1. If you don't have jEdit yet, download it and install it from www.jedit.org.
2. Now download jGoodies looks R1.2.2 and extract looks-1.2.2.jar to your PC somewhere.
3. Create a jgoodiesLF.bsh in the startup directory under jEdit installation folder. The file should look like:

   // Set JGoodies look
//Uncomment next line and modify it if you want to use custom themes provided by
//JGoodies -- see the API documentation for available themes.
//com.jgoodies.plaf.plastic.PlasticXPLookAndFeel.setMyCurrentTheme(new com.jgoodies.plaf.plastic.theme.SkyBluer());
try {
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(new com.jgoodies.plaf.plastic.PlasticXPLookAndFeel());
}


   If this doesn't work, try removing the try{} around the UIManager line.
4. Create a Window's shortcut that looks like this:

   PATH\TO\JRE\javaw.exe -Xbootclasspath/a:PATH\TO\EXTRACTED\looks-1.2.2.jar -jar "JEDIT\INSTALLATION\PATH\jedit.jar"

5. Double click on the shortcut to start jEdit. Here's a screenshot.

Some quick uses I've found so far include:

1. Making quick test scripts to integrate different Java components.
2. Adding such scripts write into an Ant task.
3. Using the great pprint and dir functions to dive into Java classes and methods much faster than API documentation.

I am sure there are many more ways Jython can be used. For example, I checked in one old script that took about 15 minutes to write -- it provides a rudimentary interactive sql shell. The code couldn't be simpler! A while back, I needed to access an Oracle database. SQL*Plus was not installed in the client machine and the installer was not available either. This script came in handy then.

Recently, I was (un)fortunate enough to witness a web application that was already deployed and in use for over an year. At the time of installation, the main marketing points appeared to be:

1. To modify the layout and design, programming knowledge is not necessary. The vendor had developed a proven templating scheme that plays well with existing HTML editors.
2. It doesn't lock you to a particular operating system since it is written in Java.
3. Since it employs J2EE, it scales, rocks and keep your job safe (I sensed the last one, but it was not explicitly spelled out.)
4. It runs on any servlet container.

Via Christoph C. Cemper

Sweet.

IT spends a considerable sum of dollars in creating company-wide frameworks as part of building their business applications. This is especially true for typed languages like C++, Java, and C#. The core of this spending goes towards coming up with an architecture for the middle tier. How does one know if the resulting architecture will serve the needs? This article examines the qualities of a good middle-tier architecture and answers how the well known middle-tier architectures that are in vogue today stack up against this analysis. The middle-tier architectures analyzed include stored procedures, SOA, EJBs, COM+, and SQLJ.

Several points raised in the article resonate very strongly with me.

A little bit digging around solved my other issues too.

This is a small write-up that is aimed at helping you to like JDeveloper, by writing a client for Google web services. Once you have the software installed, you can see that it wouldn't even take 5 minutes to have a working client.

As far as for-loops are concerned, I think Guido's choice of syntax for Python is the best I've seen in any language.

I've slightly different views on this.

The author comes up with a rough conclusion that scripting languages follow quick and dirty programming style, whereas system programming languages follow a thought out programming style.

Give me a break! This prompts me to rant.