Month: January 2003

River Lune

We paddled from Rigmarden bridge down to Devil’s bridge at Kirkby Lonsdale. Grade 1-2 water with enough features to keep the more experienced people interested. Plenty of features to work your way back up etc. Novices had a good time breaking in and out. This is a good paddle but restricted to 8 craft at a time under the access agreement. The only tricky bit is right at the end where the river bends sharply and offers some interesting currents. I’d be a little careful about tackling that in an open boat.

Oracle Forms

Revisiting some old stuff in Oracle Forms. I had forgotten how rich an environment it was, even though totally proprietary. The Java world has a long way to go to even get close. Open source, forget it, unless I write something myself.

Fun with OBE

This is the workflow engine I found on sourceforge. I need to spend some time working with the examples, it uses an XML-based open standard for the workflow definitions which are very heavy. The design tool seems weird to me. I can’t work out how you would attach a step outcome to a joining arrow. The XML has some worrying stuff that looks like someone has been reading a textbook on petri nets, so you get things like definition of graph edges rather than simply transitions. Looks like an academic purist has been having fun. I think I might resurrect FWE. There is another engine on sourceforge that I downloaded but haven’t had a chance to look at yet.

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I had a look on sourceforge (http://sourceforge.net/

)for a workflow tool and found Open Business Engine. Looks like it has a design tool and all of my other requirements. http://sourceforge.net/projects/obe/. I’m enjoying writing my own very primitive engine though.

My next fun thing is trying to make stateful portlets, I just can’t wait.

Going for a paddle on the River Lune this weekend, should be good.

Had a laugh on a link I found from the Register http://www.theregister.co.uk

.

The Rockall Times : http://www.therockalltimes.co.uk. I particularly liked the jubilee section which points out that Britain holds the record for the most people killed in transport disasters. Typical of this half-assed country. The want ads for Conservative Party leader and so on very good too.

Writing

Fairly busy with one thing and another. Wrote some more of the System Error story (will be up on http://francis-john.freewebspace.com/system-error.pdf). It’s coming along now, I feel a lot happier about it.

A new skunkworks project – Francis’ Workflow Engine (FWE)

I need a workflow engine that allows reporting of statuses across workflows. I’ve started a draft design in my own time. I think I want everything to be done in XML DOMs, rather than inventing my own data structures, which is perversely satisfying, this will make branching decisions a bit interesting. Of course, I’ve jumped to code and XML straight away in the best agile tradition. I’ll start putting specs and stuff up for people to see. I had a look on the web and the only thing I could find was werkflow, but all of that petri net/rules engine stuff seemed way over the top for what I need and it’s not there yet. I do like the philosophy expressed on the website tho’ http://www.werken.com.

Anyone out there know of a working J2EE workflow engine, preferably with a design tool? I know about Oracle workflow and it’s too heavy and PL/SQL based, but I do like the design tool (assuming you don’t mind using Mess 2000 or NT).

Went to the Museum of Liverpool life’s exhibition about the Indian community in Liverpool. It’s a bit sad when all of the biographies of the people are reduced to three or four paragraphs. These people worked hard to escape difficult lives.

We went to a workshop on Indian costumes and dance afterwards which was a lot of fun. We did a morning dance and a stick dance.

Went for a paddle around Winsford flash and then up the river Weaver. Rosie did the swimming/ballet run. It was good day and the weather held.Paddled up against the current through a forest that was part of the flood plain. I remember reading that rain forests are not just a tropical thing but also happen in other climes (obviously with different trees). Maybe this was one.

We spooked a cormorant that kept diving and appearing a few metres away from us.Lunched at a sunny spot and then tried to get up to the weir but our way was blocked by a fallen tree. The current was a bit more challenging after lunch because the river had narrowed. I was volunteered to jump out and inspect but the weir was washed out.

The journey back was much quicker, which was just as well because my shoulder injury was starting to play up in the cold. Getting cold at lunch is one of those things that happens sometimes.

Back on the lake we saw 6 cormorants and a large flock of Canada geese. Dek (who is in his eighties) said that when he was an ornithologist in the 1950’s you had to travel a long way to see these geese, now they are everywhere.

A good day.

Came back to no parking because of the football. Took kids to the library, J is still being an inventor with books on lasers and electricity. I think D will either write or critic.

Rosie and I fell out with J because he won’t write his christmas thank-yous, even on the Mac. Ah, the joys of parenthood.

The day ends on a surreal note because we are having buffalo stew. Rosie got the buffalo and also some ostrich at a farmers’ market.

Finally got poetry up on website http://francis-john.freewebspace.com/poetry.html

. This is stuff I typed up for an anthology a friend is involved with, may be published, may not.

Put up the PDF with more of the System Error story http://francis-john.freewebspace.com/system-error.pdf, which needs some thought.

Went to a pantomime last night put on by a local youth drama group (Off the Ground Youth Theatre). My daughter knows one of the kids involved. The usual weird synchronicity stuff meant that one of the kids playing the lead is also a member of the canoe club. It was well done and a very high standard. If you live near the Grosvenor Theatre (Port Sunlight UK), check it out this weekend. The theatre was advertising an Elvis night and the Hooton Weavers, but I think I’ll give them a miss.

Work DAF, writing up user stories for the next release of our product. Necessary but boring.

I’m out on a social paddle this weekend, should be pleasant if the weather holds.