Steve Close

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 Web service. By default or with a few settings you can allow the toolkit to define the conversation around your method. This method-first development technique works, especially for small or pilot projects, but it is not the best approach. A contract-first approach results in better long-term development, interoperability, and maintenance. Convincing a development team to work contract-first is not as simple as it might seem. You have to convince the team to spend more effort on unfamil... (more)

Using Java Generics

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... (more)