The JavaOne conference passed me by this year, as did the previous seven. I
never get the time to attend these things since I'm in the UK and it's a long
journey. So I sat back in my big developer's chair and watched the Java world
pass by like Weblogs in the night.
One of the hot blogging topics covered was, of all things, Christina
Aguilera. More to the point, you could access vital Christina information via
mobile technology. From a Java technology perspective, Sun hit the nail right
on the mobile device head. From where I sat developers got the java.com site
all wrong; here's a hint it's not for developers! I was really happy to
see the new site; Sun is finally marketing in the right direction for Java
technology. They've figured out how to sell to the consumer. We can send the
rocket scientists home now.
Java in the developer domain is all very well, but if i... (more)
J2SE is going through a bit of an overhaul at the moment, with the release of
J2SDK 1.5 (project name "Tiger") due at the end of 2003. Sun Microsystems ran
a feature article in May about this release that included a Q&A with Joshua
Bloch, a senior staff engineer at Sun
(http://java.sun.com/features/2003/05/bloch_qa.html). 1.5 contains
enhancements that enable developers to create simple robust code. The impact
on legacy code has been kept to a minimum. Well, I hope so; at least that's
the way I read it.
I use Generics on a daily basis and find it an interesting issue, especially... (more)
Recently, Jason Bell had the opportunity to talk with Bruce Eckel, noted
author of Thinking in Java and Thinking in C++.
JDJ: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us. I know you've recently had
some seminars in Prague. Do you think European programmers differ from
American programmers?
Bruce Eckel: That's very difficult to say, since I believe we tend to get a
special group of programmers at the seminars there. Even though we offer the
seminar at lower prices, it's still expensive and as a result those who do
come seem to be the exceptional ones. They tend to be outstanding, bu... (more)
Depending on who you talk to, the response you get when you mention the words
"Web" and "services" in the same sentence can vary from a big smile to an
amazingly serious frown. It's easy to develop an application or Web site that
uses the Amazon API and the Google API to great effect. From where I stand
there hasn't been much movement since, although personal Web publishing has
taken to the Blogger API with some interesting results. Syndic8 also has a
nice API to expose the collection of news feeds it has, as does Meerkat. Once
again the community is reduced to a select few using... (more)
In terms of unit testing and code compliance, Jtest is a real heavyweight in
the arena. For those who haven't come across Jtest before, it's an
application that will analyze your Java application code for you. At present
Jtest has 700 built-in rules and 100 security rules and it will autocorrect
250 of those rules for you. It provides Parasoft SOAtest hooks for testing of
SOA/Web services and Web apps. The reporting engine is also built-in so once
tests are run, you can view and print results via a Web browser. There are
some new features such as improved J2EE testing and the Bug... (more)