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• What are the design principles that promote testable code? (designing testable code vs driving design through tests)

  - by bot

  Most of the projects that I work on consider development and unit testing in isolation which makes writing unit tests at a later instance a nightmare. My objective is to keep testing in mind during the high level and low level design phases itself. I want to know if there are any well defined design principles that promote testable code. One such principle that I have come to understand recently is Dependency Inversion through Dependency injection and Inversion of Control. I have read that there is something known as SOLID. I want to understand if following the SOLID principles indirectly results in code that is easily testable? If not, are there any well-defined design principles that promote testable code? I am aware that there is something known as Test Driven Development. Although, I am more interested in designing code with testing in mind during the design phase itself rather than driving design through tests. I hope this makes sense. One more question related to this topic is whether it's alright to re-factor an existing product/project and make changes to code and design for the purpose of being able to write a unit test case for each module?

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• Google Analytics API data for goals (funnels) doesn't match - how do they reconcile?

  - by bkgraham

  I have a Google Analytics account with a well-functioning funnel made up of 4 goals. I can query the API and get the data out, but it does not match the funnel report in Analytics. Without getting into specific values, I can give you an example with faked data. Here's how the funnel might look: Shopping Cart 100 > 100 > 20 80 (80%) Address Page 5 > 85 > 25 60 (71%) Payment Page 2 > 62 > 10 52 (84%) Checkout 1 > 53 (49.07% funnel conversion rate) Okay, so you would expect the API to output data something like this: goal1Starts goal1Completions goal1Abandons 100 80 20 goal2Starts goal2Completions goal2Abandons 85 60 25 goal3Starts goal3Completions goal3Abandons 62 52 10 goal4Starts goal4Completions goal4Abandons 53 53 0 Instead, it's different. Firstly, the abandons are associated with the following goal (so goal1 always has 0 abandons and goal4 always has 0 abandons. Okay, I can work with that. What's confusing is that the numbers are always a little different. The goal1Completions always match the report, as do the goal4Completions, but everything else is off by a small amount. Sometimes it's only 2 visits, other times it's off by 50. For the report above here's the kind of results I would tend to get: goal1Starts goal1Completions goal1Abandons 100 100 0 goal2Starts goal2Completions goal2Abandons 105 84 21 goal3Starts goal3Completions goal3Abandons 90 65 25 goal4Starts goal4Completions goal4Abandons 58 53 5 Here's what I know: Goal(n)Completions + Goal(n)Abandons = Goal(n)Starts Goal(n)Starts = Goal(n-1)Completions Goal(n)Starts - Goal(n-1)Completions != reported number entering at that level That third one is particularly disappointing. So, here's my question: What data do I need to pull from the API in order to recreate the counts in the Funnel report in Google Analytics? I don't need the pages exited to entering from - just the counts at every level.

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• Tips for Making this Code Testable [migrated]

  - by Jesse Bunch

  So I'm writing an abstraction layer that wraps a telephony RESTful service for sending text messages and making phone calls. I should build this in such a way that the low-level provider, in this case Twilio, can be easily swapped without having to re-code the higher level interactions. I'm using a package that is pre-built for Twilio and so I'm thinking that I need to create a wrapper interface to standardize the interaction between the Twilio service package and my application. Let us pretend that I cannot modify this pre-built package. Here is what I have so far (in PHP): <?php namespace Telephony; class Provider_Twilio implements Provider_Interface { public function send_sms(Provider_Request_SMS $request) { if (!$request->is_valid()) throw new Provider_Exception_InvalidRequest(); $sms = \Twilio\Twilio::request('SmsMessage'); $response = $sms->create(array( 'To' => $request->to, 'From' => $request->from, 'Body' => $request->body )); if ($this->_did_request_fail($response)) { throw new Provider_Exception_RequestFailed($response->message); } $response = new Provider_Response_SMS(TRUE); return $response; } private function _did_request_fail($api_response) { return isset($api_response->status); } } So the idea is that I can write another file like this for any other telephony service provided that it implements Provider_Interface making them swappable. Here are my questions: First off, do you think this is a good design? How could it be improved? Second, I'm having a hard time testing this because I need to mock out the Twilio package so that I'm not actually depending on Twilio's API for my tests to pass or fail. Do you see any strategy for mocking this out? Thanks in advance for any advice!

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• C programming multiple storage backends

  - by ahjmorton

  I am starting a side project in C which requires multiple storage backends to be driven by a particular piece of logic. These storage backends would each be linked with the decision of which one to use specified at runtime. So for example if I invoke my program with one set of parameters it will perform the operations in memory but if I change the program configuration it would write to disk. The underlying idea is that each storage backend should implement the same protocol. In other words the logic for performing operations should need to know which backend it is operating on. Currently the way I have thought to provide this indirection is to have a struct of function pointers with the logic calling these function pointers. Essentially the struct would contain all the operations needed to implement the higher level logic E.g. struct Context { void (* doPartOfDoOp)(void) int (* getResult)(void); } //logic.h void doOp(Context * context) { //bunch of stuff context->doPartOfDoOp(); } int getResult(Context * context) { //bunch of stuff return context->getResult(); } My questions is if this way of solving the problem is one a C programmer would understand? I am a Java developer by trade but enjoy using C/++. Essentially the Context struct provides an interface like level of indirection. However I would like to know if there is a more idiomatic way of achieving this.

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• Characteristics, what's the inverse of (x*(x+1))/2? [closed]

  - by Valmond

  In my game you can spend points to upgrade characteristics. Each characteristic has a formula like: A) out = in : for one point spent, one pont gained (you spend 1 point on Force so your force goes from 5 to 6) B) out = last level (starting at 1) : so the first point spent earns you 1 point, the next point spent earns you an additional 2 and so on (+3,+4,+5...) C) The inverse of B) : You need to spend 1 point to earn one, then you need to spend 2 to earn another one and so on. I have already found the formula for calculating the actual level of B when points spent = x : charac = (x*(x+1))/2 But I'd like to know what the "reverse" version of B) (usable for C) is, ie. if I have spent x points, how many have I earned if 1 spent gives 1, 1+2=3 gives 2, 1+2+3=6 gives 3 and so on. I know I can just calculate the numbers but I'd like to have the formula because its neater and so that I can stick it in an excel sheet for example... Thanks! ps. I think I have nailed it down to something like charac = sqrt( x*m +k) but then I'm stuck doing number guessing for k and m and I feel I might be wrong anyway as I get close but never hits the spot.

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• 'normal' SVC versus 'Silverlight' SVC (WCF)

  - by Michel

  Hi, i'm trying to call a WCF service from my Silverlight 3 app. But... when trying to create a 'silverlight enabled wcf service' in my web project, my VS2008 crashes during creating the item (i think while editing the web.config). So i thought: let's create a 'normal' wcf service, and manually edit it to be a 'silverlight enabled webservice'. So i wondered what the differences are, and second: why is there a difference between a service called from a silverlight app and a non-silverlight app? This is what i have now for the binding (i have a service without an Interface contract, just a direct class exposed, to begin with): <system.serviceModel> <behaviors> <serviceBehaviors> <behavior name="RadControlsSilverlightApp1.Web.GetNewDataBehavior"> <serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" /> <serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" /> </behavior> </serviceBehaviors> </behaviors> <bindings> <customBinding> <binding name="customBinding0"> <binaryMessageEncoding /> <httpTransport /> </binding> </customBinding> </bindings> <serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" /> <services> <service behaviorConfiguration="RadControlsSilverlightApp1.Web.GetNewDataBehavior" name="RadControlsSilverlightApp1.Web.GetNewData"> <endpoint address="" binding="customBinding" bindingConfiguration="customBinding0" contract="RadControlsSilverlightApp1.Web.GetNewData" /> <endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange" /> </service> </services> </system.serviceModel> This one doesn't work because when i add a reference to it from the silverlight app i get these messages: Warning 2 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:portType Detail: An exception was thrown while running a WSDL import extension: System.ServiceModel.Description.DataContractSerializerMessageContractImporter Error: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='']/wsdl:portType[@name='GetNewData'] C:\Silverlight\RadControlsSilverlightApp1\RadControlsSilverlightApp1\Service References\ServiceReference1\Reference.svcmap 1 1 RadControlsSilverlightApp1 Warning 3 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:binding Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:portType that the wsdl:binding is dependent on. XPath to wsdl:portType: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='']/wsdl:portType[@name='GetNewData'] XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://tempuri.org/']/wsdl:binding[@name='CustomBinding_GetNewData'] C:\Silverlight\RadControlsSilverlightApp1\RadControlsSilverlightApp1\Service References\ServiceReference1\Reference.svcmap 1 1 RadControlsSilverlightApp1 Warning 4 Custom tool warning: Cannot import wsdl:port Detail: There was an error importing a wsdl:binding that the wsdl:port is dependent on. XPath to wsdl:binding: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://tempuri.org/']/wsdl:binding[@name='CustomBinding_GetNewData'] XPath to Error Source: //wsdl:definitions[@targetNamespace='http://tempuri.org/']/wsdl:service[@name='GetNewData']/wsdl:port[@name='CustomBinding_GetNewData'] C:\Silverlight\RadControlsSilverlightApp1\RadControlsSilverlightApp1\Service References\ServiceReference1\Reference.svcmap 1 1 RadControlsSilverlightApp1 Warning 5 Custom tool warning: No endpoints compatible with Silverlight 3 were found. The generated client class will not be usable unless endpoint information is provided via the constructor. C:\Silverlight\RadControlsSilverlightApp1\RadControlsSilverlightApp1\Service References\ServiceReference1\Reference.svcmap 1 1 RadControlsSilverlightApp1 (ps., the service can be started in the browser, i get this: svcutil.exe http://localhost:9599/GetNewData.svc?wsdl )

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• Need help looping through text file in Objective-C and looping through multidimensional array of dat

  - by Fulvio

  I have a question regarding an iPhone game I'm developing. At the moment, below is the code I'm using to currently I loop through my multidimensional array and position bricks accordingly on my scene. Instead of having multiple two dimensional arrays within my code as per the following (gameLevel1). Ideally, I'd like to read from a text file within my project and loop through the values in that instead. Please take into account that I'd like to have more than one level within my game (possibly 20) so my text file would have to have some sort of separator line item to determine what level I want to render. I was then thinking of having some sort of method that I call and that method would take the level number I'm interested in rendering. e.g. Method to call level based on separator? -(void)renderLevel:(NSString) levelNumber; e.g. Text file example? #LEVEL_ONE# 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 #LEVEL_TWO# 1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1 Code that I'm currently using: int gameLevel[17][9] = { { 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0 }, { 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 } }; for (int row=0; row < 17; row++) { for (int col=0; col < 9; col++) { thisBrickValue = gameLevel[row][col]; xOffset = 35 * floor(col); yOffset = 22 * floor(row); switch (thisBrickValue) { case 0: brick = [[CCSprite spriteWithFile:@"block0.png"] autorelease]; break; case 1: brick = [[CCSprite spriteWithFile:@"block1.png"] autorelease]; break; } brick.position = ccp(xOffset, yOffset); [self addChild:brick]; } }

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• How can I get the previous logged events when a particular logger is triggered?

  - by Ben Laan

  I need to show the previous 10 events when a particular logger is triggered. The goal is to show what previous steps occurred immediately before NHibernate.SQL logging was issued. Currently, I am logging NHibernate sql to a separate file - this is working correctly. <appender name="NHibernateSqlAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender"> <file value="Logs\NHibernate.log" /> <appendToFile value="true" /> <rollingStyle value="Size" /> <maxSizeRollBackups value="10" /> <maximumFileSize value="10000KB" /> <staticLogFileName value="true" /> <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout"> <conversionPattern value="%d{dd/MM/yy HH:mm:ss,fff} [%t] %-5p %c - %m%n" /> </layout> </appender> <logger name="NHibernate.SQL" additivity="false"> <level value="ALL"/> <appender-ref ref="NHibernateSqlAppender"/> </logger> <logger name="NHibernate" additivity="false"> <level value="WARN"/> <appender-ref ref="NHibernateSqlAppender"/> </logger> But this only outputs SQL, without context. I would like all previous logs within a specified namespace to also be logged, but only when the HNibernate.SQL appender is triggered. I have investigated the use of BufferingForwardingAppender as a means to collect all events, and then filter them within the NHibernateSqlAppender, but this is not working. I have read about the LoggerMatchFilter class, which seems like it is going to help, but I'm not sure where to put it. <appender name="BufferingForwardingAppender" type="log4net.Appender.BufferingForwardingAppender" > <bufferSize value="10" /> <lossy value="true" /> <evaluator type="log4net.Core.LevelEvaluator"> <threshold value="ALL"/> </evaluator> <appender-ref ref="NHibernateSqlAppender" /> </appender> <appender name="NHibernateSqlAppender" type="log4net.Appender.RollingFileAppender"> <file value="Logs\NHibernate.log" /> <appendToFile value="true" /> <rollingStyle value="Size" /> <maxSizeRollBackups value="10" /> <maximumFileSize value="10000KB" /> <staticLogFileName value="true" /> <filter type="log4net.Filter.LoggerMatchFilter"> <loggerToMatch value="NHibernate.SQL" /> <loggerToMatch value="Laan" /> </filter> <filter type="log4net.Filter.LoggerMatchFilter"> <loggerToMatch value="NHibernate" /> <acceptOnMatch value="false"/> </filter> <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout"> <conversionPattern value="%d{dd/MM/yy HH:mm:ss,fff} [%t] %-5p %c - %m%n" /> </layout> </appender> <root> <level value="ALL" /> <appender-ref ref="BufferingForwardingAppender"/> </root> The idea is that buffering appender will store all events, but then the NHibernateSqlAppender will only flush when an NHibernate.SQL event fires, plus it will flush the buffer (of 10 previous items, within the specified logger level, which in this example is Laan.*).

