, title) {
	initComponents();
}

void MatisseTest::initComponents() {
	wxbutton1 = new wxButton(this, WXBUTTON1, _T("Right button"), wxPoint(210, 310), wxSize(130, 30));
	wxbutton2 = new wxButton(this, WXBUTTON2, _T("Left button"), wxPoint(50, 310), wxSize(130, 30));
	wxpanel1 = new wxPanel(this, WXPANEL1, wxPoint(50, 40), wxSize(290, 250));
	wxpanel1->SetBackgroundColour(wxColour(204, 102, 255));
	wxbutton3 = new wxButton(wxpanel1, WXBUTTON3, _T("North button"), wxPoint(20, 20), wxSize(250, 60));
	wxpanel2 = new wxPanel(wxpanel1, WXPANEL2, wxPoint(20, 100), wxSize(250, 130));
	wxpanel2->SetBackgroundColour(wxColour(255, 255, 0));
}

There are still many things to do until I release version 0.1, of course. For now, only null layout is supported. Support for other layout managers will be added in the future. The goal is to be able to translate all windows created by Matisse as long as they use the supported layout managers. As expected, there will be no support for widgets that wxWidgets offers for an operating system exclusively. Unlike Matisse, you will have total freedom to modify the generated code, as there is no coming back from it. The windows that wxMatisse translates need not be created by Matisse: as this translator uses the properties of the window rather than code, it does not rely on any code convention. As long as the code compiles and runs, the code can be a complete mess that wxMatisse will still work. wxMatisse will be useful for migration projects where code needs to be translated from Java to C++. I will open the wxMatisse project on java.net as soon as the project support all the basic widgets in null layout. If you want to collaborate, or if you know anything about NetBeans programming and want to give a hand, you’re more than welcome to join the project!

While we cannot change the industry, we can change ourselves, and by change I mean making sure we are actually qualified for the job we do, instead of resting on our laurels of experience. You may be hired for the experience you have, but you want to deliver all the knowledge you have acquired, even if you never had the chance to use it in any of the companies you worked on. How do we gain experience without working on a specific project? Education, of course! The training of pianists offers a very convenient analogy on this matter.

As a pianist myself, I would never be able to imagine how would I ever be able to perform without training. I would not be able to do sight-reading either: most of what I play has a reasonable complexity and requires a thoughtful interpretation. But programming and playing piano are very different when it comes to performance: while piano players are able to train hours, weeks or months for a few hours of performance, programmers are expected to learn on the job - hence the over-appreciation of experience. To make things just a little more difficult, the only time programmers have to fully concentrate on their training is their free time (no wonder you have to love what you do to stay on this business).

I do love what I do. I do love to study what I use at work to perform more than I train, but there’s a problem: I’m not willing to lead a monomaniac lifestyle, I do not want to use all my scarce free time to train for work. I need to rest and take care of my health to keep doing what I love to do. The inevitable corollary: my training must be very efficient. Do I find very efficient training available? Definitely not. Most of the technical books seem to expect a very passive kind of reader: I never find lists of exercises in many of the famous books from O’Reilly or Manning. Lists of exercises should be the rule, not the exception. It still amazes me how authors without teaching skills are allowed to publish technical books in a field where professionals are so devoid of training. We are left in the cold to learn erratically. We are supposed to train like monomaniacs. We are supposed to err on the job.

1. Download and install MinGW if you don’t already have it. Add MinGW’s bin subdirectory to your PATH environment variable. Note that if you use Vista, you must override GCC’s utilities with their corresponding Vista builds;
2. Download and install MSYS - you will need it to compile wxWidgets. Add its bin subdirectory to PATH as you did with MinGW;
3. Open the MSYS console and navigate to the directory where you extracted wxWidgets (or where the installation put the files from wxWidgets);
4. Create a directory for your build (mkdir build-static-debug) and navigate to it. You may want to use other names;
5. Run configure with your preferred options, which may include
   • --enable-debug - enable debugging info
   • --enable-optimise - create optimised code
   • --disable-shared - create static libraries (use this unless you want to distribute wxWidgets dlls with your application)
   • --enable-unicode - compile wxWidgets with unicode support

