jsync | Java Staffing Specialist

Tech Tips from May 2008 Newsletter

05/10/2008

• Every year just before JavaOne, every major player in the Java space tries to make some big announcement. You almost get the feeling these companies sit on big news for a few months just to get the big ‘pop’ of a JavaOne announcement. This year’s big news (drumroll) – Sun announces Mural, an open source community for Master Data Management initiatives (and a preview version of Glassfish 3). Not to be outdone, SpringSource announced their application platform (think Spring, Tomcat, OSGi). Noise on TSS about Mural, a nice blog overview of SSAP, and a huge TSS discussion on SSAP (prepare yourself to read lots of attacks on the choice of GPL, non-compliance on Java EE, and lots of Rod postings). If you still want more rants on SSAP, Marc Fleury (formerly of JBoss fame if you didn’t recognize the name) had things to say as well (his content, as always, is for mature ears). In much less important news, Borland sold their developer tools division CodeGear (think JBuilder) to Embarcadero Technologies for a cool $23M.
• An even quieter announcement – Apple released Java 6 for Mac OS X last week to little fanfare (considering how big a stink it was when it was not originally shipped with Leopard).
• Consensus on JavaOne 2008 seems to be another focus on JavaFX, lots of GlassFish and NetBeans PR, and gadgets. General sessions available here.
• If you have some interest in Cloud Computing and haven’t yet heard about Project Hydrazine or Insight from Sun (announced last week), this article from EWeek should be interesting. Details seem to still be limited and it appears to be a while off.
• Joseph Ottinger (of TSS fame) attempts to explain OSGi in 5000 words or less. Does he succeed? Here is an overview for beginners from TSS.
• This article from Dr. Dobb’s came highly recommended (thanks Mark!). It is a piece about how to identify top developers, and explains how some companies seeking ‘rock star’ developers are probably missing the boat.
• Design for testability – an older interview with Cedric Beust, but worth a look.
• Key takeaway points and lessons learned from QCon London 2008. Many of the same themes from TSSJS noted here.
• Like your Java to have a little bit of style?? Read this article on Developer.com on Good Java Style, a long overdue update to an article posted back in 2001.
• If you’re looking for a better understanding of wildcards in generics, read this article by Brian Goetz (also a recent Philly JUG speaker!).

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Classic Vinyl

JUnit is perhaps both the single best and single worst thing that happened to testing Java code. While many have adopted using JUnit to write solid repeatable independent unit tests, just as many others have misused the framework in ways that can not be (and should not be) described. This article “had me at hello”. The first two lines are simple and logical.

JUnit is a typical toolkit: if used with care and with recognition of its idiosyncrasies, JUnit will help to develop good, robust tests. Used blindly, it may produce a pile of spaghetti instead of a test suite.

There have been some significant changes to the JUnit framework since this article was written, but the core points addressed are all still very applicable. When used properly, JUnit is an invaluable development tool that enables developers to prove their code works as it should.

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