Java Today

What's Happening in Java Today

The Evil Umpire: Allen Holub has found himself writing an "is evil" series. Holub has long provided advice in terms that those that agree would characterize as "clear and concise" and those that disagree would characterize as "strongly worded." Past targets have included thread abuse, and the extends keyword. His latest article returns to a recurring theme of his on the overuse and misuse of accessor methods. » Read more
(September 9, 2003 7:01AM PT)

Feature Stories

		Extreme Teaching: Introducing Objects: Teachers of object-oriented programming can use the Fit framework to create an executable spec for an assignment. Just as customer written acceptance tests help professional developers understand requirements, Instructor written acceptance tests can lead students through their labs and assignments. » Read more (Aug 28, 2003)

		Custom Layouts: Learn how to take control of your own layout manager to get more control over the appearance of your layout. » Read more (Aug 14, 2003)

Also Today

Why getter and setter methods are evil: Allen Holub has publicly objected to the use of "getters" and "setters" for a long time. He collects many of his thoughts on Why getter and setter methods are evil in a JavaWorld article. Holub concludes that getter and setter "methods expose information about how a class is implemented and as a consequence make your code harder to maintain."
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The Computer that cried "Wolf": In the childhood classic "The Boy who cried 'Wolf'", villagers learn to ignore the warnings of a boy who repeatedly issues false alarms. The boy finds that when he really needs to warn his friends of trouble, they don't hear him any more. In his weblog entry The Computer that cried "Wolf", Andy Lester gives examples of warnings we ignore daily and points out how we may be harmed by ignoring them.
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