   When you are done choosing, enter the configure command. In my build, I used ../configure --enable-debug --disable-shared --enable-unicode. After configure is done, it will output the basic options of your build

6. Run make to build wxWidgets. As this may take quite a while, you may consider doing 100 push-ups to burn the calories of that burrito you’ve just eaten while following this guide;
7. Remove object files with rm *.o (you’re not going to need them);
8. Run make install to install wxWidgets;

This is it for compiling wxWidgets. Now you need to setup a C/C++ project on NetBeans to use what you’ve just compiled:

1. First of all, make sure NetBeans recognizes your MinGW + MSYS setup. Go to Tools --> Options, then select C/C++. Check if MinGW and MSYS bin subdirectories are listed on the current path list. Add them if they aren’t. make should be found inside MSYS while gcc, g++ and gdb should be found inside MinGW;
2. Now that NetBeans recognizes your MinGW + MSYS setup, it’s time to create a new wxWidgets project. Go to File --> New Project... and select C/C++ application;
3. With your project open, enter the project properties dialog;
4. Select C/C++ --> C++ Compiler --> General options;
5. Open the MSYS console and navigate to the directory where you’ve made your wxWidgets build (e.g. build-static-debug) and enter wx-config --cxxflags. wx-config will output the compiler flags for your project. On my machine wx-config --cxxflags outputs -I/c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/wx/include/msw-uni
code-debug-static-2.8 -I/c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/include -I/c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/contrib/include -D__WXDEBUG__ -D__WXMSW__ -mthreads. Remember to leave this console open;
6. Add all directories preppended with -I from wx-config output to the include directories of your project;
7. Select Command line and put the remaining flags from wx-config there;
8. Now select Linker --> General options;
9. Back on the MSYS console, type wx-config --libs. wx-config will output the linker flags for your project. On my machine wx-config --libs outputs -L/c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib -mthreads -Wl,–subsystem,windows -mwindows /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_mswud_richtext-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_mswud_aui-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_mswud_xrc-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_mswud_qa-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_mswud_html-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_mswud_adv-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_mswud_core-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_baseud_xml-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_baseud_net-2.8.a /c/wxWidgets-2.8.7/msw-debug/lib/libwx_baseud-2.8.a -lwxregexud-2.8 -lwxexpatd-2.8 -lwxtiffd-2.8 -lwxjpegd-2.8 -lwxpngd-2.8 -lwxzlibd-2.8 -lrpcrt4 -loleaut32 -lole32 -luuid -lwinspool -lwinmm -lshell32 -lcomctl32 -lcomdlg32 -lctl3d32 -ladvapi32 -lwsock32 -lgdi3;
10. Add the directory preppended with -L to the Additional library directories inside General options and click OK to close this dialog;
11. Now select Linker --> Libraries --> Add option... --> Other option...;
12. Back on the MSYS console, copy the remaining linker flags;
13. Paste the remaining flags from wx-config --libs on your notepad and replace all occurrences of /c/ by C\:/ (this letter may vary depending on where you installed wxWidgets), then paste the result on that field. Remember: replacing /c/ by C\:/ is utterly necessary if you don’t want to see ugly linker errors!;
14. Create a simple wx program and build it;

That’s a lot of work for a first application, but for your next applications all you will have to do is to repeat the compiler and linker options. Now you can use your favorite IDE to make wxWidgets applications on Windows.

PS: A wxWidgets plugin for NetBeans (wxMatisse?) would be great.

The self-learner’s agenda

We do what we need to do to accomplish the goals of our company. Accomplishing these goals doesn’t necessarily imply using all aspects of a technology we want to learn. Unless you’re one of the lucky ones who happen to use everything you will ever need to know about a given technology at work, your company’s goals and your learning goals are two different agendas. Where do you execute your agenda? Out of work, certainly. Unfortunately, what happens out of work is often ignored by many companies, which limit themselves to make their job requirements in terms of years of work experience. It doesn’t seem consistent that our learning efforts are underestimated by the very companies that could benefit from it, but I don’t think these companies are to blame, after all, measuring knowledge can be tricky.

