The Pragmatic Craftsman
:: Simplicity from complexity ::
The Pragmatic Craftsman
:: Simplicity from complexity ::
A few years ago, Cedric Beust, had a blog entry with the same title. I saved it. Here’s a summary of what he recommended for staying sharp:
- Reading (a lot of reading) is certainly a great way to accelerate your skills
- Studying other languages is also a fantastic and fascinating way of learning new concepts that change the way you think.
- Spend time with “curious” colleagues.
- Practice. Find the time!
It’s a very good entry. You should take the time now and read it.
How do you stay sharp?
I think it’s safe to say that you are not going to stay sharp by not doing anything. But that, I mean, just going to work and doing what’s required of you. Sure, it can happen, but imagine how much sharper you would be if you did something in addition to that.
To be honest, I don’t know a definite answer on what’s the key to staying sharp. There are different ways that can work for you. Rather than trying to tell you what you should do, I’m just going to explain what I do.
I’ve tried many things over the years. I would say that I’m an aggressive type. I spend a lot of time on learning and improvement. And I’m trying to adjust as I go along.
So, he’re what I do to stay sharp.
Reading. I think reading is critical. I try to read at least an hour every day. Book reading, that is. Sure, there is a lot of good and helpful material/articles on the web that you can read. I do that as well. I have my list of blogs that I read. I find reading them very helpful. It helps me to know the state of things. But reading books requires you to put the effort and spend some quality time with the book. It also means that the author had put some quality time to make the book. This combination means is more valuable than just reading an article.
Over the years, I have changed the way I read books. I have converted to reading most of the books in the PDF/electronic format. I find that much more useful. And easier. I can take notes. I can read the same book at work without actually carrying it to work. Sure, I still buy a hard copy from time to time, but only the select few.
Practicing. Reading will only take you so far. It’s easy to read. I know. I’ve done that for a few years. I was on a roll, reading 300+ pages per month. But I noticed that I am not learning that much. Certainly not as much as I’d like. Plus, the rate at which I started forgetting things concerned me. Why is that? Just reading is not enough. Reading something just once might not be enough as well. I am in the process of modifying this cycle. It looks more like this now: Read. Take notes. Practice. Re-Read. Notes. Practice. Do what works for you. One thing is clear: by reading alone you’re not going to grow. You’ve got to practice. The more the better.
Doing more with less. This is a recent revelation for me. It’s exciting to constantly move to new things. Have you noticed that getting a new book is very exciting? But after you put the book on a shelf and it sits there for a while, something happens. Your interest in that book decreases after a while. It’s not new anymore. Not in your mind. You have discovered something else that’s new. Maybe you got a different book. So you focus shifts, that new thing is more “interesting.” It’s the same with reading. Once I am almost at the end of a book, I’d like to move on to the next. Even writing a review for that book seems tedious. I’d like to start reading a new book right away. But I have to break that cycle. I noticed that this is one of the BIG reasons why I don’t learn as much as I’d like. I’m trying to do too many things. Not good. Here’s what I am trying to do now to break this cycle. Before I move on to the next great thing, I have to make sure that I really learned it. And that means re-reading the book. That means writing a project based on the new information. That means writing a blog entry. That means creating a wiki/learning page. You see: that means doing more with less!
I know that the old way didn’t work for me. It’s something that I had to change. It’s still too early for me to report the results. It’s not easy to adjust. But I believe it’s the right path for me.
Staying sharp is not easy. But if you read a few books a year, you will learn more than most. Steve McConnell is Code Complete says: “One book is more than most programmers read each year (DeMarco and Lister 1999). A little reading goes a long way toward professional advancement. If you read even one good programming book every two months, roughly 35 pages a week, you’ll soon have a firm grasp on the industry and distinguish yourself from nearly everyone around you.” You just have to remember to do something with that knowledge to make it “stick.”
I am excited. For the first time, I can say that Java EE development can actually be fun and cutting edge. Jeremy Norris recently said, and I retweeted it, “If you’ve chosen Spring by default since 2005 for your EE needs, you owe it to yourself to take a real close look at JEE6.” I totally agree.
