Teppefall Labs

Some people claim piracy is inevitable

2008-06-20T14:39:49Z

And that you can't beat it. And by this logic we should all give up our copyrights and live on advertising or some bullshit like that.

Really ?

What is Xbox 360 ?
DRM

What is Playstation 3 ?
DRM

What is Bluray ?
DRM

What is Valve Steam ?
DRM

What is Apple iTunes + iPod ?
DRM

What is Adobe Flash (MRMS) ?
DRM

What is online gaming ?
DRM

What is Hulu.com ?
DRM

What is Google Apps/Mail/Reader/Analytics ?
DRM

What is currently making heaps of money ? Xbox, Playstation, Bluray, Valve, Apple, Adobe, online games, big media and Google.

Web 2.0 is really DRM 2.0. But people are to stupid to see it. This is my cloud bitch, create your own, etc. The age of the data silos in the sky.

Did Apple update their 1.5 renderer ?

2008-06-18T15:56:32Z

Looks like it. Lots of Apple people in my web logs as well. Maybe my mind tricks are working ! Lima Lima Lima.

Teppefall Kvitre prototype

2008-06-09T23:03:05Z

Just playing around with Java 1.6.0_10-beta-b23. The shaped window is a bit ugly in the edges, but this is the best I can do for now. The resizing is a bit wonky as well. I have to redesign parts of the LAF if I want something better. Might be too much work, who knows. The transparent window feature is working well, but might be too annoying. Also, the top black area lets you drag the entire application. This guy got some huge skills.

Kvitre is just a byproduct of Capture. My plan was to check out the JavaFX media stack before I release something, but that is taking forever so who knows. Feels extremely stupid to release code that depends on Java Media code from the stone age. And the Jmyron video decoder that I use is great for crashing virtual machines. Sun needed all this time just to implement something that was cool seven years ago (Windows XP from 2001) ? Does not bode well for JavaFX.

I would say that 1.6.0_10-beta-b23 is really Swing 1.0. Now we actually match native code for the first time.

A lot of noise about Sun developers leaving for Adobe. Who cares ? Adobe Flex needs all the help it can get. The bullshit factor is through the roof. Flex and GWT are fighting over the prestigious “most horrible user experience” award. I thought we Swing developers had that shit down.. but now we got competition !

Background images by Taylor.

Teppefall 2D

2008-06-07T12:22:53Z

Here is a new demo that showcases Teppefall 2D. It uses the same layout system as the other applets.

2D viewport
Vertically adjusting viewport.

Controls:
CTRL/Command + Up,Down,Left,Right.
CTRL + ALT + Up,Down,Left,Right.
CTRL + Enter (or doubleclick).
CTRL + Backspace.
Or just use the mouse, scroll wheel and CTRL.

Safari users can not use CTRL + Left,Right because Safari denies access to this key combination. Goldensection is based on a DrawBot example.

Java Applets.

beta.fx.layer

beta.fx.shapeddemo2d

beta.fx.textlayout

beta.fx.cover (broken on Linux)

beta.fx.oddshape

beta.fx.goldensection

Teppefall Colorspace has been downloaded more than 1000 times this year (January 1 - June 1)

2008-06-02T16:49:35Z

The current number is 1042 confirmed downloads. Colorspace is based 95 percent on the work of Luan, Werner and Kirill so I am just the guy putting the Lego pieces together. But it is fun to see people use my application framework.

Inside app.teppefall.com

2008-05-30T00:11:04Z

The Teppefall website was designed as an account system for future web applications. Currently there are only three services: Search, Remember link (not designed to be a bookmarking system) and Whois.

The service is only available to Teppefall customers because it runs on an outdated server that is scheduled to be replaced. I only change systems every five years, so it is a pain in the butt every time. I am outsourcing everything except the main website, so I might have to consider that as well. Backup, Internet access, heat, power and airplanes *cough* rack servers are all important factors.

Here are some screenshots. There are three design modes. Standard, application mode and an experimental iPhone/iPod mode just for kicks.

Cached layout explorer

2008-05-28T00:16:59Z

This is the cached version of the static layout explorer . It uses the default LAF to minimize the effects of the applet class loader.

One major problem with applets is that the applet class loader starts looking for images and class files on the web server if it can not find them in the JAR files. Multiply that with a couple hundred people and understand why applets are slow.

My applets are even trying to read /META-INF/services/javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory on my web server. So I get thousands of 403 errors simply by hosting an applet that uses the XML/XSLT framework. Library owners should be more aware of this.

http://app.teppefall.com/cached?url=shortshorts.xml (Java Applet, Java 1.6 API)

http://app.teppefall.com/cached?url=meta_image.xml (Java Applet, Java 1.5 API)

http://app.teppefall.com/cached?url=meta_location.xml (Java Applet, Java 1.5 API)

http://app.teppefall.com/cached?url=pownce.xml (Java Applet, Java 1.5 API)

Static layout explorer

2008-05-20T13:06:38Z

This applet showcases the power of Teppefall Layout + MigLayout. Just click on the layout files below. There is no logic attached to these examples and you need Java 6u10 Beta b23 to run them correctly.

