@Javaprince

You can work with your documents even from a windows drive , these days most linux distros (including ubuntu) as you to specify a mount point for your fat or ntfs drives
(don't hibernate windows before trying this, shut down) simply pick one and your windows partitions should be mounted automatically any time you log on.

generally you mount partitions with commands like
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/windowsC -t ntfs

You can run suns virtual box or VM ware etc. (virtualization tech) to use Macromedia stuff, i think thats the only real solution for those products, FOR NOW

If you create documents in standard (xml,sgml) formats or defacto (xls,doc) you shouldn't have any problem opening them in Open office or MS office.

All that being said, Linux has a slight learning curve. You might be more productive developing apps on a platform your very comfortable on.
Deployment is another issue entirely .

So please, go ahead and write your java programs on windows , then claim they can run on linux (9 times out of 10, they will)

@javalove you just like computers (we all like them but , )

If you really think about it , what are the major advancements in computing these days ?

Computers haven't really change in the last 50 years, they've basically gotten smaller ,

For instance which is more important the invention of the transistor or computers
The cure for small pox, polio vaccine or computers

Ability to do open heart surgery,

You've forgotten that computers are really just a tool, like a cool screw driver or drilling machine ,

The problem with computing these days is that its mostly the problem,
its not pervasive enough
there's so much attention given to it (unnecessarily)

That's why for example, you have more IT people in banks than bankers

IDEA is really good!
All thee platforms support plugins (eclipse, ItelliJ iDEA, netbeans)

I think netbeans shines when you do things like JSF, or new java standards stuff
eclipse (especially MyEclipse) is very good when using de-facto or open source stuff like struts,hibernate etc.

But the great thing is that there all free (almost , or at least cheap)

I'd guess Jbuilder is good,like all things from Borland ,but i don't know anyone who uses it anymore

Ttola, i agree with you but it only means they've raised the bar ,
You now need more than mere certifications to prove your competence

Besides certification pass certification ,
If guys use dumps for CCNA do CCNP else CCIE
If MCP then Do MCAD or MCSD
if SCJP then do SCJD or SCEA

get the idea ?
You have to distinguish yourself from the rest!

Yes, the modern computer is truly great in terms of the social changes it has brought into our lives but i'm sure we ca still do better.
So let me dream and ask a few questions

1) Would the discovery of time travel be better than computers
2) Would the discovery of cold fusion be better than computers
3) What of the discovery of the cure for aids
4) , Cryogenics
5) , Robotics
6) planets that humans can relocate to
7) the vehicles to take them there ,

There loads of stuff humans can discover, we've only just started ,
So let everyone get busy and not think Computers are the peak of human ingenuity, after all we're still talking about a discovery thats at least 50 years old(Von Newman machine)

By "Nigerian English" , of course you must mean pidgin English , else your analogy is unacceptable

Because i want to display an option pane to inform the user than an operation was successful and also to play a small audio filei have to write this annoying stuff,
Code:
playAudio("info.wav";
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(Main.this,"Operation successful, ","APP_NAME",JOptionPane.INFORMATION_MESSAGE);
return;

But with design patterns,

Code:
alert("Operation Successful, ",1); where the ineteger value defines the type of message

where the method alert() must have been declared in a class,

Thats just an idea and u cud have patterns for even bigger stuffs like DB connections and all. I hope i used the right illustrations sha.

This doesn't look like any pattern i'm familiar with, its simple encapsulation.
Design patterns is not the same thing as OO. Your example is OO. You should always use good OO when writing applications, you then refactor to patterns when the need arises (you'll know when the need arises).

I think the experience thing comes when you write code and you feel someone is standing over your neck and frowning. The experience comes in knowing that you've just implemented a quickie and would probably have to come back and reorganize the sh*t .
I recommend that guys read the book HEAD FIRST DESIGN PATTERNS, its a solid book and it'll shed some light on murky area of patterns.

you should be able to download from that site, buts here's another good link www.thefreecountry.com

@Kobojunkie
Relax , I was generalizing

I have some questions ,

What are the most popular languages with developers in the mainstream
Why is there so much excitement these day about scripting languages
What is the most used .NET language (i.e JScript, C#, Asp.NET(thats with C# VB.NET etc) ,VB.Net,J++ ?


You'd see the trend , do you want me to post articles showing this trend ?

How many Middleware platforms exist on the .Net platform ?
From how many vendors?
How does that Compare with java ,

what is RIA ?

Why did Microsoft fight to win the browser wars only to give it away for free ?
Why does Microsoft give away Developer tools ?
Have you heard of empower ISV ?