Just to give you some background. My exposure to Java EE has been limited. I have not really programmed in it. I did for 6 months or so, but it was in the J2EE 1.3 world and it was ugly/slow/overly complicated. I’ve tried to stay away from J2EE. Spring was a bit different. I’ve done Spring programming for a few years and generally have a good experience with it. But I don’t like too much XML configuration. I don’t like the fact you can easily get “tied” to the framework, which I don’t consider a best practice. Spring is a vast improvement over J2EE, but it’s not optimal either.
But now, Java EE 6 and Spring 3 enter a different ball game. I’m interested to see how it plays out. One thing I’m sure: the newest Java EE will be a good Spring competitor. Will it win? We’ll see.
I’ve always wanted the Java EE platform to be easier. JEE 5 went in that direction, but not far enough. Java EE 6 takes a few more steps. And I believe that it has crossed the “innovative/fun/cutting edge” line while allowing you to do some powerful stuff. Of course, it remains to be seen, but that’s what I feel now.
Here are some of the reasons why I think so…
No XML configs. Gone are EJB descriptors. Gone are JSF navigation rules. You don’t need XML for dependency injection. All of this means that this is really a big step forward. In some cases you might still need an XML config, but I like how it’s “configuration by exception” — that is, you might need one if you want to setup something other than the default configuration.
JSF 2 is fun. If you’ve ever developed web apps in Java, you know that it’s not optimal. I don’t like it when I see Java code inside JSPs. Who uses JSPs any more, anyway? Working with Spring MVC/JSTL is limited. Not bad, but tedious. But with JSF 2 and Managed Beans, you get a really nice, simple, and powerful solution. All you really need is one Managed Bean and one XHTML file. Really easy to get started. And I find this model of development intuitive: your view is tightly connected with the data. You don’t have to marshall/unmarshall the request in your controller. It’s done for you. Nice and simple!
JPA 2 is easy to use and robust. Powerful as well. It’s an excellent solution as an ORM. Ability to use JPA as a stand alone solution is also great.
EJB 3.1 is easy. Yes, easy. Want proof? Add @Stateless to your Java class and you’re done. No more configuration is needed. Want more? Create a webapp, add a Java class, and add a @Stateless bean. Deploy it to an app server and you have an EJB application! Done! No, you don’t need to package it to an EAR file (I hated that). Really cool.
Glassfish v3 is solid. It fully supports Java EE 6. I believe it’s the best EE application server out there. Good job to the team! Plus, with a stack of Java EE 6, Glassfish v3, and Netbeans 6.8 (no, it’s not my IDE), you can have a simple JEE app running in 5 minutes or so.
Testability. Embeddable containers. EJB has one. JPA has one as well. It’s really simple to setup some powerful integration testing. This is some serious stuff. You can test your database logic fully with an embedded database. EJB container testing is easy as well! Built in Java EE 6. You can test your EJBs with JUnit!
There are many other nice features with this release. I don’t know them all. And again, these are just my observations. So far, I’ve only read Beginning Java EE 6 with Glassfish 3 and tried a few things. Nothing serious. I’m going to learn more. I’m going to create applications based on it. This is some really exciting stuff. I just hope corporations that are still in the J2EE world move into the Java EE 6 world soon. They have good reasons for doing so now.
I have to admit, my regex skills are not that sharp. I read a book on Regular Expressions before, but still, regex expressions just don’t stick in my mind. Too cryptic.
Can you read the following?
/^[a-z0-9_-]{3,16}$/
The following explanation might help.
DescriptionWe begin by telling the parser to find the beginning of the string (^), followed by any lowercase letter (a-z), number (0-9), an underscore, or a hyphen. Next, {3,16} makes sure that are at least 3 of those characters, but no more than 16. Finally, we want the end of the string ($).
String that matches: my-us3r_n4m3String that doesn’t match: wayt00_l0ngt0beausername (too long)
Clear, right? I love the description. It makes sense! This is an excerpt from an article 8 Regular Expressions You Should Know.
