Something for Java Developers

While common users are still preoccupied with security issues and threats that Java usage can expose them to, Oracle and Java developers are more interested in tools, which ensure their joining the crowd of iOS developers.
Despite the renowned Apple’s ban to run Java apps and applets on iOS devices, there has always been a range of tools which helped port Java applications to the iOS gadgets.  The list of such tools, which include third-party open source frameworks as well as Oracle’s ADF (Application Development Framework) Mobile, has been expanded by another Oracle release.
Google offers open source J2ObjC translator for Java code to be translated into Objective-C source code, which Apple desires to see on its devices.
Other services which allow Java developers to see their masterpieces on Apple devices are Codename One and Vaadin. Codename uses cloud services for building apps for an Apple device, while Java development and debugging takes place locally. Vaadin is at hand to build apps for the iPad, mainly web apps to be precise. Although the functionality of the service might seem a bit limited, it was quite handy at the launch of the iPad when everybody was crazy about having an app on the device. That array of tools more or less filled the gap and allowed Java developers to join the development whirlpool for Apple mobile devices.
However, the time has come for Oracle to care for its followers once again. New Java Native Interface Proposal was created last month and meant to modify the JDK and provide Java developers with a possibility to pack a Java runtime, native application code, and Java application code without shared libraries. Many Java experts view the release as a kind of an advantage, which will expand Java developers’ abilities within the iOS environment though at the expense of some prior releases such as Java Micro Edition.
The new advances prove that despite security breaches of which Oracle was blamed just a month ago, the company is determined to guarantee its Java developers a comfortable place in the iOS development community. Apple, though not particularly happy with Java apps on its portable devices, so far kept silent on the issue.

Oracle Patches Java Exploits

Millions of users all over the world are patiently waiting for Java and Flash to leave the stage. Blamed for a number of issues, the security breach being the main one, the technologies are viewed as the necessary evil, which has to be put up with until anything better arrives. The latest reason for users’ indignation was discoveries of significant browser-based Java exploits. That definitely wasn’t the first time users were warned to disable Java, but this time a new level of security concern has been achieved at a surprisingly rapid pace. US Computer Emergency Readiness Team, which makes up part of US Homeland Security Department, broke in with a warning to disable Java. Mozilla and Apple were quick to react and blacklist the technology.

Bad reputation, though, turned out to be the most powerful driving force for Java application development community. The patch curing the mentioned exploits in the Java Security Manager arrived shortly. Besides, Oracle went one step further to eliminate such incidents in future by running the default settings on the high level and asking permission before launching any applet without an official signature. Nevertheless, unsatisfied users need 100 % secure solutions, which will control everything, and wait for HTML5 to arrive to dive into HTML5 app development art.

HTML5 is the most promising successor, though it does not evolve fast enough to elbow the mentioned technologies in the near future. Besides, any software has exploits, which tend to come up as the technology scale increases. No doubt, HTML5 will have its own set of exploits, which will show up when the technology already reigns the market and there is no way out except for putting up with them.

However, while users keep boiling over imperfections of the delivered Java solutions, Java software developers continue their custom software development path upon the request of clients most of whom represent the corporate segment of the market. There are always some people, who are over-preoccupied with security issues. The best way out for them is to get rid of their browser (any), the current OS (any) and the remaining useless hardware and to switch to the web plugging the network cable directly into the brain. There will be just one issue left: their brain must be secure enough and not contain any threatening exploits.

Samsung Developers: New Application Development Center

Samsung has announced the launch of the new site intended for simplifying the process of mobile application development. The development of applications for Samsung phones, smartphones and communicators has become a popular project for individual users as well as for large software development companies.  

Finding applications for various platforms and devices at one big and rapidly growing resource is very convenient. It has changed the conventional views on the online application support all over the world. Millions of users taking part in software development have made the company think over more exciting and advanced opportunities in future.

Samsung Developers has announced about the new site for mobile developers working with Samsung devices where everyone can get the latest news and updates, rich content and the forum for obtaining the technical support and it doesn’t matter at all whether you develop for Windows Mobile, Java platform or just simple widgets. Samsung Developers combines all the platforms into one unified resource with the latest SDK versions, training videos, hardware and software updates.

Cloud development: new Eclipse web development tool

Eclipse has rolled out Orion, a new web development tool that will enable web application development in the cloud. Unlike Eclipse flagship products Orion is a browser-based tool designed to support widely-used web technologies and take these technologies to the cloud.

Attacks on Java become more and more popular

Recently online hackers have been trying to distribute the harmful code through the gaps in the Java security system. Such conclusion has been made by the experts from the security laboratory of the G Data company, having analyzed the Top 10 harmful programs. Earlier the weak points in PDF constituted the highest danger, now they have been replaced by the Java exploits. Among the ten most popular viruses of October 2010, five ones concern the vulnerabilities of Java.

Among the possible reasons of such dominations are the gaps in Java security issues, reported the experts. Moreover, the process of production and distribution of the harmful code has become much simple in comparison with the other forms of infecting.

