Weiqi Gao's Observations

Friday Java Quiz: Know Your IDEs Capabilities

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:16:11 GMT

It has been my experience that most Java developers nowadays use an IDE (or IDEs) for their daily work. Knowing the capabilities of these IDEs may make you more productive. However, most developers also has a tendency to learn just enough of their IDEs to "get the job done" and then stop at that point.

Pair programming is a wonderful avenue for transmitting IDE know-hows between programmers on a team. "Just hit Ctrl-F12," Brian told me in a recent pair programming session. I liked what I saw and have been hitting Ctrl-F12 all the time ever since.

Q: What does Ctrl-F12 do?

Strict rules apply: no Bing-ing; and you have to write down your final answer before hitting Ctrl-F12. The question is biased towards JetBrain's IntelliJ IDEA. I don't know what Ctrl-F12 does in other IDEs.

Bonus Q: How can your IDEs help you when you receive a stack trace in an email form your testers or customers?

"I didn't know you can do that!" was the reaction from Mike the last time I used the feature in a pairing session.

Tianjin Trip Pictures

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:39:01 GMT

I've been back from the Tianjin trip for 12 days. Aside from visiting family, I also played tourist in my home town. Here's some pictures and impressions.

The Tianjin Radio and Television Tower (天塔) from the back window

The tower was the tallest tower in Asia and the third tallest in the World, behind the CN Tower in Toronto and the Ostankino Tower in Moscow, when it was completed in 1991. You can see how prominent it is in the Tianjin skyline in the Wikipedia picture that I used in the last blog entry.

Tianjin Ancient Culture Street (古文化街)

The "Ancient Culture Street" is a pedestrian street of about half a mile long, lined with shops and restaurants in traditional Chinese style buildings. The street has been in existence for more than 800 years. The buildings, however, are "rebuilt to restore the ancient scene" in the 1990's.

Tianjin Book Tower (图书大厦)

One of the many high rise buildings that has sprout up in the last twenty years. The first seven floors constitutes a giant book store. Educational books/DVDs are popular here due to Chinese traditional values that puts education in (very) high esteem. One of the many television screens shows a classroom lecture of high school geometry.

Wang Hai Lou Church (望海楼)

A Catholic church built in the 1860's by the French after part of Tianjin was conceded to the West in the Second Opium War of 1856-1858.

Statute of Liang Qichao (梁启超) in front of his old residence (now a museum)

Liang Qichao (梁启超, 1873-1929) was a scholar/politician in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic period. He was instrumental in the failed 1898 100-day reform movement and went to exile until the 1911 revolution that established the Republic. He lived in Tianjin in his later life, after his political career.

Tianjin traffic

And I would be remiss if I don't show you a scene of Tianjin traffic. There were many times when I thought "I should take a picture" when I was in the crazy traffic. In this picture, a taxi driver (the red dot on the dashboard says "empty taxi") decided that he has waited at a red light long enough and the the gap between our car and the car in front of us is wide enough for him the turn around and go the other way.

Happy Chinese New Year

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:24:29 GMT

Next next Sunday, February 14, 2010, will be the Chinese New Year. The year of Ox ends and the year of Tiger begins.

恭喜发财! 过年好!

This message comes to you early because I'm leaving for China in a few of hours. I will be visiting family in Tianjin for a couple of weeks.

I'll keep a tradition that I started two years ago going by offering a fresh English translation of a piece of ancient Chinese classics. This year's passage comes from the I Ching, which I have started studying last year (I've even quoted it several times.)

The content of the I Ching was developed over a period of over 2000 years, starting from 伏羲 (Fu Xi, mid 2800s BC) drawing the eight gua (trigrams), followed by 周文王 (King Wen of Zhou, 1099–1050 BC) arranging the 64 gua (hexagrams) and writing the decisions for each, and 周公 (Duke of Zhou, son of King Wen) writing the 387 decisions for each yao (line) of each gua, and culminating in 孔子 (Confucius, 551–479 BC) writing commentaries for all of the above. It's been another 2500 years since its completion.

I Ching (Qian, 15:1)

䷎

(King Wen's Decision)

Modesty: Progressing smoothly. The noble man attains his end.

(Confucius's commentary on the text)

Modesty, progressing smoothly,
the Tao of heaven aids down and shines bright,
the Tao of earth is humble and moves up.
The Tao of heaven decreases the full and benefits the modest,
the Tao of earth changes the full and flows the modest,
ghosts and spirits harm the full and bless the modest,
the Tao of man hates the full and loves the modest.
Modesty is noble and glorious, humble and cannot be exceeded, the end of the noble man.

(Confucius's commentary on the image)

The earth has mountains, modesty; The noble man hence decrease the many and increase the few, weigh things and gives evenly.