This one is a bit more complicated.
/^([a-z0-9_\.-]+)@([\da-z\.-]+)\.([a-z\.]{2,6})$/
DescriptionWe begin by telling the parser to find the beginning of the string (^). Inside the first group, we match one or more lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, dots, or hyphens. I have escaped the dot because a non-escaped dot means any character. Directly after that, there must be an at sign. Next is the domain name which must be: one or more lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, dots, or hyphens. Then another (escaped) dot, with the extension being two to six letters or dots. I have 2 to 6 because of the country specific TLD’s (.ny.us or .co.uk). Finally, we want the end of the string ($).
String that matches: john@doe.comString that doesn’t match: john@doe.something (TLD is too long)
Reference8 Regular Expressions You Should Know, nettuts (very good resource, btw)
Jonathan Danylko posted an excellent set of 20 lessons learned. From a 20 years of experience. Excellent material.
Something to keep in mind as you gain your own experience… and move up the ranks. 
Reference20/20: Top 20 Programming Lessons I’ve Learned in 20 Years, Jonathan Danylko
Books, books, books…
I just browsed the new and updated list of books available as part of ACM. I have to say one thing. I’m impressed. They have updated the book list (they now have 1100 books!) and their course list (over 500 courses available). But I’m not impressed with just the number. I’m impressed with the quality of the books. They have some of the best books out there. By best, I mean 5-star rated books on Amazon.
I just wish I had enough time to read them all. Speed reading? I wish. I’m already reading 1-2 books every month. There are so many books I would love to read, but I have to concentrate on reading the best and of most value to me.
What are some of the books available? Ajax on Java, Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture, CSS: The Missing Manual, Mastering Regular Expressions (3rd), Agile Java, Software Architecture in Practice, Object-Oriented Design Heuristics, Applying UML and Patterns (3rd); many more. (Now, go ahead and read some reviews for these books, you’ll see what I mean.)
By belonging to the ACM, for $99 a year, you get unlimited access to these books. It’s well worth it. If I just had enough time…
Remember, reading is one of the best ways to deepen your knowledge, to improve as a developer, and to stay on top of this ever-changing IT field.
ReferenceACM Safari Books (600)ACM Books24x7 (500)
Simple. Precise. Without the use of buzzwords. The Uncle Bob’s way.
ReferenceWhat is SOA, really?, Uncle Bob
I’m reading the Code Craft blog (I discovered it a few days ago) andI’m really enjoying the entries there. I recommend you check it out.
Here are few entries which are worth a read. The author writes from India, where he currently works. His summary of the Indian software market is the best you will find — he just tells it how it is. Excellent writing.
Indian bubble – unless you are willing to pay wagesthat start to sound a lot like like US wages, attracting top people is nearly impossible
Finding coders on the subcontinent – The practical reality is that anyonein India who can spell Java already has a job. – experienced candidates… less thanone in five could write a loop that counted from one to ten in AN Y programming language – you have to interview too many badcandidates to find the really good ones
ReferenceCode Craft by Kevin Barnes
Excellent article about SOA. The article should be called Pragmatic SOA 101 — hype free.
ResourceSOA best practices (need an IBM account), Mark Lorenz
Great dose of advise. Hundred one points, to be exact.
ReferenceLessons from Project Management: 101 ways to organize your life, Project Management Source blog
What are the key elements that ensure the success of your project? What are the keys that will tell you not to continue with the project? I don’t know to tell you the truth. 
But the four things that are outlined below, and explained by Reganwald blog, I are crucial, in my opinion. This is a very good, must-read and re-read (notice new category ), article.
Excerpts from the entry:
1. The quality of the people doing the development2. The expected value of the product to its stakeholders3. The fitness of the proposed solution4. The quality of project management and expectations communication
I’ve read the whole article and it is one of the best I’ve read on the subject! I concur that these things are crucial.
Reference What I’ve learned from failure, Raganwald blog