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• C++: Trouble with templates (C2064)

  - by Rosarch

  I'm having compiler errors, and I'm not sure why. What am I doing wrong here: Hangman.cpp: set<char> Hangman::incorrectGuesses() { // Hangman line 103 return Utils::findAll_if<char>(guesses.begin(), guesses.end(), &Hangman::isIncorrectGuess); } bool Hangman::isIncorrectGuess(char c) { return correctAnswer.find(c) == string::npos; } Utils.h: namespace Utils { void PrintLine(const string& line, int tabLevel = 0); string getTabs(int tabLevel); template<class result_t, class Predicate> std::set<result_t> findAll_if(typename std::set<result_t>::iterator begin, typename std::set<result_t>::iterator end, Predicate pred) { std::set<result_t> result; // utils line 16 return detail::findAll_if_rec<result_t>(begin, end, pred, result); } } namespace detail { template<class result_t, class Predicate> std::set<result_t> findAll_if_rec(typename std::set<result_t>::iterator begin, typename std::set<result_t>::iterator end, Predicate pred, std::set<result_t> result) { // utils line 25 typename std::set<result_t>::iterator nextResultElem = find_if(begin, end, pred); if (nextResultElem == end) { return result; } result.insert(*nextResultElem); return findAll_if_rec(++nextResultElem, end, pred, result); } } This produces the following compiler errors: algorithm(83): error C2064: term does not evaluate to a function taking 1 arguments algorithm(95) : see reference to function template instantiation '_InIt std::_Find_if<std::_Tree_unchecked_const_iterator<_Mytree>,_Pr>(_InIt,_InIt,_Pr)' being compiled 1> with 1> [ 1> _InIt=std::_Tree_unchecked_const_iterator<std::_Tree_val<std::_Tset_traits<char,std::less<char>,std::allocator<char>,false>>>, 1> _Mytree=std::_Tree_val<std::_Tset_traits<char,std::less<char>,std::allocator<char>,false>>, 1> _Pr=bool (__thiscall Hangman::* )(char) 1> ] utils.h(25) : see reference to function template instantiation '_InIt std::find_if<std::_Tree_const_iterator<_Mytree>,Predicate>(_InIt,_InIt,_Pr)' being compiled 1> with 1> [ 1> _InIt=std::_Tree_const_iterator<std::_Tree_val<std::_Tset_traits<char,std::less<char>,std::allocator<char>,false>>>, 1> _Mytree=std::_Tree_val<std::_Tset_traits<char,std::less<char>,std::allocator<char>,false>>, 1> Predicate=bool (__thiscall Hangman::* )(char), 1> _Pr=bool (__thiscall Hangman::* )(char) 1> ] utils.h(16) : see reference to function template instantiation 'std::set<_Kty> detail::findAll_if_rec<result_t,Predicate>(std::_Tree_const_iterator<_Mytree>,std::_Tree_const_iterator<_Mytree>,Predicate,std::set<_Kty>)' being compiled 1> with 1> [ 1> _Kty=char, 1> result_t=char, 1> Predicate=bool (__thiscall Hangman::* )(char), 1> _Mytree=std::_Tree_val<std::_Tset_traits<char,std::less<char>,std::allocator<char>,false>> 1> ] hangman.cpp(103) : see reference to function template instantiation 'std::set<_Kty> Utils::findAll_if<char,bool(__thiscall Hangman::* )(char)>(std::_Tree_const_iterator<_Mytree>,std::_Tree_const_iterator<_Mytree>,Predicate)' being compiled 1> with 1> [ 1> _Kty=char, 1> _Mytree=std::_Tree_val<std::_Tset_traits<char,std::less<char>,std::allocator<char>,false>>, 1> Predicate=bool (__thiscall Hangman::* )(char) 1> ]

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• merge 2 php arrays which aren't of the same length by value

  - by Iain Urquhart

  Excuse me if this has indeed been asked before, I couldn't see anything that fitted my needs out of the dozens of similar titled posts out there ;) I'm trying to merge 2 php arrays which aren't of the same length, and merge them on a value that exists from identical key = values within both arrays. My first query produces an array from a nested set: array ( 1 => array ( 'node_id' => 1, 'lft' => 1, 'rgt' => 4, 'moved' => 0, 'label' => 'Home', 'entry_id' => 1, 'template_path' => '', 'custom_url' => '/', 'extra' => '', 'childs' => 1, 'level' => 0, 'lower' => 0, 'upper' => 0 ), 2 => array ( 'node_id' => 2, 'lft' => 2, 'rgt' => 3, 'moved' => 0, 'label' => 'Home', 'entry_id' => NULL, 'template_path' => '', 'custom_url' => 'http://google.com/', 'extra' => '', 'childs' => 0, 'level' => 1, 'lower' => 0, 'upper' => 0 ) ); My second array returns some additional key/values I'd like to insert to the above array: array ( 'entry_id' => 1, 'entry_title' => 'This is my title', ); I want to merge both of the arrays inserting the additional information into those that match on the key 'entry_id', as well as keeping the sub arrays which don't match. So, by combining the two arrays, I'd end up with array ( 1 => array ( 'node_id' => 1, 'lft' => 1, 'rgt' => 4, 'moved' => 0, 'label' => 'Home', 'entry_id' => 1, 'template_path' => '', 'custom_url' => '/', 'extra' => '', 'childs' => 1, 'level' => 0, 'lower' => 0, 'upper' => 0, 'entry_title' => 'This is my title' ), 2 => array ( 'node_id' => 2, 'lft' => 2, 'rgt' => 3, 'moved' => 0, 'label' => 'Home', 'entry_id' => NULL, 'template_path' => '', 'custom_url' => 'http://google.com/', 'extra' => '', 'childs' => 0, 'level' => 1, 'lower' => 0, 'upper' => 0, 'entry_title' => NULL ) ); Actually, writing this out makes me think I should do it via sql... Any help/advice greatly appreciated...

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• What is the best free or low-cost Java reporting library (e.g. BIRT, JasperReports, etc.) for making

  - by Max3000

  I want to print, email and write to PDF very simple reports. The reports are basically a list of items, divided in various sections/columns. The sections are not necessarily identical. Think newspaper. I just wasted a solid 2 days of work trying to make this kind of reports using JasperReports. I find that Jasper is great for outputing "normalized" data. The kind that would come out of a database for instance, each row neatly describing an item and each item printed on a line. I'm simplifying a bit but that's the idea. However, given what I want to do I always ended up completely lost. Data not being displayed for no apparent reason, columns of texts never the correct size, column positioning always ending up incorrect, pagination not sanely possible (I was never able to figure it out; the FAQ gives an obscure workaround), etc. I came to the conclusion that Jasper is really not built to make the kind of reports I want. Am I missing something? I'm ready to pay for a tool, as long as the price is reasonable. By reasonable I mean a few $100s. Thanks. EDIT: To answer cetus, here is more information about the report I made in Jasper. What I want is something like this: text text text text ------------------- text | text text |---------- text | text text | text --------| text text |---------- text | text What I made in jasper is this: (detail band) subreport | subreport ------------------------------------ subreport | subreport ------------------------------------ subreport | subreport The subreports are all the same actual report. This report has one field (called "field") and basically just prints this field in a detail band. Hence, running a single subreport simply lists all items from the datasource. The datasource itself is a simple custom JRDatasource containing a collection of strings in the field "field". The datasource iterates over the collection until there are no more strings. Each subreport has its own datasource. I tried many different variations of the above, with all sorts of different properties for the report, subreports, etc. IMO, this is fairly simple stuff. However, the problems I encounter are as follows: Subreports starting from the 3rd don't show up when their position type is 'float'. They do show up when they have 'fix relative to top'. However, I don't want to do this because the first two subreports can be of any length. I can't make each subreport to stretch according to its own length. Instead, they either don't stretch at all (which is not desirable because they have different lenghts) or they stretch according to the longest subreport. This makes a weird layout for sure. Pagination doesn't happen. If some subreports fall outside the page, they simple don't show. One alternative is to increase the 'page height' considerably and the 'detail band height' accordingly. However, in this case it is not really possibly to know the total height in advance. So I'm stuck with calculating/guessing it myself, before the report is even generated. More importantly, long reports end up on one page and this is not acceptable (the printout text is too small, it's ugly/non-professional to have different reports with different PDF page lengths, etc.). BTW, I used iReport so it's possibly limitations of iReport I'm listing here and not of Jasper itself. That's one of the things I'm trying to find out asking this question here. One alternative would be to generate the jrxml myself with just static text but I'm afraid I'll encounter the very same limitations. Anyway, I just generally wasted so much time getting anything done with Jasper that I can't help thinking its not the right tool for the job. (Not to say that Jasper doesn't excel in what it's good at).

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• CRM 2011 Plugin for CREATE (post-operational): Why is the value of "baseamount" zero in post entity image and target?

  - by Olli

  REFORMULATED QUESTION (Apr 24): I am using the CRM Developer Toolkit for VS2012 to create a CRM2011 plugin. The plugin is registered for the CREATE message of the "Invoice Product" entity. Pipeline-Stage is post-operational, execution is synchronous. I register for a post image that contains baseamount. The toolkit creates an execute function that looks like this: protected void ExecutePostInvoiceProductCreate(LocalPluginContext localContext) { if (localContext == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException("localContext"); } IPluginExecutionContext context = localContext.PluginExecutionContext; Entity postImageEntity = (context.PostEntityImages != null && context.PostEntityImages.Contains(this.postImageAlias)) ? context.PostEntityImages[this.postImageAlias] : null; } Since we are in post operational stage, the value of baseamount in postImageEntity should already be calculated from the user input, right? However, the value of baseamountin the postImageEntity is zero. The same holds true for the value of baseamount in the target entity that I get using the following code: Entity targetEntity = (context.InputParameters != null && context.InputParameters.Contains("Target")) ? (Entity)context.InputParameters["Target"] : null; Using a retrieve request like the one below, I am getting the correct value of baseamount: Entity newlyCreated = service.Retrieve("invoicedetail", targetEntity.Id, new ColumnSet(true)); decimal baseAmount = newlyCreated.GetAttributeValue<Money>("baseamount").Value; The issue does not appear in post operational stage of an update event. I'd be glad to hear your ideas/explanations/suggestions on why this is the case... (Further information: Remote debugging, no isolation mode, plugin stored in database) Original Question: I am working on a plugin for CRM 2011 that is supposed to calculate the amount of tax to be paid when an invoice detail is created. To this end I am trying to get the baseamount of the newly created invoicedetail entity from the post entity image in post operational stage. As far as I understood it, the post entity image is a snapshot of the entity in the database after the new invoice detail has been created. Thus it should contain all properties of the newly created invoice detail. I am getting a "postentityimages" property of the IPluginExecutionContext that contains an entity with the alias I registered ("postImage"). This "postImage" entity contains a key for "baseamount" but its value is 0. Can anybody help me understand why this is the case and what I can do about it? (I also noticed that the postImage does not contain all but only a subset of the entities I registered for.) Here is what the code looks like: protected void ExecutePostInvoiceProductCreate(LocalPluginContext localContext) { if (localContext == null) { throw new ArgumentNullException("localContext"); } // Get PluginExecutionContext to obtain PostEntityImages IPluginExecutionContext context = localContext.PluginExecutionContext; // This works: I get a postImage that is not null. Entity postImage = (context.PostEntityImages != null && context.PostEntityImages.Contains(this.postImageAlias)) ? context.PostEntityImages[this.postImageAlias] : null; // Here is the problem: There is a "baseamount" key in the postImage // but its value is zero! decimal baseAmount = ((Money)postImage["baseamount"]).Value; } ADDITION: Pre and post images for post operational update contain non-zero values for baseamount.

