Distractions...

hmm, ok, ok... i know it wasn't on my original plan, but i got distracted last night, so another one for the projects lists is learning/using Django. Django is a lightweight Python based web framework and so far it looks pretty slick!

I started the first tutorial last night to create a simple web poll application and i must say i am impressed so far - a few class path issues aside it was very simple to get up and running and i am very much liking the boilerplate bits and pieces that come as standard. I will post more on this as and when i do anything more exciting than just the tutorial!!

The Setup

I thought i would start with a quick overview of the dev environment that i will be using for the projects:

• Eclipse Gannymede; I thought about moving over to Galilleo, but have not made the move yet
• Java 1.6x
• EXTJS 3.x
• Maven - I had my doubts about this one, having never enjoyed great success with the eclipse plugin, but I thought I would go for it id only for the library management (not having to worry about downloading JARs or the version numbers) and for its easy integration to things like Sonar and Artifactory...
• Artifactory - having only ever used Archiva (and not been hugely impressed) and having read various posts about the best JAR management to use I have decided to have a go with Artifactory - and I will let you know how that works out!
• Sonar for code quality assurance etc
• I have Hudson as my preferred CI app, although its unlikely that will be put to great use
• Subversion for CM

The Projects

Hey,

so I have decided to embark on a few new tech related projects, and thought i would start a blog discussing and detailing my experiences. Ok, so historically when i have tried to start more serious blogging it has died a death after a few posts, but this time it will hopefully give me some time away from my projects when i will undoubtedly be googling for answers to whatever problems i am stuck with.

So to the projects, for so long now there have been a tonne of stuff that i quite fancied getting in t0 (or back into in some cases) so the things i have on the go are:

- Android - im finally going to get in to gear and start learning how to program mobile apps if google's Android

- WebKit - I quite fancy learning about the exciting stuff that is going on over at the WebKit OS project so will get that fired up and see what its all about

- AI - I studied AI as my degree, so quite fancy getting back in to that, particularly Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Neural Networks. I am thinking about starting to build up a framework for the two areas initially and will then see where it goes from there...

- A Business Requirements tool - I have been getting in to using the EXT JS JavaScript framework recently and I quite fancy working on a project using this. I know that requirements capture and management has been done already, so i may change my mind on this one, but i wanted to build some sort of useful real world tool, so at the moment is all about the requirements (anyone has any better ideas then let me know!)




That is mostly it at the moment, hopefully not spreading myself too thinly but im keen to get started so will hopefully post details soon. I will of course be publishing most of the stuff here so feel free to use/copy whatever you like!