Ok ,
Open source is not the same thing as open Source code , you cant use code, Legally, just because you have access to it (check up on OSF)

Kobojunkie i like .NET, i think it made the platform landscape interesting, C# was the language i used first, professionally , for 2years
so you don't need to sell me on the merits of the .NET platform

, Well continue this discussion later , if you want more facts cheers

Q-Basic
Fortran
Pascal
C
Assembly (Intel and Motorola)
C++
Shell Scripting(BASH,korn,C)
Java
C#
T-Sql
python

Apart from Fortran,Python,pascal i've used the other languages in non-trivial apps

I need to learn something new , maybe an AI language like LISP or something ,
its just that Java,C# and shell scripting pay the bills

The future of java is no longer in the hands of SUN , it hasn't been for a while .
IBM, Oracle and BEA hijacked the Java train long ago and now that java is open source, well ,

Microsoft want people to write programs for windows, whether the program is in java or not is not really material , the problem with java programs is that they can also ultimately be ran on a non Microsoft OS, MS doesn't want this so they don't like java.

If you check history you'd see MS was one of the more active participators in the early java boom, they only parted ways when they tried to force their business/tech model down Suns throat.

Well java is really cool now, Going through this long and old thread its interesting to see that so many of the claims of the HATERS that were true then are no longer accurate - so Java has also grown.

There is a niche for Java apps that would be difficult to fill by any other platform (Enterprise middle ware) , whereas MS.Net niche which is really the front-end has Gone all Web. This is good technology wise but it doesn't pay Microsoft because now guys use MS.NET to develop apps for browsers and not windows, the apps run on Microsoft browsers and non- Microsoft (doesn't this sound familiar) . Microsoft created .Net so more developers would write apps for windows(so they can sell more windows boxes)

The question now is, what is Microsoft going to do about ASP.NET and all the WEb 2.0 stuff(the new enemy) ?

@Wallie
The plot thickens ,
And you think he'd be able to do that? i.e compile (or even know that your code is meant to be two translation files )
I agree with @klassnic

Guys, design patterns are domain specific ,
I guess what we're talking about are software design patterns generally ,
If you were into concurrent programming you'd have a whole different set of design patterns (not GOF). e.g Look at the J2EE design patterns.

p.s Being lazy is not necessarily a bad quality in a programmer

Really a programmer shouldn't be thinking of pattens when solving a problem, just flow with some good OO basics,
patterns reveal themselves as the code evolves and changes become necessary (i.e refactoring) so quoting Martin Fowler, you should refactor to patterns.

For software that would have a design,development,maintenance lifecycle of more than 5 years patterns become important.
Imagine the number of developers, that would have worked on a project, many would have resigned etc. The original developers that conceived the design would have been long gone - on the other hand the software has to be able to scale to users needs, we need to be able to fix bugs etc. So patterns offer a common lingo to communicate a design.

If one understands a patterns that was used in a design extending the code becomes easy
e.g

Take the java IO class ---- (A solid implementation of Decorator)
RMI (proxy)
Comparator, sorting etc ---- (strategy)

you can use these APIs without knowing design patterns but patterns give deeper insight into the intent of the API designers hence there'll be less misuse etc.

@Kobojunkie if u think patterns are just *(^%^%^%£$££ , tell us your favourite tools,APIs or development platform and we'd dissect it and show you the patterns that make the API so great, that you love it!
Game ?

@klassnic well said!

I agree with @prodgalson , design patterns are language independent and you can write OO programs with C and Cobol (though not an easy task)

I've use Decorator, Factory, Command, Strategy, Composite, Adapter ,

It just occurred to me that if you for instance use java, and program in a proper way one can say he has used almost all the patterns.

Once you're familiar with them you see them every where ,

@my2cents was talking about inventing his own patterns, i don't think thats really accurate. Even the GOF didn't invent patterns, they just identified it.

They're common solutions to programming problems

VB.NET is cool since its a .NET language but C# is the language of choice for .NET development.
Thats why Microsoft invented it , it has larger conformance to CLS than VB.NET.

I know many VB developers use VB.NET , this was why MS created it in the first place, to at least get VB developers onboard , unfortunately VB.NET turned out to be quite good,so the motivation to move to C# once you can use VB.NET is not strong ,

all that being said C# is still the language of choice, and its similarity to Java and C++ is no mistake ,

See what others think,
http://dn.codegear.com/article/31849

http://blogs.codegear.com/nickhodges/2006/08/29/27110

@kambo

1) Java now has static imports so your statement is wrong 2)cout belongs in the std namespace so could qualify it as std::cout


I personally prefer Java cause its simpler and as such you can develop apps faster, but i also recognize that i can't for instance use Java in real time scenario (where deterministic processing is required)

I don't think the C++ complexity is there 'cause Bjarne intended it to be so, its there because of compromise hence you have references,pointers,normal values.
Newer languages tend to be cleaner than their ancestors, so Java borrowed a lot form C++(syntax wise).

And the man talking about GUI , have you heard of MFC,BWT, GTK, WxWindows etc ,

Unfortunately java left out some key concepts in programming for safety, i don't think C++ is ideal for starters
C is better then Java(i hate to say this , C#)

note they are all descended from the great language C

Employees ,

then your email ad would do,

You're lucky, these days ,

There are loads of stuff on the net in terms of tutorials and development tools

, i almost wish i was back there

you can start from http://www.thefreecountry.com

@VLOVE
You've started the never ending song!

