Re: Another JUnit scenario
Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> wrote in news:htcejg$thk$1@news.albasani.net:
Lew wrote:
You never answered my question about why you wanted to use a static
factory method, let alone a factory class, in the first place. The
question was neither arbitrary nor insignificant.
Rhino wrote:
Actually, I did answer it a few hours ago on one of the other
threads.
You answered it over two and half hours after I posted the above, in
"Design Questions about static factory classes". I didn't have my USB
crystal ball attached when I wrote that you hadn't. So sorry.
I meant no criticism of you at all with that remark Lew. Seriously. I
assumed that we had "crossed" and were just catching up with each other.
You answered, essentially, that you didn't know why you were using a
static factory and were just applying the principle by rote,
cargo-cult style.
That's not programming.
Hey, I'm not happy to have to give you that answer but I didn't want to
BS either. I've been taking in a LOT of information in the last few days
and some of it is turning things I thought I knew on their heads. I have
a lot to digest and my memory has never been great so sometimes I coast a
bit and do what I'm told and simply resolve to clear up the whys and
wherefores somewhere down the road. And I don't always get to that
point....
Remember, the only hard and fast rule in programming is that there are
no hard and fast rules in programming. You cannot just go apply a
hammer to everything hoping that you're hitting a nail. Sometimes
you're hitting a crystal vase, with bad results.
You must THINK.
I know that. I'm just not sure HOW to reason some of this stuff out.
Maybe I'm missing some fundamentals or something. Even the simplest
things sometimes turn out to be very complicated and non-obvious. In
fact, I'm fast coming to the point where I'm beginning to think NOTHING
in Java is simple, obvious, or intuitive....
But enough of my self-pity....
I'm darned if I know which one at this point; there are so many
threads going now with so many subthreads that I am absolutely dizzy
Rhino, it only took me five minutes of digging around to find the
particular post. I guess I'm just not very lazy.
And I probably am a little lazy at time. But I'm really burned out. We
have a three day weekend here and I had planned to code, code, code my
little heart out this weekend and finish my code portfolio. Instead, I've
mostly been in and out of this newsgroup trying to understand and absorb
all the things people are throwing at me. I've actually accomplished very
little of the coding I wanted to do. And now I find that most of what I
have is bad, maybe very very bad. So that big pile of code has turned
into a mountain.
keeping up wiht them and figuring out which ones I have
"answered" (affirmed that I understood or asked a followup or
clarifying question) and which ones I've missed.
You should fix that.
I'd love to. But this newsreader is the best one I could lay my hands on
after Outlook Express refused to post any more - for no reason I could
ever find - and it pretty much sucks a lot of the time. I can't spare any
time right now to find a better newsreader so that it is easier to keep
track of what I have already read and responded to. What I really SHOULD
do - in the usual 20/20 hindsight - is not post so damned many questions
all at the same time. It's a lot easier to follow one or two threads than
several....
===================================================================
public class LocalizationUtils2 {
static final String CLASS_NAME = "LocalizationUtils";
Interesting that you label something 'CLASS_NAME' that does not match
the name of the class in which it appears. Careless.
Actually, once I get this code cleaned up - if I ever do - I plan to
ditch LocalizationUtils and rename LocalizationUtils2 to just plain
LocalizationUtils. So I'm just leaving the value wrong for now, knowing
that it will be right eventually.
private final static String MSG_PREFIX =
"ca.maximal.common.utilities.Resources.LocalizationUtilsMsg";
public static final String HORIZONTAL_SEPARATOR = "\t";
Why is this 'public'?
I thought I'd let the JUnit test case access it directly. I use that
separator between the two columns in the writeLocales() methods so the
test case needs it to see how to split the lines to verify that the
correct classes are there.
StringUtils stringUtils = null;
Why do you redundantly set the member to 'null'? Why is it
package-private ("default" access)?
I long ago got into a habit of initializing everything to SOMETHING. I
got tired of compiler messages complaining that things were not
initialized. I initialize pretty much everything that can be initialized
to null if I don't have a specific value that it needs to be. I'm
guessing this is wrong too?
As for the access, I frequently don't know what level of access I should
set. If I know - or think I know - I'll code public or private or
whatever. But I don't know how to reason this out in every case. In those
cases, I might not set anything at all and take the default. Or maybe I
just didn't notice that I hadn't set a specific access level. That's
entirely possible too.
private ResourceBundle locMsg = null;
private MessageFormat msgFmt = new MessageFormat("");
private Locale locale = null;
private LocalizationUtils2() {
locale = Locale.getDefault();
It's so weird. You explicitly set 'locale' to 'null', its default
value anyway, when you have no use for and no intention of ever having
a use for that value.
Sorry. I think I meant to delete Locale altogether after I made my
executive decisions about not having the extra constructor/getInstance
and setLocale()/getLocale(). Then again, one of my methods uses locale
and it still works. I must investigate why it still works when I don't
set it....
locMsg = getResources(locale, MSG_PREFIX);
Ditto.
locMsg is being used in greeting() and getResources(). greeting(), of
course, is to be thrown away; it was just there for an experiment and
should be ignored....
msgFmt.setLocale(locale);
}
public static LocalizationUtils2 getInstance() {
return new LocalizationUtils2();
Usually when a class is a "utility" class, it has only static members
and is never instantiated.
I think that's how my utility classes started out. I wasn't sure if that
was right and asked on this newsgroup. People asked me various questions,
I answered them as accurately as I could and the gist of the advice was
that I should go with this approach. I reworked the previous code
according to that advice. Now you're telling me that I was right before
and the fundamental design in WRONG???
