The Way of the Dodo : Project Jackpot

[akochnev]

( Wade, sorry for stealing your expression, but it's just brilliant )

        Not so long ago Project Jackpot  (http://jackpot.netbeans.org/) was quite prominent in NetBeans, there were a number of tutorials on it, if I remember correctly, there were JavaOne presentations.. These days, it seems to build with the default NetBeans source tree; however, every time I've used it, it has always failed with a horrible inexplicable exception. There are a number of defects in BugZilla that don't seem to be going anywhere.

        So, I wonder, what is the scoop on the project ? Is it one of those other projects that are in "low maintenance mode" that are in search of a maintainer ? If it's broken, should it still continue to show up in the Update Center ?


Regards,

Alex Kochnev
Software Developer
CommerceHub
255 Fuller Road Suite 327
Albany, NY 12203
http://www.commercehub.com

[tomwheel]

On 6/13/08, Aleksandar Kochnev <AKochnev@...> wrote:

> Not so long ago Project Jackpot  (http://jackpot.netbeans.org/) was
> quite prominent in NetBeans...
...
> So, I wonder, what is the scoop on the project?

At NetBeans Day preceding JavaOne this year, James Gosling said that
he was glad to hear that Project Jackpot is dead.  He then went on to
elaborate that what he meant by this was that Project Jackpot no
longer exists as an active separate project but is instead now
integral to refactoring support in recent versions of the NetBeans
IDE.

I am not familiar enough with the internals of IDE language support to
say whether this is accurate.  Perhaps even my recollection or
understanding of what Gosling said is incorrect, but it seems that the
person who was primarily working on it (Tom Ball) is now working on
JavaFX.

When a vendor changes direction or eliminates a closed-source library
or tool you depend on, you have little choice but to follow suit.  But
in the case of open source, you have the source and the _right_ to add
features or fix bugs yourself, or to pay/convince someone else to do
it for you.  IMHO, that's a pretty powerful insurance policy against
obsolescence for features you consider important.

--
Tom Wheeler
http://www.tomwheeler.com/

[akochnev]

Tom,
        I get the points regarding open source, you're absolutely right.

        The built in refactorings are very nice indeed, but the custom refactorings and code transformations that I've bragged so much about to my Eclipse buddies are partially broken. A couple of the refactorings that ship with the Jackpot plugin still work, another couple don't (and the exceptions seem quite deep, reaching into com.sun.tools.javac) . If not all the rules work, at least the ones that don't need to be removed from distribution. Here are a couple that don't work:

* Unnecessary casts
* Complex boolean expressions
* StringTokenizer usages
* SwingUtilities EventQueue methods
* Find Apache Log4j references

        So, who can remove these from the Jackpot module ? If they're removed, at least the tool will not appear to be broken. If the tool is completely dead, then it shouldn't be distributed in the Update Center.

Regards,

Alex Kochnev
Software Developer
CommerceHub
255 Fuller Road Suite 327
Albany, NY 12203
http://www.commercehub.com

From:	"Tom Wheeler" <tomwheel@...>
To:	nbdev@...
Date:	06/13/2008 02:11 PM
Subject:	[SPAM] - Re: [nbdev] The Way of the Dodo : Project Jackpot - Email found in subject

---

On 6/13/08, Aleksandar Kochnev <AKochnev@...> wrote:

> Not so long ago Project Jackpot  (http://jackpot.netbeans.org/) was
> quite prominent in NetBeans...
...
> So, I wonder, what is the scoop on the project?

At NetBeans Day preceding JavaOne this year, James Gosling said that
he was glad to hear that Project Jackpot is dead.  He then went on to
elaborate that what he meant by this was that Project Jackpot no
longer exists as an active separate project but is instead now
integral to refactoring support in recent versions of the NetBeans
IDE.

I am not familiar enough with the internals of IDE language support to
say whether this is accurate.  Perhaps even my recollection or
understanding of what Gosling said is incorrect, but it seems that the
person who was primarily working on it (Tom Ball) is now working on
JavaFX.

When a vendor changes direction or eliminates a closed-source library
or tool you depend on, you have little choice but to follow suit.  But
in the case of open source, you have the source and the _right_ to add
features or fix bugs yourself, or to pay/convince someone else to do
it for you.  IMHO, that's a pretty powerful insurance policy against
obsolescence for features you consider important.

--
Tom Wheeler
http://www.tomwheeler.com/

[tomwheel]

Alex,

 

I was kind of waiting around for someone more knowledgeable than me to respond, but I totally agree with you and hope that the "low maintenance mode" means that things that don't work are either fixed or removed. 

 

If you have not filed issues for these yet, I encourage you to do so. If you cc me (username: tomwheeler) on those issues, I will do what I can to have them addressed. 

 

On 6/13/08, Aleksandar Kochnev <AKochnev@...> wrote:

Tom,
        I get the points regarding open source, you're absolutely right.

... If not all the rules work, at least the ones that don't need to be removed from distribution. Here are a couple that don't work:

* Unnecessary casts
* Complex boolean expressions
* StringTokenizer usages
* SwingUtilities EventQueue methods
* Find Apache Log4j references

        So, who can remove these from the Jackpot module ? If they're removed, at least the tool will not appear to be broken. If the tool is completely dead, then it shouldn't be distributed in the Update Center.

 

[akochnev]

Tom,
        I had an open issue for a while this problem  (http://www.netbeans.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=131877), I added the rules that fail and I CC-ed you on it.

Regards,

Alex Kochnev
Software Developer
CommerceHub
255 Fuller Road Suite 327
Albany, NY 12203
http://www.commercehub.com

From:	"Tom Wheeler" <tomwheel@...>
To:	nbdev@...
Date:	06/16/2008 03:24 PM
Subject:	[SPAM] - Re: [nbdev] The Way of the Dodo : Project Jackpot - Email found in subject

---

Alex,
 
I was kind of waiting around for someone more knowledgeable than me to respond, but I totally agree with you and hope that the "low maintenance mode" means that things that don't work are either fixed or removed.  
 
If you have not filed issues for these yet, I encourage you to do so. If you cc me (username: tomwheeler) on those issues, I will do what I can to have them addressed.  
 
On 6/13/08, Aleksandar Kochnev <AKochnev@...> wrote:

Tom,
       I get the points regarding open source, you're absolutely right.

... If not all the rules work, at least the ones that don't need to be removed from distribution. Here are a couple that don't work:

* Unnecessary casts
* Complex boolean expressions
* StringTokenizer usages
* SwingUtilities EventQueue methods
* Find Apache Log4j references

       So, who can remove these from the Jackpot module ? If they're removed, at least the tool will not appear to be broken. If the tool is completely dead, then it shouldn't be distributed in the Update Center.