Perhaps a bit late, since I purchased a domain (and hosting) on the first of May, and I have been programming since. I could do everything in a single post, but it would be more fun not to, and it fills stuff up. So I actually write this on June the seventh. But from a mindset at the time when I bought the domain. Subsequent posts will of course have progressive insight.
So, with that out of the way, first things first:
I bought a domain! I don't know how that happened, but I just did!
And it's got nice TomCat5/Java hosting, for a fairly low price as well. I guess I have to create a site now. :P Too bad I can't really stand PHP (I can read and write it, but I don't particularly think it's a fun language to program in), so it won't be a WordPress blog.
My hosting provider also has Ruby support, I kinda like Ruby, I like the power it grants, similar to the power of Lisp, with some additional syntactic sugar to make it more pleasing to the eyes and readability (disclaimer, I can read/write Lisp, it just doesn't always read naturally), but it is Ruby through CGI (not fast CGI mind you, plain CGI), which I really don't like. Sure, Ruby is optimized for that, it's really fast to start-up. But I still don't like it.
So, I come to Java (Java, Java, Java Java, Jay Jay Jay... that Java). Sure it's bloated with archaic syntax restrictions, but I do know it quite well, I suppose that is something to consider (I'm SCJP certified for JavaSE6, and I'm working on SCJD right now). But I hereby swear I will use the right (JVM) language for the right job! Currently, a plan is forming in my mind to have a Bliki, similar to the one Martin Fowler has (from Refactoring fame). A cross between a web log (I don't particularly like the word "blog") and a wiki. The difference from a web log is that pages/posts don't have to be presented in chronological order, but in categories/tags. While in fact there can be a list of chronological ordered posts, through tagging posts for a certain date. But it is also possible to "randomly" create pages. The difference with a wiki is that only a fixed set of authors is allowed to write/edit posts, of course, it should be/is possible to assign a section as "free for all" to create and edit articles. I would also like it to be flexible enough that I don't have to re-upload a new war file every time I update part of my site (at the moment I can only upload war files, to redeploy one, I have to first remove it). I'll probably use a dynamic language, such as JRuby or Ioke or maybe even Javascript/Rhino, since my current idea is that pages are more prototypical, meaning that every page (practically) "inherits" from it's parent page, and only changes the parts that are unique to that page, the very meaning of "prototype based OOP". From what I´ve seen, I think that I`ll go for Ioke, it´s easier to remove stuff from an object, meaning I can more easily lock things down when someone isn´t an admin/owner.
Another important thing, aside from the content, is the title. I've chosen the name "the Programming Pantheon", actually, there should be "graph" at the end, I really like the idea that my website and all it's content will be a directed cyclic graph. But I couldn't register a domain with .graph (if it becomes possible, I'll probably alias it). So I settled for a .net domain (short for network, more or less a synonym for graph). In the end, I registered programmingpantheon.net, and the first thing I did, was create a subdomain "the" and made www. (and in effect, everything except a few exceptions) redirect to that. I should probably elaborate on the title. I'm a programmer/software engineer, with a love of (programming) languages, and the deep inability to learn spoken languages (infact, my native language, Dutch, has become worse than my second language, English, I won't even bother to mention speach, except for now, I hate speaking, because I have a stammer/stutter, whatever the word is). I'm also strictly non-religious, so what's with the religious term "Pantheon"? (For those that don't know their basic Greek/Latin, it's Latin, for "temple of all gods", perhaps I should also register the Greek version, Pantheios.) I can't help but notice religious "manners" between people discussing programming matters, the most prominent one is, of course, Type Systems. Smaller in effect, but more frequent are language fanatics (and fanatics they are), or even between proponents of libraries/frameworks. I myself am a fan of strongly static type systems, such as Ada or Haskell, the more expressive the better, but not to the exclusion of others. I also quite like the type system of Ioke (strong dynamic, prototype based). I know I make mistakes, so I want the compiler (or some other verifier) to find my errors. Then there is the second line, "in servitude of Koios and Mnemosyne". Koios and Mnemosyne are Titans from Ancient Greek religion. Koios is the Titan of Intelligence and Mnemosyne is the Titaness of Memory, together they embody my chosen profession. In a way, Koios and Mnemosyne are to software engineers/programmers as Saint Petrus (the Apostle) is to clockmakers (among others). For my profession, you need inteligence, otherwise you are merely a monkey on a typewriter with infinite time/life, paper and ink to distinguish between what will work and what won't, and you need memory, otherwise you are merely a monkey on a typewriter with infinite time/life, paper and ink because you would be doomed to write the same thing over and over and over. Of course, there is Isidore of Seville as the more "official" Patron Saint of programmers, but I don't particularly agree with Christianity for what they did to Bruno and Galilei. And to steer away from as much religion as I can, I find that two "devils" of Ancient Greek to be acceptable, especially because they fit so well (perfectly). And don't forget, that Mnemosyne is the mother of the Muses, and our work is, perhaps unfortunately, often more akin to poetry than to pure hard/cold logic.
Now the most important part, content! At the moment it's just a static index page and an about page (already in the right format for my switch whenever I finish my site) with part of the things I have written here. The main purpose is to have an online presence where I can elaborate on the things that I do, mostly programming and reading. For example, I plan to start contributing to open source software, so I might put up a post detailing my change-set xyz for library abc. Or it might be about the latest chapter/poem that I read in the Journey to the West. Or it could be a response to someone else's web log post somewhere else. And lastly, I plan on using OpenID, so openid.programmingpantheon.net could become my "openid". I will also post musings about programming (languages), things like set theory or type systems or languages.
That's it for now! On to getting Hibernate/JPA to work on TomCat.
This is only a temporary web-log!
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