Articles by Joe Winchester

Should Java Assert that Network I/O Can't Occur on the UI Thread?

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:22:00 EST

Doing network I/O on the user interface (UI) thread is bad. Most developers know that and can tell you why; unfortunately, it’s still done. At this year's JavaOne, one of the keynote JavaFX demos bombed because the network was slow, something that would be forgivable had the entire application's UI not frozen, which required it to be restarted, only to trip up again a few minutes later.

The JavaFX SDK Has Landed

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 10:00:00 EDT

At last year's JavaOne Chris Oliver gave a presentation on JavaFX in which he discussed how he was interested in programming Java2D not in terms of JComponent paintEvent methods that launch into graphics.drawLine(…) or graphics.drawRect(…) code, but instead by allowing the developer to create an object model representing a Java2D picture.

Desktop Java Editorial: Management – The Final Frontier

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 12:30:00 EDT

The finest programmer I've ever worked with told me recently that she was giving up coding altogether. The reason – a succession of inept and incompetent managers had just destroyed her faith in software development. Recounting her experiences over the past couple of years, she categorized management personalities into certain traits.

What Does the Future Hold for the Java Language?

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:15:00 EDT

Before Java I was a Smalltalk guy. I remember switching from one language to the other and the tipping point that you reach when you've mastered the new language and how many months it takes, not to mention the years, to do really good design and know-how, which patterns to apply and how to avoid mistakes, understand performance issues, and so forth.

The 4 Core Principles of Agile Programming

Fri, 16 May 2008 11:45:00 EDT

One of the things I really enjoy at the moment is the recognition and adoption of agile programming as a fully fledged powerful way to deliver quality software projects. As its figurehead is a group of very talented individuals who have created the agile manifesto (http://agilemanifesto.org/). At its core are four simple principles that, when followed and applied to software projects, generally will ensure a great flexibility and hence higher agility.

Is Computing Riddled with Too Many Acronyms?

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EDT

An acronym occurs when the first letters of a phrase are combined into a shortened form that becomes an abbreviated way of describing the original. In science, they are often used to take a fairly verbose and complex concept, such as Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, and create a more concise and catchy noun LASER. The computing world is full of acronyms: Joint Photographic Experts Group becoming JPEG, or Graphics Interchange Format shortening to GIF.

Is It Time for a Hippocratic Oath for Programmers?

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:30:00 EST

Hippocrates, one of the founding fathers of modern medicine, realized that those who trained to become physicians were not only able to use their skills for good and for progress, but also might be inclined to misuse all they had learned. To protect against such abuses, new grads back in the 4th century B.C. were made to swear they would only use medicine in the best interests of their patients by taking the eponymously named 'Hippocratic Oath.'

Google Searching for Java Innovators

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:30:00 EST

Imagine you are a contestant on a TV game show and your grinning quiz master pops the question: 'Name the one thing you most associate with Google?' Think about your answer - write it on a card (don't show me yet). Turning your card over, it's likely to be one of the following...Great Internet search engine on google.com; Wicked share price, wish I'd bought some a few years ago; Powerhouse of innovation for Java

Java JVM Swapping - Safe Practice or Unsafe Risk?

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 23:00:00 EST

One of the most fundamental design principles of Java is captured in its motto 'Write Once, Run Anywhere.' It describes how a .class file encodes its instructions at the bytecode level, allowing portability between different machines that, through a specific virtual machine implementation, resolve the bytecodes into executable instructions to give the program life. It's a goal that's almost enshrined in the Java fundamental commandments, as Sun took out a high-profile advertising campaign to back up the '100% Pure Java' slogan and engaged Microsoft in battle for their proprietary language extensions.

