Jason Bell

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)

Sleeping Tigers

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)

An Interview with Bruce Eckel

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)

Exposing the Services

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)

JDJ Product Review — Parasoft Jtest 8.0

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)