Java Programming Notes

This is a huge collection of notes and code snippets written by Fred Swartz to fill in the missing bits in standard Java textbooks.

If you're having trouble finding help in a normal book or tutorial, this is the site to hit!

Java Programming Notes

The problem with IDEs

Here's an interesting article about learning to program, and why using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) right from the start might not be such a great idea.

The basic theory is that IDEs shield the user from much of the knowledge of what is going on "under the hood", leaving the learning process incomplete. There are a lot of interesting discussion points in the comments below the article, too.

Read about why you should not start with an IDE when learning how to program:

The problem with IDEs » Whitespace

Specialties and Strategies

This two-part article talks about specialties within the software development field. How do you choose which specialties to pursure or develop? How do your job choice and career goals influence your set of specialty skills? How can you protect yourself from having your specialty become obsolete?

This is an interesting essay to get you thinking about how your are managing your career and where you want to go with it.

Even if it was written by a Windows programmer :-).

Specialties and Strategies (Part 1) - DeveloperDotStar.com

Camels and Rubber Duckies

Joel Spolsky has written a great article about how pricing works, and all the different things that need to be taken into account when setting the price of your product.

Sort of.

You see, every time you think you understand how it works, he pulls the rug out from under you with fascinating insights into human behaviour and corporate stupidity.

Still, by reading this article you'll have a good appreciation of the theory of cost curves, consumer surplus, coupons and discounting, and home/professional/enterprise editions of software products. You'll understand what companies are trying to do when they come up with strange-looking pricing structures and cash-back rebates, and with luck you'll be able to figure out how to avoid letting them rip you off.

Or you'll just conclude that it's all too hard and let somebody else deal with setting prices.

Joel on Software - Camels and Rubber Duckies

The Task Pattern

Often, you need to write code that performs a time-consuming task, or a task that takes an indeterminate amount of time. This often happens when interacting with the outside world, like executing and waiting for output from another program, sending a file across a network connection, fetching a web page, etc.

The Task Pattern provides a way to monitor long-running tasks, allowing you to give the user feedback (e.g. a progress bar).

Abstract:
"This paper is divided in eight sections: In the first section I examine the problem and motivation for this design pattern. In the second section I explain the pattern in a basic "hello world" manner. Then in the third section I integrate the Task Pattern with the Gang of Four Command, Command Holder and Mediator patterns. In the fourth section I explain how to use the Task Pattern with a worker thread. (The worker thread approach is recommended for production systems.) In the next section the paper explores implementing the pattern with aspects. In the sixth section I present a quick case study of the use of the Task Pattern. In the last two sections the paper does a summary and conclusion and cites references."

The Task Pattern: A Design Pattern for Processing and Monitoring Long-Running Tasks - DeveloperDotStar.com

Joel Spolsky on Salon.com

Joel Spolsky is the founder of Fog Creek Software, publishers of CityDesk (a desktop web content management system) and FogBugz (a bug tracking system designed to actually be useful instead of just collecting meaningless statistics for managers' PowerPoint presentations).

Joel has published a couple of books - one on user interface design (based on this series of online articles) and another that's a collection of his Joel On Software essays.

What I like about Joel is his writing style. It's relaxed, easy-going, and illustrated with funny and memorable stories and anecdotes that help both the explanation and the retention of the point he's making.

This interview is definitely worth a read, especially if you develop software for a living and have to deal with any kind of 'methodology'.

Salon.com Technology | The Shlemiel way of software