{nule.org}

The next version of HL7 Comm is shaping up nicely. The big (huge, if you will) improvement will be a configuration interface that makes sense. It’s actually been quite hard to code, but I think it’ll be worth it when it’s all working. There are some new clients included, specifically the oft-requested file out that produces a single file per record. This next cut will include some of these improvements, but I’m focusing mostly on the improved interface and the Java 1.4 (or newer) compatibility. Version 0.7 only worked with Java 5 (and now 6), but many folks are stuck on 1.4 or even older.

The first ever nule.org software review is almost done as well. I took a look at uCertify’s SCJP 5.0 PrepKit and found a lot to like there. That should be posted in the next day or two, assuming my favorite tech editor and wife gets a chance to look at it.

Lastly, I do want to outline the next set of updates that’s planned for all the HL7 utilities. Right now major updates to the Light HL7 Library are postponed. From what I can tell a lot more people are interested in better functioning versions of HL7 Comm and HL7 Browser than are using the LHL for writing their own code. This may change when I start to add beanshell support to the Comm, but I’m trying to do the most I can for the people using the software quickly. The plan is as follows:

HL7 Comm 0.8: Early Feb. Includes entirely new configuration interface, many bugfixes, a few new clients.

HL7 Comm 0.9: Q1-Q2. Any needed fixes from the 0.8 release. Beanshell support for writing simple message translations interactively (or automatically in a GUI or headless fashion). The interactive HL7 Server manual ack/nack client. These are actually Integrate Client Library updates with minimal updates required for HL7 Comm, so this is a great chance to stabilize the core Comm code.

HL7 Comm 1.0: This year. I think a lot of people see a sub 1.0 version number and freak out. 1.0 should be primarily a bug-fix release, but I also harbor fantasies of including an FTP client. That would be easy to do without breaking things.

After that I think I badly need to address an aging HL7 Browser. Version two would include improved memory and file management and use the now robust integrate client library for network instead of the buggy stuff that’s there now.

In World of Warcraft, most of my character names are some variation of “nule”, for what I hope are pretty obvious reasons. Last night I got a private message from another player who asked me if I was French. He then proceeded to tell me that “nule” means something really vile in French. That seems pretty unlikely to me, as I researched pretty thoroughly for any reference to “nule” before I chose this domain name, and it essentially returned nothing. I also can’t find it in any French language dictionaries or any online slang dictionaries that have an entry for it or for close lexical variations. The closest seems to be “nouille” which basically means “idiot”, which, if true, I can live with that. Other references to Nule include some small towns in Italy and Portugal (Hi!) and it’s sometimes short for Nulia, which I guess is an uncommon Celtic woman’s name (how you doin’?)

Any native speakers out there care to confirm or deny this? Another possibility is that it’s an obscure Quebec slang word, of which I can find essentially zero information. Hit up the contact link if you know.

There are some recent utility updates that I felt were worth announcing.

First, a new utility that attempts to remove personally identifiable information from HL7 information is available. It’s called HL7 Anon and is available here. It has a GUI incarnation and a command-line version as well as an API that’s very easy to work with.

Second, related to HL7 Anon, I found and squashed a bug in the Light HL7 Library (LHL). It had to do with a call to getField(String) in Hl7Record where the segment didn’t exist. There is also some untested code available in that library, but it’s best to avoid that code at the moment as it doesn’t really do anything and is subject to change anyway.

Next, I made a webstart for the JMd5Sum utility. Now you don’t need to install anything short of clicking on the JNLP link (here) and letting it perform the normal desktop integration.

I also made a webstart and released a slightly updated version of the JWepGen utility. Version 1.0 works the same as the previous version, but builds a little nicer and uses the newest webstart technology to make desktop integration work better.

Lastly, I updated all my webstarts to take advantage of the latest features. All of the applications attempt to now create a program group called “Nule.org utils” and should work fine, even if nule.org is unavailable. Please use this new feature so you can be sure that all of your applications are kept up to date.

2007 was really freaking hard. Let’s not attempt that again, OK? From May when I started renovating the old (new) house, through August and September, which involved entirely too much moving, up until just about any day now which is when the new (old) house will be completely fixed up and ready to sell again. All the while I worked (more than) full time at my job, and tried to remain a reasonable social life and kept up on my WoW characters. Hey – I don’t watch much TV so that’s my vice, OK?

So even though I haven’t succeeded as well as I would have liked in keeping my HL7 utilities up to date, I can at least promise that I’ll have more time to work on them now. I’m keeping focused on the 0.8 release of HL7 Comm, which primarily is just an update to the configuration interface. It will make it easier to work on the new beanshell based logic handlers when that is complete, as well as some other connectors when I have time. Eventually I really need to touch up the browser as well, but at the same time there are really some other projects I’d like to play with. And don’t even mention the Light HL7 Library. Oh, right, and I’m trying to keep the updates coming to the Java tutorial. Hopefully that’s been helpful to a few people at least.

Thanks for bearing with me for another year. Even if it wasn’t the most productive for me from your perspective, I’m certainly worn out from it. Hopefully I’ll keep both of us happier in 2008.