N
nukleus
Java Goldmine site: http://javagoldmine.by.ru/index.html
Java Goldmine site contains tens of thousands of articles
on Java language categorized by most important Java issues
and topics, such as abstract classes, interfaces, enums,
collections, applets, beans, exceptions, I/O, sockets,
GUI, databases, multithreading, inheritance, polymorphism,
etc. There are at least 50 different categories of issues
covered.
All the chapters are sorted and all the articles within
each chapter are sorted by the Subject: header. When
you select some chapter, its article index is displayed.
You can perform a search on article index to see if there
are any articles on what you are looking for.
Moral: Use a descriptive Subject: header so that your
articles could be searched and found by the search engines
and easily identified. If subjects contain the keywords
that could be easily associated with some issues, then
it makes it much easier to find your articles.
There are two categories or articles:
1) Code examples contain the code snippets or complete
programs. The archives are searched using powerful
multi-stage filters and all the articles containing
code examples are considered as candidates.
Those articles are then further filtered and, if any
of them are "on topic" for a particular issue, they are
added to the appropriate Code Examples chapter.
So... Any code you publish to Usenet will remain for
generations to come and will be used by others for
educational or other purposes.
Try to make your code snippets complete, more or less,
so they could actually be useful to others, at least
on algorithmic or method basis.
If you just present some class that is not sufficiently
defined and show some methods that call some other methods
that are not even shown, or use some variable that are not
even defined, then your code is virtually useless.
There other extreme, called SSCCE. It means that your
code snippets should be compilable on a different system
and produce no compilation errors. For simple programs
or algorithms it is a good idea. Because your code is
complete to the point where everything is clear.
Unfortunately, this approach does not always work.
Because you may have some problem with one of your
methods and that method refers to all sorts of other
methods and to just take it out of context and make
the SSCCE out of it is not possible unless you post
the entire multi-method program. But, there is a fine
balance. You can still present a sufficiently complete
code even though some details are not presented.
2) Articles by experts.
These articles are written by people who know what
they are talking about. They are categorized by major
categories. The term experts is used loosely. You don't
have to be a Java god for your articles to appear on
Java Goldmine. But you do have to know what you are
talking about on some specific issue. You have to know
the issue in and out, more or less, in order for your
articles to appear in the Experts chapters.
Suggestions for writing articles
--------------------------------
First of all, remember this:
Your articles will be read by many people and will become
a part of global knowledge base. If those articles are
clean, informative, cover some issues in in-depth manner,
easy to read and contain the proper keywords, they will be
easy to search by the search engines and read by many people.
They will also become a reference material.
There is no need to talk about the same issue on and on.
Once a thorough and in-depth article is written, you can
simply refer to it in the future instead of writing about
the same thing all over again. All you need is to provide
a message ID for a good article on this subject.
Just spend some time on writing a good and complete
article that covers some issue in and out. Othwrise,
what are you doing on Usenet?
Unfortunately, many articles are written in such a way
that they are of little use to others. They either cover
the issues incompletely or the very language used is
cryptic.
As a result, they are virtually useless to those, who
ask some question on some issue. Because the answer is
basically meant for those, who already know the issue.
So, it is nothing more than a chest pumping excersize
in arrogance and "holier than thou" attitude.
1. Make sure the article formatting makes your articles
pleasant to read.
2. Write your articles as paragraphs and not just one huge
paragraph nobody is going to read because it is too dense
and too ugly.
3. Keep the line length no more than 80 characters to
prevent the lines from wrapping around depending on
newsreader settings. The 70 character lines are guaranteed
to look good on any newsreader.
4. If you follow up on some article, leave empty lines
before and after your text to make it easier to separate
your text from the original. Otherwise, it looks too busy
and makes it unpleasant to read.
5. If you produce code snippets, make sure your code
formatting does not look ugly. Ugly looking code turns
people off. Do not use tabs in your code. Use space
characters instead even though the latest version of
Java Goldmine correctly expands your tabs. But,
generally, your articles may be viewed in origninal
form and there is no guarantee your tabs will be
properly expanded.
Try to write your code in such a way that it makes it
clear what is going on. If some methods use arguments
and are called from other methods, then those arguments
have to be defined somewhere in the code, be it a variable
or whatever it is.
All the classes used in your code snippets must be
defined somewhere. Othewise, it is not clear what arguments
you are passing and what they are.
All the variables must be defined somewhere, and, if they
are class variables, you need to show at least a skeleton
of that class.
6. If you are answering some questions, don't be cryptic,
abrupt and arrogant in your answers. The "holier than thou"
attitude plainly sucks. One of examples of that attitude
is the articles by one of java experts, Lew. He talks to you
like he is some kind of god and you are nothing but a dummy.
He assumes you are an idiot, not deserving the attention
of His Highness. So, he talks to you like your are Einstein,
and, at the same time, assumes you are nothing but a dummy.
Why is he doing this trip on Usenet? A good question.
His responses are criptic and for those, who do not know
some issue, are nothing but an insult. Because they do
not sufficiently cover the issue. All they do is to show
his "superiority" over you. You'd have to still waste tons
of time to fully understand the issue.
Try to cover the subject completely, so that a novice could
understand what you are talking about. Sure, there are limits,
but things could be done much better. Look at the articles
by Piotr Kobzda. His answers are detailed. He takes time to
make sure other non-experts on the issue will be able to
comprehend the issues.
Finally, remember: there is no need to make life on Usenet
a waste. Usenet is probably the most advanced, fully
distributed information system. The same articles are available
on hundreds of thousands of servers unlike on web based
forums and blogs. Usenet could not be destroyed, even if
half of the world is dead. Usenet articles have a very
structured format unlike the web pages, which makes them
very easy to find by the subject or any other standard header.
The more quality articles there are on Usenet, the more chance
it is going to survive in the context of all web forums, blogs
and you name it. Otherwise, Usenet will die. It is already in
a pretty bad shape, thanks to all megalomaniacs doing all they
can to destroy it without even realizing what they are doing.
All the stupid censors, "moderators" and all sorts of other
power hungry idiots are working non stop to destroy any and
all views that do not align with their agenda of totalitarian
dictator, driven by the complex of inferiority and forever
compelled to prove to others that he IS something, and not
only something, but about the only thing that counts in this
world. So sick they are. These people never knew any real joy
in their miserable lives of submission to the lowest common
denominator. That is why they crave for this power trip,
because on the subconscious level they think it will give
them some validity, some self-respect. But it is nothing more
than a vain pursuit.
Java Goldmine site contains tens of thousands of articles
on Java language categorized by most important Java issues
and topics, such as abstract classes, interfaces, enums,
collections, applets, beans, exceptions, I/O, sockets,
GUI, databases, multithreading, inheritance, polymorphism,
etc. There are at least 50 different categories of issues
covered.
All the chapters are sorted and all the articles within
each chapter are sorted by the Subject: header. When
you select some chapter, its article index is displayed.
You can perform a search on article index to see if there
are any articles on what you are looking for.
Moral: Use a descriptive Subject: header so that your
articles could be searched and found by the search engines
and easily identified. If subjects contain the keywords
that could be easily associated with some issues, then
it makes it much easier to find your articles.
There are two categories or articles:
1) Code examples contain the code snippets or complete
programs. The archives are searched using powerful
multi-stage filters and all the articles containing
code examples are considered as candidates.
Those articles are then further filtered and, if any
of them are "on topic" for a particular issue, they are
added to the appropriate Code Examples chapter.
So... Any code you publish to Usenet will remain for
generations to come and will be used by others for
educational or other purposes.
Try to make your code snippets complete, more or less,
so they could actually be useful to others, at least
on algorithmic or method basis.
If you just present some class that is not sufficiently
defined and show some methods that call some other methods
that are not even shown, or use some variable that are not
even defined, then your code is virtually useless.
There other extreme, called SSCCE. It means that your
code snippets should be compilable on a different system
and produce no compilation errors. For simple programs
or algorithms it is a good idea. Because your code is
complete to the point where everything is clear.
Unfortunately, this approach does not always work.
Because you may have some problem with one of your
methods and that method refers to all sorts of other
methods and to just take it out of context and make
the SSCCE out of it is not possible unless you post
the entire multi-method program. But, there is a fine
balance. You can still present a sufficiently complete
code even though some details are not presented.
2) Articles by experts.
These articles are written by people who know what
they are talking about. They are categorized by major
categories. The term experts is used loosely. You don't
have to be a Java god for your articles to appear on
Java Goldmine. But you do have to know what you are
talking about on some specific issue. You have to know
the issue in and out, more or less, in order for your
articles to appear in the Experts chapters.
Suggestions for writing articles
--------------------------------
First of all, remember this:
Your articles will be read by many people and will become
a part of global knowledge base. If those articles are
clean, informative, cover some issues in in-depth manner,
easy to read and contain the proper keywords, they will be
easy to search by the search engines and read by many people.
They will also become a reference material.
There is no need to talk about the same issue on and on.
Once a thorough and in-depth article is written, you can
simply refer to it in the future instead of writing about
the same thing all over again. All you need is to provide
a message ID for a good article on this subject.
Just spend some time on writing a good and complete
article that covers some issue in and out. Othwrise,
what are you doing on Usenet?
Unfortunately, many articles are written in such a way
that they are of little use to others. They either cover
the issues incompletely or the very language used is
cryptic.
As a result, they are virtually useless to those, who
ask some question on some issue. Because the answer is
basically meant for those, who already know the issue.
So, it is nothing more than a chest pumping excersize
in arrogance and "holier than thou" attitude.
1. Make sure the article formatting makes your articles
pleasant to read.
2. Write your articles as paragraphs and not just one huge
paragraph nobody is going to read because it is too dense
and too ugly.
3. Keep the line length no more than 80 characters to
prevent the lines from wrapping around depending on
newsreader settings. The 70 character lines are guaranteed
to look good on any newsreader.
4. If you follow up on some article, leave empty lines
before and after your text to make it easier to separate
your text from the original. Otherwise, it looks too busy
and makes it unpleasant to read.
5. If you produce code snippets, make sure your code
formatting does not look ugly. Ugly looking code turns
people off. Do not use tabs in your code. Use space
characters instead even though the latest version of
Java Goldmine correctly expands your tabs. But,
generally, your articles may be viewed in origninal
form and there is no guarantee your tabs will be
properly expanded.
Try to write your code in such a way that it makes it
clear what is going on. If some methods use arguments
and are called from other methods, then those arguments
have to be defined somewhere in the code, be it a variable
or whatever it is.
All the classes used in your code snippets must be
defined somewhere. Othewise, it is not clear what arguments
you are passing and what they are.
All the variables must be defined somewhere, and, if they
are class variables, you need to show at least a skeleton
of that class.
6. If you are answering some questions, don't be cryptic,
abrupt and arrogant in your answers. The "holier than thou"
attitude plainly sucks. One of examples of that attitude
is the articles by one of java experts, Lew. He talks to you
like he is some kind of god and you are nothing but a dummy.
He assumes you are an idiot, not deserving the attention
of His Highness. So, he talks to you like your are Einstein,
and, at the same time, assumes you are nothing but a dummy.
Why is he doing this trip on Usenet? A good question.
His responses are criptic and for those, who do not know
some issue, are nothing but an insult. Because they do
not sufficiently cover the issue. All they do is to show
his "superiority" over you. You'd have to still waste tons
of time to fully understand the issue.
Try to cover the subject completely, so that a novice could
understand what you are talking about. Sure, there are limits,
but things could be done much better. Look at the articles
by Piotr Kobzda. His answers are detailed. He takes time to
make sure other non-experts on the issue will be able to
comprehend the issues.
Finally, remember: there is no need to make life on Usenet
a waste. Usenet is probably the most advanced, fully
distributed information system. The same articles are available
on hundreds of thousands of servers unlike on web based
forums and blogs. Usenet could not be destroyed, even if
half of the world is dead. Usenet articles have a very
structured format unlike the web pages, which makes them
very easy to find by the subject or any other standard header.
The more quality articles there are on Usenet, the more chance
it is going to survive in the context of all web forums, blogs
and you name it. Otherwise, Usenet will die. It is already in
a pretty bad shape, thanks to all megalomaniacs doing all they
can to destroy it without even realizing what they are doing.
All the stupid censors, "moderators" and all sorts of other
power hungry idiots are working non stop to destroy any and
all views that do not align with their agenda of totalitarian
dictator, driven by the complex of inferiority and forever
compelled to prove to others that he IS something, and not
only something, but about the only thing that counts in this
world. So sick they are. These people never knew any real joy
in their miserable lives of submission to the lowest common
denominator. That is why they crave for this power trip,
because on the subconscious level they think it will give
them some validity, some self-respect. But it is nothing more
than a vain pursuit.