PragmaticCoding

Whole Home Audio With SnapCast - Part I

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 20 May 2026 12:00:00 -0500

A way to stream audio around your entire house using inexpensive RaspberryPi computers and SnapCast

Reactive Programming in JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0500

What is Reactive programming, and how does it work in JavaFX

Should You Use FXML?

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 12:00:00 -0500

FXML. There are all kinds of claims about its value, but are they right?

Observable Lists - The Basics

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 12:00:00 -0500

ObservableLists are used in a number of JavaFX elements, such as TableView, ListView and ComboBox. But what are they, and what can you do with them?

An Introduction to Properties

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 12:00:00 -0500

If you are a beginner with JavaFX and are wondering, “What are all these Property things anyway?”, then this is the article for you. Besides the Properties themselves, we also cover the basics of using them with Bindings and Listeners. Read this article and you should have a good idea how to start out with JavaFX Properties.

Guide To the Observable Classes - Part I

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 03 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The place to start looking at the Observable types is with the generic classes and interfaces. These are the observable wrappers that you can use around any other class of object.

More importantly, the hierarchy here is exactly the same as the hierarchy that is used for all of the typed observables. If you can understand how generic observable classes and interfaces relate to each other, without worrying about what kind of data is inside them, and special classes added to handle those types, then you’ll automatically be able to understand how they work when they are typed.

EventHandlers, Listeners and Bindings - What to Use Where

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Taking a look at how EventHandlers, Listeners, Subscriptions and Bindings are different, and how they should be used in a JavaFX application.

EventHandlers, Listeners and Bindings - What to Use Where

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Taking a look at how EventHandlers, Listeners, Subscriptions and Bindings are different, and how they should be used in a JavaFX application.

Use Subscriptions Instead of Listeners

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -0500

In JavaFX 19 and 21, new methods have been added to the Observables library that should change the way you write Bindings and Listeners

Understanding ListView

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 12:00:00 -0500

An introduction to ListView and understanding how to use it to display something more than just lists of Strings.

Layout Classes 101

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Fri, 06 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -0500

In order to put anything onto the GUI you’ll need to use one of the layout Nodes to control how the screen is organized. There are a variety of different layout classes, each of which handles the organization of its content differently.

This article gives you a summary of how each different layout class works, and explains how each one differs from the others.

Getting Started With Styling in JavaFX Using CSS

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Thu, 12 May 2022 12:00:00 -0500

This article contains all of the information you need to get started with cascading stylesheets in JavaFX.

Everything You Really Need to Know About the FXAT

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 12:00:00 -0500

“Hey, you jobs! Get off my FXAT!” Learn how to deal with the JavaFX Application Thread - How to get your background jobs onto their own threads the right way, and how process the results back on the FXAT.

All About Image and ImageView

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Fri, 11 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0500

The basic component of image display in JavaFX is the ImageView. In this article, we’ll look at how to use ImageView to display images in your GUI and how to incorporate them your components.

TextFields and TextFormatter - Part 1

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 11 May 2021 12:00:00 -0500

An introduction to TextFormatter, showing you how to integrate it into a TextField and how to use it to convert the input from String to some other kind of value. Then we’ll look at how to add a filter to prevent the user from entering invalid data.

Part 1 - A Quick Start

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The very first step. What else? “Hello World” in JavaFX.

Whole Home Audio With SnapCast - Part II

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0500

Part 2 of a 3 part series describing how to set up whole-home audio using SnapCast, Mopidy and Rasberry Pi’s. In this article, we look at how to configure a Raspberry Pi Zero as a SnapCast client.

Dealing With Modena

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0500

If you are going to do any custom styling in JavaFX, you need to understand at least the basics about the Modena stylesheet and how it works with the standard JavaFX Nodes.

Guide To the Observable Classes - Part II

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -0500

This article is about the all of the typed observable classes and interfaces except the ones concerned with List.

You’ll find that all of the relationships and structure found in the generic classes is just about exactly the same, but then there are a few extra classes and interfaces added to the hierarchy depending on the type of data that they hold. We’ll concentrate mostly on two types, String and Integer here, because dealing with the others would just be redundant. String is typical of stand-alone types, and Integer is typical of types that are included in Number.

