Java

Jsp2X is a command line utility for batch conversion of JSP pages to JSP documents, i.e. JSPs in well-formed XML syntax (aka JSPX, see chapter 5 of the JavaServer Pages^TM 1.2 Specification and chapter 6 of the JavaServer Pages^TM 2.0 Specification). It is written in Java and incorporates a parser derived from a combined JSP+XHTML grammar using the ANTLR parser generator. It tries very hard to create JSPX output that portable across engines. Jsp2X was designed to be used in an iterative fashion in which it alerts the user of potential problems in the input.

For the impatient: Download thesis as PDF or view as HTML.

During my Masters program in Computer Science I had to write a thesis. Instead of simply writing on a subject determined by one of my professors I picked a subject on my own. Unsurprisingly, my professor had his own research interests so we had to find a compromise. The result of our negotiations was that I would write on two separate subjects, trying to link them with each other. As each of these subjects was worth a thesis of its own, I ended up writing two theses in one. In addition to that, I implemented a software engineering tool and the core of a graphical user interface (GUI) framework. In retrospect, I don’t regret doing it that way because although it was quite labor intensive it was also very interesting. The only drawback was that I wasn’t able to exhaust either subject even remotely.