General Development

Realizing That I Still Have Much to Learn

dmarx — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:26:00 -0500

Several years ago, I was asked to rate myself on my level of expertise with different programming languages and frameworks. Several people were surprised when I did not rank myself at the highest possible level for knowledge of Java, especially when several developers with far less software development in general and far less Java experience in particular rated their own Java skills at the maximum level.

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Internet Archive WayBack Machine: Valuable Technical Reference

dmarx — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:41:00 -0400

Have you ever bookmarked a really good technical resource, but were disappointed when you tried to access that page later and it was gone? Have you ever seen what looks like the perfect linked resource in a blog post, article, or book, but then found the referenced URL to not work? In short term cases such as an intermittent server issue or network problem, Google Cache can be an indispensable tool to see a cached version of the page.

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Reocities: GeoCities Rising from the Ashes

dmarx — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:06:00 -0400

I previously wrote about the potential loss of historical technical details as a result of the demise of Yahoo! GeoCities. I listed several useful technical pages hosted on GeoCities that might be lost. Others have also pointed out that GeoCities provided a perspective of the early days of personal web pages with profound value for those interested in studying the history of the web.

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Maintaining a Software Development Library (Books)

dmarx — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:28:00 -0400

For as long as I can remember, I have always loved books. When I was growing up and my parents would offer to buy my brothers and me something at the store, I'd almost always select some fictional book while my brothers would select toys. As an adult, I don't read as much fiction as I'd like, but I do buy and read (at least portions) of a lot of technical books. I've got technical books strewn around the house in several different book cases in several different rooms. My wife asks me to take more of them to work, but I have my two long book shelves at work filled as well.

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RMOUG Training Days 2010 Presentations

dmarx — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:27:00 -0400

I received word today that my two abstracts were accepted for Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group (RMOUG) Training Days 2010, which will be held February 16-18, 2010, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.

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Being Critical is Easier Than Being Creative

dmarx — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:54:00 -0400

I have learned in life in general and in software development in particular that it is far easier to be critical of a proposed idea than it is to be creative in coming up with a new or different idea. We see this in politics all the time when one ideological side seems to be better at attacking the other side than at coming up with real and creative solutions of their own.

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Impact of Demise of GeoCities on Online Software Development References

dmarx — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 10:05:00 -0400

On 9 July 2009, I received an e-mail message from Yahoo! GeoCities stating, "GeoCities is closing." I received these because I have had, for many years, a simple static homepage on Geocities (http://geocities.com/Colosseum/Field/7217/SW/index.html or http://geocities.com/dustinmarx/). I did not provide a link to it because, two weeks from today on 26 October 2009, that page will no longer be accessible.

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Lists of Popular Software Development Blogs

dmarx — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:57:00 -0400

There seem to be all kinds of lists of top software development and technical blogs. On the one hand, this does not matter that much to me because of the existence of powerful search engines such as Google and powerful development-specific aggregation sites such DZone. Search engines allow me to find an answer to a particular problem I am facing and don't limit me to blogs.

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Firsthand Frustration with Interface Inaccessiblity

dmarx — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 13:00:00 -0400

Most of us in the software development business are probably at least aware of accessibility issues associated with software development (particularly user interface development). However, I find that I usually understand the need for something better when I experience the need myself.

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RMOUG: Beware Triggers and DBA Code of Ethics

dmarx — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:20:00 -0400

The Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group (RMOUG) is well-known in the Oracle database administrator community.

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Common Debugging Steps Articulated

dmarx — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:25:00 -0400

In a relatively recent blog post, I discussed why I believe that more software developers should write blogs. In that post, I mentioned that I believe that some developers do not write blogs because they feel they have nothing new to add. A blog post I recently read illustrates how even a blog post on "old news" (debugging in this case) can be a useful addition to the blogosphere.

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Java API Documentation: A Software Development Community Contributor

dmarx — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:42:00 -0400

For those of us who regularly write code in Java or a JVM-hosted language (Groovy, JRuby, Jython, etc.), the Java Platform API documentation is a very valuable resource. In fact, it is one of the resources I most frequently access in my Java development. However, the Java API documentation's value is not limited to JVM-based development.