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• How to insert sub root node in xml file

  - by pravakar

  Hi guys hope all are doing good. I want to create one sub root node in my xml file like, <CapitalJobsList xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <JobAds> -- element to create <JobAd> <AdvertiserDetails> <AdvertiserId>718508549</AdvertiserId> <AdvertiserName>ABC</AdvertiserName> </AdvertiserDetails> <ConsultantDetails> <ContactName>Naga Divakar</ContactName> <ContactPhone>6239 7755</ContactPhone> <ContactEmail>[email protected]</ContactEmail> <ContactFax>12345678912</ContactFax> </ConsultantDetails> <JobAdDetails> <DateEntered>2009-10-03T21:09:35.500</DateEntered> <AdvertiserJobRef>83754865</AdvertiserJobRef> <Title>IT Operations Manager</Title> <DescriptionShort>Large scale/exciting projects Mentor and manage o...</DescriptionShort> <Description>Large scale/exciting projects Mentor and manage others Management/technical mix This is a fantastic opportunity to join a high profile client who is active across both the commercial and Government domain. As the IT Operations Manager you will be responsible for leading and mentoring a small team of Infrastructure Engineers to ensure the availability and performance of the IT infrastructure. You w</Description> <SalaryMin>0.00</SalaryMin> <SalaryMax>0.00</SalaryMax> <WorkType xsi:nil="true" /> <Location>) as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/Bullets], isnull(Job</Location> <PostCode>2600</PostCode> <ClosingDate>2009-11-01T00:00:00</ClosingDate> <Keywords xsi:nil="true" /> <ApplyEmail xsi:nil="true" /> <ApplyURL>http://jobview.careerone.com.au/GetJob.aspx?JobID=83754865</ApplyURL> </JobAdDetails> <JobAdOptions> <BlindPost xsi:nil="true" /> <AdFormatType xsi:nil="true" /> <AdTemplateName xsi:nil="true" /> <ShowContactDetails xsi:nil="true" /> <ShowSalary xsi:nil="true" /> <HasVideo xsi:nil="true" /> <ResumeRequired>1</ResumeRequired> <ResidentsOnly>0</ResidentsOnly> </JobAdOptions> <CategoryList> <Category xsi:nil="true" /> </CategoryList> <RegionsList> <Region>ACT</Region> </RegionsList> <LevelsList> <Level xsi:nil="true" /> </LevelsList> </JobAd> <JobAd> <AdvertiserDetails> <AdvertiserId>718508549</AdvertiserId> <AdvertiserName>ABC</AdvertiserName> </AdvertiserDetails> <ConsultantDetails> <ContactName>Naga Divakar</ContactName> <ContactPhone>6239 7755</ContactPhone> <ContactEmail>[email protected]</ContactEmail> <ContactFax>12345678912</ContactFax> </ConsultantDetails> <JobAdDetails> <DateEntered>2009-10-03T21:09:35.530</DateEntered> <AdvertiserJobRef>83731488</AdvertiserJobRef> <Title>SAP Developers Required in Canberra - 12 month contract</Title> <DescriptionShort>My client, a large government department in Canbe...</DescriptionShort> <Description>My client, a large government department in Canberra, seeks two SAP Developers for 12 month ongoing contracts. Two SAP Developers Required Expert level ABAP programming skills Large SAP landscape - SAP R/3, SAP Web, SAP BI, SAP ITS My client, a large government department in Canberra, seeks two SAP Developers for 12 month ongoing contracts. My client is a large government department in Canberra, a</Description> <SalaryMin>0.00</SalaryMin> <SalaryMax>0.00</SalaryMax> <WorkType xsi:nil="true" /> <Location>) as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/Bullets], isnull(Job</Location> <PostCode>2600</PostCode> <ClosingDate>2009-11-01T00:00:00</ClosingDate> <Keywords xsi:nil="true" /> <ApplyEmail xsi:nil="true" /> <ApplyURL>http://jobview.careerone.com.au/GetJob.aspx?JobID=83731488</ApplyURL> </JobAdDetails> <JobAdOptions> <BlindPost xsi:nil="true" /> <AdFormatType xsi:nil="true" /> <AdTemplateName xsi:nil="true" /> <ShowContactDetails xsi:nil="true" /> <ShowSalary xsi:nil="true" /> <HasVideo xsi:nil="true" /> <ResumeRequired>1</ResumeRequired> <ResidentsOnly>0</ResidentsOnly> </JobAdOptions> <CategoryList> <Category xsi:nil="true" /> </CategoryList> <RegionsList> <Region>ACT</Region> </RegionsList> <LevelsList> <Level xsi:nil="true" /> </LevelsList> </JobAd> </JobAds> </CapitalJobsList> I have used the sql query for xml path like: select r.advid as [JobAd/AdvertiserDetails/AdvertiserId], CompanyName as [JobAd/AdvertiserDetails/AdvertiserName], firstname +'' ''+ lastname as [JobAd/ConsultantDetails/ContactName], WorkPhone as [JobAd/ConsultantDetails/ContactPhone], AdvEmail as [JobAd/ConsultantDetails/ContactEmail], FaxNo as [JobAd/ConsultantDetails/ContactFax], Job_CreatedDate as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/DateEntered], Job_Id as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/AdvertiserJobRef], Job_Title as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/Title], substring(Job_Description,0,50)+''...'' as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/DescriptionShort], Job_Description as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/Description], CONVERT(DECIMAL(10,2),MinSalary) as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/SalaryMin], CONVERT(DECIMAL(10,2),MaxSalary) as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/SalaryMax], Job_Type as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/WorkType], isnull(Job_Bullets,'') as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/Bullets], isnull(Job_Location,'') as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/Location], Job_PostCode as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/PostCode], Job_ExpireDate as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/ClosingDate], Job_Keywords as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/Keywords], ApplyEmail as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/ApplyEmail], Job_BrandURL+Job_Id as [JobAd/JobAdDetails/ApplyURL], BlindPost as [JobAd/JobAdOptions/BlindPost], AdFormatType as [JobAd/JobAdOptions/AdFormatType], AdTemplateName as [JobAd/JobAdOptions/AdTemplateName], ShowContactDetails as [JobAd/JobAdOptions/ShowContactDetails], ShowSalary as [JobAd/JobAdOptions/ShowSalary], HasVideo as [JobAd/JobAdOptions/HasVideo], ResumeRequired as [JobAd/JobAdOptions/ResumeRequired], ResidentsOnly as [JobAd/JobAdOptions/ResidentsOnly], Job_Category as [JobAd/CategoryList/Category], Job_Location_State as [JobAd/RegionsList/Region], [Level] as [JobAd/LevelsList/Level] from DR_Adv_Registration r, DR_CareerOne_ACTJobs j where r.Advid = j.Advid and job_location_city like(''%'+''+ @City +''+'%'') and job_location_state in('''+ @State +''') and job_status=1 for xml path(''''), Root(''CapitalJobsList''),ELEMENTS XSINIL So, suggest me how to get the sub root node. Thanks in advance

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• System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException - Security perssmission issue

  - by Hiscal

  Can any one help me to resolve this error.My website hosted on shared environment. Server Error in '/' Application. System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to process request. ---> System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed. at System.Security.CodeAccessSecurityEngine.Check(Object demand, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean isPermSet) at System.Security.CodeAccessPermission.Demand() at System.Net.ServicePointManager.set_CertificatePolicy(ICertificatePolicy value) at BirdieThis.WebService.golfService.BookGolfCourse(CourseBooking oCourseInfo, CoursePlayer oCoursePlayer, CoursePayment oCoursePayment) The action that failed was: Demand The type of the first permission that failed was: System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission The first permission that failed was: <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="UnmanagedCode"/> The demand was for: <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="UnmanagedCode"/> The granted set of the failing assembly was: <PermissionSet class="System.Security.PermissionSet" version="1"> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.EnvironmentPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Read="TEMP;TMP;USERNAME;OS;COMPUTERNAME"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Read="D:\Hosting\5457055\html" Write="d:\content\;d:\hosting\" Append="D:\Hosting\5457055\html" PathDiscovery="d:\hosting\"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.IsolatedStorageFilePermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Allowed="AssemblyIsolationByUser" UserQuota="9223372036854775807"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.ReflectionPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="RestrictedMemberAccess"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="Assertion, Execution, ControlThread, ControlPrincipal, RemotingConfiguration"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.UrlIdentityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Url="file:///D:/Hosting/5457055/html/bin/App_Code.DLL"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.ZoneIdentityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Zone="MyComputer"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.KeyContainerPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Web.AspNetHostingPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Level="Medium"/> <IPermission class="System.Configuration.ConfigurationPermission, System.Configuration, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.DnsPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Drawing.Printing.PrintingPermission, System.Drawing, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" version="1" Level="DefaultPrinting"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.Mail.SmtpPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Access="Connect"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlClientPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.OleDb.OleDbPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.Odbc.OdbcPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.WebPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1"> <ConnectAccess> <URI uri="http://.*"/> <URI uri="https://.*"/> </ConnectAccess> </IPermission> <IPermission class="System.Net.SocketPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1"> <ConnectAccess> <ENDPOINT host="*.*.*.*" transport="Tcp" port="3306"/> </ConnectAccess> </IPermission> </PermissionSet> The assembly or AppDomain that failed was: App_Code, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null The method that caused the failure was: golfswitchs.BookGolfResult BookGolfCourse(mygolf.CourseBooking, mygolf.CoursePlayer, mygolf.CoursePayment) The Zone of the assembly that failed was: MyComputer The Url of the assembly that failed was: file:///D:/Hosting/5457055/html/bin/App_Code.DLL --- End of inner exception stack trace --- Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Exception Details: System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to process request. ---> System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed. at System.Security.CodeAccessSecurityEngine.Check(Object demand, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean isPermSet) at System.Security.CodeAccessPermission.Demand() at System.Net.ServicePointManager.set_CertificatePolicy(ICertificatePolicy value) at BirdieThis.WebService.golfService.BookGolfCourse(CourseBooking oCourseInfo, CoursePlayer oCoursePlayer, CoursePayment oCoursePayment) The action that failed was: Demand The type of the first permission that failed was: System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission The first permission that failed was: <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="UnmanagedCode"/> The demand was for: <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="UnmanagedCode"/> The granted set of the failing assembly was: <PermissionSet class="System.Security.PermissionSet" version="1"> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.EnvironmentPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Read="TEMP;TMP;USERNAME;OS;COMPUTERNAME"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Read="D:\Hosting\5457055\html" Write="d:\content\;d:\hosting\" Append="D:\Hosting\5457055\html" PathDiscovery="d:\hosting\"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.IsolatedStorageFilePermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Allowed="AssemblyIsolationByUser" UserQuota="9223372036854775807"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.ReflectionPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="RestrictedMemberAccess"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="Assertion, Execution, ControlThread, ControlPrincipal, RemotingConfiguration"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.UrlIdentityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Url="file:///D:/Hosting/5457055/html/bin/App_Code.DLL"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.ZoneIdentityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Zone="MyComputer"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.KeyContainerPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Web.AspNetHostingPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Level="Medium"/> <IPermission class="System.Configuration.ConfigurationPermission, System.Configuration, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.DnsPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Drawing.Printing.PrintingPermission, System.Drawing, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" version="1" Level="DefaultPrinting"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.Mail.SmtpPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Access="Connect"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlClientPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.OleDb.OleDbPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.Odbc.OdbcPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.WebPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1"> <ConnectAccess> <URI uri="http://.*"/> <URI uri="https://.*"/> </ConnectAccess> </IPermission> <IPermission class="System.Net.SocketPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1"> <ConnectAccess> <ENDPOINT host="*.*.*.*" transport="Tcp" port="3306"/> </ConnectAccess> </IPermission> </PermissionSet> The assembly or AppDomain that failed was: App_Code, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null The method that caused the failure was: golfswitchs.BookGolfResult BookGolfCourse(mygolf.CourseBooking, mygolf.CoursePlayer, mygolf.CoursePayment) The Zone of the assembly that failed was: MyComputer The Url of the assembly that failed was: file:///D:/Hosting/5457055/html/bin/App_Code.DLL --- End of inner exception stack trace --- Source Error: Line 446: Line 447: oPayment.PayCurrency = "USD"; Line 448: oResult = oService.BookGolfCourse(oGolfItem, oGolfplayer, oPayment); Line 449: Response.Write(oResult.RetMsg); Line 450: Source File: c:\inetpub\vhosts\cfmdeveloper.com\subdomains\ind103\httpdocs\test.aspx.cs Line: 448 Stack Trace: [SoapException: System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapException: Server was unable to process request. ---> System.Security.SecurityException: Request for the permission of type 'System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089' failed. at System.Security.CodeAccessSecurityEngine.Check(Object demand, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean isPermSet) at System.Security.CodeAccessPermission.Demand() at System.Net.ServicePointManager.set_CertificatePolicy(ICertificatePolicy value) at BirdieThis.WebService.golfService.BookGolfCourse(CourseBooking oCourseInfo, CoursePlayer oCoursePlayer, CoursePayment oCoursePayment) The action that failed was: Demand The type of the first permission that failed was: System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission The first permission that failed was: <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="UnmanagedCode"/> The demand was for: <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="UnmanagedCode"/> The granted set of the failing assembly was: <PermissionSet class="System.Security.PermissionSet" version="1"> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.EnvironmentPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Read="TEMP;TMP;USERNAME;OS;COMPUTERNAME"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.FileIOPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Read="D:\Hosting\5457055\html" Write="d:\content\;d:\hosting\" Append="D:\Hosting\5457055\html" PathDiscovery="d:\hosting\"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.IsolatedStorageFilePermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Allowed="AssemblyIsolationByUser" UserQuota="9223372036854775807"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.ReflectionPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="RestrictedMemberAccess"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Flags="Assertion, Execution, ControlThread, ControlPrincipal, RemotingConfiguration"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.UrlIdentityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Url="file:///D:/Hosting/5457055/html/bin/App_Code.DLL"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.ZoneIdentityPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Zone="MyComputer"/> <IPermission class="System.Security.Permissions.KeyContainerPermission, mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Web.AspNetHostingPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Level="Medium"/> <IPermission class="System.Configuration.ConfigurationPermission, System.Configuration, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.DnsPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Drawing.Printing.PrintingPermission, System.Drawing, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" version="1" Level="DefaultPrinting"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.Mail.SmtpPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Access="Connect"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.SqlClient.SqlClientPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.OleDb.OleDbPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Data.Odbc.OdbcPermission, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1" Unrestricted="true"/> <IPermission class="System.Net.WebPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1"> <ConnectAccess> <URI uri="http://.*"/> <URI uri="https://.*"/> </ConnectAccess> </IPermission> <IPermission class="System.Net.SocketPermission, System, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" version="1"> <ConnectAccess> <ENDPOINT host="*.*.*.*" transport="Tcp" port="3306"/> </ConnectAccess> </IPermission> </PermissionSet> The assembly or AppDomain that failed was: App_Code, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null The method that caused the failure was: golfswitchs.BookGolfResult BookGolfCourse(mygolf.CourseBooking, mygolf.CoursePlayer, mygolf.CoursePayment) The Zone of the assembly that failed was: MyComputer The Url of the assembly that failed was: file:///D:/Hosting/5457055/html/bin/App_Code.DLL --- End of inner exception stack trace ---] System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall) +431766 System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters) +204 mygolf.golfService.BookGolfCourse(CourseBooking oCourseInfo, CoursePlayer oCoursePlayer, CoursePayment oCoursePayment) +80 birdiethis.web.test.BookClub() in c:\inetpub\vhosts\cfmdeveloper.com\subdomains\ind103\httpdocs\test.aspx.cs:448 birdiethis.web.test.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\inetpub\vhosts\cfmdeveloper.com\subdomains\ind103\httpdocs\test.aspx.cs:28 System.Web.Util.CalliHelper.EventArgFunctionCaller(IntPtr fp, Object o, Object t, EventArgs e) +14 System.Web.Util.CalliEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e) +35 System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +99 System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +50 System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +627 Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:2.0.50727.3603; ASP.NET Version:2.0.50727.3082

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• The Challenge with HTML5 – In Pictures

  - by dwahlin

  I love working with Web technologies and am looking forward to the new functionality that HTML5 will ultimately bring to the table (some of which can be used today). Having been through the div versus layer battle back in the IE4 and Netscape 4 days I think we’re headed down that road again as a result of browsers implementing features differently. I’ve been spending a lot of time researching and playing around with HTML5 samples and features (mainly because we’re already seeing demand for training on HTML5) and there’s a lot of great stuff there that will truly revolutionize web applications as we know them. However, browsers just aren’t there yet and many people outside of the development world don’t really feel a need to upgrade their browser if it’s working reasonably well (Mom and Dad come to mind) so it’s going to be awhile. There’s a nice test site at http://www.HTML5Test.com that runs through different HTML5 features and scores how well they’re supported. They don’t test for everything and are very clear about that on the site: “The HTML5 test score is only an indication of how well your browser supports the upcoming HTML5 standard and related specifications. It does not try to test all of the new features offered by HTML5, nor does it try to test the functionality of each feature it does detect. Despite these shortcomings we hope that by quantifying the level of support users and web developers will get an idea of how hard the browser manufacturers work on improving their browsers and the web as a development platform. The score is calculated by testing for the many new features of HTML5. Each feature is worth one or more points. Apart from the main HTML5 specification and other specifications created the W3C HTML Working Group, this test also awards points for supporting related drafts and specifications. Some of these specifications were initially part of HTML5, but are now further developed by other W3C working groups. WebGL is also part of this test despite not being developed by the W3C, because it extends the HTML5 canvas element with a 3d context. The test also awards bonus points for supporting audio and video codecs and supporting SVG or MathML embedding in a plain HTML document. These test do not count towards the total score because HTML5 does not specify any required audio or video codec. Also SVG and MathML are not required by HTML5, the specification only specifies rules for how such content should be embedded inside a plain HTML file. Please be aware that the specifications that are being tested are still in development and could change before receiving an official status. In the future new tests will be added for the pieces of the specification that are currently still missing. The maximum number of points that can be scored is 300 at this moment, but this is a moving goalpost.” It looks like their tests haven’t been updated since June, but the numbers are pretty scary as a developer because it means I’m going to have to do a lot of browser sniffing before assuming a particular feature is available to use. Not that much different from what we do today as far as browser sniffing you say? I’d have to disagree since HTML5 takes it to a whole new level. In today’s world we have script libraries such as jQuery (my personal favorite), Prototype, script.aculo.us, YUI Library, MooTools, etc. that handle the heavy lifting for us. Until those libraries handle all of the key HTML5 features available it’s going to be a challenge. Certain features such as Canvas are supported fairly well across most of the major browsers while other features such as audio and video are hit or miss depending upon what codec you want to use. Run the tests yourself to see what passes and what fails for different browsers. You can also view the HTML5 Test Suite Conformance Results at http://test.w3.org/html/tests/reporting/report.htm (a work in progress). The table below lists the scores that the HTML5Test site returned for different browsers I have installed on my desktop PC and laptop. A specific list of tests run and features supported are given when you go to the site. Note that I went ahead and tested the IE9 beta and it didn’t do nearly as good as I expected it would, but it’s not officially out yet so I expect that number will change a lot. Am I opposed to HTML5 as a result of these tests? Of course not - I’m actually really excited about what it offers.  However, I’m trying to be realistic and feel it'll definitely add a new level of headache to the Web application development process having been through something like this many years ago. On the flipside, developers that are able to target a specific browser (typically Intranet apps) or master the cross-browser issues are going to release some pretty sweet applications. Check out http://html5gallery.com/ for a look at some of the more cutting-edge sites out there that use HTML5. Also check out the http://www.beautyoftheweb.com site that Microsoft put together to showcase IE9. Chrome 8 Safari 5 for Windows     Opera 10 Firefox 3.6     Internet Explorer 9 Beta (Note that it’s still beta) Internet Explorer 8

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• New Product: Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 – Small, Smart, Connected

  - by terrencebarr

  The Internet of Things (IoT) is coming. And, with todays launch of the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 product, Java is going to play an even greater role in it. Java in the Internet of Things By all accounts, intelligent embedded devices are penetrating the world around us – driving industrial processes, monitoring environmental conditions, providing better health care, analyzing and processing data, and much more. And these devices are becoming increasingly connected, adding another dimension of utility. Welcome to the Internet of Things. As I blogged yesterday, this is a huge opportunity for the Java technology and ecosystem. To enable and utilize these billions of devices effectively you need a programming model, tools, and protocols which provide a feature-rich, consistent, scalable, manageable, and interoperable platform.  Java technology is ideally suited to address these technical and business problems, enabling you eliminate many of the typical challenges in designing embedded solutions. By using Java you can focus on building smarter, more valuable embedded solutions faster. To wit, Java technology is already powering around 10 billion devices worldwide. Delivering on this vision and accelerating the growth of embedded Java solutions, Oracle is today announcing a brand-new product: Oracle Java Micro Edition (ME) Embedded 3.2, accompanied by an update release of the Java ME Software Development Kit (SDK) to version 3.2. What is Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2? Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 is a complete Java runtime client, optimized for ARM architecture connected microcontrollers and other resource-constrained systems. The product provides dedicated embedded functionality and is targeted for low-power, limited memory devices requiring support for a range of network services and I/O interfaces.  What features and APIs are provided by Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2? Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 is a Java ME runtime based on CLDC 1.1 (JSR-139) and IMP-NG (JSR-228). The runtime and virtual machine (VM) are highly optimized for embedded use. Also included in the product are the following optional JSRs and Oracle APIs: File I/O API’s (JSR-75)  Wireless Messaging API’s (JSR-120) Web Services (JSR-172) Security and Trust Services subset (JSR-177) Location API’s (JSR-179) XML API’s (JSR-280)  Device Access API Application Management System (AMS) API AccessPoint API Logging API Additional embedded features are: Remote application management system Support for continuous 24×7 operation Application monitoring, auto-start, and system recovery Application access to peripheral interfaces such as GPIO, I2C, SPIO, memory mapped I/O Application level logging framework, including option for remote logging Headless on-device debugging – source level Java application debugging over IP Connection Remote configuration of the Java VM What type of platforms are targeted by Oracle Java ME 3.2 Embedded? The product is designed for embedded, always-on, resource-constrained, headless (no graphics/no UI), connected (wired or wireless) devices with a variety of peripheral I/O.  The high-level system requirements are as follows: System based on ARM architecture SOCs Memory footprint (approximate) from 130 KB RAM/350KB ROM (for a minimal, customized configuration) to 700 KB RAM/1500 KB ROM (for the full, standard configuration)  Very simple embedded kernel, or a more capable embedded OS/RTOS At least one type of network connection (wired or wireless) The initial release of the product is delivered as a device emulation environment for x86/Windows desktop computers, integrated with the Java ME SDK 3.2. A standard binary of Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 for ARM KEIL development boards based on ARM Cortex M-3/4 (KEIL MCBSTM32F200 using ST Micro SOC STM32F207IG) will soon be available for download from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).  What types of applications can I develop with Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2? The Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 product is a full-featured embedded Java runtime supporting applications based on the IMP-NG application model, which is derived from the well-known MIDP 2 application model. The runtime supports execution of multiple concurrent applications, remote application management, versatile connectivity, and a rich set of APIs and features relevant for embedded use cases, including the ability to interact with peripheral I/O directly from Java applications. This rich feature set, coupled with familiar and best-in class software development tools, allows developers to quickly build and deploy sophisticated embedded solutions for a wide range of use cases. Target markets well supported by Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 include wireless modules for M2M, industrial and building control, smart grid infrastructure, home automation, and environmental sensors and tracking. What tools are available for embedded application development for Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2? Along with the release of Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2, Oracle is also making available an updated version of the Java ME Software Development Kit (SDK), together with plug-ins for the NetBeans and Eclipse IDEs, to deliver a complete development environment for embedded application development.  OK – sounds great! Where can I find out more? And how do I get started? There is a complete set of information, data sheet, API documentation, “Getting Started Guide”, FAQ, and download links available: For an overview of Oracle Embeddable Java, see here. For the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 press release, see here. For the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 data sheet, see here. For the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 landing page, see here. For the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 documentation page, including a “Getting Started Guide” and FAQ, see here. For the Oracle Java ME SDK 3.2 landing and download page, see here. Finally, to ask more questions, please see the OTN “Java ME Embedded” forum To get started, grab the “Getting Started Guide” and download the Java ME SDK 3.2, which includes the Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 device emulation.  Can I learn more about Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 at JavaOne and/or Java Embedded @ JavaOne? Glad you asked Both conferences, JavaOne and Java Embedded @ JavaOne, will feature a host of content and information around the new Oracle Java ME Embedded 3.2 product, from technical and business sessions, to hands-on tutorials, and demos. Stay tuned, I will post details shortly. Cheers, – Terrence Filed under: Mobile & Embedded Tagged: "Oracle Java ME Embedded", Connected, embedded, Embedded Java, Java Embedded @ JavaOne, JavaOne, Smart

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• Tweaking a few URL validation settings on ASP.NET v4.0

  - by Carlyle Dacosta

  ASP.NET has a few default settings for URLs out of the box. These can be configured quite easily in the web.config file within the  <system.web>/<httpRuntime> configuration section. Some of these are: <httpRuntime maxUrlLength=”<number here>”. This number should be an integer value (defaults to 260 characters). The value must be greater than or equal to zero, though obviously small values will lead to an un-useable website. This attribute gates the length of the Url without query string. <httpRuntime maxQueryStringLength=”<number here>”. This number should be an integer value (defaults to 2048 characters). The value must be greater than or equal to zero, though obviously small values will lead to an un-useable website. <httpRuntime requestPathInvalidCharacters=”List of characters you need included in ASP.NETs validation checks”. By default the characters are “<,>,*,%,&,:,\,?”. However once can easily change this by setting by modifying web.config. Remember, these characters can be specified in a variety of formats. For example, I want the character ‘!’ to be included in ASP.NETs URL validation logic. So I set the following: <httpRuntime requestPathInvalidCharacters=”<,>,*,%,&,:,\,?,!”. A character could also be specified in its xml encoded form. ‘&lt;;’ would mean the ‘<’ sign). I could specify the ‘!’ in its xml encoded unicode format such as requestPathInvalidCharacters=”<,>,*,%,&,:,\,?,$#x0021;” or I could specify it in its unicode encoded form or in the “<,>,*,%,&,:,\,?,%u0021” format. The following settings can be applied at Root Web.Config level, App Web.config level, Folder level or within a location tag: <location path="some path here"> <system.web> <httpRuntime maxUrlLength="" maxQueryStringLength="" requestPathInvalidChars="" .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } If any of the above settings fail request validation, an Http 400 “Bad Request” HttpException is thrown. These can be easily handled on the Application_Error handler on Global.asax.   Also, a new attribute in <httpRuntime /> called “relaxedUrlToFileSystemMapping” has been added with a default of false. <httpRuntime … relaxedUrlToFileSystemMapping="true|false" /> When the relaxedUrlToFileSystemMapping attribute is set to false inbound Urls still need to be valid NTFS file paths. For example Urls (sans query string) need to be less than 260 characters; no path segment within a Url can use old-style DOS device names (LPT1, COM1, etc…); Urls must be valid Windows file paths. A url like “http://digg.com/http://cnn.com” should work with this attribute set to true (of course a few characters will need to be unblocked by removing them from requestPathInvalidCharacters="" above). Managed configuration for non-NTFS-compliant Urls is determined from the first valid configuration path found when walking up the path segments of the Url. For example, if the request Url is "/foo/bar/baz/<blah>data</blah>", and there is a web.config in the "/foo/bar" directory, then the managed configuration for the request comes from merging the configuration hierarchy to include the web.config from "/foo/bar". The value of the public property HttpRequest.PhysicalPath is set to [physical file path of the application root] + "REQUEST_URL_IS_NOT_A_VALID_FILESYSTEM_PATH". For example, given a request Url like "/foo/bar/baz/<blah>data</blah>", where the application root is "/foo/bar" and the physical file path for that root is "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\foo\bar", then PhysicalPath would be "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\foo\bar\ REQUEST_URL_IS_NOT_A_VALID_FILESYSTEM_PATH". Carl Dacosta ASP.NET QA Team

