The Time2 Library and CrNiCKL now in Maven Central

The projects artifacts are now deployed to Maven Central. It is not necessary to specify a repository in the settings or POM files any more. Using this software with maven is now 100% straightforward.

Time2 Library
CrNiCKL database

Is it broke? Can we fix it?

This is an update to a post from last year. The post itself has not been updated. You can find the complete article on agent.ch.

Experts met on January 19, 2012 at the International Telecommunication Union to decide whether to abolish leap seconds. Due to a lack of consensus among participants it was decided to postpone the decision (BBC News). It was a classical standoff between those who want sharp, systematic solutions and the advocates of if it ain't broke, don't fix it. A few months later, on June 30, 2012, yet another leap second was added, causing problems at some websites. Wired reported it under the dramatic sounding heading The Inside Story of the Extra Second That Crashed the Web. The discussion is open: is it broke? Can we fix it?

The Time2 Library and CrNiCKL support Maven

Yesterday, I moved some of my Java projects to Maven. There is no difference from a client point of view. The new JARs are plug-compatible but not identical, so checksums have changed. This is the only reason why minor version numbers have been +=1d.

The software is not yet available from The Central Repository, but can be found in a freely accessible maven repository on GitHub. To use it, specify this in your POM or settings:

<repository>
  <id>jpvetterli on github.com</id>
  <url>https://raw.github.com/jpvetterli/maven-repo/master/releases/</url>
</repository>

Links:
Time2 Library project
CrNiCKL database project

CrNiCKL 1.1.0 released with all delete methods renamed

There were quite a few methods named delete in the CrNiCKL software. This was a bad idea because such methods are useless when called from JavaScript. Indeed, delete is a reserved word in js.

All such methods have been renamed and a new version of the software has been released to the project website, to SourceForge and the GitHub repositories. The following scheme has been used for renaming. Parameterless delete methods are now named destroy. The others are now typically named deleteFoo where Foo is the type of (one of) the parameter(s).

I decided to completely eliminate the old methods rather than let them live a bit longer as deprecated. I did it because the software is not yet used out there. In case I misread the stats, please accept my apologies. In any case the previous version remains available on all the websites mentioned.

Source code sharing

Since a very long time I wanted to switch to the git version control system. It's now done. Compared to what I've used in the past: cvs, sccs, rcs, vss, sclm, Librarian, and maybe others I have forgotten, I like git better. I don't know why I waited so many years...

Although the source of the projects I discuss in this blog was already available for downloading via the project websites, it can now be browsed more comfortably at GitHub.

The relevant repositories are:

time2lib

for the Time2 Library

crnickl

for the CrNiCKL base system

crnickl-jdbc

for the JDBC support of CrNiCKL

crnickl-demo

for the CrNiCKL demos

The game of the name

The ChronoDB project has been renamed CrNiCKL. I noticed a naming conflict with an unrelated product and decided to change the name when it's still harmless.

Chronicles are the most important objects in the ChronoDB CrNiCKL database. So I started from them to find a new name. I settled on CrNiCKL because it can be pronounced like "chronicle" and there are practically no hits for it in Google. I also decided to write the name with most of the letters in uppercase, so it stands out in text.

The software remains available under its old name, for a while at least, but won't be updated. Blog posts related to ChronoDB will not be updated but will get a notice about the rename.

The new project website is http://agent.ch/timeseries/crnickl/.

Time2 Library project home page updated

The marketing departement has just updated the home page of the Time2 Library project with the following quote of the day:

If you need speed, compactness, and flexibility, then the Time2 Library is for you. There is no trade off. Even with the wildest time domains (calendars if you prefer) a time point is just a number. In many cases it is even less than that: it is an array index. The flexibility comes into play only if and when needed, for example when printing or scanning a date.

Wow.