I've used both platforms extensively ,

The .NET platform is a superior development platform but the java community is better than the .NET counterpart ,

So i think Java has a brighter future, the multiple language support in quietly being ushered into java ,

[size=16pt]JAVA[/size]

Its called Capability maturity Model ---- If where to give your company a project;
how can they assure me that they can execute it within budget,time and it meets the requires quality (PM)

On a basic level for instance , how much work can developer really do in a week
How much can a team of 10 do ,
When you apply this across an entire organization, the amount of accuracy with which you can answer this questions is the essence of CMM
(there are very few organizations with CMM5).

Could a software engineer gather and analyze requirements? Sure. But would that make for the most efficient use of his time? Probably not. A software engineer, generally speaking, can not speak the language of business. For that, you need someone who can and that is where a BA comes in.

A SW engineer can do requirements gathering, but as an organization/project grows larger you'd need people who do this exclusively.
The business in business analysis is not Business in the normal sense, you can replace Business with Domain , and say Domain analysis
The major function of a business(domain) analyst is asking questions (not Business Administration)

I've done requirements analysis many times, and its a very useful quality for a software developer i.e Understanding the customers intent, this helps u to solve his problem optimally


The direction these discussions are taking is the problem with creating a separate board, SW Engr is a largely academic exercise
Some developers/programmers prefer diving straith into coding etc. while others will theoreticize first (i'm more of the latter)
We need a good mix of both kinds, else no work gets done or the work thats done turns out to be rubbish

requirements analysis , user stories, use cases these are all part business analysis ,

talk to these guys

http://www.tsaboin.com/

Guys, for the sake of argument you've veered from the main point ,

Most of what you guys are calling "technical" are things a domain professional is expected to know e.g You'd need an accountant as the technical consultant for accounting software, a biologist in biometrics, an electronic engr in digital signal processing , all these are not necessarily software engineers.

Again, if you give him the pseudocode, why hire the person? Perhaps we are not on the same footing as to what pseudocode is.

You don't need to give the person pseudocode, what of sequence diagrams, entity diagrams, or state diagrams. The systems architect can pass all these on to a programmer to implement, also Business analysis is a SW engineering discipline.

only some time ago software development was considered an art,
anyways the discipline is evolving , and its now the application of of engineering methods to the process of developing software!

@my2cents

Sorry to break this to you but your code is quite efficient ,

I see what @tju38 is saying though i don't necessarily agree it should go on a separate board ,

Software development goes beyond pure coding ,

e.g Most non-trivial apps use a database , good programmer might not necessarily be good db designer, the concepts of good db design fall under the umbrella of
SW development (or engineering , to rigid!)

concepts such as Inversion of control, RUP, Security might not even involve coding per se,

Its like the difference between a programmer and developer , (check out Sun's site)

You can happily continue to write code for years oblivious of things like distributed programming, design patterns, RUP, CORBA,STIP apps etc.,CDC,CLDC
all programmers don't know these things because they go beyond just writing code/programming


I feel you @tju38, but i think you should just post design issues in the programming section all the same, cause programming is the meat of design(bones)
and its rarely interesting to have design alone without the context code.

@cdeveloper
you don't go out much, do you ?

@WebGuru

Most times you find that the core motivation for creating a web site is different from a web application ,

if the primary motivation is for advertisements then i'd call it just a website ,
if the motivation is to provide services or/and integrate with an EIS layer then its web app (please note all web apps are also websites)

PHP is good for websites
not cool for webapps ,its too stringy , you'd get all tangle up as the yarn grows ,

i've got some for 1.4 and 1.5

javaranch is cool like bossman said , for questions

I recommend you read Khalid mughal for general knowledge ,


Whizlabs is the best simulator i know , you could buy it for less than 7k (it would be more than worth it)

@webguru Are you sure they use php for their banking app or their corporate site ?

PHP is good for fast web site prototyping but i don't think its the ideal choice for an enterprise app , at least not from the middle tier to the EIS.

What kind of middle tier architecture would be used in a php implementation ?

I agree with @opokonwa

There's something in men that draws them out ,

Somewhere to channel their aggression ,

something that give them a spirit of brotherhood ,

You'd notice that all these things are common in certain animals , they move in packs --- I'm talking about wolves

I think men have this nature and rooting for a team, joining the army or armed forces gives an outlet for this nature.

Sports also give us quick,heady feelings of victory ever so often , something that might be missing from everyday life ,

Arsenal, Man U ,Barca etc. fans get to celebrate victory every week!

Sunderland,Upton etc. get to believe in something , they can crush Man U or Arsenal, a David Vs. Goliath epic.

All these things are possible in sport if not real life , A Guy can live a fulfilled life in this kind of world, he can be happy ,

I'm not a Liverpool fan, but imagine the promise passed on from generation to generation -- "You'll never walk alone" , these things are spiritual

and a person that knows how to channel these kind of emotions into everyday life won't do badly either