DevX has agreed to distribute a one page (double sided) flyer that I am drafting right now. The front page has a three column introduction to code generation. The back has a logic tree where the nodes are generators. So that you can say I want 'Java - Database Access - EJB - From UML' and get to 'AndroMDA, ArcStyler, etc.' It should be some good advertising from the site. I'll put the PDF up on the site once I have the final copy nailed down.

I added about ten generators to the generator database last night. Mainly .NET and Java generators. Pretty evently split between targeted generators like 'Multi-Tier Builder' and generic template engines like 'Velocity' and 'NVelocity'.

To me, this is a perfect review of wxWindows. It gives a fair amount of experience based detail, with enough opinion to provide clues into the author's perspective. The fact that the review comes right after porting some code makes this article all the more appealing.

Check out our interview with RapDAF author Jaycee Butler on his Data Access Framework (DAF) and it's associated generator. If you are looking for an open source high-speed alternative to EJB, Jaycee has one. It can also be used in combination with EJB for high speed queries.

Here is the interview with the ELIDE team. ELIDE is an incarnation of the philosophy of Explicit Programming. The idea behind Explicit Programming is to add more detail about the intent of the engineer to the code so that the compiler (or interpreter) can handle more of the nitty-gritty detail work. For example, you can declare an object as a singleton and the compiler (or generator) will build all of the code for you to make that actually happen.

New article on generating PHP database access layer code is up on Freshmeat.

Yeah, my first book free weekend. The second pass on the index is done. Now all that remains for me to do is to check the copy and the graphics as the typesetter does her work, then to write the back-copy with the publisher. But none of that has to be done this weekend! Which means that I can catch up on both the site and gardening.

I like writing in this blog more than my personal blog just by one iota (sp?) because of the title bar graphic. This one is just so much sweeter. Though I'm not sure that's the right word.

Anyway, I took that shot, no it's not a canned photo or something I got off of Google, on my way home from work one day. I was coming off the Dumbarton bridge (which is highway 84 in the San Francisco Bay Area) and onto Paseo Padre when I saw the sun setting in the distance behind the hills. It was so pretty that I stopped and set up for a couple of shots.

Strangely, I wasn't the only one, another guy also stopped and took exactly the same shot with his 35mm SLR. We had a quick chat then got back on the road. This is really unusual. Nobody stops on Paseo Padre unless it's to buy fruit off the back of a pickup or to fix a flat.

Anyway, such is the story of the banner graphic.

I've gone with a three column look for the front page to put more information before the fold. I noticed that in the current layout the interviews were getting lost because of the ever expanding recent updates box. So I moved the box over to the left to get the interviews up towards the top of the page, or 'before the fold' as they say in the newspaper trade. Apparently a large portion of web surfers, and I suppose myself included, are averse to using the scrollbar of the Page Down key.

I just posted the interview with Bruce Korb, the man behind AutoGen. AutoGen is a generic code generation framework. It has some canned stuff for options parsing, state machines and such. It's well worth a look. It's stable and has been around for a while.

The reader reviews page is up.

I've been getting some good feedback about the site. I've decided to create a new page that puts up some of these quotes. Let me know if you have links to good quotes.

The folks in the Joel in Software forums have been talking about code generation. It's well worth taking a look.

I put up my interview with Richard Hubert of iO-Software last night. He talks about MDA, which is a method for turning UML to executable code through code generation.

I also talked with Joe Madia over at Wokstate about his Codify generator. It's a generator which handles grody daily generation tasks. It will be nice to get some material on the site which shows both ends of the generation spectrum. I have a lot on tier generators and not much on simple generators.

I wrote an article about current tools for .NET code generation and submit it to O'Reilly. The .NET editor thought it was too high level because it contained no code. If you have any thoughts about where I might get it published please let me know. I've been thinking about Information Week or Software Development.

It's been a good week. The DevX article has given me tips to five new generators. And my referral log gave me a lead on one more.

I've also been talking with CompuWare about OptimalJ. It looks from the outside like a substantial effort to productize MDA generation for Java. They will be at JavaOne.

If you like Wikis you will like VoodooPad for the Macintosh. It's a notepad application which supports Wiki style linking. Apparently it also syncs to iPods, which is cool but since I don't have an iPod I can't check it out.

Amazon has a SOAP API! Rock! I'll be hitting this a lot after the book ships.

The DevX article has gotten some great response. A couple of people have offered to contribute to the site. Another few have sent in some pointers to generators that are not on the list. I'll try and get this new generators on the list this weekend. In the meantime here are some links to them:

RapDAF - Java generator
MetaL - General purpose generator, possibly
GSL - General purpose generator
OptimalJ - MDA generator for Java

DevX published my second editorial last night. This one is about code generation. It's been getting a fair amount of response.