Scott Quint

The question that is often posed in one rhetorical flourish or another is this: Which is better (faster, more efficient, blah blah blah...) Java or C++? The question that is really not being asked is: for what? Selecting a programming language is not like selecting a dinner suit; you are not going to be asking the question that frequently. In fact, this question is more like deciding on a business plan rather than simply selecting a tool from the tool box. The reality is that the only people that would really ask this question are those that: Are just at the beginning of planning a software effort that will become the basis of a business or business group that has yet to be established. Have a full grasp of and can support apps made with either language Are writers of articles or blogs Have a burning desire to vindicate their own personal preference. If you are a ... (more)

External Cloud Providers Must Be More Than Hardware Pool Providers

Cloud computing provides more than scaling. It provides elasticity. That means it can expand needed enterprise software resources and contract those resources that are not needed and It can do all this on demand. On the surface, this looks like a great opportunity for new cloud services businesses to emerge. These providers would basically sell capacity to other businesses that would otherwise have to maintain enough IT to accommodate infrequent but significant spikes in usage traffic. These cloud computing vendors would be providing what is called an external cloud. One use cas... (more)

Getting Started with OpenJPA

OpenJPA is the open source implementation of the Java Persistence API (JPA). OK, so what's that? THAT is a way to persist information in Java by way of using a back-end database and not having to write a bunch of messy JDBC code. Why is this needed? Well maybe it's not. But unless you are writing calculator software, some output, settings or something has to be saved off. There are plenty of schemes for saving data from writing flat text files, to elegant multi-megabyte XML streams to JDBC connected databases. But JPA is not just another scheme. For Java, it is really THE way to ... (more)

WebSphere App Server Feature Pack Open Beta Is Here

Java Developer Magazine on Ulitzer IBM WebSphere started its Open Beta (Managed Betas are so 'last-year') for the WebSphere Application Server Feature Pack for OSGi Applications and JPA 2.0 today. The Open Beta site is here. I'll list some of the highlights from the Beta site as a teaser. Highlights of the OSGi applications support delivered in the feature pack (from the Beta Site ): OSGi 4.2 Blueprint component model for declarative assembly, and simplified unit test Extensions to the Blueprint component model for declarative transactions, container-managed JPA and resource ref... (more)