tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39711598173627971632011-09-28T12:09:37.024-07:00This humble blog attempts to raise and discuss issues about how to do software development the *right* way. There are, of course, many right ways but all are characterized by the principle of zeroinsertionforce. If you're doing it right, you shouldn't need a hammer.Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-31048117304884925882011-03-27T12:09:00.000-07:002011-03-27T12:09:42.770-07:00

Just a minor rant, I mean, reminder . . . Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan This is the core of the Agile Manifesto, of course, reprinted here as a gentle reminder.

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-54024443209883064952011-01-25T10:08:00.000-08:002011-01-25T10:08:53.780-08:00

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-42642537309040878592010-12-28T14:53:00.000-08:002010-12-30T14:34:52.757-08:00

As everyone knows, time in the world of software passes very quickly when compared to other aspects of business.  So, in the last ten years, the way many companies handle their software needs has seen drastic change.  In particular, many companies and organizations that would have, in the last century, employed their own software engineers, now outsource the creation of software to external

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-7040039934231034802010-12-17T09:31:00.001-08:002010-12-17T09:42:28.922-08:00

A presentation on developing apps with the JCR as a data storage. This includes an interesting discussion of the general topic of RDBMS verus non-relational ( NoSQL ) database offerings. Development without Constraint View more presentations from Chad Davis.

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-17669310255407407552010-12-12T14:09:00.000-08:002010-12-12T14:10:41.659-08:00

On Thursday, December 16th, I'm giving a presentation at the Colorado Springs Open Source Users Meetup on developing applications with the Content Repository API for Java.  This includes an introduction to the JCR and a discussion of the confusing issue of knowing when you need an relational database, and when you might be better served by one of the new NoSQL choices.   Drop by if you live in

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-72954771280949431002009-12-11T09:52:00.000-08:002010-03-18T15:58:39.043-07:00

You might be asking, "CGI?  Are you talking about that 20th century web application technology?  Common Gateway Interface?"  Absolutely.  But not in the way that this blog title suggests. Before I started writing Java software for a living, I went to school to learn about computer science.  I learned some good things, but I feel that, in retrospect, my educational experience in computer science

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-39113557330711214242009-05-28T09:02:00.000-07:002010-03-18T15:59:13.350-07:00

A less technical post . . . I'm constantly on the search of better music to listen to while developing software. It's a hard thing to figure out. Most of the music that I would normally listen to doesn't work for writing software. Moreover, the music that I can listen to while developing changes with the different types of tasks that I find myself involved in each day. I'm going to give some

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-15711093470084060542009-03-12T14:53:00.000-07:002010-03-18T16:04:44.862-07:00

Maven: The Definitive Guide by O'Reilly provides a great introduction to this increasingly ubiquitous development tool. Admittedly, this ubiquity is still perhaps limited to the Java open source community, but it's spreading fast, and with good reason. Many have knocked Maven for being overly complex, or over engineered, and I kept my distance for a while. I recently became more involved with

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-91700842712905260112009-02-22T16:37:00.001-08:002010-03-18T16:06:35.744-07:00

The folks at FeatherCast have just interviewed me about my training at the upcoming ApacheCon Europe. FeatherCast is the "unofficial podcast from the world of the Apache Software Foundation". Thanks are due to them for taking the time to interview the trainers who will be at ApacheCon Europe. I think this gives potential attendees an effective way of evaluating the training sessions and

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-23723163240225334272009-02-01T13:25:00.000-08:002010-03-18T16:05:16.663-07:00

I'm happy to announce that I'll be at the European ApacheCon conducting a one day training on doing Ajax with Struts 2. This short course will demonstrate how the Struts 2 framework makes Ajax development a natural, and easy, thing to do. The framework is no longer against you! The training will be a hands-on, everybody codes affair. On route to learning how to do Ajax on Struts 2, we'll

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-39706923546107384432008-12-12T08:03:00.000-08:002010-03-18T16:05:31.130-07:00

Struts 2 in Action, from Manning Publications, is now available in Spanish and German language editions. As one of the authors of this fine book, I am happy to see its increasing availability. It's also available on the Safari Bookshelf, if you are lucky enough to have an account on that fine resource. Though I am unable to read Spanish or German, I can say that these editions hold to the same

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-28834244729812833512008-11-13T11:47:00.000-08:002010-03-18T16:05:56.286-07:00

Introduction I've recently been working with the open source search engine Lucene. I'm no expert, but since I have just pored through some rather sparse documentation and migrated an application from a very old version of Lucene to the latest version, 2.4, I'm pretty clear on the big picture. The documentation for Lucene leaves a bit to the imagination, so I thought I'd take this opportunity

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-20654390896280552422008-11-08T12:08:00.000-08:002010-03-18T16:06:08.815-07:00

As the author of Struts 2 in Action, I'll be compiling information towards a second edition of Struts 2 in Action. One of the main focuses of this process will be a series of Struts 2 tutorials which I will publish on this blog. Some of the topics that I am considering include: zero configuration tools customizing the UI Component tags Ajax on Struts 2 Right now, I'm just announcing this

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-47998799861377880172008-06-03T12:39:00.000-07:002010-03-18T16:07:08.369-07:00

I've just sent the new version of the sample application over to Manning. I'm not sure how long it will take them to post it to the book page. But it shouldn't take long, day or two at the most I imagine. This new version features: Separate HelloWorld.war Cleaner source code Better comments Revised README Hope this helps. Make sure to read the README ;)

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-56467510911003396632008-05-18T12:51:00.000-07:002010-03-18T16:07:17.264-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know that the podcast of the battle of the frameworks has been posted by the folks at Chariot Solutions; they're the ones that put on the Emerging Technologies conference in Philadelphia that I wrote about a while back. This panel discussion features luminaries from Rails, Seam, JQuery, Open Laszlo, Flex, and more. Entertaining as well as informative. Let me know

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-28026271895187012902008-05-08T13:20:00.000-07:002010-03-18T16:07:33.773-07:00

As a self employed Java developer, I have the pleasure and power of choosing my own tools. Of course, I also have to maintain them and become a part time system administrator. The maintenance of one's own machines and environment is at once the best and worst part of working for yourself. While I don't want to tell anyone what to do, I do feel compelled to share some of my hard earned lessons

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-59554401017473412632008-05-08T12:17:00.000-07:002010-03-18T16:07:43.098-07:00

I'm pleased to announce the publication of Struts 2 in Action, by Manning Publications, Inc. As one of the co-authors of this fine book, I'd like to recommend it to everyone. If you feel compelled, you can conveniently purchase the book via the link on the sidebar of this blog. I'd summarize the book as follows. This is a complete introduction to Struts 2 that spares no details. If you read

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3971159817362797163.post-66801653527209601662008-04-08T09:27:00.000-07:002010-03-18T16:07:52.612-07:00

I recently spoke at the Emerging Technologies conference in Philadelphia. It's a great and growing conference that boasts low registration costs and high-value. I'd say perhaps 75% of the sessions are very informative. Most of the attendees I spoke with were psyched about the content of the sessions. If you get the chance, I highly recommend attending next year's event. On the topic of my

Chad Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08377750824223681348noreply@blogger.com3