General Development Archive

JavaScript is often ridiculed as the black sheep of programming languages. Nearly every Web developer has cursed JavaScript at one time or another. Until recently, many developers had all but written off JavaScript as a necessary evil at best or a toy at worst. But JavaScript is becoming increasingly important. See why it remains the most broadly available scripting language for Web development and a better choice for developing modern applications.

Quickly becoming a de facto standard C++ library, the Boost library includes a powerful graph data structure that's also easy to use. Jeff Cogswell discusses some interesting theory behind graphs, and explains the Boost library's graph structures.

The C++ standardization committee has set 2009 as the target date for the version of the language standard. And a lot will change. C++09 will include at least two major core features -- rvalue references and type concepts -- and plenty more relatively minor features.

Dabo 0.7 has been released. If you're not familiar with Dabo, it is a framework for building desktop applications in Python. Obviously, there have been a bunch of changes and bugfixes.

This article reviews how to modify an SQL query to group related rows together to provide summary statistics database information and introduces the concept of a view, which can be used to simplify database application development by creating a virtual table that represents the results of an SQL query. Also learn about database indexes, which you can use to locate specific table rows. After you've mastered these advanced database concepts, you'll be well positioned to begin developing Java database applications with Apache Derby.

XForms is an ideal open standards technology for collecting and submitting data from a wide variety of Web-capable platforms. Using JavaScript to edit the DOM with XForms allows a single form to accommodate multiple, site-unique submission requirements.

David Chisnall takes a look behind the scenes at Apple's upcoming revamp of the Objective-C language. As with any new language, some things are good, some are ugly, and some are both.

"Software sucks, 80% of projects fail, and most developers are unhappy individuals. Why is this? My answer; complexity. Complexity is the single factor I would attribute poor software to. The more you have to do, the harder you make it on yourself, the way requirements seem to change, the worse the final result is; right? Software needs to be simple", says Chris Stewart.

NetBeans 5.5 has been released. "NetBeans IDE 5.5 builds on the success of NetBeans 5.0 and adds support for Java EE 5 and Sun Java System Application Server PE 9. Got Web 2.0? Of course! NetBeans 5.5 generates JAX-WS 2.0 artifacts for Java SE 6 and Java EE 5 projects. We included Java Persistence support and support for Enterprise Java Beans 3. Additionally, there is the new Subversion support module and an updated module for the GUI builder, both available on the 5.5 Update Center." A new preview build of NetBeans 6 has also been released.

Setuptools framework, a side project of PEAK, provides easier package management and distribution than distutils. Setuptools lets you package your libraries in a single-file archive called an 'egg', similar to Java JAR file, but for Python. Like the Perl CPAN and Ruby Gems tools, the ez_setup tool bootstraps the rest of setuptools. The ez_install tool that comes with it does the same thing in conjunction with 'Cheeseshop' (PyPI).

An application might pass all your exhaustive feature and security suites, making sure it'll work well for the end-user. But IT admins are likely to test software all over again, using standard Windows administrator tools in the user's actual environment. This article explains how and why to test applications with ACT.

There are plenty of programming languages around. David Chisnall points out the various factors that determine what makes a "good" language. But note his caveat: These principles don't always apply in any given set of circumstances!

"Version control systems, or source management systems, are an important aspect of modern software development. Not using one is like driving a car too fast: it's fun and you might get to your destination faster, but an accident is inevitable. This article provides an overview of Software Configuration Management systems and their benefits, including CVS, Subversion, Arch, and Git. It also reviews the most common SCM architectures. Finally, it explores some of the new approaches that are available and how they differ from the earlier methods."

Many of us use the terms "programmer" and "developer" interchangeably. When someone asks me what I do for a living I tend to describe my vocation as "computer programmer" rather than "software developer", because the former seems to be understood more readily by those unfamiliar with IT. Even when writing pieces for this site, I tend to swap back and forth between the two terms, to try and avoid sounding repetitive. But in truth, there is a world of difference between a computer programmer and a software developer (editor's note: aka engineer and there is also a difference with a software architect).