Many of the problems related to software development are at the individual
level, with those who create bad code rather than with any specific
technology issue. Therefore the goal of anyone staffing a project is to
attract employees most likely to ensure success. The infamous 1968 study by
Sackman, Erikson, and Grant, "Exploratory experimental studies comparing
online and offline programming performance," concluded that productivity
variation between good and bad developers was a factor of 10. The test was
based on how quickly their subjects could write a program to solve a maze
algorithm, and implicit in this was the assumption that the coders who solved
it fastest were superior. It's not an illogical conclusion to make. Most
computer science faculties do the same when... (more)
I use software tools to write code because as I enter my twilight years of
technology they make my life easier.
Right now I'm a big fan of Eclipse. I don't have anything against the other
tools, it's just that I don't want to spend any money on something when a
free product does it all for me. I'm not saying Eclipse is the best tool out
there - it probably isn't, but it can't be a bad one ... (more)
After Sun reported significant losses, a $1 billion tax charge, and layoffs,
many people began to predict a slow death for the company. Several analysts
were already writing obituaries for Sun's executive team, while newsgroup
pundits were swapping ideas about what they'd do in Scott McNealy's shoes.
What Scott actually did was play the "Do or Die" card.
Renationalize the Java Trademark
Ja... (more)
At JavaOne, Jonathan Schwartz, executive vice president of Sun's Software
Group, outlined his mission to increase the number of Java developers from 3
million to 10 million. The hope is to attract these extra seven million from
the legions of Visual Basic (VB) developers. Visual Basic's strength comes
from a tool experience that is inseparable from the language and, in order to
capture t... (more)
This article was originally published in print on December 3, 2003"Eclipse
represents the worst of Java"
Lately, there's been a lot of guff spouted about how Sun isn't joining
Eclipse. While I understand the bitterness aimed at Sun somewhat, I think
that this particular brand of talk is counterproductive and, dare I say it,
wrong. The talk tends to center around the concept of NetBeans and... (more)
Henry Roswell is a veteran consultant who would like to think he's seen it all, but is constantly amazed by new events every day.
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