Tracking Task Progress

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0500

A deeper look at the Task class and how to monitor progress while a Task in running on a background thread.

Using ListView Cell Layouts

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Looking at ListView as a scrolling region of customized layouts, not just a list of String.

JavaFX: How to Customize Custom Controls

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 12:00:00 -0500

Once you’ve decided extend Region to create a custom control, there are some basic things you should do to make your new control look professional and unified. Here’s how to do that.

FXML is NOT Model-View-Controller

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -0500

Lots of programmers and websites think that FXML instantly gives them a step up on Model-View-Controller, with the FXML File yielding the View and the FXML Controller acting as the Controller. We’ll look at why this isn’t correct, and how you should implement FXML in the context of MVC.

Understanding the JavaFX Bindings Class

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -0500

The Bindings class is a utility library that provides a huge number of helper methods that can create and manipulate Bindings. Understanding how to use this library can make your code much simpler and easier to read.

Sprites and Scrolling Images

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 12:00:00 -0500

How to handle image animation with Sprites and scrolling backgrounds

All About Buttons

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Buttons are the basic component that triggering actions in your applications. While there is just one basic Button class, it can be styled and configured in a multitude of ways that make it look and behave quite differently to suit a variety of uses.

All About Events

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Everything you need to know about Events.

TextFields and TextFormatter - Part 2

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 11 May 2021 12:00:00 -0500

A more in-depth look into how to build a TextFormatter that can be used to turn a TextField into sophisticated input field. We’ll look at designing a TextFormatter that is tailored to handle fixed place decimal input, using the decimal point itself as a control to toggle between the ordinal and mantissa of the number.

Part 2 - Configuring Layouts

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Some basics about building layouts and making your screens look the way you want.

Whole Home Audio With SnapCast - Part III

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0500

The final installment of a 3 part series describing how to set up whole-home audio using SnapCast, Mopidy and Rasberry Pi’s. In this article, we look at how to install and configure Mopidy as a streaming service, and how to connect it to a SnapCast server.

ObservableLists: Extractors

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0500

ObservableList extractors allow you to track changes to elements inside your ObservableLists.

Task Partial Results: Lists

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0500

What if you want to monitor the progress of a Task that is collecting data into a List? This article shows an approach to handling accumulated data in on ObserableList while a Task is running while still playing nicely with the FXAT.

Understanding the ComboBox

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -0500

The ComboBox is the classic “choose from a list” screen widget that you see everywhere. In JavaFX, the ComboBox is a fairly complex structure that involves a TextBox and a ListView tied together. In this article you’ll learn how to configure the ComboBox to fit a variety of uses.

Guide To the Observable Classes - Part III

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -0500

You can work with a JavaFX for a long time before you realize that ListProperty is even a thing. And when you do, you’ll probably be extremely confused by it.

That’s because ListProperty (and all of the other types that descend from ObservableValue<List>) implements all of the methods of ObservableList as well as everything implied by ObservableValue and its descendants. This is a little mind boggling, because ObservableList<T> is generic itself, and implements everything in List<T>, and this means that ListProperty<T> does everything that Property<T> does, as well as everything that ObservableList<T> and, therefore, List<T> does.

But don’t worry, read this and it will all make sense - and actually be really useful.

Non-Binary PseudoClasses

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0500

What if you need to control the styling of a Node over a range of values? How can you do that, and is there any way create a framework that you can use over and over again?

TableView Basics

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 12:00:00 -0500

What is a TableView and how do you use it? Here’s enough information to get you started with TableView the right way.

Custom Binding Classes

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 19 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Custom binding classes aren’t used that often, but understanding them is the key to understanding how to use the Bindings library builder methods.

Observable Listeners in JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 12:00:00 -0500

ChangeListener or InvalidationListener, which is right kind of listener to use?

Demystifying PseudoClasses in JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Pseudo Classes are the best way to handle on/off state changes in a Node in JavaFX. But it’s very badly explained in the JavaDocs and hard to understand. This article should clear that up.

How to Write a JavaFX Screen without FXML & Scene Builder

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 12:00:00 -0500

I’ve always advised that Scene Builder and FXML are a waste of time, and that you should just write your screens in Java code.
It’s easier to build, it’s easier to customize, easier to maintain, and much, much easier to do really sophisticated things. But how do you start?

Part 3 - User Interaction

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

GUI applications need a way for the user to interact with them. In this lesson we’ll show how to allow user input with TextField, and to launch an action with a Button.

Custom Styleable Properties

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 15 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

With CSS you can control fonts, sizes, borders, alignment, padding an lots of other standard Properties of your layouts. This allows you to control the styling from outside your code. But what if there’s some aspect of your layout that isn’t available through the standard CSS attributes? This article will show you how to create StyleableProperties and then how to link them back to your Style Sheets via CssMetaData.

Handling TableView Cell Data

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 12:00:00 -0500

In this article, we taka a look at how TableView handles data, the mechanism that move data in and out of TableCells, and how to work with it.

Part 4 - Styling

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

JavaFX includes Cascading Style Sheets for styling the elements of your GUI. This is a quick guide about how to use them.

Converting FXML to Code

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 12:00:00 -0500

I’ve talked a lot about how coded layouts are better than FXML. In this article we take a fairly large FXML based layout which is part of a larger project, convert it to code, and implement a framework using a Reactive design. Is the final result better than FXML? See for yourself.

Type Specific TableColumns

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 12:00:00 -0500

Generally, certain kinds of data need to be displayed in TableViews in certain, specific ways. This article will show you how to create custom TableColumns, along with matching custom TableCells, that you can use over and over in every application that you build.

Conditional Bindings

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0500

A look at how to extend the idea of Bindings to include internal state to encapsulate the mechanics of more complicated relationships between ObservableValues in your GUI and your Model.

The Myth of the Lengthy GUI Task

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 12:00:00 -0500

Is the Single-Threaded JavaFX GUI a Limitation?

Part 5 - Application Framework

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Building an application that “does something” means adopting a framework that works well with JavaFX. Here we build the skeleton of the Model-View-Controller-Interactor framework that we’re going to use for our CRUD application.

JavaFX Styling Guide: TableView

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 12:00:00 -0500

A comprehensive guide to styling TableView with tutorials and a reference of all of the styling selectors available.

Part 6A - First Feature: Minimal Create

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The first feature for our CRUD application has to be “Create”. In this lesson we’ll get started by designing the GUI and connecting it to the Controller.

Part 6B - Adding Persistence

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In this lesson we finish up a “bare-bones” Create function by building the back-end and connecting it to the business logic in the Interactor. Part of this involves creating a simulated database.

Part 7 - What Next?

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Now we’ve completed the core programming for our “Create” function, where do go next. We’ll look at the idea of a “Product Backlog”, and talk about how we should prioritize our next steps.

Part 8 - Dealing With Latency and Blocking

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Our simulated database doesn’t really do a good job standing in for a real database because it works too fast. We’ll slow it down and see what horrible things this does to our application. Then we’ll see how to deal with this.

Part 9 - GUI Validation

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve also got a big problem with our application because there’s no data validation in our screen. This means that users can save invalid customer data. We’ll look at how to cope with this properly.

Part 10 - Handling Database Errors

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The last problem with our application is that it can save duplicate customer records, corrupting our database. This means adding some rules to our database and telling our GUI when those rules have been broken. We’ll see how to handle exceptions from the back-end in our application.

Part 11 - A "Working" Application

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

At this point we have a pretty clean “Create” application. It’s error resistant, doesn’t corrupt our database and ready to add some more functionality. Let’s look at what we’ve done so far.

Part 12 - Adding a New Field: eMail

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

It’s finally time to add a third field to our screen! In this article we’re going to add just a single new field, for email, to our screen. We’re going to see how the process goes from the View all the way down to the Broker. Most importantly, we going to see how we need to be vigilant in ensuring that our code stays clean as we add more features.

Part 13 - Feature Envy

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In this article we’re going to look at how Feature Envy has crept into our View code. We’re going to look at why this happens, and how to deal with it. Finally, we’re going to see how clearing out Feature Envy makes our code much cleaner and easier to understand.

Homelab Security and Firewalls

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 12:00:00 -0500

Understanding basic Internet security, and how your firewall works

A New Website

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 12:00:00 -0500

After 5 years with my old, blog-based, website it was time to transition to a new modern website design that integrates blogging with structured content. Here’s how things have changed.

You Need a Public Domain

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0500

If you are self-hosting, then you should probably have a public domain registered. In this article, we’ll look at why you should do this, and the things that it helps.

Managing DNS Services

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0500

Everything you need to know about DNS if you are self-hosting. How to use Technitium to host a private DNS server in your homelab.

Lenovo M910Q Tiny Homelab Server

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:00:00 -0500

A look at the Lenovo M910Q Tiny computers I’ve chosen as homelab servers.

VLAN's and Subnets For Home Networks

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 12:00:00 -0500

How to secure your home network from threats from inside the house.

CSS Transitions

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:00:00 -0500

JavaFX 23 delivers a new feature - CSS Transitions! Let’s take a look at how this works and what you can do with it.

JavaFX: Quick Guide to MVCI

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Looking for a framework that works with JavaFX as a Reactive platform? Here’s how to get started with Model-View-Controller-Interactor (MVCI) without a lot of theory.

Application Structure With MVCI

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 25 May 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Understanding the Model-View-Controller-Interactor framework is one thing, but putting it all together to create a large and complicated application means that you’ll need to know how to integrate it with external services.

More Beginner Mistakes

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Introduction
#

After literally a decade writing JavaFX applications, it can be hard to remember how I thought things were supposed to be done when I started out. Thankfully, there seems to be a nearly endless supply of beginners having trouble, posting their code and giving us a glimpse into their thought processes.

Getting Started with Gradle in Intellij Idea

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

A quick guide get started with Gradle in the Intellij IDEA IDE.

Action Properties

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

There a little known, but very useful function call in most Properties. This can be overridden to turn a Property into a class that transforms a value change into an action.

Common JavaFX Mistakes

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Taking a look at a JavaFX application that suffers from some very common beginner mistakes, converting it to Kotlin and sorting out the issues.

Example: Hexadecimal Editor

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Here’s a sample application that uses a ListView to display and edit bytes in a data file, showing the values in hex, octal, binary, decimal and as characters.

Creating a Custom Component: LabelledPane

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Another example of creating a custom class. This time to build a container with a border and a Label that sits on the border.

Is There a Right or Wrong Way to Program Something?

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0500

Is there such a thing as a “Right” or “Wrong” when looking at different approaches to solving a programming problem? Can one approach be objectively better than another? Spoiler alert: yes, it can.

Custom Control: Radial Menu

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 12:00:00 -0500

How to build a radial menu in JavaFX. Maybe not the most useful idea itself, but building this custom component lets us take a look at some more complex layout challenges.

It's All About (Loose) Coupling

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -0500

Introduction
#

I think most programming taught in schools and courses concentrates on creating working code. Beginning programmers are left with the impression that creating code that runs and gives the correct result is the hard part; that this is somehow the end goal of software development.

Where Are My Resources?

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 07 Feb 2024 12:00:00 -0500

One of the toughest problems beginners encounter is resources that won’t load. Here’s how to figure out how to organize your resources and how find them with your code.

Reskinning ToggleButton

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 12:00:00 -0500

An introduction to JavaFX Skins and Skinnable and how to create your own skin.

When and How to Create Custom Controls

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -0500

Creating a custom control really isn’t that hard to do. But when should you use one, and when should you just use a builder to create a layout?

JavaFX Custom Control - The Triple Toggle Switch

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 12:00:00 -0500

How to create custom control in JavaFX. Here we look at how to build a three position toggle switch.

Kotlin For JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -0500

Interested in programming JavaFX in Kotlin? Here’s what you need to know to write JavaFX code that is so much better than anything you can write in Java.

Dealing With Dialogs

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 12:00:00 -0500

Dialogs are the basic tools for interacting with the user in a controlled way as part of a procedural flow. They are best thought of as a way to collect and return information from the user.

Kotlin For Java Programmers

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Need to understand a Kotlin program, but you only know Java? This article should give you everything you need to know to get started.

An Introduction to Model-View-Controller-Interactor

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 12:00:00 -0500

An introduction to a framework that works better with JavaFX than MVC or MVVM.

Multi-MVCI Projects

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 12:00:00 -0500

How to set up a more complex project with multiple screens with varying levels of connectedness.

Unravelling MVC, MVP and MVVM

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Taking a look at the three most common design patterns for building systems with user interfaces. How are they different? Which one is best? Is there anything better?

Introducing the Absolute Beginners Guide to JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Why?
#

Most of the tutorial articles I’ve written here have been of the “deep dive” nature. I try to go way beyond the information available in the JavaDocs, and to give some insight into how to get the most out of the tools that JavaFX provides. These articles tend to be on the long side, Jekyll tells me that they average about 13 minutes of reading, and there’s usually lots of code examples and pontification about clean coding and on and on.

How to Swap Scenes Properly

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 24 May 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Taking a look at the three most common design patterns for building systems with user interfaces. How are they different? which one is best? Is there anything better?

Building Views - The "Set It and Forget It" Approach

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0500

The best way to structure an application is to separate the presentation of your data from the logic of your application. That can be hard to do. But not if you take an approach where you configure your screen elements, put them in the layout and then discard any reference to them.

How To Build a Hex Map Based Application

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Introduction
#

Hex Maps, or hex boards are a popular platform for tabletop games, especially wargames and Role Playing Games. They are uniquely useful because hexagons fit nicely into a grid and there are 6 directions from each hexagon (or just, “hex”), compared to just 4 with a grid made up of squares.

How to Build a JavaFX Application That Does Something

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 12:00:00 -0500

Maybe you’ve figured out how to build a working GUI that looks good. Now, how do you connect it to the rest of the world and make it do something?

Optional Isn't About Avoiding Null

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 06 Feb 2022 12:00:00 -0500

A look at how Optional works, and how it isn’t really about Null values - at least not if you were doing it right before Optional.

Wordle in Kotlin JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 29 Jan 2022 12:00:00 -0500

The original Wordle is JavaScript in a browser, here’s an implementation of it in Reactive JavaFX written in Kotlin.

What's the Point of Agile?

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 12:00:00 -0500

Stand-ups, Retrospectives, Sprints, Scrum Masters. Is it just bureaucratic nonsense that gets in the way of good programmers doing their thing? It shouldn’t be.

Kotlin - Should You?

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 10:33:44 -0500

Kotlin has been described as, “The language that Java would have been if it had been designed 25 years later”. It’s starting to pick up popularity, and has had a boost from being endorsed by Google for Android development.

But you’re not an Android developer, so should you learn, and use, Kotlin?

Kotlin: JavaFX Properties

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 12:00:00 -0500

An approach to implementing the JavaFX Property “bean” structure for observable objects in an idiomatic Kotlin fashion.

Are Your Code Comments Helping Anyone?

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 10:33:44 -0500

Comments in code are supposed to help other programmers understand your code so that they can build on it, improve it and, sometimes, fix it. Are the comments that you’re leaving in your code helping anyone to do that?

Hangman in JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 12:00:00 -0500

How much code does it take to build a complete Hangman game in JavaFX?
It turns out … Not much!

Stop Using PropertyValueFactory

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Thu, 24 Jun 2021 12:00:00 -0500

PropertyValueFactory is an obsolete convenience method designed to eliminate boilerplate. We don’t don’t need it any more now that we have Lambda expressions.

What About the Cover Page?

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Fri, 28 May 2021 12:00:00 -0500

There’s a lot of ways that software development projects can fail, or partially fail. Some of these happen when the users don’t understand as much as you think they do about what you’re building, how it will look and how it will work.

