Pouring Java

I've spent most of today working on some in-house tools for increasing productivity. I got tired of writing out boilerplate code for my Java classes, and using an IDE's class wizards was annoying me to no end, so I ended up writing a little command line utility which I call pour. Get it? You pour java...anyway...

I developed my little tool using Ruby, since it is so great for string manipulation, and easy file handling. Pour is short on features, but works exactly as I expect it to, and only outputs exactly what I want, and is far faster than any class wizard I've found.

I can specify a local template file to pour, and it will use it to create the classes, or, I can create a template in my home directory to use the template globally, or I can use the built-in template. I can specify to generate an entry point function, and I can specify a package. These few features turned a task that normally takes about 3 minutes, and turns it into about a 5 second task.

In addition, I set up gradle and grunt for a very simple auto-build workflow that allows me to focus on the code editing, and not on having to build the project, run tests, build the jar, and execute the program. I can just edit the code, save it, and my auto-build setup does the rest. Very fast workflow. I like it a lot, and I'm going to have to find a similar solution for my C++ development now, because this kicks major ass.

Programming takes time

Pitch progress went to the back burner again as I spent most of today working on some in-house tools to help make my freelance art jobs go a bit easier. I've got a lot of stuff that needs to be done, and I haven't had the right tools to get the job done without a lot of trouble, hence the need for specialized tools.

Lots of Ruby scripting has taken place today. Far more than I had planned, and time just flew by. I'm maybe 30% done with the first of a set of tools, so it looks like Pitch will have to wait a bit longer. I wish I could clone myself and work on multiple projects simultaneously without worrying about if it were done or not.