I would like to point out that the applet is around six trillion times slower than the application. So if this takes forever then download the application instead.

http://app.teppefall.com/explore?url=shortshorts.jfc (Java Applet, Java 1.6 API)

http://app.teppefall.com/explore?url=meta_image.jfc (Java Applet, Java 1.5 API)

http://app.teppefall.com/explore?url=meta_location.jfc (Java Applet, Java 1.5 API)

http://app.teppefall.com/explore?url=pownce.jfc (Java Applet, Java 1.5 API)

Mixing FX and Layout

2008-04-24T17:57:13Z

I am not sure if people are aware of this, but you can run Teppefall FX scripts within Teppefall Layout.

Also, here is Colorspace in Titanium White LAF.

Most people who comment on Java Swing development are noobs, fanboys and reporters

2008-04-18T18:51:20Z

I feel really weird calling other people noobs, since I do not really have the engineering clout to do so. I feel pretty noobish myself. But I do not understand what the hell Swing supporters are talking about.

I create software that makes it easier to prototype Swing applications. There is almost no real interest in my work. Sure, thousands of people check out my websites, but very few are impressed enough to actually download my development software. It was not designed to impress, just to make it a little easier to prototype boring pieces of Swing code. People do not want this.

]]>

People want Visual Basic like point and click functionality that lets noobs create user interfaces in 25 minutes using absolute layout. I can not provide that, since most such software is written by the toolkit manufacturer and not by some random third party company. Sure, such software exists, but they never take over the entire marked and therefore you end up with library fragmentation and religious wars (IDE's etc).

I built Teppefall Layout because I though most Swing layout tools produced horrible layout code. I love the point and click programming, but then you need to change something and the rigidity of the code becomes apparent. You got a big slab of concrete and need to bring in jackhammers to make alterations. And then I am not in my happy place any more. I am not saying that Teppefall Layout is the best layout tool in the world, I am just saying that it works better for me. I have tried Sun, IBM and Borland (now CodeGear) layout tools and hated them all. The locked code area and the fragile connection logic drives me nuts. So I built my own lightweight layout tool as a learning experience. Some of us do that.

The primary reason I feel surrounded by fanboys is that they all have these bizarre football like commentaries about Java based user interfaces. Sort of like “our third division team is going to crush Manchester United while running blindfolded over the pitch”. Variants of this are “Sun is creating something like Adobe Photoshop”, “Desktop Linux will destroy Mac and Windows” and “Java 6 Update N PI*SQRT(L) will let us take on Flash”. Not bloody likely.

There is this gigantic thing called the Adobe Creative Suite software stack that tilts the marked Adobe's way. Sun has to embrace these tools or become utterly irrelevant in the rich Internet application market. Why Sun is banking on JavaFX when everybody else (Mozilla, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and Opera) is using Javascript, HTML, CSS, DOM, XML and SVG is beyond me. Sun is forced to create all the animation tools, syntax files, format exporters and plugins. They get no freebies by only embracing JavaFX. It is like Sun versus everybody. And everybody got tools and runtimes out now, instead of when Java One 2008 is over. JavaFX is like Objective-C without C, no GNU support and without the Steve Jobs reality distortion field.

And like, no high end audio and video support ? Like, really ? Spill the beans on the API's or stop blabbering about rich Internet applications. The “rich” in RIA means video with overlaying intelligent vector graphics, not vector graphics plus some popups. And btw, I hereby - announce - that I will have sex with the supermodel Adriana Lima. I will film some of it and distribute it exclusively on Sun's new OMS video platform when it matches the features set in Flash and Silverlight. Stay tuned ! The video will be out in 10-15 years tops.

Sun is giving us tricycles and tells us to compete with top-fuel funny cars. Sure it can be done. Hire a suicidal monkey as the driver, bolt on a couple of army surplus rockets and light the fuse. What could possibly go wrong ?

I had to build my own tools to create Swing applications and yet everybody tells me everything is so simple. No, adding crap to a linked list is simple. That is the first lesson in college Java 101. Swing is more than that. And oh my god.. if I see another AllPermission example by Sun I am going to scream like a little girl.

Java on the desktop has five major features. Built in support for multithreading, a true multi platform core, high quality typography, good image support and JOGL + Graphics2D. Eventually people will realize that some tasks need deeper support for parallel programming. All it takes is one Java application that is 2,4,8,16 and 32 times faster than the equivalent AIR application and people might start getting it. Or maybe I am the only one with a Windows Vista system where the CPU reaches 100% when I browse a website with Flash based video advertising ? Adobe AIR is very cool on paper, but my CPU is running very hot.

