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Where to begin?

Posted by daniel on November 1, 2004 at 9:28 AM EST

A COBOL's Chance in ...

In Starting Over, David Rupp asks what advice you would give to someone looking to make a career change from a legacy world such as COBOL to the Java world. He raises some good questions about how you retrain these folks. Also with Tiger (see the Tiger Bookclub that began today), I still wonder where we begin our training and how much of Tiger we start with.

David asks " What is the market like these days for senior-level programmers who would be entry-level Java programmers? Any thoughts on strategies for learning the language, coming from a just-one-step-up-from-the-opcode perspective? Keep in mind that most of them will be learning objects for the first time, not just Java syntax. "

Also in today's Weblogs, Andreas Schaeffer writes about All equals() are not born equal. There are quite a few responses that disagree with his take. What do you think?

In Also in Java Today , in the Core Java Tech Tip Using Static Imports for constants and methods , you'll learn to use static imports for global constants starting "with the traditional technique of using 'constant interfaces'. These interfaces only exist to hold constants. These constants should be moved into utility classes, but these classes have traditionally been hard to use. The problems disappear with static imports. In addition to their use for constants, static imports can ease the calling of methods and classes."

PHP can be a good tool for whipping up web sites, but what happens when you need to connect that site to a J2EE backend? In How to Use JMS with PHP, Amir Shevat shows how open source tools can be used to make PHP code a participant in a Java Messaging Service system. He writes: "combining the strengths of PHP - easy and fast web development, and compatibility with many types of databases - with those of JMS, which is the standard for communication with back-end enterprise applications, creates a powerful and easy-to-use tool for both Java and PHP developers."

In Projects and Communities , some fun from the Jini community: a Jini Pumpkin carving for Halloween. Non-US folks can learn more about Halloween in the Wikipedia or in Simon Phipps' blog.

Brett McLaughlin has launched the java.net Bookclub discussion of his book "Java 1.5 Tiger: A Developer's Notebook" in the forums. Read along and explore the new features of Tiger with the group.

Brett introduces the Tiger bookclub selection in today's Forums. He writes "I'd like you to basically light me up with questions, comments, complaints, and anything else you can think of. In other words, [..]. I'd rather get into some interesting issues; or maybe some things that I could have done better; or even some errors I made that I can fix for future readers. There are enough people in the world to offer up kinds words -- I'd rather talk programming."

Mark Swanson writes "Sun's Java Web Start secure sandox will never let an application use native libraries. The SWT folks will just have to accept defeat here. Also, the SWT folks face a hill that is growing steeper every day: people are (rightly so) starting to distrust native code [..] Why should I grant someone full access to my machine when it's possible to provide the same functionality within a secure sandbox?"

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A COBOL's Chance in ...
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