2008 Top Entries

I use Google Analytics to track visits to this blog. Mainly because I'm curious as to where in the world people come from and also what topics are of interest. So with out further ado, here are the top five entries.

• Creating an XML IDE with Eclipse.
• Intrepid Ibex Sound Hickup.
• Visual XML Editor for Eclipse.
• Null Check or Null Object Pattern.
• XML? XSD? Check. Next Web Services.

Three of the top five are related to XML which isn't surprising considering that is what I've been working on and posting most about. I do find it interesting that there is much more interest in how to make/build an XML IDE with Eclipse. So the interest from the XML community is there, eclipse just needs to respond.

The sound problem is something that surprised me as well. Mainly because there are much better resources and solutions out there, but I found it interesting that my suggestions would spark an interest with others.

As much as I post or some would probably say preach about various Refactoring and Clean Code practices, or the lack there of them, I was surprised to see the topic of whether one should use Null Objects or Checks for Null Pointers. Too me personally, I'd rather deal with the Null Object pattern instead of having to check to make sure that a particular variable isn't null. It is probably one of the most annoying things about the W3C DOM is the number of nulls that are returned. The less I have to check to make sure an object isn't null, the better.

Since announcing that the VEX editor has moved to eclipse as a WTP Incubator project, entries on that have consitently rated high according to Google Analytics. I have even received a few code contributions and patches for some bugs for it from the community and potential adopters. Unfortunately I haven't had as much time to devote to it as I would like. For those that are attending EclipseCon in March, I will give a very brief demo of VEX in the XML Tools roundup short talk. I also look forward to talking to more users that are within the XML community that are using Eclipse for their development environment.

The last entry is one that I had lofty goals. It is also one of the areas that unfortunately had to be dropped down on my priority list. XSL Tools has taken up more time than I had hoped and getting VEX off the ground at the Eclipse Foundation took a lot of effort. Especially making sure that we were able to answer any IP concerns that were brought up.

I'm not going to make predictions for 2009, as I broke my crystal ball a long time ago. I'll just let Google Analytics report to me next year what readers thought was interesting. I'll still continue to post about XML related items at eclipse, and continue on my crusade for cleaner and better coding practices within the projects and code I write. So, let's see how 2009 goes, and thanks to those that find the content here interesting. I hope that at times it gives you, your own intellectual cramps.