From the Editor

JDJ Editorial: IT Olympics

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:45:00 EDT

There are a number of esteemed contests for the greatest and fastest software developers among us – events where we can pit our coding prowess against fellow brainiacs and like-minded techies. I think it’s high time we had an alternative set of awards, suited not to aspiring budding Turing machine engineers, but rooted more in the humdrum real, rather than artificial academic, world.

Dialog Boxes, Habituation, and Single Threaded Thought

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:30:00 EDT

In Jef Raskin’s excellent book, The Humane User Interface, he discusses how the human brain is able to perform many tasks simultaneously while only having the ability to focus on one conscious thought at a time. Being able to process information and analyze it intelligently is crucial to our ability to solve problems, but once we have learned how to deal with a particular situation, just as vital is our ability to remember and recall the response without thinking.

The Trials of Software Testing

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EDT

Software testing while one of the most important tasks done in a development project is often misunderstood and abused by everyone from programmers and managers to testers. Wikipedia calls testing “an empirical investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under testing, with respect to the context in which it is intended to operate.”

Catching the Test Bug

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:00:00 EST

The software industry is often obsessed with progress be it in the form of a new language, wire protocol, specification update, or some other technology-driven feature. For me, software is a means to an end, and progress should be measured in features that allow code to be written more efficiently, with fewer errors, and with an increased fitness of purpose. To this end, the single thing that has most changed the way I view and approach Java is the JUnit framework.

Devils, Demos, Details, and Demons

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 06:00:00 EST

When a product a colleague worked on recently shipped its first generally available release, the event was accompanied by a marketing fanfare of podcasts, press releases, and conference trips to beautiful cities with boxes of presentation materials, branded lapel pins, and flashing fridge magnets. My colleague gave a hugely successful presentation to customers and was rather taken aback afterwards when she was approached by a member of her company’s marking team who asked why it looked as though the development team hadn't done that much to the product since the last presentation six months previously.

Should Java Assert that Network I/O Can't Occur on the UI Thread?

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:22:00 EST

Doing network I/O on the user interface (UI) thread is bad. Most developers know that and can tell you why; unfortunately, it’s still done. At this year's JavaOne, one of the keynote JavaFX demos bombed because the network was slow, something that would be forgivable had the entire application's UI not frozen, which required it to be restarted, only to trip up again a few minutes later.

The JavaFX SDK Has Landed

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:00:00 EDT

At last year's JavaOne Chris Oliver gave a presentation on JavaFX in which he discussed how he was interested in programming Java2D not in terms of JComponent paintEvent methods that launch into graphics.drawLine(…) or graphics.drawRect(…) code, but instead by allowing the developer to create an object model representing a Java2D picture.

Desktop Java Editorial: Management – The Final Frontier

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:30:00 EDT

The finest programmer I've ever worked with told me recently that she was giving up coding altogether. The reason – a succession of inept and incompetent managers had just destroyed her faith in software development. Recounting her experiences over the past couple of years, she categorized management personalities into certain traits.

What Does the Future Hold for the Java Language?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:15:00 EDT

Before Java I was a Smalltalk guy. I remember switching from one language to the other and the tipping point that you reach when you've mastered the new language and how many months it takes, not to mention the years, to do really good design and know-how, which patterns to apply and how to avoid mistakes, understand performance issues, and so forth.

Pointless Places, Boring Faces, and Useless Cases

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:30:00 EDT

Often in software I find myself preaching restraint to those who wish to move platforms for no apparent reason than to keep up with the IT fashion industry; however, even harder than the silver-bullet chasers is dealing with organizations where change is required, not only in a company's software stack, but throughout their entire IT department.

Doubtful Diagrams and Far Out Figures of Web 2.0

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:45:00 EDT

In a recent presentation I attended, the speaker warmed up with a couple of bulleted lists that outlined the agenda of the session before moving onto his third slide that was clearly many days, work of stitching together powerpoint glyphs and figures in a sort of three dimensional loop that attempted to show the progression of software APIs around the evolution of networked computing.

Desktop Java Slims Down to Enter the AJAX Race

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:45:00 EDT

A number of very significant development efforts are underway that bode well for Desktop Java's future. On the language side is the Java FX script project http://www.sun.com/software/javafx/index.jsp. Java FX is neat because it provides a high-level scripting interface that runs on top of the Java 2D API. From the users' viewpoint it means they don't have to write Java code and, for better or worse, understand the intricacies of threads, Java 2D or Swing class hierarchies, timing frameworks, and so forth.