And finally.. do not trust me. I am sick and tired of all the industry experts pretending to be objective and analytical. There are so many Adobe supporters out there who have financial ties to Adobe that it feels very iffy when they go out and proclaim that “Java is dead on the desktop” and “Flex rules - w00t”. This is not restricted to Adobe though. Several other companies do this. All is fair in love and advertising and all that.

And super-duper finally.. Adobe... I paid $3000 for your software. Can you maybe.. like.. you know.. fix this software activation problem one day (screenshot) ? There is nothing wrong with my installation. It is probably the same problem that is affecting Internet Explorer. I am on a 16Mb DSL connection and IE still tells me I am offline almost every time I use it. Or maybe this is just another Vista security feature, to just disable IE as often as possible.

Sorry if I sound too grumpy. I just turned 30.

My software download statistics (Windows VS Mac continued)

2008-03-30T14:19:07Z

As you can see from this data Teppefall is not a major player in the software world, but to me 539 downloads in a month is huge.

March 2008

1.	/data/Colorspace/1.9/MacOSX_Colorspace.zip	297	55.10%
2.	/data/Colorspace/1.9/WindowsUnix_Colorspace.zip	107	19.85%
3.	/data/Darkstar/20080303/WindowsUnix_Darkstar.zip	25	4.64%
4.	/data/TeppefallLayout/3.6/WindowsUnix_TeppefallLayout.zip	21	3.90%
5.	/data/TeppefallFX/3.6/WindowsUnix_TeppefallFX.zip	17	3.15%
6.	/data/TeppefallLayout/3.6/MacOSX_TeppefallLayout.zip	17	3.15%
7.	/data/TeppefallFX/3.6/MacOSX_TeppefallFX.zip	13	2.41%
8.	/data/Cases/1.1.3/MacOSX_Cases.zip	11	2.04%
9.	/media/network_app/network_app.zip	5	0.93%
10.	/data/TeppefallLayout/3.5/WindowsUnix_TeppefallLayout.zip	3	0.56%

Pretty good for a guy with no advertising budget and mediocre language skills. These statistics does not include external download sites. Notice all the Mac downloads.

If you want attention, support Mac OS X

2008-03-24T22:28:02Z

I'm not sure if this is just randomness at play, but I develop software that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and my download statistics are showing some very interesting tendencies.

Almost all the people who download software are Mac users, even though my download page has an audience that is pretty much split 50/50 between Windows and Mac. Linux and other Unix systems amounts to around 4% of traffic.

Windows users read my stuff, but almost never download anything. Are they afraid of software ? Or are my statistics lying because of Chinese-American spammers scraping my website for content five million times a day ?

Or is this the real reason Web 2.0 is such a hype ? Because Windows users get angst every time they install a piece of software that is not from a Fortune 500 company ?

Here are my Download.com (Windows) and VersionTracker (Mac) pages. Maybe this trend will change over time.

Compete lets you compare Download.com and VersionTracker.

Colorspace 1.9 (color corrected version)

2008-03-20T18:59:31Z

Writing Teppefall applications in Javascript

2008-03-19T18:50:17Z

It was never my intention to write Teppefall applications in Javascript, but here is a simple example on how to do it. The update system, the DSR (Teppefall Runtime) launcher and some Application logic is not available at this time because of dependency problems. It is hard to use Javascript when the concept of a Class is replaced with something else. And working with all kinds of adapter logic is also pretty confusing.

If you want to run this example, just move the /network_app folder into the Teppefall SDK root folder and run Network.cmd or NetworkOSX.sh. This demo showcases plugins, the taskbar icon, layout and basic setup.

You have to download Teppefall Layout to get the original layout file used in this example.

Teppefall SDK Javascript example: network_app.zip

network.js
network_plugins.js

]]>

FX, Layout, Colorspace and the SDK has been updated

2008-03-03T14:08:12Z

Here are the changes.

Teppefall Layout 3.6
Teppefall FX 3.6
Teppefall Colorspace 1.9
Teppefall SDK (Darkstar) 20080303

]]> - FX/Layout - Status cleared on reload.
- FX/Layout - Higher script timeout in SurfacePanel.
- FX/Layout - Filter no longer writes out its own name to STDOUT.
- FX/Layout - Hide/show listener for components.
- FX/Layout - Example code now has the correct list renderers. Property type="Class" should be type="class".
- FX/Layout - SurfacePanel moved into Darkstar under com.teppefall.ds.render2d.
- Video capture system, pictures only.
- New private JOGL classes.
- context.js script rewrite.
- Tray icon responds to single click.
- Some changes to the shutdown system.
- Changes to the Darkstar 2D pipeline.
- Mac OS X Quit no longer cancels system restart.
- Substance 4.2.