Arise

A runtime inspection and scripting environment.

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Features:

• An interactive Swing GUI for Java-based scripting languages.
• Inspection tool for live Java objects.
• Transparent handling of remote scripting and inspection through a service-oriented design
• Support for operaton on Servlet and EJB containers.
• Support for BSF.
• A simple, graphically-oriented abstraction layer similar to BSF (called GSF for Graphical same same), for better interaction support.
• The sripting language piji (paranthesized interactive Java interpreter) with a Lisp-like syntax, which is of course yet another scripting language - but which is really versatile and extensible, and well integrated into the whole. It is not a Scheme, nor a Lisp, just a JVM responding to a Lisp-like syntax.

General Idea

We wanted to have some simple tools, tools that we used to have in the good old Smalltalk environments. These included a graphic environment where we could type in and evaluate pieces of code interactively, work on live objects and use an inspector to analyse them.

In addition to being a Smalltalker, Kjetil has a penchant for simple Scheme syntax. This was first manifested in the piji scripting language, which became the primary vehicle for the development of the GUI. Today, we support general BSF languages.

Remote Operation

The server-side nature of Java these days dictate that we should be able to work transparently on remote objects, living in a container somewhere else. We support EJB and Servlets containers so far.

In remote operation, the GUI is exactly the same. The interaction is exactly the same, and the results are displayed and inspected the same way - but it all happens on the server. This turns out to be of great value.

What You Can Use It For

Things we find useful during development:

• Quickies! These include just checking what exactly this and that java.util class actually does when the argument is null, and smoketesting some code that you are really not sure about.
• Exploration! So you have your new DOM abstraction API installed. Do you know how it works? Load it up, type some code to get a feel for how you should interact with it.
• Debugging! Run some methods that you suspect behave badly. Then inspect the results.
• Learning! Get to know the gory details of that data structure you are trying to talk to.

Of course, doing this remotely adds a dimension to general usefulness. Not sure whether that bean really got deployed? Inspect the MBeanServer and see what it really points to.

License

Arise is distributed under the Apache Software License. This product includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org/).

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