Software Salespeople Are Like Pretty Boy Band Members

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:00:00 EST

Once upon a time, software developers wrote code and ruled their kingdoms. Good programs had few bugs and performed their tasks efficiently and with style. The elite programmers went on to become designers who would lead others in their wake, instilling in them good software practices in a master/apprentice relationship. However, someone was needed to sell the code, so software salespeople were hired who, like pretty boy band members, tended to spend their weekends at the mall browsing shelves of hair products rather than intellectually challenging books.

Pointless Places, Boring Faces, and Useless Cases

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:30:00 EDT

Often in software I find myself preaching restraint to those who wish to move platforms for no apparent reason than to keep up with the IT fashion industry; however, even harder than the silver-bullet chasers is dealing with organizations where change is required, not only in a company's software stack, but throughout their entire IT department.

Please Listen Carefully as the Following Options Have Changed

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:30:00 EDT

The other day when I arrived at work my phone's voice mail light was lit up. Cool, except that after pressing the voice mail button I was asked to enter my password. Issac Asimov's first law of robotics states that 'A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm'. Around this time my office mate returns from lunch and inquires why I'm still there given it's such a nice day outside. The answer is that it was taken away from, me by a robotic system administrator and a fax machine who together, figuratively speaking, ate my lunch.

Doubtful Diagrams and Far Out Figures of Web 2.0

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 06:45:00 EDT

In a recent presentation I attended, the speaker warmed up with a couple of bulleted lists that outlined the agenda of the session before moving onto his third slide that was clearly many days, work of stitching together powerpoint glyphs and figures in a sort of three dimensional loop that attempted to show the progression of software APIs around the evolution of networked computing.

Desktop Java Slims Down to Enter the AJAX Race

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:45:00 EDT

A number of very significant development efforts are underway that bode well for Desktop Java's future. On the language side is the Java FX script project http://www.sun.com/software/javafx/index.jsp. Java FX is neat because it provides a high-level scripting interface that runs on top of the Java 2D API. From the users' viewpoint it means they don't have to write Java code and, for better or worse, understand the intricacies of threads, Java 2D or Swing class hierarchies, timing frameworks, and so forth.

Eclipse Developer's Journal - The Evolution of Java

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 07:45:00 EDT

Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, has been kind enough to answer some questions for Java Developer's Journal. Rather than rattle off the usual ones about the name, about why Swing wasn't used, or how much influence IBM still has, Mike has fielded questions on some more current and topical subjects, as well as given us his insights onto the future. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Mike.

JDJ Editorial —Conference Presentations, Magic Shows, and the Five-Ring Circus

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 15:00:00 EDT

Having attended two conferences in the past three weeks and seen untold presentations, I've come to the conclusion that irrespective of the subject matter, each presenter invariably falls back on the same technique to impress the audience: to rely on the skills of a conjurer or circus ringmaster as they try to captivate, amaze, and hoodwink their audience.

The Vision for Eclipse: An Interview with Mike Milinkovich

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 13:00:00 EDT

Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, has been kind enough to answer some questions for Enterprise Open Source Magazine. Rather than rattle off the usual ones about the name, about why Swing wasn't used, or how much influence IBM still has, Mike has fielded questions on some more current and topical subjects, as well as given us his insights onto the future. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Mike.

Intelligent GUIs Should Require No Thought to Operate

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 20:15:00 EDT

In Bernard J. Baar's book 'A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness,' he describes the brain as having a single conscious area that can be occupied by one thought at a time. The unconscious part of the brain stores memories and experiences and, like the conscious brain, is capable of performing tasks; however, it does so automatically, unlike the conscious area that requires the intervention of the 'self.' The first time we are given a new input, sensation, or experience to deal with, the conscious brain is responsible for analyzing it, comparing it to something that has occurred before, and dealing with the action accordingly. Repeated exposure to the same input drives the response into the unconscious area of the mind, so the next time the same experience is encountered, an automatic reply can be recalled without requiring conscious intervention.

