Java Problems

Did you ever build something completely from scratch to fill some purpose in your life?
Did you ever get to the end only to realize that someone else built something just like it?
Did you ever test it and decide that it works just fine?
Did you ever want to show someone what you build and have it break on you?

Thats where I am at present. I built an application for one of my clients in town.

They wanted it to keep track of their own clients and allow them to do a search through it based on key words. Its basically an overly simple search tool that they could have easily cooked up in Access given the right amount of time.

It didn't take me long to build and test, in all about 12 hours is what I billed them for. I brought it into the office for them to view and they absolutely loved it. They had a few suggestions for me to add functionality, which was worth it.

A few months had passed when I realized that they didn't actually receive their copy of the software. I gave them a call to mention it to them and share a laugh; turns out that they had actually forgotten that they paid for it. They had actually had been concerned with finding a new laptop to upgrade their P3 desktop computer.

(I'm not evil and didn't make them pay for it twice, though I did under charge them in the beginning.)

Back to the point.

After bringing the software to their office I copied the files onto their new laptop and installed the tiny database and Java Runtime. Took less than 2 minutes.

I double clicked the executable, and with a grin on my face waited for the interface to load....

I swore.

I swore like a sailor.

NullPointerException....

If you've ever worked with Java, this is basically the worst error message you can receive. Its general, vague, and difficult to track down since it can be caused by many different factors.

Think of it like having a talking smoke alarm.

A good message to receive: "The lamp in the corner of the living room is smoldering on the east side of the 2nd floor of a 10 story building."

This is what a nullPointerException message would be like: "I smell smoke."

Now, you can sense the frustration that I was feeling.