Omaha Java Users Group

19 September 2006 Meeting Topics

• Where: Gallup.com’s campus — New location!
• When: 19 September 2006 starting at 5:30 — New time!
• What: TBA and Lightning talks
• Who: Everyone is welcome!
• Why: To learn, to have fun, and to network
• How: Just show up! No money needed!

Please note there is a new schedule:

5:30 Food / Social
6:00 Announcements
6:15 TBA talk
7:15 break
7:30 Lightning talk
7:45 Lightning talk
8:00 door prizes / meeting over

We’re also trying a new location on Gallup.com’s campus 1001 Gallup Drive Omaha, NE 68102

Maybe yes, maybe not, but make sure you read this white paper written by Gilad Bracha, Neal Gafter, James Gosling and Peter von der Ahé. Here is a snippet:

Modern programming languages provide a mixture of primitives for composing programs. C#, Javascript, Ruby, Scala, and Smalltalk (to name just a few) have direct language support for function types and inline function-valued expression, called closures. A proposal for closures is working its way through the C++ standards committees as well. Function types provide a natural way to express some kinds of abstraction that are currently quite awkward to express in Java. For programming in the small, closures allow one to abstract an algorithm over a piece of code; that is, they allow one to more easily extract the common parts of two almost-identical pieces of code. For programming in the large, closures support APIs that express an algorithm abstracted over some computational aspect of the algorithm. We propose to add function types and closures to Java. We anticipate that the additional expressiveness of the language will simplify the use of existing APIs and enable new kinds of APIs that are currently too awkward to express using the best current idiom: interfaces and anonymous classes.

After you are done reading the whitepaper, follow an interesting debate at Nutrun.com .

I came across a link to this article on SOA Digest. However the link on their page pops up too many windows. So click on the link here to read the ad-free, print version of the aritcle. A must read.

Summary of the article:

AJAX is a mere instance of a rich client interface for both SOA and the enterprise. It’s the momentum behind AJAX that will insure its place in most enterprises looking to employ rich clients, which are most enterprise-class businesses. However, this technology isn’t always a slam-dunk. You must first address your requirements before leveraging AJAX or, for that matter, any other technology.

At the end of the day, AJAX is just another part of the SOA solution and it needs to exist with other robust technologies that solve the problems at hand. Therefore, you must consider using AJAX holistically and in the context of other enabling technologies, standards, and the ultimate architecture.

Unlike traditional application development, where the database and application are designed, SOAs are as unique as snowflakes. When all is said and done, no two will be alike. However, as time goes on, common patterns emerge that let us share best practices when creating an SOA. We still need to travel further down the road before we can see the whole picture.

“Sun” gods must be crazy! Common VB.Net features on the Java platform! According to Graham Hamilton, a Sun vice president :

“The Java language is a great language,” he said. “There are other language styles out there. Some people like using scripting languages, some people like using dynamic languages and some people like Visual Basic.”

What the company is not trying to do is clone any specific version of Visual Basic, Hamilton said. Sun is attempting to support common VB.Net features on the Java platform.

“If you’re familiar with VB.Net, this will be a very easy-to-learn language for you,” Hamilton said of the Basic implementation Sun is working on.

So be ready to see dynamic languages integration in “Mustang” version of Java SE. Read more about this development here .

Sun and IBM seems to be on a mission to simplify use of Java based technologies to attract more developers. First Sun plans to open source Java, then they make EJB 3.0 easier to use and now there is an article on IBM Developerworks about J2EE 1.4 standard. Here are the opening lines:

Ready for your career to take off? Regardless of the types of apps you’re developing, Java™ 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is an important standard that’s here to stay. And mastering it can no doubt boost your value as a programmer. This article, beneficial to both new and experienced developers, gives you a primer on the J2EE 1.4 standard, to which Apache Geronimo aspires to conform, and how it relates to Geronimo technology. You’ll also review some of the more important container classes defined by J2EE as well as investigate GBean technology and more advanced Geronimo concepts.

Read rest of the article here .

Sun Microsystems will begin releasing significant open-source Java components this year and also will extend the collaborative strategy to the gadget version of the software technology.  Read more …

Here’s a poll hosted by quimble.com: Should OJUG meet at the Gallup.com location this September?  Please take a moment to vote?
The poll has an RSS feed…

EJB 3.0 and jMatter have nothing in common, except Java. We had two wonderful presentations today.

EJB 3.0 was presented by Rajan Ramanujan from Lincoln Financial. Here are some of the advantages of using EJB 3.0 over EJB 2.1:

• Fewer Classes and Interfaces
• Dependancy Injection ( Bean instance construction triggers injection of needed resources)
• Simple Lookups
• No required Container Interfaces
• No required Deployment Descriptor
• Simplified persistence
• Object/Relational Data mapping
• Designed to draw Developers to J2EE

jMatter is an Application Framework for constructing workgroup business applications based on the Naked Objects Architectural Patterns. The jMatter framework does the CRUD functions for you and provides a very rich drag and drop, calendaring, and reporting functions. Matt Payne made an application from scratch during his presentation; the application is all Swing and a Rich Client App. This rich app can be launched via java web start; there’s an example of Matt’s here; this example includes a groovy interpreter and the ability to import OVAL files via XMLBeans. Eitan’s slides about jMatter.org are available on the jMatter site; and Matt Payne’s slides are available at MattPayne.org/talks.

Spencer Reed Group, an IT Staffing company, sponsored this OJUG meeting by providing Pizza and Pop. They gave away 5 door prizes too.

1Staff, a premier IT training company, provided meeting room facility for the group today.

We welcome you to Omaha’s Java Users Group new Website powered by Wordpress.

• What: There will be two talks:
• Rajan will be talking about EJB3.0 and will go first.
• Matt Payne will be talking after the break about jMatter.org and XMLBeans.apache.org.
• Estimated length of Matt’s talk is 40 minutes.
• Who: Rajan and Matt Payne
• When: Tuesday 15 August 2006 Food and Soda starting at 6:30PM , presentations to start around 7:00PM
• Where: 1Staff Training (map)