CSS is the new javascript. Back when I started working with web based applications, we avoided javascript for fear of compatibility hell. I still tend to shy away from it for those same reasons though the world is slightly better these days. However, no sensible developer tries to build a web app without at least some CSS to help style the web page. For one recent contract, my colleague and I did very little actually design on the layout and instead just marked everything up because we knew the client had a web design guy working on the presentation. What we handed over wasn't pretty by any stretch, but the design guy had developed the CSS to make it look absolutely gorgeous. I didn't even recognize it when he was done.

But CSS has the same compatibilty problems. Not all browsers support all of the spec(s) and even then not necessarily the same way. And that's troublesome when you rely too much on CSS. But then I found this handy little tool. Seasickness aside, you can see at a glance (or two or three) the level of support these CSS elements have in which browsers and begin to make some informed decisions. It's a little sad to have to resort to such tools, but at least it's there for us to use while the browser makers figure out what spec compliance means. Kudos to the developers that put this chart together.

Ever go to compile a project and you get an unresolved dependency on some class and you have no idea where it came from? If there was some way to find out what jar the class is in... Well now, there is: www.jarhoo.com. In many cases, you can tell right away what jar you'd need to fix a broken dependency. (Not too many jars have org.jdom classes in them.) But for some cases, especially beginners, figuring out which jar you need to add your classpath can be a daunting, frustrating task.

Jarhoo.com helps find those missing jars. The one downside to jarhoo is sheer number of possible jars. For example, a search for "EntityBean" returns dozens of jars. In practice, however, you'd use something like "javax.ejb.EntityBean" but even that search string returns at least two dozen options. Granted, that still makes it a bit easier at least knowing some options. Another problem is that the site appears to list every version of the jar in its system so you could end up with hits leading to old, outdated jars.

But overall a nice tool to have.

For those of you looking for documentation for JasperReports that covers all the goodies added lately, 2.0 of the Ultimate Guide is out. It looks like the price has gone up, but it seems to cover a lot of ground. It's definitely worth it if you're new to JR. Details can be found here.