Those Who Can, Code; Those Who Can't, Architect

Fri, 18 May 2007 23:00:00 EDT

At the moment there seems to be an extremely unhealthy obsession in software with the concept of architecture. A colleague of mine, a recent graduate, told me he wished to become a software architect. He was drawn to the glamour of being able to come up with grandiose ideas - sweeping generalized designs, creating presentations to audiences of acronym addicts, writing esoteric academic papers, speaking at conferences attended by headless engineers on company expense accounts hungrily seeking out this year's grail, and creating e-mails with huge cc lists from people whose signature footer is more interesting than the content.

Java Editorial — Not Invented Here: Reject, Repulse, and Reinvent

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:00:00 EDT

The phrase 'not invented here,' or NIH, when applied to technology, describes a resistance by a group to use a perfectly valid solution to a problem they're encountering because they'd rather build the answer from scratch than adopt something existing that already does the job. Assuming that there are no legal or licensing issues to stop the already-built technology from being included, the reasons behind the recalcitrance to its usage usually boil down to human nature.

E-mail - Problem Solved or Created?

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:00:00 EDT

At the annual Alan Turing memorial lecture given by Grady Booch in London last month, he chose as his subject, The promise, the limits, and the beauty of software. It was an excellent address in which one of the themes was that for each of the incredible advances that software has brought to our lives, there is an almost Newtonian opposite effect that is negative and destructive. One such example given was e-mail: while making us able to communicate instantly with our peers, allowing effective and immediate information sharing, it brings its own set of problems. Issues with information theft, virus attachments, phishing, worms, and privacy are well documented and are very real threats although, to a certain extent, these are merely mirrors of real-world phenomena that e-mail merely amplifies and concentrates. The question that interests me the most is whether e-mail actually increases or decreases communication effectiveness.

Ship Happens! Insights From the Eclipse SWT Community

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 10:30:00 EDT

The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is the GUI toolkit used by Eclipse. The same folks that worked on the Common Widget (CW) library for IBM/Smalltalk developed it, this time for Java. Now, it's maintained as part of the Eclipse Platform project and distributed under an open source license, the Eclipse Public License (EPL). One key design point of SWT is that it uses native functionality on each operating system and, at the same time, presents a common, portable API. Joe Winchester, Desktop Java Editor for Java Developer's Journal, asked Steve Northover (SWT Team Lead) recently whether he'd be happy to answer some questions about SWT and, after talking to his colleagues and a few developers, here is the result.

Software Should Be More Hard Wearing

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:00:00 EST

I am always in awe of people who develop hardware. They're the real engineers of our profession, the ones pushing forward the speeds at which things work, their size, and their connectivity. For example, in 2005 there were more computer chips produced worldwide than grains of rice harvested and at a lower unit cost. Tonight as I was watching a movie from the 1980s, instead of dating it by the big hair and shoulder pads, the tree rings were most visible by the size of the mobile phone the hero was using, the lack of a plasma or LCD wide-screen TV in an otherwise luxurious living room, and the absence of a satellite navigation device as the lead characters got lost following directions from a map.

Ten Brilliant Years

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST

The year 2006 marked the tenth anniversary of the Java language and for me is the most significant in its history. The most important event was the announcement that a GPL version of Java SE will be available sometime in the first half of 2007. If nothing else, all the back and forth 'will they, won't they' discussions over open source have been a distraction for the Java community.

The Two-Dimensional Legacy of GUIs

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:00:00 EST

Ted Nelson, inventor of, among other things, hypertext, once lamented that software development today is at the same evolutionary stage film making was at 100 years ago. Back in the 1900s, when the technology of film production was in its earliest stages, the cameraman was the person in charge because he was the one who understood the technology and could make it function correctly. The audience's sheer fascination with the magic of films was enough to captivate and hold their attention while the silent and blurred subjects grinned and gawked directly into the lens. Much has changed in the last hundred years though, and movie directors are now the ones in charge of making a film.

