All entries for February 2006

Rule Compiler: JavaCC and Java 1.5

Just a note-to-self to say that the rules.java file produced by JavaCC needs to be compiled using:

javac -source 1.4 rules.java

Otherwise it breaks. Horribly.

: 28 Feb 2006 11:07 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Development Phase

Summary
Development phase is nearing completion. The authors hopes to have the first version ready by Monday, ready for testing with undergraduates. Again, if anyone is interested in testing this tool please e-mail the author (use the contact form above).

User Interface and Swing
The author has learnt Swing concurrently with developing the interface. There was a reasonably steep learning curve to overcome as a WYSIWYG IDE wasn't used to implement the GUI. Instead, the author has used Eclipse which is a fantastic IDE for Java.

Note that the toolbar and the (blank) menu bar have yet to be implemented. The bottom right hand area of whitespace is reserved for some shortcut buttons and a preview window of the rule selected in the top right.

Back End
The backend is all but complete; small bugs are being ironed out as the GUI is developed. This is because the GUI is being built to fit around the "back office" aspect of the project. Inspired by the MVC model, the back end will be almost entirely seperate from the front end in the sense that someone wishing to re-write the GUI will theoretically be able to.

Rule Compiler
The rule compiler is fully implemented in JavaCC and is ready to be included in the final release of the project, save for documentation (see below).

Documentation
Documentation has yet to begin. Code is commented in such a way that the author can document the code at a later stage. It is expected that a full JavaDoc of the project will be available should anyone wish to develop or extend the project.

Methodology
Following design work over Christmas, the development has been conducted in a code-and-test manner, similar to the XP methodology.

: 23 Feb 2006 01:20 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem