Tom asks: "I've heard a lot of talk recently about how Sun is going the wrong way with Java and we need an open source replacement for 'write once, run anywhere'. What I want to know is: how many people really support this notion?" Although I think such a concept would be nice, Java has strayed from this and has become Yet Another Language. Don't get me wrong, like any language, Java has its strengths and weaknesses, but I'm wondering if the Write-Once-Run-Anywhere concept is better found in your average scripting language (ala Perl, PHP, Python and others) rather than large scale languages like Java, and C. Click below for more details on this subject.

Jayakrishnan has returned with another review of a Java book. This time around it's Matthew Robinson and Pavel Vorobiev's Swing. Published by Manning Publications, this book is designed to give information to both beginners and advanced programmers.

The Mayor asks: "I'm looking at starting a development project that will include an Open Source(tm) component. I'm looking for a Web-based defect/bug tracker. I can't use SourceForge, as I'd like to use the same system for both our Open Source(tm) products and our proprietary products. I'd prefer a free product (as in beer), as this is for a startup company. I'm leaning towards Bugzilla, but I'd like to get the opinions of our esteemed readers..."

ghoti asks: "A while back, I read about 4GL tools, and what could be done with them. Now I wonder why nobody is using them. The idea sounded so logical: Design a program at an abstract level, then add more information until the tool can create code or at least a framework. Now this might not be the best way to go about writing Quake IV, but for many applications, this would be very nice. Is anybody using such tools? Why not?"

Amphigory asks: "I am currently preparing to develop a product. It will have to run in Windows (market realities being what they are) but I really would prefer to develop in Linux. What options are available for this? Some more details: I would prefer something similar to C++ Builder, but I can't wait for Kylix. I am comfortable in C++, Java, Delphi. So far, JBuilder is the leading option. However, I am concerned that the support burden of making sure that all my end users have a Java 2 virtual machine may be too great. Any suggestions? Does anyone have experience distributing a JVM with their package? How easy is it?"

uffbeerday iteswray: "Erethay isyay ayay 1.6 ersionvay ofyay Ythonpay inyay alphayay. Inyay additionyay, eythay avehay ayay eduleschay orfay uturefay eleasesray andyay omesay arningsway aboutyay odecay eakagebray expectedyay ithway osethay eleasesray. Ityay ookslay ikelay ethay ocumentationday illway aglay ethay eleasesray ayay itbay." Apparentlyyay, ityay illway eakbray omesay odecay. Ethay eleaseray otesnay escribeday emthay asyay "olklorefay APIsyay (atthay ereway evernay ocumentedday oryay endorsedyay utbay everthelessnay ereway acceptedyay andyay inyay ommoncay useyay)." Ethay otesnay onyay 1.6 alsoyay aylay outyay anyay ambitousyay oadmapray owardtay Ythonpay 3000.

Zelphyr writes "PHP version 4 Release Candidate 1 was released to the public yesterday. Go check it out! Also, Zend Technologies released the second beta of their Zend Optimizer as well. "

Last week we got a bunch of questions for Deb Richardson, leader of the Open Source Writers Group. These are her answers. Please don't forget as you read: OSWG needs volunteers, and this is a great way to participate in Open Source development if you're handier at writing and editing words than code.

BwanaZulia writes "Paul Everitt (of Digital Creations) has announced that Digital Creations will soon make ZEO (Zope Enterprise Option) a standard part of the Zope platform. In Paul's words, "ZEO turns Zope into a *distributed* transactional object system, allowing people to add processors, machines, and networks to scale their web applications." This bring Zope into a while new class of web application servers."

robra asks: "For a Web site I am writing using Java servlet technology I need to ensure that users do not pick "bad" passwords. I know there are many C programs like Crack which try to break encrypted passwords and I could use one of those to see to it that users don't pick a password that can be broken. However, platform independence is a big issue and so I would like to stick to Java code only. Does anyone know where I can find some Java code to check for bad passwords?" In the interest of making this a little more open, what kind of tests do most password checking algorithms perform to insure a password isn't too easy to crack?

Legion303 asks: "I recently stumbled across www.codewarrioru.com, sponsored by Metrowerks. CodeWarriorU is a site devoted to free online programming courses. Has anyone else used this service, and is it any good?"

Monday you asked Samba-meister Jeremy Allison a bunch of questions. He has answered the 10 highest-moderated ones in the finest lounge-lizard style imaginable (below).

dlc writes,"Apache/Perl programmers will be happy to note that Doug MacEachern has released mod_perl 1.22. It's been sucessfully built with Perl 5.6.0 and Apache 1.3.12, without any problems. Doug's announcement is here." The main mod_perl page can be found at perl.apache.org.

brockgr was the first to note that Perl 5.6.0 has been released and has begun propagating through CPAN. Anyone have a changelog or something I can link to?

LordNimon asks: "I'm interested in learning embedded systems programming, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on hardware and software to get that experience. I already know device drivers and BIOS, and I know about LinuxDevices.com, but I don't know Linux programming (yet). I was hoping someone experienced in this field could tell me what the cheapest way to get started is. I assume I should use Embedded Linux, but what about the hardware?"

dlc writes, "Zend has an article about Michael "Monty" Widenius, of MySQL fame, which focuses mainly on the evolution of MySQL and its relationship with PHP. "

Jeremy is a leading Samba maintainer, and therefore one of the world's leading experts on Samba, which is often held up (along with Apache and the Gimp) as a sterling example of efficient and useful Open Source development. In the interest of full disclosure, we must mention that Jeremy is now employed by VA Linux, but that his primary responsibility is still Samba, just as it was when he worked for SGI. Look for Jeremy's answers to your questions within the next week.

Deb Richardson is the force behind the Open Source Writers Group. Plenty of people complain about poorly written, poorly indexed Linux, *BSD, and Open Source documentation. Deb is one of the few actually doing something to make things better. Want to help? Ask her how. If you're a developer, ask Deb how you can write better docs -- and how you can tap into the growing pool of volunteer writers and editors she has put together. Or ask her anything else - go ahead and post your questions below. Deb's answers are scheduled to appear Friday.

eisen writes "We are pleased to announce the Perl Creative Daemon Content sponsored by Mother of Perl, O'Reilly, Stonehenge Consulting, and Whirlwind Interactive. The First, Second, and Third place entries will win a copy of the book "Mastering Algorithms with Perl". In addition the First place entry will win $300. The Second place entry will win $200. The deadline for submitting entries is April 15th. Randal Schwartz has graciously volunteered to judge the entries. More information including contest rules are available at the contest homepage."

jesus_on_dope asks: "Are there any enterprise development tools available for Linux, i.e. something like database-modeling tools like ERWin or Powerdesigner, CASE-tools like Rational? Or are any projects under way on tools like these mentioned Windows tools? I'd like to make a change towards Linux as development platform, and not only use it as database-server ..." This is one area where Linux needs improvement. What's the current status on such things, if they exist at all?