Janice J. Heiss's Blog

Becoming a Better Programmer

Have a look at an interview I conducted with Java Champion Dr. Heinz Kabutz who frequently sets up shop with his laptop on the beach in Crete where he lives. Kabutz is the creator of the Java Specialists' Newsletter, which, after 150 issues, now has an audience of some 30,000 programmers in 114 countries.

Heinz makes interesting points:

* The java.util.Arrays class is a good example of bad code.

* The biggest misconception about Java concurrency he calls “The Law of Greek Driving.” Like driving in Greece, the Java Memory Model rules are not always enforced or obeyed by the JVMs. So concurrent code may seem correct and may test out on all available JVMs and hardware but might still be incorrect.

* Developers make a major mistake when they fail to unit test.

* His reaction to open sourcing the platform: The greatest "Huh?" of his professional life.

I'd love to hear what you think...

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