Steve Close

Have you heard? Generics will be in the next release of the Java SDK (code named Tiger, aka JDK 1.5). You might be wondering "What is a generic?" or "Why should I care?" or even "Cool! How do I use them?" This article will introduce generic coding, explain how generics are used and what their advantages are, and discuss how they will impact your work. To help you understand, I'll define generics and code a few examples to illuminate how to use them. Generics are not a feature that everyone has used. A concept similar to generics was included in C++, i.e., templates. Although the syntax of Java generics is modeled after C++ templates, the Java syntax is easier to understand. In addition, the implementation of templates and generics are not the same. Java remains type sa... (more)

Contract-First Web Services: 6 Reasons to Start with WSDL and Schema

I believe that there is a strong tendency for developers to think of Web services as methods. In reality it is not that simple. A Web service defines an XML conversation between client and server. Yet, when a developer sits down to create Web services he or she usually starts by creating a method. From that starting point it is easy to get a software toolkit to turn your method into a We... (more)