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• Feedback on "market manipulation", a peripheral game mechanic for a satirical MMO

  - by BerndBrot

  This question asks for feedback on a specific game-mechanic. Since there is not one right feedback on a game mechanic, I tried to provide enough context and guidelines to still make it possible for users to rate answers and to accept an answer as the best answer (following these criteria from Writer.SE's meta website). Please comment if you have any suggestions on how I could improve the question in that regard. So, let's begin with the game itself and some of its elements which are relevant for this question. Context I'm working on a satirical, text-based multiplayer adventure and role-playing game set in modern-day London. The game resolves around the concept of sin and features a myriad of (venomous) allusions to all the things that go wrong in this world. Players can choose between character classes like bullshit artist (consultant), bankster, lawyer, mobster, celebrity, politician, etc. In order to complete the game, the player has to live so sinfully with regard to any of the seven deadly sins that a demon is willing to offer them a contract of sponsorship. On their quest to live a sinful live, characters explore more and more locations of modern-day London (on a GoogleMap), fight "monsters" like insurance sales agents or Jehovah's Witnesses, and complete quests, like building a PowerPoint presentation out of marketing buzz words or keeping up a number of substance abuse effects in order to progress on the gluttony path. Battles are turn based with both combatants having a deck of cards, with which they try to make their enemy give in to temptations of all sorts. Tempted enemies sometimes become contacts (an item drop mechanic), which can be exploited for various benefits, depending on their area of influence (finance, underworld, bureaucracy, etc.), level of influence, and kind of sway that the player has over them (bribed, seduced, threatened, etc.) Once a contract has been exploited, the player loses that contact. Most actions require turns. Turns are limited, but refill each day. Criteria A number of peripheral game mechanics are supposed to represent real world abuses and mischief in a humorous way integrate real world data and events to strengthen the feeling of relevance of the game's humor with regard to real world problems add fun ways of interacting with other players add ways for players to express themselves through game-play Market manipulation is one such peripheral game mechanic and should fulfill all of these goals. Market manipulation This is my initial design of the mechanic: Players can enter the London Stock Exchange (LSE) (without paying a turn) LSE displays the stock prices of a number of companies in industries like weapons or tobacco as well as some derivatives based on wheat and corn. The stock prices are calculated based on the actual stock prices of these companies and derivatives (in real time) any market manipulations that were conducted by the players any market corrections of the system Players can buy and sell shares with cash, a resource in the game, at current in-game market value (without paying a turn). Players can manipulate the market, i.e. let the price of a share either rise or fall, by some amount, over a certain period of time. Manipulating the market requires 1 turn A contact in the financial sector (see above). The higher the level of influence of the contact, the stronger the effect of the manipulation on the stock price, and/or the shorter it takes for the manipulation to manifest itself. Market manipulation also adds a crime to the player's record. (There are a multitude of ways to take care of that, but it is still another "cost" of market manipulations.) The system continuously corrects market manipulations by letting the in-game prices converge towards their real world counterparts at a rate of 2% of the difference between the two per hour. Because of this market correction mechanism, pushing up prices (and screwing down prices) becomes increasingly difficult the higher (lower) the price already is. Whenever food prices reach a certain level, in-game stories are posted about hunger catastrophes happening somewhere far, far away (maybe with links to real world news stories). Whenever a player sells a certain number of shares with a sufficiently high margin, they are mentioned in that day's in-game financial news. Since the number of stock options is very limited, players will inevitably collide in their efforts to manipulate the market in their favor. Hopefully, it will also be a fun side-arena for guilds and covenants to fight each other. Question(s) What do you think of this mechanism given the criteria for peripheral game mechanics that I specified for my game? Do you have any ideas how the mechanic could be improved with regard to these criteria (or otherwise)? Could it be improved to allow for more expressive game-play, or involve an allusion to some other real world madness (like short selling, leveraging, or some other banking magic)? Are there any game-theoretic problems with this mechanic, like maybe certain dominant individual strategies that, collectively, lead to every player profiting and thus eliminating the idea of market manipulation PVP? Also, if you like (or dislike) this question, feel free to participate in the discussion on GDSE meta: "Should we be more lax with regard to SE's question/answer format to make game design questions possible?"

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• SOA Suite 11g Asynchronous Testing with soapUI

  - by Greg Mally

  Overview The Enterprise Manager test harness that comes bundled with SOA Suite 11g is a great tool for doing smoke tests and some minor load testing. When a more robust testing tool is needed, often times soapUI is leveraged for many reasons ranging from ease of use to cost effective. However, when you want to start doing some more complex testing other than synchronous web services with static content, then the free version of soapUI becomes a bit more challenging. In this blog I will show you how to test asynchronous web services with soapUI free edition. The following assumes that you have a working knowledge of soapUI and will not go into concepts like setting up a project etc. For the basics, please review the documentation for soapUI: http://www.soapui.org/Getting-Started/ Asynchronous Web Service Testing in soapUI When invoking an asynchronous web service, the caller must provide a callback for the response. Since our testing will originate from soapUI, then it is only natural that soapUI would provide the callback mechanism. This mechanism in soapUI is called a MockService. In a nutshell, a soapUI MockService is a simulation of a Web Service (aka, a process listening on a port). We will go through the steps in setting up the MockService for a simple asynchronous BPEL process. After creating your soapUI project based on an asynchronous BPEL process, you will see something like the following: Notice that soapUI created an interface for both the request and the response (i.e., callback). The interface that was created for the callback will be used to create the MockService. Right-click on the callback interface and select the Generate MockService menu item: You will be presented with the Generate MockService dialogue where we will tweak the Path and possibly the port (depends upon what ports are available on the machine where soapUI will be running). We will adjust the Path to include the operation name (append /processResponse in this example) and the port of 8088 is fine: Once the MockService is created, you should have something like the following in soapUI: This window acts as a console/view into the callback process. When the play button is pressed (green triangle in the upper left-hand corner), soapUI will start a process running on the configured Port that will accept web service invocations on the configured Path: At this point we are “almost” ready to try out the asynchronous test. But first we must provide the web service addressing (WS-A) configuration on the request message. We will edit the message for the request interface that was generated when the project was created (SimpleAsyncBPELProcessBinding > process > Request 1 in this example). At the bottom of the request message editor you will find the WS-A configuration by left-clicking on the WS-A label: Here we will setup WS-A by changing the default values to: Must understand: TRUE Add default wsa:Action: Add default wsa:Action (checked) Reply to: ${host where soapUI is running}:${MockService Port}${MockService Path} … in this example: http://192.168.1.181:8088/mockSimpleAsyncBPELProcessCallbackBinding/processResponse We now are ready to run the asynchronous test from soapUI free edition. Make sure that the MockService you created is running and then push the play button for the request (green triangle in the upper left-hand corner of the request editor). If everything is configured correctly, you should see the response show up in the MockService window: To view the response message/payload, just double-click on a response message in the Message Log window of the MockService: At this point you can now expand the project to include a Test Suite for some load balance tests etc. This same topic has been covered in various detail on other sites/blogs, but I wanted to simplify and detail how this is done in the context of SOA Suite 11g. It also serves as a nice introduction to another blog of mine: SOA Suite 11g Dynamic Payload Testing with soapUI Free Edition.

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• Tweaking a few URL validation settings on ASP.NET v4.0

  - by Carlyle Dacosta

  ASP.NET has a few default settings for URLs out of the box. These can be configured quite easily in the web.config file within the  <system.web>/<httpRuntime> configuration section. Some of these are: <httpRuntime maxUrlLength=”<number here>” This number should be an integer value (defaults to 260 characters). The value must be greater than or equal to zero, though obviously small values will lead to an un-useable website. This attribute gates the length of the Url without query string. <httpRuntime maxQueryStringLength=”<number here>”. This number should be an integer value (defaults to 2048 characters). The value must be greater than or equal to zero, though obviously small values will lead to an un-useable website. <httpRuntime requestPathInvalidCharacters=”List of characters you need included in ASP.NETs validation checks” /> By default the characters are “<,>,*,%,&,:,\,?”. However once can easily change this by setting by modifying web.config. Remember, these characters can be specified in a variety of formats. For example, I want the character ‘!’ to be included in ASP.NETs URL validation logic. So I set the following: <httpRuntime requestPathInvalidCharacters=”<,>,*,%,&,:,\,?,!”. A character could also be specified in its xml encoded form. ‘&lt;;’ would mean the ‘<’ sign). I could specify the ‘!’ in its xml encoded unicode format such as requestPathInvalidCharacters=”<,>,*,%,&,:,\,?,$#x0021;” or I could specify it in its unicode encoded form or in the “<,>,*,%,&,:,\,?,%u0021” format. The following settings can be applied at Root Web.Config level, App Web.config level, Folder level or within a location tag: <location path="some path here"> <system.web> <httpRuntime maxUrlLength="" maxQueryStringLength="" requestPathInvalidChars="" /> .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, "Courier New", courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } If any of the above settings fail request validation, an Http 400 “Bad Request” HttpException is thrown. These can be easily handled on the Application_Error handler on Global.asax.   Also, a new attribute in <httpRuntime /> called “relaxedUrlToFileSystemMapping” has been added with a default of false. <httpRuntime … relaxedUrlToFileSystemMapping="true|false" /> When the relaxedUrlToFileSystemMapping attribute is set to false inbound Urls still need to be valid NTFS file paths. For example Urls (sans query string) need to be less than 260 characters; no path segment within a Url can use old-style DOS device names (LPT1, COM1, etc…); Urls must be valid Windows file paths. A url like “http://digg.com/http://cnn.com” should work with this attribute set to true (of course a few characters will need to be unblocked by removing them from requestPathInvalidCharacters="" above). Managed configuration for non-NTFS-compliant Urls is determined from the first valid configuration path found when walking up the path segments of the Url. For example, if the request Url is "/foo/bar/baz/<blah>data</blah>", and there is a web.config in the "/foo/bar" directory, then the managed configuration for the request comes from merging the configuration hierarchy to include the web.config from "/foo/bar". The value of the public property HttpRequest.PhysicalPath is set to [physical file path of the application root] + "REQUEST_URL_IS_NOT_A_VALID_FILESYSTEM_PATH". For example, given a request Url like "/foo/bar/baz/<blah>data</blah>", where the application root is "/foo/bar" and the physical file path for that root is "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\foo\bar", then PhysicalPath would be "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\foo\bar\ REQUEST_URL_IS_NOT_A_VALID_FILESYSTEM_PATH".

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• Leaks on Wikis: "Corporations...You're Next!" Oracle Desktop Virtualization Can Help.

