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November 07, 2005

Things I Learned Today

Today, I learned that there is a Java packing utility in the JDK called jar. And I can use jar to create jar files - it has pretty much the same syntax as tar. If you use tar, or zip, you'll never get your application running. Why they created this weird standard is beyond me. Doesn't anyone trust zip?

2.
I also learned that the new version of Websphere is very nice and the interface has all of the bugs worked out that I remember from 2003.

3.
Never underestimate the power of habit embedded in bureacracy. When the problem is glaring, and the solution is obvious, but there's a very good bureacratic reason, people will pay for consultants to stay in Seattle an extra day. I'll never go broke being a consultant.

4.
Sears kicks ass. Two Arrow sweaters for 50 bucks. I was going to go to Target but I said what the hey. I recall that Mr. Lewis was taking over the joint, so why drive all the way of to Redmond when there's a Sears right here in Bellevue? It turns out that I'm digging the new Craftsman fashion work duds. In the home of grunge, I could see this happening. Or not. The point is that there's serious competition to Target, and I'm down with that.

5.
Prime rib at Stuart Andersons is pretty damned good, but much better after two doubles of Jim Beam.

6.
My boy lost his flute. I'm going to strangle him.

7.
'Family Guy' is pretty damned funny.

8.
Axe body spray has the coolest commercials on TV, next to Scion.

9.
Politics is not as rewarding as reading spy novels. Soon come, a review of 'Overworld'.

Posted by mbowen at November 7, 2005 09:00 PM

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Comments

Actually, you can use .zip for many purposes, you just have to properly name the file on your classpath. I'll often use a .zip archive for images and a .jar for class files. Not sure, but believe the .jar is optimized for compression of compiled binaries, which is excatly what you need when creating a package library.

Posted by: submandave at November 8, 2005 03:31 PM

The first version of Java used zip as its archive files. The next version started using 'jar', which is the same format as zip. The differences come in because of specification of Java related information in the manifest file, like class loading, class path, default main class in the Jar, etc.

Posted by: DarkStar [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 8, 2005 04:37 PM

I used both PKZIP and WinRar to zip a file and renamed it .jar, but the decompression utility in Websphere barfed it back to me. So now jar.exe is on the path.

Posted by: Cobb [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 8, 2005 04:53 PM

you where probably missing META-INF/MANIFEST.MF. That needs to be in the archive for it to work.

Posted by: BH at November 9, 2005 07:00 AM