Andrei Cioroianu

Sometimes Java applets continue their execution even after the page that contains them is no longer visible. Run a few of them and your computer will slow down dramatically. If you continue you might need to reboot the system to avoid a crash. So you disconnect, reboot, reconnect and start all over again. Isn't it simpler to just disable the applets? Yes. But you'll lose something if you do. Java isn't only for animations and cute navigation tools (though this article contains a lot about animation). Today everything moves on the Internet: businesses, services, entertaining and more. Suppose you need information today. If not today, then no later than tomorrow. You have three options: 1. Use the phone and speak with an operator, who will use a Java/native application running on a thin/fat client to query a database. A slow human intermediary will get the information, ... (more)

Persistent Threads: Part Two

Persistence is our way to fight the decay of time. We take pictures and film events in order to remember, review and analyze them. We freeze perishable products in order to preserve or transport them over long distances. And in much the same way, computer users save ideas and programs as files on hard disks and transmit them over networks so that they too can be printed and preserved - persisted - over time. The same technology used to preserve an event (such as a camera taking a picture), can be used to broadcast that event live, over a network, assuring the event's persistence.... (more)

Persistent User Interface for Multiuser Applications

I'm starting my computer. I'm waiting for the operating system to be loaded. Now I can see the icons of my favorite applications. They're aligned on my desktop and in the same positions I left them. I'm launching a development tool. It's creating its own windows and loading the toolbars I need. I select a project I want to work on from the list of those I used most recently. Everything is the same as it was when I closed this project. What is hiding behind this mechanism? Lots of code that saves the coordinates of the windows, the position of the cursor in each window, the positi... (more)

What AWT VERSION Do You Use?

We all know what AWT is. We know that AWT 1.0 is simple and easy to use. It's compatible with the old versions of the Web browsers, but has an inefficient event-handling model. The events are received by the components, which handle or ignore them. Worse, if you want to add a small functionality to a component, you have to create a new class of components. AWT 1.1 corrects these defects. It's a little more complex, but has many advantages. The new delegation-based event model plays a key role in the JavaBeans architecture as it facilitates the communications between beans. Design... (more)