  - by adam.hawley

  Between all the press coverage on the unauthorized release of 251,287 diplomatic documents and on previous extensive releases of classified documents on the events in Iraq and Afghanistan, one could be forgiven for thinking massive leaks are really an issue for governments, but it is not: It is an issue for corporations as well. In fact, corporations are apparently set to be the next big target for things like Wikileaks. Just the threat of such a release against one corporation recently caused the price of their stock to drop 3% after the leak organization claimed to have 5GB of information from inside the company, with the implication that it might be damaging or embarrassing information. At the moment of this blog anyway, we don't know yet if that is true or how they got the information but how did the diplomatic cable leak happen? For the diplomatic cables, according to press reports, a private in the military, with some appropriate level of security clearance (that is, he apparently had the correct level of security clearance to be accessing the information...he reportedly didn't "hack" his way through anything to get to the documents which might have raised some red flags...), is accused of accessing the material and copying it onto a writeable CD labeled "Lady Gaga" and walking out the door with it. Upload and... Done. In the same article, the accused is quoted as saying "Information should be free. It belongs in the public domain." Now think about all the confidential information in your company or non-profit... from credit card information, to phone records, to customer or donor lists, to corporate strategy documents, product cost information, etc, etc.... And then think about that last quote above from what was a very junior level person in the organization...still feeling comfortable with your ability to control all your information? So what can you do to guard against these types of breaches where there is no outsider (or even insider) intrusion to detect per se, but rather someone with malicious intent is physically walking out the door with data that they are otherwise allowed to access in their daily work? A major first step it to make it physically, logistically much harder to walk away with the information. If the user with malicious intent has no way to copy to removable or moble media (USB sticks, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs, memory cards, or even laptop disk drives) then, as a practical matter it is much more difficult to physically move the information outside the firewall. But how can you control access tightly and reliably and still keep your hundreds or even thousands of users productive in their daily job? Oracle Desktop Virtualization products can help.Oracle's comprehensive suite of desktop virtualization and access products allow your applications and, most importantly, the related data, to stay in the (highly secured) data center while still allowing secure access from just about anywhere your users need to be to be productive.  Users can securely access all the data they need to do their job, whether from work, from home, or on the road and in the field, but fully configurable policies set up centrally by privileged administrators allow you to control whether, for instance, they are allowed to print documents or use USB devices or other removable media.  Centrally set policies can also control not only whether they can download to removable devices, but also whether they can upload information (see StuxNet for why that is important...)In fact, by using Sun Ray Client desktop hardware, which does not contain any disk drives, or removable media drives, even theft of the desktop device itself would not make you vulnerable to data loss, unlike a laptop that can be stolen with hundreds of gigabytes of information on its disk drive.  And for extreme security situations, Sun Ray Clients even come standard with the ability to use fibre optic ethernet networking to each client to prevent the possibility of unauthorized monitoring of network traffic.But even without Sun Ray Client hardware, users can leverage Oracle's Secure Global Desktop software or the Oracle Virtual Desktop Client to securely access server-resident applications, desktop sessions, or full desktop virtual machines without persisting any application data on the desktop or laptop being used to access the information.  And, again, even in this context, the Oracle products allow you to control what gets uploaded, downloaded, or printed for example.Another benefit of Oracle's Desktop Virtualization and access products is the ability to rapidly and easily shut off user access centrally through administrative polices if, for example, an employee changes roles or leaves the company and should no longer have access to the information.Oracle's Desktop Virtualization suite of products can help reduce operating expense and increase user productivity, and those are good reasons alone to consider their use.  But the dynamics of today's world dictate that security is one of the top reasons for implementing a virtual desktop architecture in enterprises.For more information on these products, view the webpages on www.oracle.com and the Oracle Technology Network website.

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• Silverlight Firestarter Wrap Up and WCF RIA Services Talk Sample Code

  - by dwahlin

  I had a great time attending and speaking at the Silverlight Firestarter event up in Redmond on December 2, 2010. In addition to getting a chance to hang out with a lot of cool people from Microsoft such as Scott Guthrie, John Papa, Tim Heuer, Brian Goldfarb, John Allwright, David Pugmire, Jesse Liberty, Jeff Handley, Yavor Georgiev, Jossef Goldberg, Mike Cook and many others, I also had a chance to chat with a lot of people attending the event and hear about what projects they’re working on which was awesome. If you didn’t get a chance to look through all of the new features coming in Silverlight 5 check out John Papa’s post on the subject. While at the Silverlight Firestarter event I gave a presentation on WCF RIA Services and wanted to get the code posted since several people have asked when it’d be available. The talk can be viewed by clicking the image below. Code from the talk follows as well as additional links. I had a few people ask about the green bracelet on my left hand since it looks like something you’d get from a waterpark. It was used to get us access down a little hall that led backstage and allowed us to go backstage during the event. I thought it looked kind of dorky but it was required to get through security. Sample Code from My WCF RIA Services Talk (To login to the 2 apps use “user” and “P@ssw0rd”. Make sure to do a rebuild of the projects in Visual Studio before running them.) View All Silverlight Firestarter Talks and Scott Guthrie’s Keynote WCF RIA Services SP1 Beta for Silverlight 4 WCF RIA Services Code Samples (including some SP1 samples) Improved binding support in EntitySet and EntityCollection with SP1 (Kyle McClellan’s Blog) Introducing an MVVM-Friendly DomainDataSource: The DomainCollectionView (Kyle McClellan’s Blog) I’ve had the chance to speak at a lot of conferences but never with as many cameras, streaming capabilities, people watching live and overall hype involved. Over 1000 people registered to attend the conference in person at the Microsoft campus and well over 15,000 to watch it through the live stream.  The event started for me on Tuesday afternoon with a flight up to Seattle from Phoenix. My flight was delayed 1 1/2 hours (I seem to be good at booking delayed flights) so I didn’t get up there until almost 8 PM. John Papa did a tech check at 9 PM that night and I was scheduled for 9:30 PM. We basically plugged in my laptop backstage (amazing number of servers, racks and audio devices back there) and made sure everything showed up properly on the projector and the machines recording the presentation. In addition to a dedicated show director, there were at least 5 tech people back stage and at least that many up in the booth running lights, audio, cameras, and other aspects of the show. I wish I would’ve taken a picture of the backstage setup since it was pretty massive – servers all over the place. I definitely gained a new appreciation for how much work goes into these types of events. Here’s what the room looked like right before my tech check– not real exciting at this point. That’s Yavor Georgiev (who spoke on WCF Services at the Firestarter) in the background. We had plenty of monitors to reference during the presentation. Two monitors for slides (right and left side) and a notes monitor. The 4th monitor showed the time and they’d type in notes to us as we talked (such as “You’re over time!” in my case since I went around 4 minutes over :-)). Wednesday morning I went back on campus at Microsoft and watched John Papa film a few Silverlight TV episodes with Dave Campbell and Ryan Plemons.   Next I had the chance to watch the dry run of the keynote with Scott Guthrie and John Papa. We were all blown away by the demos shown since they were even better than expected. Starting at 1 PM on Wednesday I went over to Building 35 and listened to Yavor Georgiev (WCF Services), Jaime Rodriguez (Windows Phone 7), Jesse Liberty (Data Binding) and Jossef Goldberg and Mike Cook (Silverlight Performance) give their different talks and we all shared feedback with each other which was a lot of fun. Jeff Handley from the RIA Services team came afterwards and listened to me give a dry run of my WCF RIA Services talk. He had some great feedback that I really appreciated getting. That night I hung out with John Papa and Ward Bell and listened to John walk through his keynote demos. I also got a sneak peak of the gift given to Dave Campbell for all his work with Silverlight Cream over the years. It’s a poster signed by all of the key people involved with Silverlight: Thursday morning I got up fairly early to get to the event center by 8 AM for speaker pictures. It was nice and quiet at that point although outside the room there was a huge line of people waiting to get in.     At around 8:30 AM everyone was let in and the main room was filled quickly. Two other overflow rooms in the Microsoft conference center (Building 33) were also filled to capacity. At around 9 AM Scott Guthrie kicked off the event and all the excitement started! From there it was all a blur but it was definitely a lot of fun. All of the sessions for the Silverlight Firestarter were recorded and can be watched here (including the keynote). Corey Schuman, John Papa and I also released 11 lab exercises and associated videos to help people get started with Silverlight. Definitely check them out if you’re interested in learning more! Level 100: Getting Started Lab 01 - WinForms and Silverlight Lab 02 - ASP.NET and Silverlight Lab 03 - XAML and Controls Lab 04 - Data Binding Level 200: Ready for More Lab 05 - Migrating Apps to Out-of-Browser Lab 06 - Great UX with Blend Lab 07 - Web Services and Silverlight Lab 08 - Using WCF RIA Services Level 300: Take me Further Lab 09 - Deep Dive into Out-of-Browser Lab 10 - Silverlight Patterns: Using MVVM Lab 11 - Silverlight and Windows Phone 7

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• How SQL Server 2014 impacts Red Gate’s SQL Compare

  - by Michelle Taylor

  SQL Compare 10.7 successfully connects to SQL Server 2014, but it doesn’t yet cover the SQL Server 2014 features which would require us to make major changes to SQL Compare to support. In this post I’m going to talk about the SQL Server 2014 features we’ve already begun supporting, and which ones we’re working on for the next release of SQL Compare (v11). From SQL Compare’s perspective, the new memory-optimized table functionality (some might know it as ‘Hekaton’) has been the most important change. It can’t be described as its own object type, but the new functionality is split across two existing object types (three if you count indexes), as it also comes with native stored procedures and inline indexes. Along with connectivity support, the SQL Compare team has already implemented the first part of the puzzle – inline specification of indexes. These are essential for memory-optimized tables because it’s not possible to alter the memory optimized table’s structure, and so indexes can’t be added after the fact without dropping the table. Books Online  shows this in more detail in the table_index and column_index clauses of http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174979(v=sql.120).aspx. SQL Compare 10.7 currently supports reading the new inline index specification from script folders and source control repositories, and will write out inline indexes where it’s necessary to do so (i.e. in UDDTs or when attempting to write projects compatible with the SSDT database project format). However, memory-optimized tables themselves are not yet supported in 10.7. The team is actively working on making them available in the v11 release with full support later in the year, and in a beta version before that. Fortunately, SQL Compare already has some ways of handling tables that have to be dropped and created rather than altered, which are being adapted to handle this new kind of table. Because it’s one of the largest new database engine features, there’s an equally large Books Online section on memory-optimized tables, but for us the most important parts of the documentation are the normal table features that are changed or unsupported and the new syntax found in the T-SQL reference pages. We are treating SQL Compare’s support of Natively Compiled Stored Procedures as a separate unit of work, which will be available in a subsequent beta and also feed into the v11 release. This new type of stored procedure is designed to work with memory-optimized tables to maintain the performance improvements gained by them – but you can still also access memory-optimized tables from normal stored procedures and ad-hoc queries. To us, they’re essentially a limited-syntax stored procedure with a few extra options in the create statement, embodied in the updated CREATE PROCEDURE documentation and with the detailed limitations. They should be easier to handle than memory-optimized tables simply because the handling of stored procedures is less sensitive to dropping the object than the handling of tables. However, both share an incompatibility with DDL triggers and Event Notifications which mean we’ll need to temporarily disable these during the specific deployment operations that involve them – don’t worry, we’ll supply a warning if this is the case so that you can check your auditing arrangements can handle the situation. There are also a handful of other improvements in SQL Server 2014 which affect SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare that are not connected to memory optimized tables. The largest of these are the improvements to columnstore indexes, with the capability to create clustered columnstore indexes and update columnstore tables through them – for more detail, take a look at the new syntax reference. There’s also a new index option for better compression of columnstores (COLUMNSTORE_ARCHIVE) and a new statistics option for incremental per-partition statistics, plus the 90 compatibility level is being retired. We’re planning to finish up these small clean-up features last, and be ready to release SQL Compare 11 with full SQL 2014 support early in Q3 this year. For a more thorough overview of what’s new in SQL Server 2014, Books Online’s What’s New section is a good place to start (although almost all the changes in this version are in the Database Engine).

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• Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: The Insurance Industry’s Dream

  - by Jenna Danko

  On June 3rd, I saw the Gaylord Resort Centre in Washington D.C. become the hub of C level executives and managers of insurance carriers for the IASA 2013 Conference.  Insurance Accounting/Regulation and Technology sessions took the focus, but there were plenty of tertiary sessions for career development, which complemented the overall strong networking side of the conference.  As an exhibitor, Oracle, along with several hundred other product providers, welcomed the opportunity to display and demonstrate our solutions and we were encouraged by hustle and bustle of the exhibition floor.  The IASA organizers had pre-arranged fast track tours whereby interested conference delegates could sign up for a series of like-themed presentations from Vendors, giving them a level of 'Speed Dating' introductions to possible solutions and services.  Oracle participated in a number of these, which were very well subscribed.  Clearly, the conference had a strong business focus; however, attendees saw technology as a key enabler to get their processes done smarter, faster and cheaper.  As we navigated through the exhibition, it became clear from the inquiries that came to us that insurance carriers are gravitating to a number of focus areas: Navigating the maze of upcoming regulatory reporting changes. For US carriers with European holdings, Solvency II carries a myriad of rules and reporting requirements. Alignment across the globe of the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) processes brings to the fore the National Insurance of Insurance commissioners' (NAIC) recent guidance manual publication. Doing more with less and to certainly expect more from technology for less dollars. The overall cost of IT, in particular hardware, has dropped in real terms (though the appetite for more has risen: more CPU, more RAM, more storage), but software has seen less change. Clearly, customers expect either to pay less or get a lot more from their software solutions for the same buck. Doing things smarter – A recognition that with the advance of technology to stand still no longer means you are technically going backwards. Technology and, in particular technology interactions with human business processes, has undergone incredible change over the past 5 years. Consumer usage (iPhones, etc.) has been at the forefront, but now at the Enterprise level ever more effective technology exploitation is beginning to take place. That data and, in particular gleaning knowledge from data, is refining and improving business processes.  Organizations are now consuming more data than ever before, and it is set to grow exponentially for some time to come.  Amassing large volumes of data is one thing, but effectively analyzing that data is another.  It is the results of such analysis that leads to improvements both in terms of insurance product offerings and the processes to support them. Regulatory Compliance, damned if you do and damned if you don’t! Clearly, around the globe at lot is changing from a regulatory perspective and it is evident that in terms of regulatory requirements, whilst there is a greater convergence across jurisdictions bringing uniformity, there is also a lot of work to be done in the next 5 years. Just like the big data, hidden behind effective regulatory compliance there often lies golden nuggets that can give competitive advantages. From Oracle's perspective, our Rating Engine, Billing, Document Management and Insurance Analytics solutions on display served to strike up good conversations and, as is always the case at conferences, it was a great opportunity to meet and speak with existing Oracle customers that we might not have otherwise caught up with for a while. Fortunately, I was able to catch up on a few sessions at the close of the Exhibition.  The speaker quality was high and the audience asked challenging, but pertinent, questions.  During Dr. Jackie Freiberg’s keynote “Bye Bye Business as Usual,” the author discussed 8 strategies to help leaders create a culture where teams consistently deliver innovative ideas by disrupting the status quo.  The very first strategy: Get wired for innovation.  Freiberg admitted that folks in the insurance and financial services industry understand and know innovation is important, but oftentimes they are slow adopters.  Today, technology and innovation go hand in hand. In speaking to delegates during and after the conference, a high degree of satisfaction could be measured from their positive comments of speaker sessions and the exhibitors. I suspect many will be back in 2014 with Indianapolis as the conference location. Did you attend the IASA Conference in Washington D.C.?  If so, I would love to hear your comments. Andrew Collins is the Director, Solvency II of Oracle Financial Services. He can be reached at andrew.collins AT oracle.com.

