Cool things I don’t have a use for

While doing my morning surfing I ran into two very cool items which I don’t presently have a use for. But I want to.

First, Ryan Wilcox writes about PyObj-C , the Python-Objective C bridge for Mac OS X. I’ve seen this mentioned before, but Ryan has a good post that makes me want to try it out. And I would, if not for some nagging belief that programs should work. Anywhere. I mean, I love my Mac. I love developing software on it, and I love the fit and feel of it. But if I write some software, I’d like to be able to share it with my unenlightened friends running Windows, and I’d like to be able to use it at work where I run Linux . I suppose there are some things that I’d be happy to have as Mac only, I just haven’t come up with a good one yet. But when I do, PyObj-C, here I come.

Second, an addition to the already excellent Eclipse Project , the Visual Editor project brings GUI building to Eclipse. I don’t do much with Java, and wouldn’t know if at all if not for the fact that most of my Computer Science courses use it. I guess I’ve developed a grudging respect for it. It’ll do in a pinch. When Python’s not available. We’re required to use Borland JBuilder for class. JBuilder is possibly the worst IDE I’ve used. It definitly doesn’t meet my expectations for Borland tools, which are based on years of Turbo Pascal and Delphi use. But it did do Swing GUI’s, so I couldn’t recommend Eclipse to my professors. With the addition of VEP, though, Eclipse is now the clear reigning Java IDE in my book (don’t even mention NetBeans, please). Now if I only had a Java project to use it on…what am I saying? Wishing for a Java project? I have to go lie down.