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Scala 3 SIP `main` method proposal alvin March 26, 2019 - 1:54pm

Read more about Scala 3 SIP `main` method proposal

The image shows the beginning of this Scala 3 SIP `main` method proposal that was just added yesterday, March 25, 2019. See that link for more details and an interesting discussion.

Futureboard, a Flipboard-like Scala Futures demo

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: March 8 2019

I’ll write more about this shortly, but yesterday I created a little video of a demo application I call Futureboard. It’s a Scala/Swing application, but it works like Flipboard in that it updates a number of panels — in this case Java JInternalFrames — simultaneously every time you ask it to update.

The “update” process works by creating Scala futures, one for each internal frame. When you select File>Update, a Future is created for each news source, and then simultaneous calls are made to each news source, and their frames are updated when the data returns. (Remember that Futures are good for one-shot, “handle this relatively slow and potentially long-running computation, and call me back with a result when you’re done” uses.)

Here’s the two-minute demo video:

Notes on how to build and run an Android application from the command line alvin March 6, 2019 - 8:21pm

As a brief note to self, this is how I compiled/built an Android application (APK) from the MacOS command line and then ran it in an emulator. I include both my application- and system-specific notes, as well as the more generic commands I found at this Android.com URL:

If you build the wrong application, no cool new technology will save it

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: February 20 2019

Paraphrasing someone tonight: “I worked on cool projects X, Y, Z with cool new technologies A, B, and C. They all failed. Nobody used them. The only app customers still use was written in lowly old PHP. And the customers love it.”

I took that as, if you build the wrong application, no cool new tech will save it.

Scope doesn’t creep; understanding grows

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: February 14 2019

“Scope doesn’t creep; understanding grows.”

From Jeff Patton in User Story Mapping (something I tried to explain to people many years ago)

A sample Scala/JavaFX application alvin June 13, 2018 - 5:19pm

As a brief note to self, here’s an example JavaFX application written in Scala:

object MainWindow {
    def main(args: Array[String]) {
        Application.launch(classOf[MainWindow], args: _*)
    }
}

class MainWindow extends Application  {
    override def start(stage: Stage) {
        val borderPane = new MainBorderPane
        val scene = new Scene(borderPane, 600, 400)
        scene.getStylesheets.add(getClass.getResource("pizza.css").toExternalForm)
        stage.setScene(scene)
        stage.setTitle("Al’s Pizza")
        stage.show
    }
}

How to start a Play Framework application running as a service on Ubuntu 16.04

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: May 6 2018

As a relatively brief note, this seems to be the correct way to start a Play Framework application as a service on an Ubuntu 16.04 system.

A shell script to start your Play application

First, you need to create a little Unix shell script that runs the startup command for your Play Framework application. I created a Play application for a website named kbhr.co, so I cd into the directory for that website:

“Notes,” a Scala + JavaFX demo application alvin January 21, 2018 - 7:58pm

I wrote a little “Notes” application using Scala and JavaFX to go along with my “Hello, Scala” tutorial. If you’d like to see how it works, here’s a two-minute video:

The source code for the project is at this Github URL:

Using Scala with Java Swing classes is pretty seamless

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: December 21 2017

If you ever wanted to use Scala with Java Swing classes (like JFrame, JTextArea, JScrollPane, etc.), the process is pretty seamless. Here’s an example of a simple Scala/Swing application where I show a text area in a JFrame:

Android source code to show a popup dialog with a text field

By Alvin Alexander. Last updated: December 27 2018

I am working on a way to rapidly mock up Android applications using Android Studio, i.e., to rapidly prototype Android applications on the fly, and little snippets of code help to make this happen. For instance, this snippet of code shows how to show a popup dialog to prompt a user to enter information into a text field:

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