About five years ago, I worked with a pure XML-embedded database. The
advantage of such a database is unmatched flexibility. New definitions of
everything can be added or changed on the fly. It was lightweight and useful
in tight spots, but of course lacked many of the features of more rigid
relational databases. One advantage it had was that it was compatible with
everything. At the time it was obvious that an XML-based component
integration strategy could be just the thing to quickly glue a system
together.
Nowadays enterprise server-side technologies abound, but between the J2EE,
EJB, Web services, .NET, Domino, zOS, CORBA, etc., paradigms, no grand
unified solution has emerged. The EJB paradigm, for example, solves a number
of problems common to enterprise applicat... (more)
Quality-conscious developers are familiar with the idea of coding checklists.
The code you write must measure up to all the criteria on the checklist, from
"no grammatical errors in the comments" to "performs all required functions."
Based on these checklists, we have code reviews. A good code review takes
time, but is certainly worth the effort. Such reviews can prevent many costly
erro... (more)
I have long been a TogetherSoft fan, having used TCC (TogetherSoft Control
Center) for several years. It was a great development tool, effortlessly
keeping code in sync with diagrams and providing the best reverse-engineering
features in the business. TCC had lots of other goodies, such as modeling in
color, metrics, and support for patterns, making it more fun to use than
Rational's mod... (more)
Those who have battled J2EE application development with the plethora of
WebSphere tools have probably thought that there must be an easier way. Now
there is a new breed of software called application assembly platforms (AAP).
These toolsets make it possible to visually assemble an enterprise
application without getting bogged down in the details. The components can
come from multiple so... (more)
For years, the holy grail of programming, at least from a CIO point of view,
was a magic software tool variously called a "code generator," a
"fourth-generation language," or an "autocoder." This tool would generate the
correct executable code to fulfill a user's wishes, based on relatively
high-level requirements. Such a tool would definitely fulfill a project
manager's wishes, since cr... (more)
Jay Johnson is a J2EE architect at Qorusoft.
Vincent Kadar
Jill Starr
Christophe Dufourmantelle
Hovhannes Avoyan
Josh Powell
Pawel Plaszczak
Bob Little
Shai Quest
Bob Snyder
Jacques Durand
