peace on the web, too

• inputEx - a field framework for web applications
  inputEx is a javascript framework to build fields and forms.

  It uses no html (it is the opposite of unobtrusive librairies): All the fields and forms are configured using json. It provides a very efficient abstraction for building interactive web ap

  (tags: javascript library forms yui form interface web)

• dbdeploy
  dbdeploy - A Database Change Management Tool
  (tags: change database migration tool refactoring open)

• Plan Your Color Themes
  Suggested Color Schemes
  Select color schemes/families you might like on your website and click on the submit button at the bottom. The choices you make are intended to be guidelines, not the final choices.
  (tags: color design scheme html themes web webdesign)

• www.freeipodsoftware.com
  * Convert MP3 audio books to iPod audio books file format.
  * Use your iPod’s Audio Books Features.
  * Combine multible MP3 files into a single file for seamless listening.
  * Easy to use. Free. Open Source.
  (tags: free converter software ipod mp3 audiobook opensource tools utilities windows)

• Humanized > Enso
  Having to change programs to perform simple tasks—for example, making a quick calculation, or looking up a definition—breaks your concentration, takes you away from the task at hand, and wastes your valuable time. Enso lets you do common computing tas
  (tags: free productivity programming software tools usability windows launcher enso interface navigation)

• DelphiSpeedUp Delphi/BCB/BDS IDE plugin
  A plugin for Delphi/BCB/BDS/CodeGear RAD Studio. It speeds up the time to load the IDE and it also improves the whole speed of the IDE. This is achieved by replacing some often used RTL functions by FastCode function that are optimized for the used CPU. I
  (tags: delphi development free IDE plugin fastcode speedup)

• Visual Medical Dictionary
  Visual medical dictionary with network graph display of related drugs, diseases and therapies.
  (tags: healthcare medical dictionary reference medicine visualization web2.0 ontology tool)

If anybody from CodeGear is lost on this page, take a look at this article: The ideal IDE. Excellent list of ideas to have in an IDE.

This one is my favorite:

Code searching:

• A very fast way to get from the current function you are in to any caller or to any function the function is calling (and class definitions, …)
• Ability to instantly search for a specific artifact (kind of like google / windows live search). As I type it in, I see the filtered results. This is NOT the find feature.

I think the new CodeGear IDE for Ruby and Rails has something similar. But it is integrated into the IDE like small helper windows. What would be neat is some keyboard shortcuts to quickly navigate the callers/callees.

• Dynamic Periodic Table
  An excellent online application allowing interactivity with the Periodic Table of Elements.
  (tags: chemistry science periodic table elements education ajax research tool visualization web)

Trying to catch-up with the sessions from JAOO Conference 2007, which I would have very much liked to attend but finally didn’t, I found very good write-ups from Søren Spelling Lund aka publicvoid.dk. Use this link for his conference reports: publicvoid.dk - Conference.

I liked the details he reports and also the personal thoughts on the matter. Also, as usual in this kind of conferences, details come to light from one speaker or another. He quotes from the Oren Eini and Hamilton Verissimo presentation on MonoRail:

It is easy to fall into the pit of success because MonoRail leads you in the direction of good design. Microsoft is working on something similar for the future and it should be about to be released in beta.

Now that is reaaaally interesting. And more:

It’s encouraging to me that Microsoft is working on something similar because that will garner the widespread support needed to grow a third part business around a web framework based on the MonoRail principles.

Very good news. Having watched for more than a year now the adventures of Ruby on Rails and his cousins like MonoRail, it can only be very interesting to see the take on a web framework based on the same principles from a big company like Microsoft (maybe CodeGear too? someday? pleaaaase?).

It seems clear that at least some of Rails ideas, it’s spirit for the least, are and will be used in a lot of projects and frameworks. Even the venerable desktop programming will profit from these principles, like the clean separation of layers, UI driven by the controller code, code generation, automation and not to forget the tests and specs in code.

PS This is my first post using Windows Live Writer, it works just fine, maybe it will encourage me to post more often;)