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• value types in the vm

  - by john.rose

  value types in the vm p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 14.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times} p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times} p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 15.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times} p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Courier} p.p6 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Courier; min-height: 17.0px} p.p7 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; min-height: 18.0px} p.p8 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 36.0px; text-indent: -36.0px; font: 14.0px Times; min-height: 18.0px} p.p9 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; min-height: 18.0px} p.p10 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; color: #000000} li.li1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times} li.li7 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Times; min-height: 18.0px} span.s1 {font: 14.0px Courier} span.s2 {color: #000000} span.s3 {font: 14.0px Courier; color: #000000} ol.ol1 {list-style-type: decimal} Or, enduring values for a changing world. Introduction A value type is a data type which, generally speaking, is designed for being passed by value in and out of methods, and stored by value in data structures. The only value types which the Java language directly supports are the eight primitive types. Java indirectly and approximately supports value types, if they are implemented in terms of classes. For example, both Integer and String may be viewed as value types, especially if their usage is restricted to avoid operations appropriate to Object. In this note, we propose a definition of value types in terms of a design pattern for Java classes, accompanied by a set of usage restrictions. We also sketch the relation of such value types to tuple types (which are a JVM-level notion), and point out JVM optimizations that can apply to value types. This note is a thought experiment to extend the JVM’s performance model in support of value types. The demonstration has two phases.  Initially the extension can simply use design patterns, within the current bytecode architecture, and in today’s Java language. But if the performance model is to be realized in practice, it will probably require new JVM bytecode features, changes to the Java language, or both.  We will look at a few possibilities for these new features. An Axiom of Value In the context of the JVM, a value type is a data type equipped with construction, assignment, and equality operations, and a set of typed components, such that, whenever two variables of the value type produce equal corresponding values for their components, the values of the two variables cannot be distinguished by any JVM operation. Here are some corollaries: A value type is immutable, since otherwise a copy could be constructed and the original could be modified in one of its components, allowing the copies to be distinguished. Changing the component of a value type requires construction of a new value. The equals and hashCode operations are strictly component-wise. If a value type is represented by a JVM reference, that reference cannot be successfully synchronized on, and cannot be usefully compared for reference equality. A value type can be viewed in terms of what it doesn’t do. We can say that a value type omits all value-unsafe operations, which could violate the constraints on value types.  These operations, which are ordinarily allowed for Java object types, are pointer equality comparison (the acmp instruction), synchronization (the monitor instructions), all the wait and notify methods of class Object, and non-trivial finalize methods. The clone method is also value-unsafe, although for value types it could be treated as the identity function. Finally, and most importantly, any side effect on an object (however visible) also counts as an value-unsafe operation. A value type may have methods, but such methods must not change the components of the value. It is reasonable and useful to define methods like toString, equals, and hashCode on value types, and also methods which are specifically valuable to users of the value type. Representations of Value Value types have two natural representations in the JVM, unboxed and boxed. An unboxed value consists of the components, as simple variables. For example, the complex number x=(1+2i), in rectangular coordinate form, may be represented in unboxed form by the following pair of variables: /*Complex x = Complex.valueOf(1.0, 2.0):*/ double x_re = 1.0, x_im = 2.0; These variables might be locals, parameters, or fields. Their association as components of a single value is not defined to the JVM. Here is a sample computation which computes the norm of the difference between two complex numbers: double distance(/*Complex x:*/ double x_re, double x_im,         /*Complex y:*/ double y_re, double y_im) {     /*Complex z = x.minus(y):*/     double z_re = x_re - y_re, z_im = x_im - y_im;     /*return z.abs():*/     return Math.sqrt(z_re*z_re + z_im*z_im); } A boxed representation groups component values under a single object reference. The reference is to a ‘wrapper class’ that carries the component values in its fields. (A primitive type can naturally be equated with a trivial value type with just one component of that type. In that view, the wrapper class Integer can serve as a boxed representation of value type int.) The unboxed representation of complex numbers is practical for many uses, but it fails to cover several major use cases: return values, array elements, and generic APIs. The two components of a complex number cannot be directly returned from a Java function, since Java does not support multiple return values. The same story applies to array elements: Java has no ’array of structs’ feature. (Double-length arrays are a possible workaround for complex numbers, but not for value types with heterogeneous components.) By generic APIs I mean both those which use generic types, like Arrays.asList and those which have special case support for primitive types, like String.valueOf and PrintStream.println. Those APIs do not support unboxed values, and offer some problems to boxed values. Any ’real’ JVM type should have a story for returns, arrays, and API interoperability. The basic problem here is that value types fall between primitive types and object types. Value types are clearly more complex than primitive types, and object types are slightly too complicated. Objects are a little bit dangerous to use as value carriers, since object references can be compared for pointer equality, and can be synchronized on. Also, as many Java programmers have observed, there is often a performance cost to using wrapper objects, even on modern JVMs. Even so, wrapper classes are a good starting point for talking about value types. If there were a set of structural rules and restrictions which would prevent value-unsafe operations on value types, wrapper classes would provide a good notation for defining value types. This note attempts to define such rules and restrictions. Let’s Start Coding Now it is time to look at some real code. Here is a definition, written in Java, of a complex number value type. @ValueSafe public final class Complex implements java.io.Serializable {     // immutable component structure:     public final double re, im;     private Complex(double re, double im) {         this.re = re; this.im = im;     }     // interoperability methods:     public String toString() { return "Complex("+re+","+im+")"; }     public List<Double> asList() { return Arrays.asList(re, im); }     public boolean equals(Complex c) {         return re == c.re && im == c.im;     }     public boolean equals(@ValueSafe Object x) {         return x instanceof Complex && equals((Complex) x);     }     public int hashCode() {         return 31*Double.valueOf(re).hashCode()                 + Double.valueOf(im).hashCode();     }     // factory methods:     public static Complex valueOf(double re, double im) {         return new Complex(re, im);     }     public Complex changeRe(double re2) { return valueOf(re2, im); }     public Complex changeIm(double im2) { return valueOf(re, im2); }     public static Complex cast(@ValueSafe Object x) {         return x == null ? ZERO : (Complex) x;     }     // utility methods and constants:     public Complex plus(Complex c)  { return new Complex(re+c.re, im+c.im); }     public Complex minus(Complex c) { return new Complex(re-c.re, im-c.im); }     public double abs() { return Math.sqrt(re*re + im*im); }     public static final Complex PI = valueOf(Math.PI, 0.0);     public static final Complex ZERO = valueOf(0.0, 0.0); } This is not a minimal definition, because it includes some utility methods and other optional parts.  The essential elements are as follows: The class is marked as a value type with an annotation. The class is final, because it does not make sense to create subclasses of value types. The fields of the class are all non-private and final.  (I.e., the type is immutable and structurally transparent.) From the supertype Object, all public non-final methods are overridden. The constructor is private. Beyond these bare essentials, we can observe the following features in this example, which are likely to be typical of all value types: One or more factory methods are responsible for value creation, including a component-wise valueOf method. There are utility methods for complex arithmetic and instance creation, such as plus and changeIm. There are static utility constants, such as PI. The type is serializable, using the default mechanisms. There are methods for converting to and from dynamically typed references, such as asList and cast. The Rules In order to use value types properly, the programmer must avoid value-unsafe operations.  A helpful Java compiler should issue errors (or at least warnings) for code which provably applies value-unsafe operations, and should issue warnings for code which might be correct but does not provably avoid value-unsafe operations.  No such compilers exist today, but to simplify our account here, we will pretend that they do exist. A value-safe type is any class, interface, or type parameter marked with the @ValueSafe annotation, or any subtype of a value-safe type.  If a value-safe class is marked final, it is in fact a value type.  All other value-safe classes must be abstract.  The non-static fields of a value class must be non-public and final, and all its constructors must be private. Under the above rules, a standard interface could be helpful to define value types like Complex.  Here is an example: @ValueSafe public interface ValueType extends java.io.Serializable {     // All methods listed here must get redefined.     // Definitions must be value-safe, which means     // they may depend on component values only.     List<? extends Object> asList();     int hashCode();     boolean equals(@ValueSafe Object c);     String toString(); } //@ValueSafe inherited from supertype: public final class Complex implements ValueType { … The main advantage of such a conventional interface is that (unlike an annotation) it is reified in the runtime type system.  It could appear as an element type or parameter bound, for facilities which are designed to work on value types only.  More broadly, it might assist the JVM to perform dynamic enforcement of the rules for value types. Besides types, the annotation @ValueSafe can mark fields, parameters, local variables, and methods.  (This is redundant when the type is also value-safe, but may be useful when the type is Object or another supertype of a value type.)  Working forward from these annotations, an expression E is defined as value-safe if it satisfies one or more of the following: The type of E is a value-safe type. E names a field, parameter, or local variable whose declaration is marked @ValueSafe. E is a call to a method whose declaration is marked @ValueSafe. E is an assignment to a value-safe variable, field reference, or array reference. E is a cast to a value-safe type from a value-safe expression. E is a conditional expression E0 ? E1 : E2, and both E1 and E2 are value-safe. Assignments to value-safe expressions and initializations of value-safe names must take their values from value-safe expressions. A value-safe expression may not be the subject of a value-unsafe operation.  In particular, it cannot be synchronized on, nor can it be compared with the “==” operator, not even with a null or with another value-safe type. In a program where all of these rules are followed, no value-type value will be subject to a value-unsafe operation.  Thus, the prime axiom of value types will be satisfied, that no two value type will be distinguishable as long as their component values are equal. More Code To illustrate these rules, here are some usage examples for Complex: Complex pi = Complex.valueOf(Math.PI, 0); Complex zero = pi.changeRe(0);  //zero = pi; zero.re = 0; ValueType vtype = pi; @SuppressWarnings("value-unsafe")   Object obj = pi; @ValueSafe Object obj2 = pi; obj2 = new Object();  // ok List<Complex> clist = new ArrayList<Complex>(); clist.add(pi);  // (ok assuming List.add param is @ValueSafe) List<ValueType> vlist = new ArrayList<ValueType>(); vlist.add(pi);  // (ok) List<Object> olist = new ArrayList<Object>(); olist.add(pi);  // warning: "value-unsafe" boolean z = pi.equals(zero); boolean z1 = (pi == zero);  // error: reference comparison on value type boolean z2 = (pi == null);  // error: reference comparison on value type boolean z3 = (pi == obj2);  // error: reference comparison on value type synchronized (pi) { }  // error: synch of value, unpredictable result synchronized (obj2) { }  // unpredictable result Complex qq = pi; qq = null;  // possible NPE; warning: “null-unsafe" qq = (Complex) obj;  // warning: “null-unsafe" qq = Complex.cast(obj);  // OK @SuppressWarnings("null-unsafe")   Complex empty = null;  // possible NPE qq = empty;  // possible NPE (null pollution) The Payoffs It follows from this that either the JVM or the java compiler can replace boxed value-type values with unboxed ones, without affecting normal computations.  Fields and variables of value types can be split into their unboxed components.  Non-static methods on value types can be transformed into static methods which take the components as value parameters. Some common questions arise around this point in any discussion of value types. Why burden the programmer with all these extra rules?  Why not detect programs automagically and perform unboxing transparently?  The answer is that it is easy to break the rules accidently unless they are agreed to by the programmer and enforced.  Automatic unboxing optimizations are tantalizing but (so far) unreachable ideal.  In the current state of the art, it is possible exhibit benchmarks in which automatic unboxing provides the desired effects, but it is not possible to provide a JVM with a performance model that assures the programmer when unboxing will occur.  This is why I’m writing this note, to enlist help from, and provide assurances to, the programmer.  Basically, I’m shooting for a good set of user-supplied “pragmas” to frame the desired optimization. Again, the important thing is that the unboxing must be done reliably, or else programmers will have no reason to work with the extra complexity of the value-safety rules.  There must be a reasonably stable performance model, wherein using a value type has approximately the same performance characteristics as writing the unboxed components as separate Java variables. There are some rough corners to the present scheme.  Since Java fields and array elements are initialized to null, value-type computations which incorporate uninitialized variables can produce null pointer exceptions.  One workaround for this is to require such variables to be null-tested, and the result replaced with a suitable all-zero value of the value type.  That is what the “cast” method does above. Generically typed APIs like List<T> will continue to manipulate boxed values always, at least until we figure out how to do reification of generic type instances.  Use of such APIs will elicit warnings until their type parameters (and/or relevant members) are annotated or typed as value-safe.  Retrofitting List<T> is likely to expose flaws in the present scheme, which we will need to engineer around.  Here are a couple of first approaches: public interface java.util.List<@ValueSafe T> extends Collection<T> { … public interface java.util.List<T extends Object|ValueType> extends Collection<T> { … (The second approach would require disjunctive types, in which value-safety is “contagious” from the constituent types.) With more transformations, the return value types of methods can also be unboxed.  