Measuring knowledge with years of experience

Work experience follows a business agenda, and for the most part that implies repetition of the same experience after a while. To say one has worked 4 years with C++ does not imply she has explored every possible aspect of the language and its libraries at work (some people suggest job-hopping can be a solution). But it’s not just the overestimation of work experience: the time of work experience that is usually required indicates that it is assumed that it is impossible for one to achieve a level of expertise in less time. This is in sharp detriment of merit. Many professionals will feel unstimulated to pursue more skills in less time as this is an underrecognized effort.

As an approach to learning, work experience is unsystematic, emphasizing specific aspects of a technology in detriment of others. In the “My Job Went to India” book, Chad Fowler addresses the “learn on the job” issue on the “Practice, Practice, Practice” chapter, but even his suggestions rely on one’s judgments of what should be improved, which, in my view, is too biased and not very systematic. Fowler is right when he says that we learn too much on the job, but it’s no wonder considering how other means of learning are underestimated.

A systematic approach to training and assessment is needed

Last year I’ve bought the “Spring in Action” book. I was not using Spring at work, but I wanted to learn it nevertheless. Despite the educational purpose of the book, there were no exercises! It seems like I’m supposed to learn it on the job, or create my own (biased) exercises. At this stage, I’m not able to create effective exercises, only a Spring expert would have such an authority. If I’m lucky, I will use many Spring features at work, or maybe my exercises will be enough, but that would be betting on good fortune, and I don’t want my qualifications to depend on luck! I don’t want to live in the constant anxiety that I’m not prepared. Many professionals feel like they are unable to train properly because systematic training doesn’t exist for every technology they work with. And it’s not just a systematic training: how are we (and our employers) supposed to measure our knowledge in an unbiased way?

The solution

Even if employers decided to ask technical questions instead of requiring years of experience, professionals would still not be 100% sure about their skills because there is little systematic training and assessment. A solution for this would require a little initiative, for example: if you are a complete Spring guru, you could write a series of exercises in ascending complexity with suggested solutions that people could use to evaluate their results. The same goes for other frameworks, languages, etc. The whole point of this idea is to assure that one can always know in what point of the knowledge ladder he is. That can evolve to universally accepted credentials that employers can use. We’ve been using this system ever since we started studying, why should we stop now?

Fortunately, Steve has managed to be persuasive. What is very interesting about his post is that Steve, as someone who has managed to understand compilers, didn’t fall into the arrogance trap. Instead of arrogating himself for his compiler knowledge, Steve took the self-critical route, describing in a very candid manner what he thought about compilers early in his career. Instead of enumerating arguments that make sense only for the GCC team, Steve describes how different programmers in different contexts can benefit from this knowledge, showing his awareness for diversity in a post that instead of condemning, stimulates and encourages all of us to look further into compilers.

Regular Expressions are one of the most overlooked things in programming. A simple search on Google for form validation returns many cook-book style tutorials that help making things worse by just showing an ugly finished expression (or an even uglier string parsing function). Because it’s so easy to shy away from regular expressions just by seeing them finished, I’ve decided to demonstrate a regular expression construction step-by-step. The expression will validate an hh:mm:ss time pattern. Here it is:

^((\d)|(0\d)|(1\d)|(2[0-3]))\:((\d)|([0-5]\d))\:((\d)|([0-5]\d))$

On a first glance it looks ugly, but if you consider that it validates that time pattern in a single line, it starts to look better. Let’s proceed to the step-by-step construction.

