Sunday, August 7, 2011

My Project Analysis

Just roaming around here and there, I came across this simple yet elegant tool to analyse your hobby projects.

Its CLOC, a tool to run a Lines-Of-Code count for a source code directory. Its fairly simple to use. Just download the .exe, go to the command prompt and pass in the source directory which you want to be analysed. I passed in my master resource directory, and found a useful trend.

Cloc

The above report did not include my php source files, although I am sure, I have a couple of PHP projects out there. The ignored files must be my svn repo files and images/log files.

If you could avoid the HTML count ( Who codes HTML these days !), It appears to have found quite a few “long” JS source files. That data too has noise, because it would have picked up framework files like prototype.js and mootools.js. The non-noisy count is of the Java files,which indicate that I document a lot Smile. 45KLOCS is not that bad for a hobby. And yes, all the JSPs were hand written as far as I remember,so that too adds to the list. 63KLOCS !!!

Have fun using this tool

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Serialization in Java

It’s been a while since I wrote anything, but today I felt the need to do so,because of an interesting issue I faced.

I, as part of my routine adhoc coding, was serializing java objects over a regular network socket. Objects to be serialized were POJOS. I was using the same stream to write multiple objects, as well as same objects multiple times with different states as shown below:

outputStream.writeObject(obj);
outputStream.writeObject(obj1);
outputStream.writeObject(obj2);
obj.someSetters();
outputStream.writeObject(obj);

In doing the above I used to get 2 different exceptions which occurred inconsistently:

  1. OptionalDataException
  2. StreamCorruptedException

The above exceptions were not reproducible and occurred sporadically.

Another issue that I faced was with the state of the object. It appeared that once an object is written to the stream, and then you change the state of the object,and try to rewrite the same object, the older version is written, and the newer changes are not reflected.

All the above issues were resolved with a call to outputStream.reset()

This call has to be made, if you want the stream to forget that it ever wrote anything. In common scenarios, once a stream is opened, and an object is written to it, it is closed. But if you are planning to write multiple objects to the same stream sequentially, I suggest you pay heed to the above scenario.

Would love to discuss more on the issue.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

CoolJS : Simple JavaScript Text Animation

Usually I spend my weekends doing some kind of coding or the other. My personal favourite is JavaScript. I love the simplicity and power that JavaScript has as a programming language.Add to this a couple of nice JS Libraries, and the effort becomes worth sharing !

I have used mootools to create a script where a simple piece of text like this can be changed into an impressive animation.

Without wasting anymore time, I would like to dwell into the code right away … !!!

First I would like to show the HTML setup required :

 

   1:  <html><head>


   2:  <script type="text/javascript" 


   3:  src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/mootools/1.3.0/mootools-yui-compressed.js" >


   4:  </script>


   5:  <script type="text/javascript" src="cooljs-1.0.js" >


   6:  </script>


   7:   


   8:  </head>


   9:      <body onload=loadCoolJS() >


  10:      <p>&nbsp;</p>


  11:   


  12:      <p>Text below is animated. Hover mouse to see it in action</p>    


  13:          


  14:      <p>&nbsp;</p>


  15:          


  16:      <div class="cooljs" style="font-size:22px;">


  17:      This is some sample text which i intend to animate.


  18:              


  19:      </div>


  20:          <p>&nbsp;</p>


  21:          <div>


  22:          Here is some normal text.


  23:          </div>


  24:      </body>


  25:   


  26:  </html>




 



The code need not be explained,  but just for the heck of it, I am including 2 javascipt files, first one is the mootools JS library hosted at Google, and the second one is the JS code that I wrote.



I call the function loadCoolJS()when the document loads, whose functionality I would describe later. The JS code automatically picks the element which have the CSS class named “cooljs”,and animates the inner text.



Note: Make sure there is no HTML inside the element which you are declaring as cooljs. That’s all at the HTML end.



Moving to the javascript setup, which surely needs some explaining, here we go :




   1:  var bg = document.bgColor; //background color


   2:  var fg = 'black';   //foreground color


   3:  var ig = 'red'        //initial color


   4:  if(bg=='')


   5:      bg='white';


   6:   


   7:   


   8:  function  loadCoolJS(){


   9:   


  10:  $$('div.cooljs').each(function(item,index){


  11:   


  12:  var s = item.innerHTML.trim();


  13:  item.innerHTML='';


  14:   


  15:  for(i=0;i<s.length;i++){


  16:   


  17:  var sp = new Element("span",{


  18:              styles:{


  19:              opacity:0.01,


  20:              cursor:'pointer'


  21:              },


  22:              events:{                


  23:              mouseover:function(){eMouseOver(this);},


  24:              mouseout:function(){eMouseOut(this);}            


  25:              }


  26:              


  27:              });


  28:   


  29:  sp.set('html',s.charAt(i));


  30:  sp.mouseOverFx = new Fx.Tween(sp);


  31:  //console.log(sp);


  32:  item.grab(sp);


  33:  }


  34:   


  35:  });


  36:  }


  37:   


  38:  function eMouseOver(e){


  39:  e.mouseOverFx.cancel();


  40:   e.mouseOverFx.start('opacity',0.01,1);


  41:  }


  42:   


  43:  function eMouseOut(e){


  44:  e.mouseOverFx.cancel();


  45:  e.mouseOverFx.start('opacity',1,0.01);


  46:  }





Mere 46 lines of code! That’s the beauty of JS. Anyways moving forward line# 1-5 do nothing but setup the color, which as a matter of fact I am not using at the moment. I keep the text style intact as it was in the cooljs element.





