Daniel E. Markle's Blog

MacHeist, a group that has puzzles they call Heists periodically for members to solve and get rewards for completion, has a special bundle on their site for $49 until December 18. This bundle currently includes 9 applications, and will include 10 if they reach $100,000 raised for charity (25% of the bundle purchase price goes to charity). A large savings over buying the applications separately, with a charitable contribution to boot, I recommend anyone who runs OS X check out this offer.

When programming Java servlets and building display code, the context path of the application is often required. From the JSTL ${pageContext.request.contextPath} it might appear that it is a simple matter of using pageContext.getRequest().getContextPath(). There is a bit of a gotcha here though, as pageContext.getRequest() by default returns an object of type ServletRequest and not HttpServletRequest, which is what you need. Casting to the correct type fixes the issue:

String myContextPath = ((HttpServletRequest)pageContext.getRequest()).getContextPath();

When using jEdit to edit files, be careful not to change any file you are working on (with svn commands, other editors, etcetera). By default it will immediately reload the file from disk, destroying your in-editor changes without prompting and with no way to recover your work.¹ There is a preference option:

• Utilities
  • Global Options...
    • jEdit
      • General
        • If open files are changed on disk: automatically reload

I definitely recommend changing this option to prompt if you ever work on your source files using revision control or multiple editors so an accidental svn revert, for example, does not destroy your work in an open jEdit window.