Methodology madness
What are the best techniques for managing your Java projects? Software development methodologies have been around for quite some time. In the 1980s, the buzz around computer aided system engineering (CASE) tools was huge. Companies invested millions of dollars in…
Automate dependency tracking, Part 2
Automatic dependency tracking discovers dependencies at runtime and updates the user interface Rube Goldberg, an award-winning cartoonist, drew incredibly complex contraptions that performed simple tasks. He described his machines as “symbols of man’s capacity for exerting maximum effort to accomplish…
Maximize flexibility with interfaces and abstract classes
Design with interfaces and abstract classes to satisfy both type and implementation issues Though type is an extremely important object-oriented concept, it is often overlooked in favor of implementation-centric concerns. Java program development is as much about design as about…
A primordial interface?
Investigate Java’s elusive primordial interface Section 8.1.3 of the Java Language Specification (JLS) states, “The class java.lang.Object … is the primordial class and has no direct superclass.” That means java.lang.Object serves as the root class for all Java class hierarchies.…
Java Tip 116: Set your table options — at runtime!
Enhance the display and usability of JTable Java Foundation Classes (JFC) offer a rich selection of components for building smart and interactive graphical user interfaces (GUIs). You can display tabular data using the javax.swing.JTable class. In this Java tip, we’ll…
Sprint PCS brings Java to handsets
Wireless provider announces Java developers’ program September 11, 2001 — Sprint PCS Group has jumped on the Java bandwagon, announcing an application developers’ program in conjunction with Sun Microsystems Inc. and support for Java on a pair of handsets running…
XML messaging, Part 3
The JAXM and ebXML APIs set the new standard for XML messaging With the advent of Web services, XML messaging has become an important component of the J2EE (Java 2, Enterprise Edition) technology solution set. Within the XML messaging realm,…
Exceptional practices, Part 2
Use exception chaining to preserve debugging information In Part 1 of this series, I looked at some general concepts surrounding sensible exception use in Java programs. In this article, I focus in greater depth on a particular exception-handling technique called…
Access control for partial exposure
Gain high-speed, fine-grained access control for Java fields and methods Java’s built-in access control won’t let you expose fields and methods (members) to some classes in a package, while hiding them from other classes in that same package. In this…
