A Java geek

Avoiding Stringly-typed in Kotlin

A couple of years ago, I developed an application in Kotlin based on Camunda BPMN to help me manage my conference submission workflow. It tracks my submissions in Trello and synchronizes them on Google Calendar and in a Google Sheet. Google Calendar offers a REST API. As REST APIs go, it’s cluttered with String everywhere. Here’s an excerpt of the code: fun execute(color: String, availability: String) { findCalendarEntry(client, google, execution.conference)?.let { it.

Java

System Logger

December was not a good time for Java developers and even less for Ops. The former had to repackage their apps with a fixed Log4J’s version, and the latter had to redeploy them - several times. Yet, every cloud has a silver lining. In my case, I learned about System.Logger. A good time to start using the new standard System.Logger API introduced in Java 9: https://t.co/SaBUnqEZqF. It works like SLF4J and by default logs using JUL but can use Log4J or any othet logging under the hood.

Development

The Gilded Rose Kata in Rust

This is the 10th post in the Start Rust focus series. The Gilded Rose Kata is a refactoring exercise. The full description is available on GitHub. Nowadays, the kata is much more widespread. It’s available in plenty of languages, even some that are not considered mainstream, e.g., XSLT or ABAP. In this post, I’d like to do it in Rust.

Java

The Flatten Maven plugin

One of the Apache Maven committers recently wrote about their plans for Maven 5.

development

Treat security as a risk

Security is the poster child of a Non-Functional Requirement: most people don’t care until the proverbial fecal matter hits the rotary propeller. Consequences can range from losing reputation to legal liability to putting the business out. In my post on running unsecured code, I concluded that you should treat security as a risk - and left it at that. I think it warrants a dedicated post. Risk management is pretty much documented.

java

You're running untrusted code!

Last December, Log4Shell shortened the nights of many people in the JVM world. Worse, using the earthquake analogy caused many aftershocks after the initial quake. I immediately made the connection between Log4Shell and the Security Manager. At first, I didn’t want to write about it, but I’ve received requests to do so, and I couldn’t walk away. Hey @nicolas_frankel, isn't the #Log4j-Exploit the perfect argument against deprecation of the Java SecurityManager?!

Java

A tentative comparison of fault tolerance libraries on the JVM

If you’re implementing microservices or not, the chances are that you’re calling HTTP endpoints. With HTTP calls, a lot of things can go wrong. Experienced developers plan for this and design beyond just the happy path.

Development

Beautify third-party API with Kotlin

Scala has popularized the 'Pimp my library' pattern: This is just a fancy expression to refer to the ability to supplement a library using implicit conversions. — Pimp My Library Pattern in Scala Kotlin does provide the same capability. However, it achieves it via extension functions. While the generated bytecode is similar to Java’s static methods, the developer experience is the same as adding functions to existing types. This approach has limitations, though.

Development

Native-image with Quarkus

So far, we have looked at how well Spring Boot and Micronaut integrate GraalVM native image extension. In this post, I’ll focus on Quarkus: A Kubernetes Native Java stack tailored for OpenJDK HotSpot and GraalVM, crafted from the best of breed Java libraries and standards. Creating a new project Just as Spring Boot and Micronaut, Quarkus provides options to create new projects: A dedicated quarkus CLIA Web UI Quarkus offers a definite improvement over its competitors.

Nicolas Fränkel's blog