In line# 10 I iterate through all DIV elements of class type cooljs and for each element do the following



First I extract the text contained in the DIV tag in line#12. Then, I remove whatever text the tag has in line# 13, to be replaced by HTML code generated by me via code.



Then I iterate over each character in the extracted text, creating a SPAN tag out of each,setting 2 CSS properties: opacity(0.01) and cursor,and adding 2 event handlers mouseover and mouseout.. The opacity has been set to nearly invisible so the the text is hidden initially.



At line# 29 I set the text inside the span. ( 1 character for each span).



At line #30 I create an Object of Fx.Tween over the created span, and add it to the SPAN DOM object. Fx.Tween is provided by the mootools JS library. This performs the actual animation over an element, tweening the specified CSS property from x to y over a specified time interval.



At line# 32, I insert the created SPAN into the DIV from where I took the text. This process happens for each character inside the DIV tag.



Then comes the event handler functions, at line#38 I have the mouseover event handler. The function gets the SPAN item itself as the parameter, since at line#23 and 24, “this” is passed to the event handler code, which means the current object in scope i.e. sp in this case.



At line# 39 any currently running animations are cancelled, and at line# 40 a tween starts, for the CSS property opacity, changing it from 0.01 to 1, which means from nearly invisible to perfectly visible.



A similar code exists for mouseout event handler, the only difference being that this time the opacity changes from 1 back to 0.01.



The logic is simple, the code is small, and the demo can be found at http://bpnarain.com/cooljs/ .



I would love to get some feedback over this. If you are interested in using this code somewhere else, you are free to do so, and you are free to ask for my help if you are incapable of it.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Garbage Collection and Object Size in Java

This is not one of those High Class profiling tools, but this class performs a simple function of creating and destroying a large number of instances of a Test class, and seeing how much memory is freed after every garbage collection call. Assuming that it does run on every request.
The code is pretty customizable, with all the parameters at the top of the code. The comments try to explain the working, but additional explanation is provided at the bottom of the code, wherever necessary.
 


/**


 * To test Garbage Collection , and Object Size


 */




import java.awt.Color;


import java.awt.Graphics;


import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;


import java.awt.image.RenderedImage;


import java.io.FileOutputStream;


import java.text.NumberFormat;


import javax.imageio.ImageIO;




/**


 * @author Bageshwar Pratap Narain


 * 


 */


public class GraphDemo {




/**


     * @param args


     */


public static void main(String[] args) {




/*


         * Graph Image Width


         */


int imW = 1200;




/*


         * Graph Image Height


         */


int imH = 800;




/*


         * The initial number of objects to check with.


         */


long initValue = 10000;




/*


         * The increment value to plot the graph. The <code>incValue</code> is


         * added to <code>initValue</code> until it reaches <code>limit</code>


         */


long incValue = 10000;




/*


         * The Upper limit of the number of objects to check with.


         */


long limit = 120000;




/*


         * Image Type. Exceptable values are "jpg", "png"


         */


String imageType = "jpg";




/*


         * The complete path where the graph image will be saved. Take care of


         * directory separator in Linux vs Windows yourself.


         */


String imgPath = "d:\\graph.jpg";




/*


         * The Radius of the point that is drawn on the graph.


         */


int pointRadius = 6;




/*


         * Initializing Graph Image


         */


BufferedImage bi = new BufferedImage(imW, imH,


BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB);


Graphics g = bi.getGraphics();




/*


         * Setting the background to white. Strangely it was black by defualt.


         */


g.setColor(Color.WHITE);


g.fillRect(0, 0, imW, imH);


g.setColor(Color.BLACK);


// now the image writer is ready to create the graph.




/*


         * An array of [Number of Objects][Average size of Objects].


         */


float data[][] = new float[(int) ((limit - initValue) / incValue)][2];


int temp = 0;




// get all the doRun values and need the min and max values also.


float min = Float.MAX_VALUE, max = Float.MIN_VALUE;




/*


         * Runs a method, which creates "n" number of objects at a time and


         * garbage collects them. The average size of the object is calculated.


         * The loop works on <code>initValue,incValue and limit</code> . The


         * maximum and minimum average object sizes are also calculated in the


         * same loop.


         */


for (long i = initValue; i < limit; i = i + incValue) {


data[temp][0] = i;


data[temp][1] = doRun(i);




if (data[temp][1] >= max)


max = data[temp][1];




if (data[temp][1] <= min)


min = data[temp][1];




temp++;


}




/*


         * x_files is the scale factor, which is used to expand the Y-axis to


         * better visualize the graph, by only concentrating on the concentrated


         * part of the graph.


