Helma 1.5.0 Release Candidate 1 available for download

New features in Helma 1.5 include a flexible new way to load multiple code repositories, many low-level improvements and features such as updateable collections, additional web-based development tools that can run inside your applications and complement existing external debugging and database management tools, and a library of Javascript prototypes and methods that extend the Java based core of Helma.

Please note that Helma 1.5.0 requires a Java Runtime Environment 1.4 or later. The README.txt in the currently available RC1 packages still lists the minimum requirements as Java 1.3. Let us know if you notice anything else that needs fixing before the final Helma 1.5.0 release.

Head on over to the Download section...

Roadmap: Helma 1.5.1, Helma 1.6 and Helma 2.0

The Helma 1.5 branch will receive additional feature updates, mainly regarding improved integration of client-side and server-side Javascript code in the form of extended libraries. While Helma 1.5 still uses Rhino 1.5, Helma 1.6 will feature Rhino 1.6 and will bring E4X to Helma's server-side scripting environment.

Helma 2.0 is a parallel development branch that will lay the foundation for future versions with a reduced core, allowing for an even more flexible framework around it.

FreeBSD Jails the brand new easy way

Just had to setup a brand new box with a fresh FreeBSD 6.1 to house applications in separate Jails , from several machines that still have been running 4.11.

Coinsidence wants it, that just the same day Dirk Engling releases a beta of his new ezjail tool , that will make efficient Jail handling in FreeBSD even easier:

In the future (once it's out of beta and in the ports tree) you'll be able to do the following:

cd /usr/ports/sysutils/ezjail

    su root

    make install

    exit

    su root

    ezjail-admin install

    ezjail-admin create jail.mocha.ch 10.0.1.10

...and there you've got your jail :-) ...weighing in at only 2MB of disk space!!!

To start all the jails you create like this at startup, just add the following to /etc/rc.conf:

ezjail_enable="YES"

To prevent syslogd from the host environment to get in the way of the one inside the jail, add the following to /etc/rc.conf:

syslogd_flags="-ss"

Similarly, to bind sshd in the host environment to its IP, add the following to /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

ListenAddress 10.0.1.100 # the IP of your host environment

To automatically setup your jails the way you like them, with default user accounts and all, just create a "flavor" and apply it when you create the jail:

cp -Rp /usr/jails/flavours/default /usr/jails/flavours/myflavor

...then edit the files in there to your liking, and...

ezjail-admin create -f myflavor jail.mocha.ch 10.0.1.10

Voilà! I'm impressed!

Javascript 2 and the Future of the Web

Brendan Eich made the slides of the talk he gave on Friday at XTech 2006 in Amsterdam available. It's a revised version of the slides from the presentation at Ajax Experience two weeks ago.

46 slides well worth the time to go through!

Particularly interesting bits in my opinion for one reason or another:

• We can't make so big a spec jump again, so this is it
• No more primitive types vs. wrappers
• Function type: function (this: T, a: U, b: V): R
• let as a "better var" for block scope: for (let key in obj)
• The let variables are scoped to the expression
• Group assignments: [p, q, r] = [q, r, p] Even in for/in loops:
  for (let [key, {'Title':title, 'FileSize':size}] in dict) print(key, title, size);
• Iterators using foo.next()
• "yield" in a function makes a generator (returns an iterator)
• foo.send(value) passes value back to yield
• Sugar for initializing an Array from iterators (couldn't quite wrap my brain around that syntax, though)
• Object getters, setters, and "catch-alls"
• Standard global properties (Date, String, etc.) immutable (hmm... !?)

Frodo takes on chapter 3

Chapter 3 of the 28 chapters movie project has been asigned to Frodo Zumbrunn and is due May 15th .

I'm looking forward to it - and my expectations are BIG! Mainly because he's my nephew ;-) and her son , but also because Dent-de-Lion du Midi is his dad.

No Rough Cut :-(

David Flanagan informs us that the new edition, the 5th one, of Javascript: The Definitive Guide is complete and will be published on August 1st.

I was really looking forward for O'Reilly to put this new edition through a Rough Cuts phase. Oh well...

Interesting new bits are a chapter on embedding JavaScript in Java 6 programs and SVG client-side graphics scripting ...and the mandatory additions of Ajax and DOM scripting. Apparently Javascript still has classes, even-though it doesn't (unless that refers to JS2.0) - I wonder what David's decision was regarding the wording in that area .

Welcome to Helma!

Slight face-lifting with navigation and style improvements for the Helma welcome application . That's the welcome you'll get after installing Helma on your local system. If you would rather not go through the trouble of checking out the current version from CVS , you can grab the last packages I've built - and discover what you can do with Javascript on the server-side!

40th Montreux Jazz Festival

Lots of goodies in this year's program of the Montreux Jazz Festival . Massive Attack, Al Jarreau, Tracy Chapman, Sting, and not one but three evenings of Santana. To bad Tracy Chapman is in the Miles Davis Hall - would have been great in the more intimate atmosphere of the Casino.

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