::Manageability::Random thoughts on the manageability of complex software.Programming with Adaptors- June 30, 2003 "Programming with Adaptors" a new term I'm making up. It's really nothing new, but recently it's being taken to new levels. Exhibit A, Spin: We will present our project named Spin which offers a - to our knowledge - revolutionary new approach. It offers transparent thread handling with minimal impact on your application code. Exhibit B, PyProtocols Do you hate having to write lots of if-then logic to test what type something is Wouldn't it be nice if you could just declare.http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/programming_with_adaptors Why are Event Driven API's Difficult- June 30, 2003 The public review of the Streaming API for XML (StAX) has been released. This is the standardization of a new kind of way of interacting with XML. The current ways are based on DOM and SAX. DOM based api's tend to be more flexible however at the cost of creating the entire document tree. SAX is extremely efficient however it tends to be more difficult to program in a event driven style. The name chosen in not entirely accurate since SAX is also a..http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/why_are_event_driven_api Principles of Loosely Coupled API's- June 30, 2003 Bill de hra has a very good blog entry "Foundations for component and service models". It seems to jive very well with my thoughts on loosely coupled architectures. Bill is dead on right when he says that idiomatic java isn't a place to get inspiration on how to build loosely coupled architectures. However, I'm going to qualify my agreement, Java idioms are extremely useful, but when you get to "programming in the large" it's becomes a whole different...http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/principles_of_loosely_coupled_api Multiface Coding in J2EE- June 26, 2003 JavaPro magazine has published a quite illuminating article "Separate Business Logic From Components". It's an article written by two veterans at ATG. ATG or Art Technology Group was one of the first developers of an application server, as a matter of fact, they donated their template language to Sun. That formed the basis of what we know today as JSP. In short, when someone from ATG speaks, I listen attentively! The article describes an approach which they've...http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/multiface_coding_in_j2ee OFBiz Persistence Revisited- June 26, 2003 Hani is now taking pot shots at the OFBiz Entity Engine. Actually, he could of saved a lot of time if he bothered to read my blog 8 months ago. That's when I wrote this "OFBiz Turning OO on its Head or Programming in the Large". Hani, finally goes out on a limb by making this remark: In my opinion, persistence these days has become so orthogonal to business functionality and concerns that it should be as decoupled as possible. One should be able to merrily switch functionality...http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/ofbiz_persistence_revisited Only Pessimism Sounds Profound, Optimism Sounds Superficial- June 26, 2003 "The Knowing-Doing Gap" is a very insightful book that I encourage everyone to read. There's one particular chapter, entitled "When Talk Substitutes for Action" that is particular relevant. The chapter talks about the tendency to treat "talking" about something as equivalent to actually "doing" something about it. The author writes about different variations on the theme: Making Decisions as a Substitute for Action Making Presentations as a Substitute for Action Preparing...http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/negative_people_seem_smarter Liskov's Substitution Principle and JUnit Testing- June 24, 2003 I guess we have all heard about Liskov's Substitution Principle Well if you haven't, here's a reference and the take on that principle: FUNCTIONS THAT USE POINTERS OR REFERENCES TO BASE CLASSES MUST BE ABLE TO USE OBJECTS OF DERIVED CLASSES WITHOUT KNOWING IT So if I were to apply it to unit testing the it should be pretty simple. If I got a test that tests a base class or an interface, then that same test should work with any subclass or implementor of the interface. That's...http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/liskov_s_substitution_principle_and 73% of JavaOne Attendees need Manageability!- June 24, 2003 Survey at JavaOne finds a majority lack manageability of their applications and services. A survey conducted at the JavaOne Conference indicates that the costly systems failures may be linked to a widespread lack of visibility into IT infrastructure. Of the conference attendees surveyed, 73 percent do not have adequate visibility into critical applications and services across multiple platforms and vendors; and 74 percent experience regular application failures within their...http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/73_of_javaone_attendees_need Is it Now "Windows versus Java"- June 23, 2003 Well, well, just as I had forseen, Microsoft is now playing the "Windows" card to the hilt. Microsoft has just announced that it is rebranding its mobile software to "Windows". So, I guess it's now time for a new list "101 Reasons Why Java is Better than Windows". The ".NET" word is pretty much obsolete, I guess this also makes conspicuosly obvious the absence of any cross-platform aspirations.http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/is_it_now_windows_versus Ideas on How to Build Reusable Aspects- June 23, 2003 One of the unresolved issues of Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) is the issue of reusable aspects. Reusability can come in many forms, one is "can an aspect be reused in a different context" another kind is "can aspects be composed". To get a feel of reusable aspects of the first kind study "Aspect-Oriented Design Pattern Implementations". You'll can also find a quick summary on this blog entry from Merrick Schincariol. In short you can apply the Template design...http://www.jroller.com/ceperez/entry/towards_reusable_aspects |