Apache Batik, VMWare Workstation

Ah ha, I figured out why I couldn't get apache batik to draw. In the java code, I was adding a child element to the wrong parent. Did discover batik doesn't support the textpath method=stretch feature and the font-face font-stretch feature. That sucks. For the most part, what I'm getting looks good, but there's either a gap or an overhang due to not being able to stretch the glyph. Let's hope at least one of those features becomes available in a future batik release.

Oh, and I discovered the batik mail archive is searchable at a different link than what's given at the batik site. Try this site or this site. What a puzzle. Thank goodness for the internet. I really hope the batik tutorial book I ordered is useful.

VMWare Workstation. One of the best tools ever. It's an application which lets you run one operating system on another. For example, I have the windows version of vmware. Inside that I can run linux, solaris, or another version of windows. I can run multiple operating systems at once too, share files between windows & linux, access the internet. It's awesome! Pretty cheap too, for what it does. There's a free VMWare Player available which gives you an idea what VMWare Workstation does. Check it out if you're interested in running linux, but also want to use windows, or vice versa. If you're a developer, it comes in really handy testing your applications on multiple platforms. One thing to note: solaris support is still limited.