The Perils of Abstraction

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 14:00:00 EST

Abstraction, as defined on dictionary.com, is 'considering something as a general quality or characteristic, apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances.' It's a powerful concept that underpins software reuse. When you implement a problem, if, instead of starting from scratch, the scenario can be thought of as being an example of an already-understood question, its solution can benefit from existing implementations.

NetBeans Interview with Tim Cramer

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 07:00:00 EDT

Recently I was able to talk to Tim Cramer, executive director of tools at Sun, about NetBeans. Tim started in engineering doing supercomputer compiler work, moved to more generalized hardware compiler work, and naturally moved to JIT/dynamic compilers in Java during its first few years. Tim's first management job was in the Java performance group, working to improve the base performance of Java SE and EE. He followed as the director of NetBeans in August of 2004 and is now the executive director for all Java tools at Sun.

Java: Money, Freedom and Open Source

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:30:00 EDT

In 1996, Sun created Java and the terms under which it is distributed. Since then, the Java Community Process (JCP) has emerged, allowing companies to participate in shaping language changes, but the ownership of trademarks, licensing agreements, branding, and other fundamental product issues remains unchanged. One is reminded of this fact every time the Sun MicrosystemsTM trademark appears alongside the Java coffee cup logo, or when one is greeted with the message 'brought to you by Sun Microsystems' at www.java.com. For anyone to use the Java-compatible logo on a product requires verification against the test compatibility kit (TCK), for which one has to enter into negotiations with Sun. Java, the technology, the trademark, and the language, are owned by Sun.

The Death of Mediocrity

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 11:00:00 EDT

Computers can generally be characterized into two types: ones that are designed to have more than one user attached and those intended for a single user. In the beginning almost all computing was done on large multi-user machines, partly due to their expense, which precluded their use to all but large institutions or wealthy corporations. Mainframes ruled this era and excelled at their role: providing a reliable computing platform for hosting databases, transaction servers, and centralized applications. The interaction was through character-based screens that, while providing fast and efficient green screen access, was to be their Achilles heel.

Can Map Do A Better Job at Allowing Optimized Iteration Over Its Keys and Values Together?

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:00:00 EDT

I've used the map to store things in a keyed fashion and want to iterate over the keys and the value for each. Problem is, each time I do it I find myself thinking how inefficient it must be. The keys iterator returns the keys so it has to walk the keys, however the get(key) has to lookup the key each time.Internally implementations like HashMap store keys and values as linked list pairs

Who Does Business Logic?

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:15:00 EDT

One of the phrases that has always puzzled me is 'business logic'. It seems to crop up a lot in presentations, articles, sales pitches and so forth. The one I saw it in most recently was a talk about how great web servers are because they keep all of the business logic on the server where it can be robust, secure, and logged. By analogy the client is a poor place for business logic because, while it can do richer things with the user interface, all of the core rules must be kept on the server.

SPAM, FUD and Rogue Web Services

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:30:00 EDT

First one today from 'Visa services' who'd insisted I entered my credit card details and password on their web site today to avoid irreversible instant deactivation of my account. Only problem is I don't have a Visa card and their URL had a Zambian IP address so I quickly deleted it.Next suspect in-box entry was claiming to be from a lawyer for a rich deceased ex-president who needs my help moving millions of pounds to Europe; the title of which was 'Can you be trusted ?'. This type of scam is the well documented 491 variant of the centuries old Spanish Prisoner con, and is the subject of the extremely funny book 'Tuesdays with Mantu: My Adventures with a Nigerian Con Artist'

Rich Client, Poor Client, Cool Client, AJAX

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 13:30:00 EDT

The problem with the web has always been that despite anyone trying to convince you otherwise, it's a page based latency bound transaction model that is a dressed up graphical mainframe. Works well because the transport protocol is neutral and ubiquitous allowing heterogeneous end points where the client and server don't have to know all that much about each other, just how to establish an HTTP connection. Problem with web is that if all the logic occurs on the server back end app, then the client is relegated to being just a dumb renderer of HTML, which sort of belittles the fact that PCs are pre-emptive multi-tasking box with oodles of processing power.

