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The Closure Of No Return
Even in a language like Groovy that is normally so clean and intuitive, there are traps for the unwary. I fell into one again today (in front of a room full of students), and I think it’s high time I documented it, at least so I’ll remember it for next time. I’m teaching a Groovy…
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Start With A Story
Way back in the early 90s, I decided to revisit a notion I’d toyed with for years, which was to become a science fiction writer. As part of that effort, I subscribed to Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, which was (and is) the best short story market available. Back then, Isaac Asimov himself was semi-retired (he…
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Groovy Groundhogs, revisited
For those people in the U.S. who are concerned that this morning Punxsutawney Phil, the Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, emerged, reluctantly, but alertly, and stated in groundhog-ese, “I definitely see a shadow”, let me allay your fears using Groovy: [sourcecode language=”groovy”] Calendar cal = Calendar.instance cal.set(year:2014, month:Calendar.FEBRUARY, date:2) def groundhogDay = cal.time cal.set(year:2014,…
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Groovy Weather: A New Groovy Example at Java.net
One of the main goals of Making Java Groovy is to show Java developers how much Groovy can make their lives easier. To that end, I just published a blog post (through Manning’s account) over a Java.net entitled, Groovy Weather: POGOs, Gson, and Open Weather. The blog post comes with a coupon code for 45%…
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Serving jokes locally with Ratpack and MongoDB
In two previous posts, I discussed applications I created that were simple client-side front ends for the Internet Chuck Norris Database (ICNDB), located at http://icndb.com. This post gives the details of the local server I created, using Groovy, MongoDB, and the cool Ratpack project (note new URL). The earlier posts contained parts of that app,…
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Making Java Groovy: A Celebrity (Non-)Endorsement
Several of my book author friends on the No Fluff, Just Stuff tour told me that writing a book would open doors for me. That doesn’t explain, though, why I seem to insist on climbing through windows. I mean, writing Making Java Groovy put me on the NFJS tour, helped me become a speaker at…
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Making Java Groovy, the Listicle
[Note: I accidentally published this the first time before it was ready. It’s updated now.] Unlike my previous posts about Making Java Groovy, this post concerns one of my Silly Marketing Ideas (SMI)*. The goal is to break out from the Groovy community and start selling to the larger Java community. Actually, I’m already doing…
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Carlos Ray and Spring’s RestTemplate
Normally I prefer causing trouble to getting in trouble, but this time the temptation is just too great. In my last blog post, I described how I made an Android app that was a front-end on the ICNDB web site, the Internet Chuck Norris Database, only to receive a take-down email from Patton Boggs, LLP,…
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Making Java Groovy: ratpack, MongoDB, and Chuck Norris
Before I get to the good parts of this post (the technical content), let me take care of a few marketing issues. First, as I mentioned in my last post, I gave my “Making Java Groovy” presentation at JavaOne last week. If you were there and you haven’t completed your Session Surveys, please do so.…
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Making Java Groovy at JavaOne 2013
Monday morning I gave my “Making Java Groovy” presentation at JavaOne in San Francisco. This is my first trip to JavaOne, and the sheer size of it is rather overwhelming. Of course, it’s also obvious at almost every turn that JavaOne is the weak sister of Oracle Open World, but hey, it could have been…