A Java geek

Extension functions for more consistent APIs

Kotlin’s extension functions are a great way to add behavior to a type sitting outside one’s control - the JDK or a third-party library. For example, the JDK’s String class offers the toLowerCase() and toUpperCase() methods but nothing to capitalize the string. In Kotlin, this can be helped by adding the desired behavior to the String class through an extension function: fun String.capitalize() = when { length < 2 -> toUpperCase() else -> Character.

Development

Making sure inter-teams communication doesn't work

Let’s face it, most developers - myself included, prefer to deal with code than with people. However, when communicating with other developers, we share a common context and understanding, which makes a lot of explanations unnecessary. It’s the same for all specialized jobs, such as lawyers or civil engineers.

Java

Type-safe annotations

I don’t like dynamically-typed languages - scripting languages in other terms. Of course, I’ve to live with Javascript because it’s so ubiquitous on the web, but given the chance, I’d switch to TypeScript in an instant.

Development

Should tests be ordered or not?

Most of our day-to-day job is learned through mentorship and experience and not based upon scientific research. Once a dogma has permeated a significant minority of practitioners, it becomes very hard to challenge it. Yet, in this post, I’ll attempt to not only challenge that sometimes tests must be ordered but prove that in different use-cases.

Java

Are you guilty of over-engineering?

If you listen to other language communities - such as Python or Ruby, it seems Java developers have a strong tendency of over-engineering. Perhaps they’re just jealous of our superior platform (wink), perhaps there is some very slight reason that they believe so. I do believe so. And it’s quite interesting that I realized it by doing code review - while I may be guilty of over-engineering myself when writing code. But I’m working on it.

Java

Adventures in SEO with Vaadin

TL;DR: Vaadin was hardly SEO-friendly in the past. Not anymore, with the new Volga library. Bookmarking pages Bookmarking is as old as www itself. Being able to save an URL is part of the ADN of websites. Regarding web apps, this is somewhat different. For example, in an e-commerce webapp, while it does make sense to bookmark a specific product, bookmarking a specific step of the checkout process does not.

Development

Limits of the technical debt analogy

The triangle of project management is a well-known model, used through and through since ages. I assume most software developers, even junior ones, are familiar with those: TimeCostScope As for my personal experience in the software industry, all projects have been behind schedule, with only a few exceptions for small projects (some man-months).

Development

Scala vs Kotlin: inline and infix

This is the 3rd post in the Scala vs. Kotlin focus series. This week, I’d like to address two features: inline and infix - not because they’re related but because neither of them would be enough to fill a post. Inlining comes from C (and then C++). In those languages, a hint could be provided to the compiler through the inline keyword. By doing so, it may replace an inlined function call by the function body itself in order to skip the overhead of a function call.

JavaEE

Starting with Cucumber for end-to-end testing

This week, my team decided to create a smoke test harness around our web app to avoid the most stupid regressions. I was not in favor of that, because of my prior experience with the fragility of end-to-end testing. But since we don’t have enough testers on our team, that was the only sane thing to do.

Nicolas Fränkel's blog