A couple of days ago, Wordpress.com announced that they are now supporting TLS for custom domains (which is how this blog is hosted). There are many reasons for not hosting a blog yourself even if you have the necessary skills, like not having to deal with security updates and …
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Frontend Engineering
Despite all its shortcomings as a programming language, JavaScript isn't a dirty word anymore. A decade ago, most self-respecting developers would refuse to even touch it, so it was left to web designers and junior developers who spiced up a few HTML pages with dispensable functionality. It's amazing how the …
read moreNormalizing Text in Java
Once in a while I see misguided attempts at normalizing text to make it suitable for use in URLs, file names, or other situations where a plain ASCII representation is desired. This can be tricky but with Java's excellent Unicode support and some background knowledge it is pretty easy to …
read moreTesting equals() with Guava
I've long held the opinion that Guava belongs on every Java classpath because its design and the quality of its implementation surpass other comparable utility libraries (and sometimes even the JDK). Guava's testlib is pretty cool, too, even though it's not as widely known.
Most things in testlib are useful …
read moreThe State of Java Build Systems
Most people eventually get it that building release artifacts using their IDEs is not the way to nirvana. Builds have to stay stable and reproducible between IDE revisions, and being able to execute them in a command line environment or especially continuous integration servers is key to agile development.
Fortunately …
read moreEasing Configuration with Spring Beans
Handling configuration data in Java isn't as convenient as it could be. The old and popular Properties mechanism has an awkward syntax and you have to take care of type safety yourself. The new Preferences mechanism supports XML but still isn't everything I'd like it to be.
Recently, I discovered …
read moreSimple Error Handling in C
Currently I've got the pleasure to do some coding in C. There's nothing wrong with that, but things can get a bit uncomfortable for those spoilt by languages like Python or Java. So it's nice to have a library of useful functions from various areas, which I accumulated over the …
read moreLightweight Package Management using Stow
Package management tools like apt-get make it very easy to install and remove software. The package manager takes care of downloading the package together with its dependencies if, of course, someone has taken the time to create a package and made it available to you. In some cases, you don't …
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