Implementing MVC in JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Tue, 11 May 2021 12:00:00 -0500

Model-View-Controller is generally accepted as a good way to structure an application with a user interface. Since JavaFX implements Reactive programming there’s a natural way to incorporate MVC into a JavaFX application. However, it doesn’t seem to be widely documented and there’s little evidence on the Web that many people have figured out how to do it properly.

MineSweeper in JavaFX

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 03 May 2021 12:00:00 -0500

MineSweeper! Everyone’s favourite time-waster Windows game. Implemented in JavaFX showing how the reactive nature of JavaFX can be used with MVC to create a game.

JavaFX Anti-Pattern: The Dispatch EventHandler

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 12:00:00 -0500

The “Dispatch EventHandler”. For some reason I see this in examples on the web all over the place, I think because it’s a technique that seems to integrate with FXML. The idea is that you create a single EventHandler and you invoke it from all of the Buttons (or whatever) on your GUI. In that EventHandler, you check the passed Event and run different code depending on which Button triggered it.

It’s a bad approach that adds complexity to your code and returns you nothing. In this article you’ll see how this approach fails, and how to properly write EventHandlers in a clear and simple way.

Moving On - Building A CRUD Application

nuno@n9o.xyz (Blowfish) — Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Introduction
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So far we’ve built an application that does little, but demonstrates a lot. Now we’re going to write one of the most common types of application out there - CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update and Delete).

PragmaticCoding

Whole Home Audio With SnapCast - Part I

Reactive Programming in JavaFX

Should You Use FXML?

Observable Lists - The Basics

An Introduction to Properties

Guide To the Observable Classes - Part I

EventHandlers, Listeners and Bindings - What to Use Where

EventHandlers, Listeners and Bindings - What to Use Where

Use Subscriptions Instead of Listeners

Understanding ListView

Layout Classes 101

Getting Started With Styling in JavaFX Using CSS

Everything You Really Need to Know About the FXAT

All About Image and ImageView

TextFields and TextFormatter - Part 1

Part 1 - A Quick Start

Whole Home Audio With SnapCast - Part II

Dealing With Modena

Guide To the Observable Classes - Part II

Tracking Task Progress

Using ListView Cell Layouts

JavaFX: How to Customize Custom Controls

FXML is NOT Model-View-Controller

Understanding the JavaFX Bindings Class

Sprites and Scrolling Images

All About Buttons

All About Events

TextFields and TextFormatter - Part 2

Part 2 - Configuring Layouts

Whole Home Audio With SnapCast - Part III

ObservableLists: Extractors

Task Partial Results: Lists

Understanding the ComboBox

Guide To the Observable Classes - Part III

Non-Binary PseudoClasses

TableView Basics

Custom Binding Classes

Observable Listeners in JavaFX

Demystifying PseudoClasses in JavaFX

How to Write a JavaFX Screen without FXML & Scene Builder

Part 3 - User Interaction

Custom Styleable Properties

Handling TableView Cell Data

Part 4 - Styling

Converting FXML to Code

Type Specific TableColumns

Conditional Bindings

The Myth of the Lengthy GUI Task

Part 5 - Application Framework

JavaFX Styling Guide: TableView

Part 6A - First Feature: Minimal Create

Part 6B - Adding Persistence

Part 7 - What Next?

Part 8 - Dealing With Latency and Blocking

Part 9 - GUI Validation

Part 10 - Handling Database Errors

Part 11 - A "Working" Application

Part 12 - Adding a New Field: eMail

Part 13 - Feature Envy

Homelab Security and Firewalls

A New Website

You Need a Public Domain

Managing DNS Services

Lenovo M910Q Tiny Homelab Server

VLAN's and Subnets For Home Networks

CSS Transitions

JavaFX: Quick Guide to MVCI

Application Structure With MVCI

More Beginner Mistakes

Introduction #

Getting Started with Gradle in Intellij Idea

Action Properties

Common JavaFX Mistakes

Example: Hexadecimal Editor

Creating a Custom Component: LabelledPane

Is There a Right or Wrong Way to Program Something?

Custom Control: Radial Menu

It's All About (Loose) Coupling

Introduction #

Introduction
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Introduction
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Why?
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Introduction
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Introduction
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