My Friend Is a 72-Year Old Programmer

Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:00:00 EDT

This is a short story about my friend (let's call him Joe). The last 15 years prior to his retirement Joe spent working as a mainframe programmer for a large financial firm in New York City. He stopped working at 67, collected well deserved retirement package and was looking forward to a new life going places around the world and meeting new people. His lovely wife Mary is a food critic and is also into travel. We often travel with Joe and Mary, and like these trips a lot. We never feel any age difference because Joe and Mary are a lot more energetic and interesting people than many 40 years old that I know.

JDJ Editorial —Conference Presentations, Magic Shows, and the Five-Ring Circus

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:00:00 EDT

Having attended two conferences in the past three weeks and seen untold presentations, I've come to the conclusion that irrespective of the subject matter, each presenter invariably falls back on the same technique to impress the audience: to rely on the skills of a conjurer or circus ringmaster as they try to captivate, amaze, and hoodwink their audience.

Java Editorial — Not Invented Here: Reject, Repulse, and Reinvent

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:00:00 EDT

The phrase 'not invented here,' or NIH, when applied to technology, describes a resistance by a group to use a perfectly valid solution to a problem they're encountering because they'd rather build the answer from scratch than adopt something existing that already does the job. Assuming that there are no legal or licensing issues to stop the already-built technology from being included, the reasons behind the recalcitrance to its usage usually boil down to human nature.

'The AJAX Moment' Has Arrived – What's In It for Java?

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 10:00:00 EST

When the fast-paced, three-day program of AJAXWorld Conference & Expo in the Santa Clara Convention Center finally ended earlier this month, with over 90 technical sessions and presentations from leading AJAX vendors like Laszlo Systems, JackBe, and Backbase as well as from established software giants like IBM, TIBCO, and Adobe, the overwhelming impression delegates, speakers, and sponsors alike were left with was of having been in attendance at something special, something unusual, something potent.

Is the Rise of Google the End of the Game for Everyone Else?

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST

As I write this, the stock price of Google, Inc. just exceeded $500 for the first time in the company's still-brief (two-year) history as a public company. That gives the search colossus a market cap of $150 billion, many times in excess of its physical assets - currently valued at $10.2 billion.

i-Technology Viewpoint: Is This the Advent of the Post-Modern Internet?

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 09:00:00 EST

The question that forms the title of this editorial was recently asked by a young observer of the Web 2.0 scene, Skinner Layne, who contends that the key thing to determine about Web 2.0 is whether it is best characterized as a revolution in Web development or as a rebellion against Web 1.0 - two quite different things.

Social Computing Will Turn the Web World Upside Down

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 16:00:00 EDT

Since most any two words can and will be put together in this world, what with us being Homo Loquens and all, it's easy just to shrug when you hear new colloquies like 'social software,' 'social networking,' or 'social computing' and dismiss them as just three more inevitable permutations in a world of whirling words and phrases.

Java Editorial — Unofficial History of Programming: '96 - '06

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:00:00 EDT

I want back in the '90th...seriously. Ten years ago I didn't know Java: I'd been using PowerBuilder and was able to program pretty much everything in this RAD object-oriented tool. To find a job back then, all I needed to have on my résumé was PB, a single framework (PFC), and SQL. With these skills I could have created a prototype of a rich CRUD client/server application in a couple of days. However, that was the sunset of the client/server era.

Success, Arrogance, Rise and Fall

Thu, 28 Oct 1999 20:30:00 EDT

I'm not implying that behind the mergers and acquisition news of every software company lies arrogance. I'm saying if you can't really afford to be arrogant, don't use the arrogant giants of your industry as your role model. If you analyze the successes and failures of the giants, you will see that most of their failures come from their arrogance too. If you lose focus on how you came this far, you'll be faced with the two options I outlined above rather than becoming one of those giants you aspire to be. Don't treat your partners and customers who brought you where you are today with disrespect. Don't let your new middle managers lose your perspective. We would like to see you and your company grow to become one of those giants rather than read rumors everyday about which giant fish will be buying you soon.