WebKit : Web Inspector new features

An article about new features of WebKit’s Web Inspector is available. There is to note that most features aren’t really usefull when developping in Cappuccino, and setting a breakpoint using the Web Inspector doesn’t seem possible in ObjJ source code (as it is converted at runtime in js), I’ve then always used the debugger; instruction instead. Moreover I didn’t find the stop on exception option in Safari 4’s debugger (is said to be present in WebKit – and is also available in Firebug).

Unity Indie 2.6 free

Unity Indie (2.6) games development solution is now available for free. It was priced 199$ before. That is here for download. We can also access to some demos that run directly through the browser using the Unity Web plugin (works on PPC and is really fast… ways better than any Flash). The Tropical Paradise demo is really stunning.

The Indie version isn’t listed in the licenses page, and  the Pro version remains priced 1499$. The iPhone targeted version isn’t free, however a 30 days demo is provided).

CP2JavaWS 0.91 available

A new version (0.91) of CP2JavaWS is available. It is a bug fixes release :

- fixed a bug with habilitation filter’s init (as filters’s init methods order can change, we don’t pass anymore the userSessionKey info from the authentication filter’s init method to the habilitation filter’s init. That information has then been added also in the habilitation filter’s config in web.xml).

- fixed a potential bug in authentication filter when comparing request uri with authCredentials’s uri, for cases where the browser returns its host in authCredentials’s uri (shouldn’t).

- remote methods that returned a String (root, not JSON) leaded to an error when decoding on the client side (missing quotes). It was ok for String attributes in nested objects of the return graph.

- calling a remote method without any parameters (that is passing nil to the single selector part – ie [remoteService aMethod:nil]) now works properly (fixed test for remaining invocation arguments).

Websocket in WebKit : Apache mod and tests

Implementation of Websocket (client side) started this Spring in Firefox, and this Summer (since late June) in WebKit. We could also read a document, WebKit Web Socket design doc (that was slightly revised early september), written by WebKit members working on this task (Fumitoshi Ukai, Yuzo Fujishima, etc.). References to many cpp sources files about Websocket implementation have emerged these last three months in the long WebKit development timeline.

In early September Yuzo pointed out (in a thread about requirement for an Apache module that manages Websocket) an experimental open source extension for Apache, mod_pywebsocket, that brings server-side Websocket implementation.

These elements are now listed in the latest changelogs of WebKit timeline (10/26), and test files are provided (start with pywebsocket/test, see also here and there).

London FOWA 2009 : Atlas video available

The video of the full Atlas presentation at London FOWA 2009 is now available at carsonified (30′ length). It demoes the fully fonctionnal screens compositing (nested views), the RSS controller (that had also been seen during the first Atlas presentation in March) – we can also see Array Controller, FaceBook and Twitter controllers -, various project templates (among these a new document-based one), a Bespin text editor component, and a new “native” target mode (that is said to use an own solution instead of Titanium Appcelerator, for some explained reasons).

Finally I would like to thank Francisco for his kind words about Java server-side support for Cappuccino – that is CP2JavaWS –  (26′) :

About backend support, there are Lift, Scala, Rails, and Java as well [was the first, January, 5].  The Java support is pretty amazing, as it takes Java Objects [full objects graphs, through JSON] and serializes these into Objective-J objects.

The Direct2CP mode of CP2JavaWS, and its digest authentication management and automatic session tracking per endpoint, are also complementary to Atlas (that focuses mainly on UI components, but not to their behaviour on the server side – except the RSS feader component).

An extension mechanism to Atlas (through plugins) was suggested initially (in March’s first announcement), and I then explained it was a great idea, that could use Osgi bundles concepts, and would open the way for business (alla Eclipse plugins). I proposed to write a plugin for remote services calls (through CP2JavaWS), such a controller that could be added to existing RSS, FaceBook and Twitter ones. I hope such architecture will be provided by Atlas beta’s mid-November release.

Sofa : EnStore made using Cappuccino

Sofa company, presented a Cappuccino version of its EnStore admin application, that allows to customize and deploy web stores. They provide their experience with the Cappuccino development process and nib2cib, and explain why they found this solution the most suited and productive (easy to add drag&drop feature thanks to advanced AppKit, easier controls customizing, browser independant). All this without even considering the upcoming Atlas ! A stunning video is available.

Flash Apps on iPhone using a compiler

While Adobe knows that a Flash plugin for iPhone won’t likely happen (besides strategic reasons around RDA, this is the result of long non optimized Flash for OSX), they are trying to circumvent this restriction, by providing a compiler (based on LLVM) that will produce ARM assembly code from ActionScript programs. It will be included in Flash CS5 (a beta is expected by the end of the year), and will work on both mac and Windows.
The limiting factor will be the lack of debugger, but it should be ok for simple applications, as development and debugging could be made on a desktop computer (by simulating the iPhone drawing area and limited processor power). The compiler would then be used only at integration test steps, and for final deployment. However, for more advanced (demanding) applications or games, such solution will end being very difficult and tedious, as optimizing near the limits won’t be possible.
Finally it will paves the way for paid Flash applications on iPhone (there have still been some iPhone games derived from free Flash games).

