Rapid Application Development

I had a little free time at work. So I decided to quickly code up a small application to do some work on Windows. I wanted to showcase this application on the Black of Hat blog.

These days my goal is to write all new applications in Java. This will give me some good practice. However I had some strict requirements for this latest application. It needed to have a graphical user interface. It needed to interact with the Microsoft Windows Registry. Finally it needed to by done quickly.

Unfortunately I fell back to my C++ programming skills. The result was the TaskCtrl program. To tell the truth, I am not sure if Java is even able to update the Microsoft Windows registry. I have the feeling that it cannot modify the state of the file system for security reasons. Therefore I guessed that it could also not deal with the Windows registry.

Who knows? Maybe by the end of the college semester I will be able to write Java programs with graphic users interfaces. And I will be able to knock out the code quickly as well.

Software Distribution

I coded up a cool quiz program on Oracle PL/SQL questions. It was aimed at helping me study for an Oracle certification exam. Now I wanted to release this program to other people to use. I did not want to just send out some Java source code. From what I gather, you can ship the Java class files. However this requires a certain version of the Java run time,

How do commercial shops roll out their software? Do they include the class files with an install that checks and optionally installs the Java Run time Environment? I come from a C++ Windows background. So my instinct is to somehow turn this thing into a self contained executable file that I distribute. However it seems this is not the Java way to go.

Maybe there are not that many users who code and ship Java applications. Or maybe there are not many desktop applications that are developed and shipped like this. It is easier if the program only needs to run on the server. In that case, you can ensure the correct version of the Java run time is installed there. You can also deploy just the class files to the correct locations. Users can then just access the program through web pages viewed in their browser.

Development in the Java world appears to be a new paradigm. I am not sure if I like it. But first I need to get with the program as far as software deliveries go. After I have tried it for a while, I may have a better perspective if it works, and whether it is a good way to go for development and delivery.