Today I finish up my ‘holidays’ but I did want to write a quick post about the cool stuff I’d been looking at.
Firstly, the LMAX Disruptor pattern. I didn’t think you could fall for a pattern until I came across this. Disruptor is a pattern that lets you run through a queue (well a ring in this case) of requests. Each request has multiple handlers (the small bits of code that do the work). And because each handler is small, you can easily unit test too. The Disruptor facilitates the order in which these handlers execute. Handlers can run ahead and let the slower handlers catch up later. Its certainly worth checking out, it seems that its a style that is newer in Java frameworks, and reminds me of the asynchronous stuff that happens in say Node.js.
The next thing I looked at was Clojure. This language has been around for a while, but I didnt get to appreciate it until someone gave a presentation at a conference in Crete last year. Clojure is like Lisp. Lots of parenthesis, but the beauty is that the code becomes simple to read (once you get used to it). Easier to understand the control flow. A method call would look like this:
(operation argument argument)
A wrapped method call
(operation2 (operation1 arg arg) arg)
The final thing was a bit of fun. Whilst cleaning up a cupboard full of magazine coverdisks, I came across the final issue of CU Amiga magazine. It was quite interesting to see the passion of the Amiga users write in and say sorry to see another bastion fall. Some were realistic about the Amiga’s future, but god love em, some kept hoping things would change and a comeback would take place sometime soon. In a way, the ‘comeback’ has occured (for me at least). No new hardware, but a new operating system, called AROS, based off the old kickstart/workbench of old. The distribution runs in a VM, but can be installed standalone on a PC. There is also discussion on Mac, iOS and Android distros too. If you want to quickly get your Amiga fix on, and reminisce about the old workbench days, then do a search for ‘Icaros’ and download a web capable distro that boots up in seconds. Some of the UI elements are outdated, for example, clicking a window gives it focus, but doesnt bring it to front, but the great thing about Amiga nuts, was/is that there was always a plugin to be installed that gave you the functionality of other OS’. Worth a play if you have some free time and it will leave you wondering what OS X and Windows are doing with all your CPU cycles.