So “How does SoyLatte compare to Apple’s JVM?” is a common question. Well if your program uses Swing components the answer is “like a dog’s breakfast “. But if you use SWT or don’t have a graphical interface, your main concern is speed and stability. I don’t know how robust SoyLatte is, but to test its speed I went up to the attic and dusted off an old Eclipse plugin I wrote called JavaSpeed. Here’s the result:

The results are based on this simple benchmark, which I fully admit aren’t very scientific but are better than nothing. Apple’s JVM seems to be better, but SoyLatte hasn’t disgraced itself.

I also checked out and built the latest OpenJDK as per these instructions, and tested all three JVMs:

If you want to run these tests yourself, it’s a simple matter of downloading this zip file and extracting into the ‘plugins’ directory of Eclipse. Run Eclipse and click menu Run > Run Configurations > Java Speed and click the ‘New’ button.

Finally, let’s compare Apples with Apples:

Looks like Apple took their eye off the ball when it came to Java, but then you already knew that, didn’t you?

This is exactly the question we asked a few months ago – to answer it we set up an A/B test. Half the visitors to our download page were asked for their name and email address, half weren’t.

Here’s the two download options side-by-side:

After thousands of downloads and hundreds of sales, here are the results:

As expected, the number of downloads dropped off when asking for an email. But the overall number of sales increased by 18%. This was a pleasant surprise!

So what do we do with an email address that compensates for the reduced download rate? We use it in two ways:

1. As soon as the user downloads the software, we send an email saying, “Thanks for downloading – here is a useful How-To guide”
2. Two weeks later we send another email (if they have not opted out) asking “Did you like our software?”

Even though we don’t get much response from that second email, I suspect it is very useful to remind them to consider our product once again. Also, it’s very important not to annoy people who are considering using our software. That is:

1. The name and email address is optional. Making it compulsory would just result in lots of fake emails.
2. There are only 3 fields in the form. The more fields the more of a turn-off, and we only really care about the email address (and their name to get though spam filters).
3. There’s an option to opt out of receiving marketing email. This gives the user added confidence that we ‘play by the rules’.

Of course, every software product is different, and you may not get the same results. The best way to be sure is to do an A/B test yourself – if you have your own results please post a comment below!

But recently I came across a bit of code that was resistant to the power of the class diagram. What if there are no significant class relationships, just a bunch of static methods?

Here’s what I mean:

The solution: a method call diagram. This diagram just shows a circle for each method and an arrow for each method call. From there it’s easy to see how to merge methods and simplify the call structure.

Obvious? Perhaps, but doesn’t seem to get the airplay it deserves.

www.SolarAccounts.co.uk

1. Ctrl-F6 – Next Editor

This handy little keystroke gives you a stack of open windows to cycle through, similar to Alt-Tab in Windows. I use it so often I’ve re-mapped it to Ctrl-Tab.

2. Ctrl-1 – Quick Fix

Okay, so you know about this one. But do you create errors on purpose so Quick Fix can do its magic? This is often faster than typing the correct code. Some examples:

• When creating new variables, don’t declare the type – let Eclipse figure it out from the assignment expression.
• Call a method that doesn’t exist yet and Eclipse will add it for you, complete with semi-intelligent parameter names.
• Need to add or remove method arguments? Just change the method call and Eclipse will update the method declaration.
• On a line with no errors, use Ctrl-1 to ‘Rename in File’, which executes much faster than Ctrl-R. (If the line has errors, you’ll have to select the element you want to rename)

3. Ctrl-T – Quick Hierachy

From within a method press Ctrl-T to quickly navigate to a sub-class implementation or to a super-class definition.

4. Ctrl-Q – Go To Last Edit Position

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Useful when you’ve copied a bit of text and want to paste it into your last edit position. This keystroke is so good I find myself instinctively using it in editors outside Eclipse.

5. Alt-Shift-Up – Expand Selection To Enclosing Element

This keystroke is often faster and more accurate than a mouse in selecting text.
Use Alt-Shift-Down for the reverse operation.