         */


float x_files = (max - min) * 1.3f; // taking a 30% margin




/*


         * System.out.println("Min : " + min); System.out.println("Max : " +


         * max); System.out.println("X : " + x_files);


         */




/*


         * Used internally to draw the line graph.


         */


int initX = 0, initY = 0;




/*


         * Used internally with the scale factor on the Y-axis.


         */


float unit = imH / x_files;




/*


         * 


         * To format the Average Object 


         * size float value


         */


NumberFormat nf = NumberFormat.getNumberInstance();


nf.setMaximumFractionDigits(5);


nf.setMinimumFractionDigits(5);


 


for (int i = 0; i < temp; i++) {


float r = data[i][1];




/*


             * X and Y co-ordinates are calculated based on the simple arithmatic


             * function.


             */


int x = (int) ((data[i][0]) / (limit / imW));


int y = (imH - (int) ((r - min) * unit));


// System.out.println(r + ":" + x + ":" + y);




// Drawing the Point.


g.fillOval(x, y, pointRadius, pointRadius);




/*


             * Drawing the point connecting line.


             */


if (!(initX == 0 && initY == 0))


g.drawLine(initX, initY, x, y);


/*


             * Translating points for the next line to be drawn.


             */


initX = x;


initY = y;




/*


             * Labelling the graph logically.


             */


g.drawString(nf.format(r) +" @ " + (int)(data[i][0]), x, y);


}



try {


/*


             * Finally writing the Image data to the file.


             */


ImageIO.write((RenderedImage) bi, imageType, new FileOutputStream(


imgPath));


} catch (Exception e) {


e.printStackTrace();


}




}




/*


     * @param o O is the number of objects to test. @return Average Size of


     * Object in Bytes.


     */


private static float doRun(long o) {


Runtime r = Runtime.getRuntime();




long noOfObjects = o;




/*


         * Cleaning up the memory before the experiment.


         */


System.gc();




long memSize = r.freeMemory();




/*


         * Creating Bogus objects.


         */


for (long i = 0; i < noOfObjects; i++) {


/*


         * This is the Object under experiment. 


         * Change this to the Object of your choice.


         */


new Test();


}


long finalSize = r.freeMemory();


System.gc();




/*


         * Calculating the Average Object Size


         */


float val = ((memSize - finalSize + 0.0f) / noOfObjects);




return val;


}




}




/*


 * The Test Candidate Class.


 */


class Test {




}




 



Explanation



The initial image dimension are suitable for a normal graph, but if you are testing over a large range of objects, you should increase the width. Height is not that important since the estimated size of object does not change that much.


The initValue, incValue and limit are used to create “initvalue” number of objects, and then increasing the number by “incValue” until it reaches “limit”.


The output on the graph is


Average Object Size @ [Number of Objects created]


The lines of the graph are not that neat, since no anti-aliasing is used neither is planned to!


Drop me a mail if you have any more suggestions.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Long File/Directory path in Windows

In the Windows API (with some exceptions discussed in the following paragraphs), the maximum length for a path is MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters. A local path is structured in the following order: drive letter, colon, backslash, name components separated by backslashes, and a terminating null character. For example, the maximum path on drive D is "D:\some 256-character path string<NUL>" where "<NUL>" represents the invisible terminating null character for the current system codepage. (The characters < > are used here for visual clarity and cannot be part of a valid path string.)

Note  File I/O functions in the Windows API convert "/" to "\" as part of converting the name to an NT-style name, except when using the "\\?\" prefix as detailed in the following sections.

The Windows API has many functions that also have Unicode versions to permit an extended-length path for a maximum total path length of 32,767 characters. This type of path is composed of components separated by backslashes, each up to the value returned in the lpMaximumComponentLength parameter of the GetVolumeInformation function (this value is commonly 255 characters). To specify an extended-length path, use the "\\?\" prefix. For example, "\\?\D:\very long path".

Note  The maximum path of 32,767 characters is approximate, because the "\\?\" prefix may be expanded to a longer string by the system at run time, and this expansion applies to the total length.

The "\\?\" prefix can also be used with paths constructed according to the universal naming convention (UNC). To specify such a path using UNC, use the "\\?\UNC\" prefix. For example, "\\?\UNC\server\share", where "server" is the name of the computer and "share" is the name of the shared folder. These prefixes are not used as part of the path itself. They indicate that the path should be passed to the system with minimal modification, which means that you cannot use forward slashes to represent path separators, or a period to represent the current directory, or double dots to represent the parent directory. Because you cannot use the "\\?\" prefix with a relative path, relative paths are always limited to a total of MAX_PATH characters.

There is no need to perform any Unicode normalization on path and file name strings for use by the Windows file I/O API functions because the file system treats path and file names as an opaque sequence of WCHARs. Any normalization that your application requires should be performed with this in mind, external of any calls to related Windows file I/O API functions.

When using an API to create a directory, the specified path cannot be so long that you cannot append an 8.3 file name (that is, the directory name cannot exceed MAX_PATH minus 12).

The shell and the file system have different requirements. It is possible to create a path with the Windows API that the shell user interface is not be able to interpret properly.