thejavajar

Is there a “right” or “wrong” way to develop Java Web applications?
Short answer, Yes.
Long answer, No, there are many ways to do things “right”.

Is your application built the “right” way?
Well, answering that question might hurt a lot of feelings. I am not an expert and would never claim to be, but a running/working application doesn’t mean things were done “right”, although your manager and stakeholders may disagree.

I would like to mention a few things that I think are important when working with Java and most other object oriented programming languages. I would also like to clear up some misconceptions and lay down some ground rules for developers.

1) Re-usability does not mean copy and paste.
2) Don’t take ownership of your code. Each project should be a learning experience on how to do it better next time. When you are done, move on to the next project.
3) The number of lines in your application is not a benchmark.
4) If learning new technologies is a burden, become a manager or business analyst.
5) Don’t be afraid to leverage something that has already been written.
6) You are going to make mistakes.
7) Re-factor your code at least once during development.

I will add to this list in the future. This may not be helpful to anyone, but each one of these points keeps me in check.

Tags: Java

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.