6. Ctrl-Space – Content Assist

Use this outside a method to add constructors, getters, setters and overridden methods to a class.

7. Alt-Up/Down – Move Line Up/Down

Move the current line or selection up or down.

8. Ctrl-Delete/Backspace – Delete Word

These are two “standard” keystrokes used in many editors and are very useful. I have to admit I only discovered them about a year ago!

9. Ctrl-D – Delete Line

Like me, many developers have discovered this one accidentally while habitually pressing Ctrl-S to save their work; “Damn! What did I press?! Hmm… actually that’s quite useful…”

10. Ctrl-M – Maximise Editor

Not used in everyday desktop programming, but indispensable on a laptop. If you use it much you’ll want to turn off the animation (Window -> Preferences -> Appearance). Even then, this feature is noticeably slower than in the good ol’ version 2.0 days.

A good example is the Alt-Tab behaviour in Windows Vista. Since the dawn of time – or at least Windows 3.1 – the window which pops up when pressing Alt-Tab has been comfortingly simple:

But Microsoft and Simple are no longer on speaking terms. In Vista the window has been polluted with little screenshots like this:

The time it takes to recognise the window you want is critical. Any longer than a fraction of a second and you will start to forget why you wanted to switch in the first place. Humans have evolved to immediately distinguish objects with different colour and shape – which makes the original use of icons perfect for the task. But now these icons struggle for impact, competing with (mostly grey and white) screenshots.

Perhaps there was a Business Analyst in Redmond who worried the Mac OSX dock with its little screenshots looked better than the Windows taskbar. Or maybe she ran out of useful functionality to add to Windows. Or maybe she was talked into it by programmers who thought it would be ‘cool’. However it happened, a heap of effort was expended but reduced the value of the software. That’s Negative Productivity.

See for yourself; below are examples of different fonts rendered on different platforms.

Times New Roman:

Swing clearly has room to improve. But maybe a change of font will do it good. Let’s try Courier New:

This beauty contest is more evenly balanced. Swing is still too jagged, but Gnome’s by-line is too light and Apple’s header is bleeding into the ‘paper’.

Now let’s try Verdana:

Oh dear, Gnome really fell over. And is it just me, or does Java Swing have a greenish hue? Not healthy.

So it looks like Microsoft’s ClearType is the winner, followed closely by Apple, with Gnome and Swing bringing up the rear.

Notes:

1. More discussion of Microsoft vs Apple font rendering is here and here.
2. The html to reproduce the tests is here. For JEditorPane, change ‘px’ to ‘pt’. The exact configuration was:
   Gnome: Firefox on Ubuntu 7.04 with font rendering set to ‘Subpixel Smoothing’
   Swing: JEditorPane on Java 1.6.0_01 (with VM property awt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd)
   Windows: Firefox on Windows XP SP2 with ClearType
   Apple: Safari browser on Windows XP SP2

Sure, there are dozens of third-party libraries, but these are generally third-rate solutions. I don’t want to use something a kid put together for his college assignment, and I don’t want to pay fifty bucks for a simple date text field. There needs to be one, official, standard implementation for each common control. Microsoft understands this. So does Eclipse. Why can’t Sun?

Having said this, here is my attempt at a couple of these dialogs:

(These dialogs came about as I investigated re-writing my Solar Accounts project in Swing – mainly due to this SWT bug)

Click on ‘launch’ to run the examples:

The source code is here – feel free to use it in any way.

So I’ve created JavaSpeed, an Eclipse plugin to run a small set of performance tests based on this benchmark. The screenshots are self-explanatory:

You can also compare against a Microsoft-compiled C++ set of tests:

(Note: I couldn’t compile the C++ Hash and Hash2 tests so ignore those two zeros)

To install this plugin, download this zip file and extract it into your eclipse plugins directory.

Finally, this is more a proof-of-concept than a rigorous benchmark. Feel free to grab the source code and improve it.

“And by the way, you know, when you’re telling these little stories? Here’s a good idea – have a point. It makes it so much more interesting for the listener!”

For the curious, my old site is here.