Latest News from Norman Richards

Seam: The Next Step in the Evolution of Web Applications

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:45:00 EST

Web sites were originally static. Later dynamic content came about through CGI scripts paving the way for the first true Web applications. Since HTTP was entirely stateless, it became necessary to invent ways for requests to be linked together in a sequence. At first state was added to the URLs, but later the cookie concept came into being. By giving each user a special token, the server could maintain a context for each user, the HTTP session where the application can store state. As simple as it is, the HTTP session defines the entire concept of what a Web application is today.

My impressions of the "Java" Desktop System demo

Fri, 28 Nov 2003 00:00:00 EST

Norman Richards along with the Austin Java Users Group got a first hand demo of the Sun Java Desktop System from Sun. Was he impressed? He has kindly shared his blog entry with us here at JDJ.

Hello World! in 70 Bytes

Mon, 01 Jul 2002 00:00:00 EDT

The Austin Java User Group recently sponsored a contest to create the smallest Java Hello World! program. The rules were simple: create the smallest Java class that when executed will display the text 'Hello World!' (and only that text) to the console.

Manifest Destiny

Wed, 01 May 2002 00:00:00 EDT

Releasing Java applications can be a real challenge. Fortunately, Java provides a rich set of features for packaging and deploying applications that can simplify the release process significantly.

Dynamic Code Generation

Fri, 01 Feb 2002 00:00:00 EST

Java is often criticized for its performance, particularly in comparison to equivalent code written in languages such as C and C++. Advances in runtime performance have silenced many critics, but still there are times when no matter how fast Java is, it's just not fast enough. Fortunately, Java does have some unique properties that make a class of optimizations accessible that are not easily applied to other platforms.