Swing Baby, Yeah!!!

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:30:00 EDT

Back in 1996, Java was originally hailed as a way of making the Web more appealing through applets, and, with its 'write one, run anywhere' philosophy, as the holy grail for desktop apps that would be truly cross platform. The truth is that both were oversold at the time. With the combination of low bandwidth Internet connections and early Swing releases not living up to user expectations occurring in the middle of the Microsoft vs. Sun 'pure Java' fight that resulted in JVMs being pulled from Internet Explorer, Java's attention moved off the desktop and onto the server.

Web 3.0 - The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum

Wed, 24 May 2006 10:30:00 EDT

When the phrase Web 2.0 came out a number of people were sceptical about what it actually means. Being objective, it's a collection of disparate technologies that make web sites more usable. Everyone wants their user interfaces to look and work better, and most of web developers' energy over the last decade has been spent focusing on the former. It seems that recently however they've decided that it'd be nice to make them actually more usable.

Java Developer's Journal: 'To Dwell in the Future and Forget About Today'

Mon, 22 May 2006 09:15:00 EDT

Some of the words I dread most in a meeting are: 'What if ?' They're fine in the present tense of 'What if a user tries this option?' or 'What if the database read fails mid flight?', but as soon as the future tense is introduced I begin to worry. 'What if the database and middleware changes?' or 'What if sometime soon we don't just have to run on PCs but need to work on mobile phones?' There is also the future future tense such as 'What happens to the UI if the operating system is ported to run on a wrist watch?' or 'What if one day the company merges with another whose corporate standard is MAC and SNA?'

All for One and None for All

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 11:00:00 EDT

When someone in a corporate boardroom decides what their IT strategy is going to be, it isn't based on what language or software architecture they will use, but on how a system can provide value to their business. Very few organizations buy their hardware and OS first, and then tool up to write a bespoke solution that meets their business needs. In my first job I worked for a software house that built specialized insurance applications. Companies put out tenders for business that we responded to, and whether our products or a competitors' were chosen was based on the value proposition in the boardroom. The hardware, platform, and application server were dragged into the sale because they were required by the solution, but the app was always the endpoint that drove the purchase.

Web Services and SOA - Sexy Clients and Programatic Oaths

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 13:45:00 EDT

Recently I was called in at the last minute to help out with a sales opportunity. The team had been working hard on a proposal for many months, during which they'd built a large working prototype system that talked to the customer's actual back end systems using web services and SOA. To their surprise however it had been slammed in the demos, because the user interface (the last part the sales team had put together) had been thrown together using just default fonts and colors, and basic text boxes and buttons.

We Are Made to Persist. That's How We Find Out Who We Are

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 14:00:00 EST

In Java's early years, the language received a lot of flak from its opponents over performance. Java turns its .class file bytecodes into machine instructions (MI) at runtime, something that costs cycles and is slower than a fully compiled language that creates the MI as part of the development stage. While to a certain extent this is true, the performance delta has all but been removed with the use of just-in-time (JIT) compilers that cache machine instructions in the VM and do other clever tricks to ensure the JVM runtime speed has very little slack. There was a time when JIT had to be switched off for debugging as it interfered with the ability to map stack and heap information back to the original source. However, even this is no longer true in the newer JVMs that can run in high-performance debug modes with no significant difference between having -Xdebug there or not.

Where Are the High-Level Design Open Source Tools for Java?

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 13:15:00 EST

I have just finished reviewing the book Open Source Development Tools for Java, which provides excellent coverage of such topics as log4J, CVS, Ant, and JUnit. There is a chapter on UML tools though in which the author almost apologizes for the lack of good open source design tools. There is a plethora of projects on SourceForge.net from J2EE runtime frameworks to IDE plugins, yet there is almost nothing that encroaches upward into the arena of analysis and design tools.