ASCII escaping UTF-8 character encoded files.

Every now and again, I need to convert UTF-8 encoded files into their ASCII-escaped equivalents, and then I find myself reaching for the search engine to try to remember what it was that i used last time. So I'm writing it down this time ....

Specifically, I'm talking about converting natively encoded translations into ASCII encoded that that can be used as Java resource bundles.

There are lots of ways to do this, you can even roll your own code, but the simplest is to use the tool that ships with the JDK ! It's called native2ascii

For a full description of how the tool is used, go here: http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/tooldocs/windows/native2ascii.html

As a quick reference, you just do this (assuming the $YOUR_JDK_HOME/bin is on your path):

native2ascii -encoding utf-8 translated_ru.txt messages_ru.properties

Developing for the iPhone ... HTML5 or ... the App Store ?

We've been looking at developing mobile interfaces for some existing apps recently.

Obviously the ususl questions come up - which platform(s) ? / market coverage ?, and as ever there is no simple answer.

When you inevitably talk about the iPhone as a platform, you have to consider that it has a closed delivery system (the App Store). Is the investment in buiding the application (which could be rejected !) is worth it ?

The iPhone is, however, unique amongst other platforms in so much as it offers html extensions that produce a native looking widget set. One of my colleagues found this link that succinctly describes how to use the power of HTML 5 to do more thsn you might think possible.

Go have a look at - http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/html5-iphone-app/

Debugging Custom Install4j Screens

Install4J is a great bit of, Java based, installer software from a company called EJ Technologies (who also happen to publish the fanstastic JProfiler profiling tool) .

As part of the install process, you can create custom Java 'screens' that allow for the addition of non-standard functionality. These work really well, but what if you ever need to debug a screen in your IDE ?

Fortunately, there's a relatively simple way to do this, see here: http://resources.ej-technologies.com/install4j/help/api/

Hello World

So I've finally joined the blog'o'sphere .... I'll be using this as a dumping ground for useful things (to me) I find, that may be of use to you ... stay tuned.