Update: Thanks again guys - I've finished coding this now, as far as University goes. Who knows if I will be bothered to do some extra features like sound alerts etc, but it would be pretty cool if it had them.

Anyway - if you want to see the final product then it's HERE.






I'd be very grateful if you guys could do a little bit of testing for me.

As you know, I've been working on a Java based chat application - and I'm now pretty much finished. It would be great if you guys could spend a few minutes doing some testing for me.

I would be particularly keen to hear of any exceptions you can force, or any conditions in which you can get the application to Quit unexpectedly.

If you'd rather have the source code let me know - I can zip up some .java files and PM them. I just don't particularly want to start posting my source code on a public forum that my class-mates/lecturer may be reading!

So far I've only been able to test on two machines at a time and I've found the following problems (at this stage I'm hoping there aren't any issues when using 3 or more machines):

1. In linux, your own IP appears in the list - and you can chat with yourself. This is not a problem in Mac, but I'd be keen to know the result in Windows.

2. Continuing a chat with a machine who has disconnected is possible - they do not appear in the list of contacts, but the chat window does not stop you sending messages to them.

I'm keen to solve number 2, but not sure of a solution to 1 at this time - it seems that the JVM gives a different result to a function that gets the system IP address on different platforms. On Mac it gives the correct LAN address, but on Linux it just gives 127.0.0.1 - very annoying, and I don't know of a work-around.

I'm also hoping to implement a "nick-name" feature, so the contact list shows user chosen nick-names rather than IPs.

Downloaded, but I only have my laptop with me atm. I'll try it out tonight between my MacBook and Mac Pro.
I'll look at OpenSolaris too

Did anyone take a look at this?

I've since found a bug in this application and fixed it. I've also implemented the names feature, which is obviously more user friendly than IPs.

If anyone does want to do some testing, send me a PM/E-mail/MSN chat and I will send you the new, updated .jar file

An update:

Thankyou for the feedback Oli and Ben, it's been priceless!

I have made quite a few changes based on your suggestions:

1. Caught the exception caused by attempting to open a chat with no contact selected
2. Solved a bug on Windows that resulted in one client crashing when their chat partner closed the application
3. Ensured that only one chat window can be opened with each contact
4. Disable user inputs and print a message in the chat box when their chat partner goes offline

This is due tomorrow, so I'll be submitting it sometime before 12 midnight. Probably mid-afternoon after I've done some more testing on Windows machines.

:: edited to remove out of date link to files for testing

You're more than welcome

Gives me a break at work and something to mess around with for a bit

Hope it all goes well tomorrow!

(Did you get my PM?)

Yeah I did get your PM thanks Oli.

I've dont the text wrapping you suggested.

Did you get any feedback when you handed it in or is it something that will be marked/looked at without you being present?

It's an electronic submission, so I won't find out for a couple of weeks at least unfortunately.

I got 66% for this piece of coursework, so a big thankyou to everyone who helped along the way.

Oli in particular, you gave me some really useful feedback during testing, so thanks for that.

Overall I got 38% for the first coursework, 66% for this one, and 54% in the exam.

All that equates to an overall score of 54% which is lower than I was hoping for, and to be honest I really feel as though I deserved 60%, but that's just the way it goes.

Thanks again guys.

Nice one!

No probs with the testing!

I was surprised about your mark for the first piece of coursework (was that the chess one?).

From what I saw of it it looked really good. Did the guy give any positive/constructive feedback for it? i.e. what you could have done better etc...

Yeah, the chess application was my first coursework. I really did think it was worth at least 40% but I just missed it and got 38% - I was hoping for around 50% on that coursework.

The feedback he gave was "it has bugs" , and, "it's not a complete game"

The only bug I found was check-mate, which would result in the computer attempting to calculate a move for infinity.

Still, I'm going to try not to worry about it - I chose not to do the Java unit in my final year, so I this will hopefully be the last Java I write!

The main thing I don't like about programming units, and I'm sure everyone here has seen the same thing, is that you get some people who know literally nothing about the subject and use other people's code/pay someone to write their coursework etc and get a higher mark than others who work really hard to get a result.

I worked really hard, particularly on the chat application which I'm proud of - and others got a higher mark by cheating. It really really pisses me off!

I'm not sure about people paying others to do programming in my uni, but I've got no doubt that it happens, certainly I know of people copying others.

The one thing that I disliked about second year programming was the choice of topics to program. One of my assignments was to code a program that would decipher a Caesar cipher, a substitution cipher and another type. There were people who really like cryptography and got on really well with it, I liked programming, but didn't have the interest in the cryptography.
The other assignment was all about Java Reflection which I thought was awesome, but the marks were divided such that 80% was for the writeup and only 20% was for the programming...

I know of people who did on my course, and of a student who had a graduate write a dissertation for someone else.

My main grief was (especially final year) that the writing skill was as important, if not more important than the actual work itself. Modules were usually split 40/60 in favour of the write up. Group work usually suffered this also.

Biggest complaint was one module on AI programming was 100% report, no need to write any code really, what a waste of time......

Despite those major issues (and missing a fair bit due to medical reasons) I managed to pull a 2:1 without including the PEC for the time I missed, my main issue was my individual project which was very ambitious and too vague and disappointing on most levels, just shy of a 2:1 on that though lol