Category: Software Development

Implicit interfaces

Martin Fowler just wrote an entry on implicit interfaces. This actually would be very useful, but I think I can see why language designers wouldn’t adopt it (at least, not outright).

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A recursive descent into pointless debate

Joel’s busy complaining that teaching Java in comp-sci courses makes life too easy for people, because they don’t have to deal with pointers and recursion. News flash for you, Joel: the times have changed, and new tools are available.

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Equality for Hibernate

There’s a common idiom in Java for writing the equals() method. Straight from the classic book, “Effective Java”, it looks like this:

public boolean equals(Object obj) {
  if (this ==== obj) { return true; }
  if (obj instanceof ThisClass ==== false) { return false; }
  ThisClass other = (ThisClass) obj;
  return this.importantField1.equals(other.importantField1) && this.importantField2.equals(other.importantField2);
}

When using Hibernate, particularly with lazy proxy classes, it’s important that you stick to this idiom!

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Generics and code clutter

One issue with generics is how much the generic declaration repeats, particularly with collections. Consider this: bc[java]. Map<Date, List> eventBook = new HashMap<Date, List> How ugly… that repeatition gets very wearying over time. Here’s a few tips to deal with it.

One issue with generics is how much the generic declaration repeats, particularly with collections. Consider this:

bc[java]. Map<Date, List> eventBook = new HashMap<Date, List>

How ugly… that repeatition gets very wearying over time. Here’s a few tips to deal with it.

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Hibernate, proxies, and programming to interfaces

When working simply with Hibernate, you end up coding to concrete classes. This violates the idea that you should program to a type, not an implementation. It also means that various things you tend to do with Hibernate (like writing getters and setters) end up “polluting” your domain classes.

When working simply with Hibernate, you end up coding to concrete classes. This violates the idea that you should program to a type, not an implementation. It also means that various things you tend to do with Hibernate (like writing getters and setters) end up “polluting” your domain classes.

Continue reading “Hibernate, proxies, and programming to interfaces”

Hibernate Queries, caching, and mutable criteria

Hibernate has extensive support for caching built in (well, provided by various plugins, actually). This caching means that potentially expensive database operations can be avoided, especially in smaller apps (ie, non-clustered, which actually can go to quite a large size). Most people who use Hibernate caching are used to having object instances cached. Hibernate can … Continue reading “Hibernate Queries, caching, and mutable criteria”

Hibernate has extensive support for caching built in (well, provided by various plugins, actually). This caching means that potentially expensive database operations can be avoided, especially in smaller apps (ie, non-clustered, which actually can go to quite a large size).

Most people who use Hibernate caching are used to having object instances cached. Hibernate can also cache query results. However, there are some things you need to be aware of when you do this.

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New article category – Hibernate

I was checking over my web stats recently, and I noticed a trend has emerged solidly over the last few months: most of the search terms that lead to my blog are about Hibernate. Of my top 20 search terms, 11 were about Hibernate, and I’m in the Google top-10 for most of those terms … Continue reading “New article category – Hibernate”

I was checking over my web stats recently, and I noticed a trend has emerged solidly over the last few months: most of the search terms that lead to my blog are about Hibernate. Of my top 20 search terms, 11 were about Hibernate, and I’m in the Google top-10 for most of those terms (somewhat surprisingly…). Now, I’m not talking hundreds of search hits, but I am talking more than dozens.

All up, and at this time, I’ve written ten articles on this site about Hibernate, in various depth. To make life easier for people who are looking here for Hibernate-related material, I’ve added a Hibernate sub-category (underneath the Java category), and put those articles in it.

Caveat: I am not a Hibernate guru. I don’t even play one on TV. I’m merely a Hibernate user who has taken the time to write up things he has found out or thought about. No accuracy is assured, though I will happily accept corrections.

ehcache dissected

At work, we are a heavy user of ehcache. Well, we would be… it was initially written at Wotif, to overcome problems with the Jakarta JCS project. I recently had to sit down and figure out exactly how it works, and thought I’d take a moment to write it up.

*Update*: I tested the Hibernate serialization behaviour. See below for more.

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Why software development is not a profession

Software development is not a profession. It will never be a profession while people like the guy who wrote this lovely piece continue to get paid to develop software.

The reason, of course, is that professions have the requirement that professionals be competent.

Fortunately, I’m happy being a software craftsman

There’s no feeling like releasing software…

Ahhh… that’s the first production release of my latest project at work out the door today. I can’t talk too much about specifics, but it’s not a big secret that Wotif is enabling various B2B aspects of our web site, mainly with the registered hotels. Today saw the first big step in that direction. 🙂 And it feels great to see a new project go out and get used.
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