This may require significant bytecode-level transformations, and would work best in the presence of a bytecode representation for multiple value groups, which I have proposed elsewhere under the title “Tuples in the VM”. But for starters, the JVM can apply this transformation under the covers, to internally compiled methods.  This would give a way to express multiple return values and structured return values, which is a significant pain-point for Java programmers, especially those who work with low-level structure types favored by modern vector and graphics processors.  The lack of multiple return values has a strong distorting effect on many Java APIs. Even if the JVM fails to unbox a value, there is still potential benefit to the value type.  Clustered computing systems something have copy operations (serialization or something similar) which apply implicitly to command operands.  When copying JVM objects, it is extremely helpful to know when an object’s identity is important or not.  If an object reference is a copied operand, the system may have to create a proxy handle which points back to the original object, so that side effects are visible.  Proxies must be managed carefully, and this can be expensive.  On the other hand, value types are exactly those types which a JVM can “copy and forget” with no downside. Array types are crucial to bulk data interfaces.  (As data sizes and rates increase, bulk data becomes more important than scalar data, so arrays are definitely accompanying us into the future of computing.)  Value types are very helpful for adding structure to bulk data, so a successful value type mechanism will make it easier for us to express richer forms of bulk data. Unboxing arrays (i.e., arrays containing unboxed values) will provide better cache and memory density, and more direct data movement within clustered or heterogeneous computing systems.  They require the deepest transformations, relative to today’s JVM.  There is an impedance mismatch between value-type arrays and Java’s covariant array typing, so compromises will need to be struck with existing Java semantics.  It is probably worth the effort, since arrays of unboxed value types are inherently more memory-efficient than standard Java arrays, which rely on dependent pointer chains. It may be sufficient to extend the “value-safe” concept to array declarations, and allow low-level transformations to change value-safe array declarations from the standard boxed form into an unboxed tuple-based form.  Such value-safe arrays would not be convertible to Object[] arrays.  Certain connection points, such as Arrays.copyOf and System.arraycopy might need additional input/output combinations, to allow smooth conversion between arrays with boxed and unboxed elements. Alternatively, the correct solution may have to wait until we have enough reification of generic types, and enough operator overloading, to enable an overhaul of Java arrays. Implicit Method Definitions The example of class Complex above may be unattractively complex.  I believe most or all of the elements of the example class are required by the logic of value types. If this is true, a programmer who writes a value type will have to write lots of error-prone boilerplate code.  On the other hand, I think nearly all of the code (except for the domain-specific parts like plus and minus) can be implicitly generated. Java has a rule for implicitly defining a class’s constructor, if no it defines no constructors explicitly.  Likewise, there are rules for providing default access modifiers for interface members.  Because of the highly regular structure of value types, it might be reasonable to perform similar implicit transformations on value types.  Here’s an example of a “highly implicit” definition of a complex number type: public class Complex implements ValueType {  // implicitly final     public double re, im;  // implicitly public final     //implicit methods are defined elementwise from te fields:     //  toString, asList, equals(2), hashCode, valueOf, cast     //optionally, explicit methods (plus, abs, etc.) would go here } In other words, with the right defaults, a simple value type definition can be a one-liner.  The observant reader will have noticed the similarities (and suitable differences) between the explicit methods above and the corresponding methods for List<T>. Another way to abbreviate such a class would be to make an annotation the primary trigger of the functionality, and to add the interface(s) implicitly: public @ValueType class Complex { … // implicitly final, implements ValueType (But to me it seems better to communicate the “magic” via an interface, even if it is rooted in an annotation.) Implicitly Defined Value Types So far we have been working with nominal value types, which is to say that the sequence of typed components is associated with a name and additional methods that convey the intention of the programmer.  A simple ordered pair of floating point numbers can be variously interpreted as (to name a few possibilities) a rectangular or polar complex number or Cartesian point.  The name and the methods convey the intended meaning. But what if we need a truly simple ordered pair of floating point numbers, without any further conceptual baggage?  Perhaps we are writing a method (like “divideAndRemainder”) which naturally returns a pair of numbers instead of a single number.  Wrapping the pair of numbers in a nominal type (like “QuotientAndRemainder”) makes as little sense as wrapping a single return value in a nominal type (like “Quotient”).  What we need here are structural value types commonly known as tuples. For the present discussion, let us assign a conventional, JVM-friendly name to tuples, roughly as follows: public class java.lang.tuple.$DD extends java.lang.tuple.Tuple {      double $1, $2; } Here the component names are fixed and all the required methods are defined implicitly.  The supertype is an abstract class which has suitable shared declarations.  The name itself mentions a JVM-style method parameter descriptor, which may be “cracked” to determine the number and types of the component fields. The odd thing about such a tuple type (and structural types in general) is it must be instantiated lazily, in response to linkage requests from one or more classes that need it.  The JVM and/or its class loaders must be prepared to spin a tuple type on demand, given a simple name reference, $xyz, where the xyz is cracked into a series of component types.  (Specifics of naming and name mangling need some tasteful engineering.) Tuples also seem to demand, even more than nominal types, some support from the language.  (This is probably because notations for non-nominal types work best as combinations of punctuation and type names, rather than named constructors like Function3 or Tuple2.)  At a minimum, languages with tuples usually (I think) have some sort of simple bracket notation for creating tuples, and a corresponding pattern-matching syntax (or “destructuring bind”) for taking tuples apart, at least when they are parameter lists.  Designing such a syntax is no simple thing, because it ought to play well with nominal value types, and also with pre-existing Java features, such as method parameter lists, implicit conversions, generic types, and reflection.  That is a task for another day. Other Use Cases Besides complex numbers and simple tuples there are many use cases for value types.  Many tuple-like types have natural value-type representations. These include rational numbers, point locations and pixel colors, and various kinds of dates and addresses. Other types have a variable-length ‘tail’ of internal values. The most common example of this is String, which is (mathematically) a sequence of UTF-16 character values. Similarly, bit vectors, multiple-precision numbers, and polynomials are composed of sequences of values. Such types include, in their representation, a reference to a variable-sized data structure (often an array) which (somehow) represents the sequence of values. The value type may also include ’header’ information. Variable-sized values often have a length distribution which favors short lengths. In that case, the design of the value type can make the first few values in the sequence be direct ’header’ fields of the value type. In the common case where the header is enough to represent the whole value, the tail can be a shared null value, or even just a null reference. Note that the tail need not be an immutable object, as long as the header type encapsulates it well enough. This is the case with String, where the tail is a mutable (but never mutated) character array. Field types and their order must be a globally visible part of the API.  The structure of the value type must be transparent enough to have a globally consistent unboxed representation, so that all callers and callees agree about the type and order of components  that appear as parameters, return types, and array elements.  This is a trade-off between efficiency and encapsulation, which is forced on us when we remove an indirection enjoyed by boxed representations.  A JVM-only transformation would not care about such visibility, but a bytecode transformation would need to take care that (say) the components of complex numbers would not get swapped after a redefinition of Complex and a partial recompile.  Perhaps constant pool references to value types need to declare the field order as assumed by each API user. This brings up the delicate status of private fields in a value type.  It must always be possible to load, store, and copy value types as coordinated groups, and the JVM performs those movements by moving individual scalar values between locals and stack.  If a component field is not public, what is to prevent hostile code from plucking it out of the tuple using a rogue aload or astore instruction?  Nothing but the verifier, so we may need to give it more smarts, so that it treats value types as inseparable groups of stack slots or locals (something like long or double). My initial thought was to make the fields always public, which would make the security problem moot.  But public is not always the right answer; consider the case of String, where the underlying mutable character array must be encapsulated to prevent security holes.  I believe we can win back both sides of the tradeoff, by training the verifier never to split up the components in an unboxed value.  Just as the verifier encapsulates the two halves of a 64-bit primitive, it can encapsulate the the header and body of an unboxed String, so that no code other than that of class String itself can take apart the values. Similar to String, we could build an efficient multi-precision decimal type along these lines: public final class DecimalValue extends ValueType {     protected final long header;     protected private final BigInteger digits;     public DecimalValue valueOf(int value, int scale) {         assert(scale >= 0);         return new DecimalValue(((long)value << 32) + scale, null);     }     public DecimalValue valueOf(long value, int scale) {         if (value == (int) value)             return valueOf((int)value, scale);         return new DecimalValue(-scale, new BigInteger(value));     } } Values of this type would be passed between methods as two machine words. Small values (those with a significand which fits into 32 bits) would be represented without any heap data at all, unless the DecimalValue itself were boxed. (Note the tension between encapsulation and unboxing in this case.  It would be better if the header and digits fields were private, but depending on where the unboxing information must “leak”, it is probably safer to make a public revelation of the internal structure.) Note that, although an array of Complex can be faked with a double-length array of double, there is no easy way to fake an array of unboxed DecimalValues.  (Either an array of boxed values or a transposed pair of homogeneous arrays would be reasonable fallbacks, in a current JVM.)  Getting the full benefit of unboxing and arrays will require some new JVM magic. Although the JVM emphasizes portability, system dependent code will benefit from using machine-level types larger than 64 bits.  For example, the back end of a linear algebra package might benefit from value types like Float4 which map to stock vector types.  This is probably only worthwhile if the unboxing arrays can be packed with such values. More Daydreams A more finely-divided design for dynamic enforcement of value safety could feature separate marker interfaces for each invariant.  An empty marker interface Unsynchronizable could cause suitable exceptions for monitor instructions on objects in marked classes.  More radically, a Interchangeable marker interface could cause JVM primitives that are sensitive to object identity to raise exceptions; the strangest result would be that the acmp instruction would have to be specified as raising an exception. @ValueSafe public interface ValueType extends java.io.Serializable,         Unsynchronizable, Interchangeable { … public class Complex implements ValueType {     // inherits Serializable, Unsynchronizable, Interchangeable, @ValueSafe     … It seems possible that Integer and the other wrapper types could be retro-fitted as value-safe types.  This is a major change, since wrapper objects would be unsynchronizable and their references interchangeable.  It is likely that code which violates value-safety for wrapper types exists but is uncommon.  It is less plausible to retro-fit String, since the prominent operation String.intern is often used with value-unsafe code. We should also reconsider the distinction between boxed and unboxed values in code.  The design presented above obscures that distinction.  As another thought experiment, we could imagine making a first class distinction in the type system between boxed and unboxed representations.  Since only primitive types are named with a lower-case initial letter, we could define that the capitalized version of a value type name always refers to the boxed representation, while the initial lower-case variant always refers to boxed.  For example: complex pi = complex.valueOf(Math.PI, 0); Complex boxPi = pi;  // convert to boxed myList.add(boxPi); complex z = myList.get(0);  // unbox Such a convention could perhaps absorb the current difference between int and Integer, double and Double. It might also allow the programmer to express a helpful distinction among array types. As said above, array types are crucial to bulk data interfaces, but are limited in the JVM.  Extending arrays beyond the present limitations is worth thinking about; for example, the Maxine JVM implementation has a hybrid object/array type.  Something like this which can also accommodate value type components seems worthwhile.  On the other hand, does it make sense for value types to contain short arrays?  And why should random-access arrays be the end of our design process, when bulk data is often sequentially accessed, and it might make sense to have heterogeneous streams of data as the natural “jumbo” data structure.  These considerations must wait for another day and another note. More Work It seems to me that a good sequence for introducing such value types would be as follows: Add the value-safety restrictions to an experimental version of javac. Code some sample applications with value types, including Complex and DecimalValue. Create an experimental JVM which internally unboxes value types but does not require new bytecodes to do so.  Ensure the feasibility of the performance model for the sample applications. Add tuple-like bytecodes (with or without generic type reification) to a major revision of the JVM, and teach the Java compiler to switch in the new bytecodes without code changes. A staggered roll-out like this would decouple language changes from bytecode changes, which is always a convenient thing. A similar investigation should be applied (concurrently) to array types.  In this case, it seems to me that the starting point is in the JVM: Add an experimental unboxing array data structure to a production JVM, perhaps along the lines of Maxine hybrids.  No bytecode or language support is required at first; everything can be done with encapsulated unsafe operations and/or method handles. Create an experimental JVM which internally unboxes value types but does not require new bytecodes to do so.  Ensure the feasibility of the performance model for the sample applications. Add tuple-like bytecodes (with or without generic type reification) to a major revision of the JVM, and teach the Java compiler to switch in the new bytecodes without code changes. That’s enough musing me for now.  Back to work!

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