Programmer

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.

I had difficulties downloading the Ruby Plugin for jEdit today. The main site of the plugin seams to be down and the instructions don't mention certain dependencies. Until Rob fixes those problems, all necessary files will be available for download at Diary Products.

One might think that it wouldn't be so difficult to setup Visual SourceSafe 2005 on Windows Server 2003 with IIS such that users can access the SourceSafe database using the Visual SourceSafe 2005 Internet plugin. But dude, I was so wrong! I managed to get it working in the end but it took me an etire day. Anyway, this isn't a complete HowTo. I would just like to point out a few not so obvious caveats.

The other day I was asked by a client of mine to create a convenient macro for adding watermarks or letterheads to Word documents. The first thought that came to my mind was putting a graphics object (the letterhead) into the header or footer of the document. This is exactly what Word does automatically, when the user clicks the Format | Background menu item. Sounds simple.

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.