}
public String greeting() {
Object[] msgArgs = {};
msgFmt.applyPattern(locMsg.getString("msg012"));
return (msgFmt.format(msgArgs));
}
public SortedMap<String, Locale> getLocales() {
SortedMap<String, Locale> sortedLocales = new TreeMap<String,
Locale>();
for (Locale oneLocale : Locale.getAvailableLocales()) {
sortedLocales.put(oneLocale.getDisplayName(locale), oneLocale);
}
return sortedLocales;
}
public void writeLocales(PrintStream out) {
SortedMap<String, Locale> locales = getLocales();
int longestLocaleName = 0;
for (String oneLocale : locales.keySet()) {
if (oneLocale.length()> longestLocaleName) {
longestLocaleName = oneLocale.length();
}
}
stringUtils = StringUtils.getInstance();
This looks wrong. You have defined 'stringUtils' to be part of the
object's state, i.e., a member variable, but you only use it like a
local variable. You should declare it as a local variable, not a
member variable.
In this class, StringUtils gets used in both of the writeLocales()
methods. I've always gone with the rule of thumb that if something is
used in one method, I define it locally but if it occurs within multiple
methods, I define it centrally within the class. So that's wrong too?
for (String oneLocale : locales.keySet()) {
out.println(stringUtils.pad(oneLocale, ' ', 'T',
longestLocaleName) + HORIZONTAL_SEPARATOR +
locales.get(oneLocale));
On the other hand, you use 'StringUtils' like a utility class. The
methods should be 'static' and you should not instantiate it.
That means no 'stringUtils' variable at all.
That's just dandy. If you had any idea how much time I've spent changing
all this code to work the way I was told to do it, only to find out it
was just fine before I asked.....
}
out.flush();
}
public void writeLocales(PrintWriter out) {
SortedMap<String, Locale> locales = getLocales();
Is the list of 'Locale's likely to change often, because you build it
every time you refer to it. That implies you expect the value to
change between calls.
I expect it to change occasionally as newer JVMs are released. But I
don't know how to code a method to say "only look up the locales when the
JVM has been upgraded".
int longestLocaleName = 0;
for (String oneLocale : locales.keySet()) {
if (oneLocale.length()> longestLocaleName) {
longestLocaleName = oneLocale.length();
}
}
stringUtils = StringUtils.getInstance();
for (String oneLocale : locales.keySet()) {
out.println(stringUtils.pad(oneLocale, ' ', 'T',
longestLocaleName) +
HORIZONTAL_SEPARATOR + locales.get(oneLocale));
}
out.flush();
}
public ResourceBundle getResources(Locale currentLocale, String
listBase) {
final String METHOD_NAME = "getResources()";
ResourceBundle locList = null;
Redundant assignment of 'null'.
try {
locList = ResourceBundle.getBundle(listBase, currentLocale);
} catch (MissingResourceException mr_excp) {
Object[] msgArgs = {CLASS_NAME, METHOD_NAME, listBase,
currentLocale.toString(), mr_excp};
msgFmt.applyPattern(locMsg.getString("msg011"));
throw new IllegalArgumentException(msgFmt.format(msgArgs));
}
return (locList);
}
}
===================================================================
...
Getting expert reactions to this aspect of the class is my main issue
at this point.
I started to address those matters (that I elided here) for you, but
realized at this point that you have been overwhelmed. You're posting
to quickly and too frequently; you clearly have not had time to
practice with and assimilate the information you've already obtained.
I, for one, am loathe to barrage you with more wisdom until you've
achieved a plateau with what people have already told you.
Go and practice.
I can't disagree with you there. I AM overwhelmed.
Consider NOT calling the class by a name that includes "Util" or
"Utils" if it's instantiable - conventionally such a name implies a
class with no state and no instance members.
Now go, practice, think, assimilate and master what you've already
been given.
It's either that or go look for a job at McDonalds. I'm beginning to
think I know nothing at all about Java despite having coded in it since
1997....
Would it help or confuse things if I replicated this post on the
OTHER threads that are discussing these issues, particularly the
Design Questions for Static Factory Methods one?
Gods! Don't do that!
Okey dokey. That's why I asked.
My god, this is SO depressing. I thought I was ALMOST to the point where
I had some good code. But almost every blessed line is wrong, wrong,
wrong....
I wonder if McDonald's is hiring....
I definitely have to give up on the idea of having a portfolio of good
code in the next few days. I think I'm still months, maybe YEARS from
having anything decent to show. Like I said in the other thread, I need
to find an employer that sees some potential and beg them for a job so
that I can learn from people who know what they're doing. Maybe if I can
convince them that I love to write code, especially in Java, and that I
can at least get code to work, even if I have a thousand mistakes, and
that I really want to learn to do it right, they'll decide to give me a
chance. Then I can find a mentor and start to write good code, not this
apparent crap....
Now if I could just think of a reason why they'd hire me if they had the
chance of hiring someone who knew what they were doing already. It would
be one thing if I was fresh out of school and 20-something but those days
are way behind me....
I am up way past my bedtime and I think it's making me start to babble.
Time to call it a night. Maybe things will make more sense in the
morning.
Thanks for your honest appraisal. It obviously wasn't the good news I was
hoping for but it would have been a very bad thing indeed if you had told
me my code was great when it isn't. I really don't want to be the butt of
uproarious laughter with a potential employer. I can just picture my code
being printed and posted on a bulletin board with a caption that says
"Check this out guys; this idiot thinks he can write Java!"
--
Rhino
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