Live London FOWA 2009 / Atlas pricing

Some videos (two only for now) from London 2009 FOWA are available at ustream.tv, as well as live chat. However we cannot find yet new infos about the Atlas presentation that took place today. We just learnt from Cappuccino forums (and people that went to FOWA) that a beta of Atlas will be release November, 15, and priced 20$, and that the final version will be priced more.
We can also follow posts from the famous almost.at Cappuccino application.

Dion & Ben from Ajaxian going to Palm

The two founders of Ajaxian, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer (used to work at Mozilla Labs) finally were hired by Palm. At Dion’s blog we learn that with their new role as Director’s of the Palm Developer Relations team they will have the responsibility of the developer experience with Palm, and will be trying to create a rich connective tissue between the company and the Web developer community…
Dion just linked a previous article about his feel on Apple’s AppStore validation policy. However Ben was very harsh on his blog statements, (subtely ?) targeted towards Apple :

my enthusiasm for this amazing new world is tempered by some unfortunate decisions made by some of the players in this space. It seems that some view this revolution as a chance to seize power in downright Orwellian ways by constraining what we as developers can say, dictating what kinds of apps we can create, controlling how we distribute our apps, and placing all kinds of limits on what can do to our computing devices.

We all know that Palm Pre’s director, John Rubinstein, worked as Hardware Director at Apple before he left when the transition to Intel was announced (on a technical view – that is non commercial – I agree that the G5 from 2003 is still superior to latest Intel chips architecure wise – in these 6 years only manufacturing process did improved – soon 20nm), however all this doesn’t look completely FairPlay Moreover this is bad, as the iPhone still uses non Intel processors (Samsung ARMs), and Apple buyed later PA Semi’s PPC derived processors company, that is likely to see the light in an upcoming Apple’s tablet mac.

We could find some interesting reactions to Ben’s post (I agree that Palm will have to change its mind when it will have to manage validating of thousands of applications – it is easier for them for now) :

What a bunch of bs. Will palm have no approval process for it’s apps? And where were you when iPhone had no SDK? Why didn’t you develop for iPhone safari then.
You are perfect socialistic idelogues. Apple innovates and you don’t like it. You would be more happier if moto razr were the market leader.

Sanctimony anyone?
I should point out that Apple allows anyone to create powerful web apps with guaranteed distribution. And with HTML 5 and offline storage you can pretty much do anything.
Talk to me when you guys have a real SDK.

I also agree with this other comment :

This technology advancement empowers people, which is great but it also gives more opportunity for a company/s to control what data, what applications etc. the user can access – this is simply wrong and something as advocates of an open web, we should also be against in platforms.

However I’m far more worried for now by Google’s power (see articles about Google automatically  scanning all books without having requested the authors/editors agreement, and trying later to provide money in order to not being pursued). And if you don’t agree, nobody will ever have a chance to read you, as your article could likely be  unreferenced in their search engine. Hopefully Microsoft is coming back, better ?

Congrats to both finally, and we can hope that their new job will help also for other communities. Moreover, as Palm is also using WebKit, all that is good.

WebKit Page Cache & Unload Event Handlers

At WebKit.org we can find an article about Page Cache, improvements that are worked on, and Load/Unload Event Handlers.

Snow Leopard Uniform Type Identifiers

In Snow Leopard Apple replaced classic types/creators by the new UTI (Uniform Type Identifiers)technology in order to manages types and store those managed by applications. The naming scheme reminds Java’s pacakges one, and then starts with com.companyNamefor proprietary formats (or formats groups). The public prefix is used to define standard formats : public.rtf, public.xml, etc. An identifier can be associated to many old files extensions (for example public.html manages .html, .htm, .shtml, .shtm, and text/html MIME type).
Identifiers are hierarchically linked, however contrary to Java package they do not have to share the same prefix : then com.sun.java-source extends public.source-code, that extends public.plain-text, and then public.text, public.data, up to public.item.

Google Chrome Frame : HTML5 in IE

Google presented Chrome Frame, a plugin for IE that allows to route HTML and javascript rendering management to WebKit and V8 (embedded in the plugin). However for it to be used the pages have to be modified (a meta tag has to be added). But we can suppose there will be few pages to modify initially.
It will allow to keep IE (no other choice in most of big companies), however installing a new plugin isn’t really faster than installing the full Chrome or Safari. Moreover, as the plugin manages rendering, previous reasons for using IE won’t be relevant anymore (except the need for ActiveX support, and if we consider the original IE engine will be used for most sites). This is then a transient solution, in order to deploy some HTML5 applications, waiting for Microsoft to catch up.