Experts in the sphere of application security recommend users to install the high productive security solution as well as update regularly the installed operation system, browsers and their components. It’s also necessary to use on your PC only the latest versions of applications.

Web and mobile application developers are concerned about developing secure applications and the issue of security is very acute for software development companies.

The significant increase in productivity for Java-applications development

The Engine Yard Company has introduced a new version of its platform called JRuby 1.5. The new version empowers extension of Java-based applications using the popular Ruby language. In particular, the JRuby technology allows quick development of new interfaces for Java-applications to work in SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) and WOA (Web Service Architecture). JRuby is an implementation of the Ruby development platform for Java. The language JRuby allows you to write only 20% of code compared to traditional Java applications development. It has a good integration with the most popular components of Java platform (integration with the core Java libraries, etc.). Moreover the JRuby 1.5 platform provides more efficient use of memory and processor.

During the five last months (the period of JRuby 1.5 development) about 30 volunteers made more than 1000 edits to improve the code. In fact, the main advantage of JRuby is the significant increase in productivity in the development of Java-based applications. In particular, java developers can now deploy Ruby code on the same server, using the same library as for the previous Java-based applications, but Ruby is fully integrated with the already working code and Java-applications using RIA development.

How RIA can give freedom of rapid application development

Professional portal development demands special knowledge of Flash, JavaScript, Java-applets and ActiveX-components. All these technologies are not supposed to complicate your life. But sometimes it’s not so easy to enrich user experience going beyond traditional tasks and at the same time ensure great results in a short space of time. On this point Rich Internet Application and RIA development offers revolutionary possibilities that combined in a single runtime environment.

What does it mean for users? It means “all in one” or integration of content, communications, user interface and a set of custom components and. Of course, all these units work in real time.

What does RIA mean for programmers? First and foremost it opens doors to Rapid Application Development or RAD. Developers use advantages of Ajax GWT programming and in the shortest possible time create new web portals based on reusable program components.

Beyond question, web is a dynamic, vibrant platform, where it is very important to reduce the time from birth of new ideas to their realization. That is why such RIA components as Ajax Toolkit will be in great demand. They allow to make fast and easy changes in new applications, giving developers what they want at this very moment for this very project.

Microsoft adds new features in Eclipse for PHP and Java developers

Eclipse Summit that was organized in Germany brought fresh news: Microsoft together with its partners Tasktop and Soyatec are going to release a range of tools and updates for Eclipse.

• Eclipse will support Windows 7 and all its new interface functions;
• Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) will be expanded to work with new features in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2;
• The open source tools Windows Azure Tools for Eclipse will be available for PHP developers;
• The open source Windows Azure Software Developer Kit (SDK) will be available for Java developers;
• The Eclipse Tools plug-in will be available for Silverlight.

So, Windows Azure SDK for Java allows leveraging Azure storage service while developing Java applications. Its logical architecture is quite simple:
It is reported that according to the voting (see The Open Source Developer Report 2009 based on Eclipse Community Survey), conducted among Eclipse users, more than 64% are using it in Windows OS. It’s obvious that PHP and Java programmers will appreciate this significant commitment from Microsoft.

The Challenge for Java Programmers. Check Your Skills!

Testing new Java programmers who want to work in Oxagile we use different methods: interviewing, multiple-choice questions etc. We think that “classical” approaches to recruiting should be combined with new breakthrough technologies.

Let’s take certification of Java programmers as an example. It is well known that many tests for certification contain a large number of issues with different variants of answers (so called multiple-choice questions). Such tests are not very effective, because probationers can easily find many answers concerning API reading documentation or source code. In this way we can’t test their ability to program, which largely consists of the ability to think logical and to formulate algorithms in a proper way.

So betterprogramming.com, the company from San Francisco, decided to fix this problem. Its specialists published test that offers to solve several problems instead of answering the list of questions. Java programmers expected to implement some simple algorithms. Source code, written by a developer can be executed on the server, and then user can get his/her results (they depend on submitted code and time).

14 technologies that won’t become obsolete before 2014: foundations of software development

The impact of recent changes in the world economy changed the situation in world of software. Now the majority of developers are focused on short-term work. But it doesn’t mean that they are careless about their prospects. Self-education and experience are still the only way to success. That is why it’s so important to be constantly analyzing existing technologies and methodologies trying to keep step with changeable IT- world, not wasting valuable time for unnecessary knowledge and superseded information.

So we will try to forecast the most essential skills for developers that won’t become obsolete in the next five-six years. In this and the next posts we will list 14 the most relevant technologies for software developers.

#1-3: Java, PHP, .NET

It’s highly unlikely that three foundations of software development, Java, PHP, .NET, will be in less demand in the near future. Developers need to know at least one of these programming languages and development platforms: Java, .NET (VB.NET or C #), or PHP. Nevertheless only one programming language syntax is not enough. Usually projects cover a wide range of different functions, so developers need to know the frameworks and libraries associated with the necessary functionality in more details.

to be continued…