CowCatcher

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Frequently Asked Questions

What's in the name CowCatcher ?
In particular non-native English speakers may have never heard of a cowcatcher. This is its definition according to Webster's Dictionary:

(1838) An inclined frame on the front of a railroad locomotive for throwing obstacles off the track.

In Dutch (where some of the founders come from), it translates to "baanschuiver" or "koevanger" (literal translation). Still you may wonder how this is related to Java training. More obvious names like "JavaTrain" or "JavAcademy" may spring in mind, but as noble object-oriented developers we wanted to add one more level of indirection.

When we started to think about the commonality between training and trains, the amount of analogies, metaphors, associations became endless. Through Internet search engines and some of Monty Python's WordAssociationFootball we were struck by some of the following linkages.
- Training ==> train ==> going from A to B ==> remove obstacles along the way ==> cowcatcher.
- Babbage ==> known as the father of computing ==> invented other stuff as well ==> he invented the cowcatcher ! This was really striking !
- The island of Java is popular with steam-train buffs.
- We wanted course components to have the ability to be assembled just like a train from wagons.
Our main mission is to remove the obstacles for all that want to follow and/or provide Java training.
Why are you using XML ?
Through our experience we found the following advantages.
- Portability: XML is not tied to any platform.
- Tools: XML is not tied to a particular tool or vendor.
- Reuse: portions of XML, in our case lessons or modules can be reused
- Presentation: multiple presentation formats are possible: HTML, PDF, RTF
- Meta data: allows advanced administration, selection and assembly of course components.
- Integration: XML course components can be integrated with various other technologies related to the Internet and offcourse with Java !
- Courseware: facilitate the development of distance learning and other courseware applications.
- Future proof: XML is touted to become a major technology.

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