Re: Prototyping problems

["Simon Coulter" <shc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Martin,

You wrote:
>I have several tutorials/books about programming in Java, yet none mention 
>printing.
>Obviously a language as large as Java must support printing, so how do I go 
>about it?
>Has anyone got a simple example that they would like to share? I am interested 
>in
>printing on the AS/400 and also in a Windows NT environment. Ideally using the 
>same
>class, so I'm really looking for a generic solution, but any examples, either 
>AS/400
>Tool Box related, or otherwise would be gratefully appreciated.

The Java language has really crappy printing support.  There are many 3rd party 
classes 
that add proper printing support.  A cursory glance through Java Developer's 
Journal, 
Java Report, or Java Pro will find them.  For example, Enterprise Reports from 
www.EnterpriseSoft.com, Elixir Reports from www.elixertech.com, JClass 
PageLayout from 
www.klgroup.com, Style Report from www.inetsoftcorp.com, etc, etc, etc.

>How do people generally undertake prototyping with Java? From my limited 
>experience it
>seems pretty impossible if you just use the JDK. What do you guys use? I don't 
>have
>VisualAge although I am trying to get my hands on an evaluation copy. I work 
>in the UK
>and it isn't that easy trying to buy a copy from a retail outlet, unlike the 
>States
>were you can buy it from Amazon, etc. Are there any other tools that I should 
>be aware
>of?

I use VAJ and Together/J.  I prefer VAJ but since IBM are trying to force us 
into 
developing on some flavour of Windoze by not releasing VAJ 3 for OS/2, I will 
be using 
Together/J more often.  It is written in Java, runs on almost any JVM, and has 
the 
decided advantage of using UML or Java to write the code. That's bi-directional 
development in case you hadn't noticed.  

        1/ Update the UML and generate Java
or
        2/ Change the Java and generate new UML

You can download the free whiteboard version from www.togetherj.com

Simplicity is another tool that consistently gets good reviews and is available 
on 
multiple platforms.  You can find this at www.datarepresentations.com

There are other tools -- Symantec Cafe, Borland JBuilder, and Microsquibs 
half-arsed 
effort Visual J++, and the Sun Workshop are probably the best known.  I prefer 
the 
behaviour of VAJ to both Cafe and JBuilder, I haven't used Sun's Workshop and 
wouldn't 
use J++.

Again a glance through the trade rags will find them.

Regards,
Simon Coulter.

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