First, let’s start with the body of the expression. You don’t want to validate anything before or after the expression itself, so you delimitate it with ^ (to match the beginning of string) and $ (to match the end of the string):

^$

This results in an expression that will match only an empty string. Try it now:

Validate Pattern: ^$

If you just used ^ or $, the expression would match anything that had a start or an end, respectively, which is not what you want. Try it now:

Validate Pattern: ^

Validate Pattern: $

When we create regular expressions, we should be able to think in terms of expression cases. The first case is the hour value. It can be any value from 00 to 23, and we must consider the single digit cases too (0 to 9). Let’s create an expression for each case and test them. The first case is 0-9:

The user may choose to type just a single digit, so we must be prepared for this case. A regular expression that can match is \d, which stands for “any digit”. The ^\d$ expression matches any string that contains only a single digit:

Validate Pattern: ^\d$

Besides 0-9 numbers, the user can also enter a two-digit number such as 18, but we must delimitate this range from 00 to 23. Because regular expressions work on a character basis (and not on a number basis), we must think in terms of which characters can vary and how they can vary. You can’t, for instance, use \d\d, because that would allow numbers like 45 to match. Neither can you use [0-2][0-3] because that would not allow numbers like 19 to match. It’s time to subdivide them into groups, which are the following:

• 0\d - allows numbers from 00 to 09 to match
• 1\d - allows numbers from 10 to 19 to match
• 2[0-3] - allows numbers from 20 to 23 to match

When creating regular expressions it’s nice to test them one by one to be sure they’re working:

Validate Pattern: ^0\d$

Validate Pattern: ^1\d$

Validate Pattern: ^2[0-3]$

Now we can validade any hour value by just grouping all cases so far. Grouping is very intuitive because it uses (...) to group and | to alternate between groups:

^((\d)|(0\d)|(1\d)|(2[0-3]))$

Validate Pattern: ^((\d)|(0\d)|(1\d)|(2[0-3]))$

Time to include the : sign, but because it has a regexp meaning, you should precede it with \ on the expression such as this:

Validate Pattern: ^\:$

Moving on to the minute and second values, the digits range from 00 to 59, and we should include the single digit value as well. The minutes case is much easier because we can give a lot of freedom for the second digit. The [0-5]\d expression does the trick:

Validate Pattern: ^[0-5]\d$

Joining this expression with the single digit rule yields the following expression:

^((\d)|([0-5]\d))$

Validate Pattern: ^((\d)|([0-5]\d))$

With this expression ready, the seconds value is ready as well, since the seconds rule is the same as the minutes rule. Putting it all together we have the final expression:

^((\d)|(0\d)|(1\d)|(2[0-3]))\:((\d)|([0-5]\d))\:((\d)|([0-5]\d))$

Validate The final hh:mm:ss validation pattern

If I asked a SAP/Netweaver programmer what would it take for me to become a better professional, there’s a very high chance she would recommend me SAP/Netweaver. The same goes for other languages. If I asked a network administrator the same question, he would probably point me some network administrator’s skills that I should learn - all that without even detailing what my goals are. With the interdependence of today’s many technologies and skills, many of these recommendations could be pretty much valid, yet it’s still a challenge to figure out how one would manage to achieve any goal at all if he is to study everything that is important.

In the posthumous “The Art of Controversy“, Schopenhauer recommends “extrapolation” as one of the techniques to counterpoint an argument. When it comes to such an overused argument as the importance, this strategy proves to be very useful. A hardware engineer may recommend to a programmer: “you should study the depths of hardware engineering, because it if weren’t for hardware, your software would have nowhere to run”. This argument can be extrapolated with the phytoplankton analogy: “you should study the depths of microbiology, because if it weren’t for phytoplankton, which produce almost half of our oxygen, there would be little chance for intelligent life, without which there would be no hardware or software”. The phytoplankton is extraordinarily important, but should we study the depths of microbiology, diverting ourselves from our programmer goals, just for the sake of its importance?

This extrapolation is meant to highlight how the importance of a subject is not necessarily related to its relevance to our professional lives. A subject may be important, my very job may depend on this subject, but that still is not enough to make this subject relevant. The relevant subjects are those that lead me to my goals, which, on their part, are very individual choices that are subject to my very own criterion. In other words: importance may be objective, but relevance is subjective, and it’s based on this subjectivity that my professional choices are made. Being a product of subjectivity, importance itself has nothing to do with it, although that is what our vanity wants to believe. When it comes to looking for a good mentor, it is then convenient to look for someone with a similar subjectivity, but in a higher professional level. As Fowler puts it: “It’s OK to depend on someone. Just make sure it’s the right person”.