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You Might Be a Programmer If...

dmarx — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:16:00 -0400

You might be a programmer/software developer/software engineer if...

1) you are primarily offended by the use of goto when someone tells you to go to Hell.

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Beware Software Management Overreaction

dmarx — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:34:00 -0400

One of the most sinking feelings one can feel in software development occurs when a client or management overreacts to some crisis or mistake with onerous new requirements, procedures, and processes. In this blog post, I look at why those in authority sometimes do overreact, describe why overreaction can be dangerous and costly, and outline some ideas regarding how to reduce or prevent overreaction.

Why Do People Overreact in Software Management?

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More Software Developers Should Write Blogs

dmarx — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:13:00 -0400

With the pervasiveness of blogs focused on software development, it is sometimes easy to wonder if there are more bloggers than readers.

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Software Development Bumper Sticker Practices

dmarx — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:11:00 -0400

I loathe bumper stickers. I don't understand what a person is trying to accomplish by defacing his or her vehicle with these bumper stickers. In this blog post I examine how bumper stickers and the misuse of best practices have much in common.

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Start Refactoring Unfamiliar Code by Starting Refactoring

dmarx — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:12:00 -0400

I refactor my own code frequently. It is often relatively easy to refactor my own code because I know my code well. In fact, the process of maintaining and reading my own code often provides the motivation to refactor it. If the code is covered by comprehensive unit and regression tests, this refactoring is even easier. I have found that refactoring of unfamiliar complex code is much more difficult. In this blog posting, I look at the most important step I have discovered in refactoring other developers' complex code.

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Faithful Old Development Tools

dmarx — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:39:00 -0400

I had the opportunity to visit Yellowstone National Park this past week for the first time in many years. One of Yellowstone's most famous attractions is the Old Faithful geyser. This geyser is so named because it relatively faithfully keeps to its eruption schedule. There is some variance, but most of us who have gone to watch it erupt at its scheduled time have not gone in vain.

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Writing Code Is Much Like Writing Prose

dmarx — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:52:00 -0400

There are many similarities when comparing the writing of code to the writing of prose. Because of this, we should be able to learn from doing each of these and apply things learned from one to the other.

The Absolutes

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Java Developers' Thoughts on 2009 JavaOne and the Future of JavaOne

dmarx — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:31:00 -0400

I have found the results of the current and previous survey on Java.net to be interesting. These two surveys and indeed the three of the last four Java.net surveys have been related to JavaOne.

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Learning Java via Simple Tests

dmarx — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:59:00 -0400

On forums dedicated to answering questions for people who are new to Java programming (such as the Sun forum called New to Java), a common frustration vented by many of the "regulars" is when people posting questions have not even bothered to search for something that has already been frequently answered or is easily answered with Google, Bing, or other se

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Bing and Google: Searching for Technical Terms

dmarx — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 23:17:00 -0400

I wondered how Microsoft's recently released and highly advertised Bing search engine would stack up against the renowned Google search engine for searching specifically for technical terms. I planned to try it out on some favorite terms and report here, but then I ran across a link from DZone to a blog posting that has already started down that road.

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No More Colorado Software Summit: The End of an Era

dmarx — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:39:00 -0400

I was saddened and disappointed to learn earlier this week that Colorado Software Summit 2009 has been canceled with no plans for resuming the conference in future years. There had been 17 annual versions of this conference (though under a different name/focus in the early years), but the magnitude of these troubled economic times is evident in the cancellation of this year's conference.

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Questions Answered: First Day of 2009 JavaOne

dmarx — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:35:00 -0400

I have previously blogged on questions about the effect of Oracle's acquisition of Sun on JavaOne. In that same blog posting, I also postulated that JavaOne might answer some of the questions and publicly wondered if this would be the last JavaOne.

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Code Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

dmarx — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:43:00 -0400

The phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder is often used to describe the wide variety of peoples' opinions of what is beautiful. Although this phrase is commonly used in describing different perceptions on the appearance of a particular person, it definitely fits the concept of beautiful code.

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