SUN Tech Tips are not too uptodate

Enterprise Java Tech Tips instructs this week on Persisting Model Components with JDO. Start learning JDO, cause soon this spec will be deprecated [blink/].

Update: I would like to comment the comment of Doug [smile/]. I agree with you that JDO is not deprecated and there will be more code written till that moment (the moment the common persistence spec is out, the moment the first implementations are released, the moment the first dev guys produce the first well done solution and so on). I know all of these, but I wouldn’t choose to publish a JDO intro article a few days after an important announcement about persistence was made. I understand that Sun guys want to transmit a “stay calm” to the actual JDO involved people, but I believe the moment for attracting new users is wrong. Because at the moment the persistence spec will be out JDO will be deprecated (this at least is my impression based on the first draft of EJB3 spec). The EJB3 draft persistence solution is based/uses many ideas taken from ORMs (as Hibernate, TopLink) and these solutions, even if at surface don’t look not so different from JDO, they are in fact way too different.

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Test tool recommendations

A nice list of testing tools on Testdriven.com: TDD Tools Advisory. Read short description and choose what you need. Testing tools are guaranteed to improve your work quality.

nothing you can do with clustering factor

A very nice explanation about The Clustering Factor.

programming quotes

Some nice quotes I have learned in time:

• Software is like sex: it’s better when it’s free. Linus Torvalds
• AOP is just the stuff that makes OOP work
• You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• The Web is the sum of all human knowledge, plus porn.

I’ve just received another one from a colegue (C++ guy [smile/]):

Saying that Java is nice because it works on all OS’s is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.

(please no offense).

Update: Chuck Goetschel comes with many mores (not on programming) quotes.

Where is Java Web Start?

The project I am currently working is quiet big – the packaged distro has aprox 25Mb (Java + native custom compilers). During the spring (till late summer) we had to deliver almost weekly to our customers (they are testing a lot and we had a long period of feature requests/analysis). The prefered way to make this deliveries was an FTP archive. As you may expect the build/distribution is automated using Ant builds.
But, we got some complains about the size of the download and about the bad connection (damn, this is something we cannot improve [sad/]).
Right now I am thinking that a distribution based on Java Web Start will boost the update process (I expect another tough period). Even if the documentation for Java Web Start seems good enough I have some points on which I am not sure:

• how I package the native libraries/compilers
• how can I deliver native libraries/compilers according to customer environment
• how I install them afterwards (in some cases an install step is requiered
• how should I protect the download (if somebody intercepts the jnlp file, what’s happening next?)

.
Oouch, so many questions. If you have experience with Java Web Start and you can share it with me you will be welcome and I will greatefully thank.
Update: I have found only one book related to Java Web Start: Java Deployment with JNLP and WebStart. Back in 2001 (the book year), I guess JWS was in its first version (1.0.1) out there, but I believe not too many changes occured in the following versions (1.2 and than pooooof ! 1.4.2).

Update: First of all many thanks to all those that helped me posting comments [appreciate/]. I’ve decided to add permanent link to an entry containing my research on using JWS and JNLP and a set of usefull links. This is the post permalink (a link can be find also on the left side of my main page.).