BossTalks.com Tag: java

white on "Agile code - Java/Spring or Ruby/Rails?"

white — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:16:34 +0000

I've heard guys still doing development in PHP, Perl and even Lisp, however, I really have no clue how could the Web development be made on Lisp.

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white on "Agile code - Java/Spring or Ruby/Rails?"

white — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:08:20 +0000

I've heard guys still doing development in PHP, Perl and even Lisp, however, I really have no clue how could the Web development be made on Lisp.

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green on "Agile code - Java/Spring or Ruby/Rails?"

green — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:23:40 +0000

Hi,

I've been talking with different people (especially during this Startup School, and especially with people which are doing their own startups) about how they are doing Web development "agile-way", and most of them were mentioning Ruby on Rails. Almost everybody, frankly speaking. Once or twice I heard PHP, but that's it. Couple of people mentioned Java with Spring. I personally really enjoy Java with Spring. No any freaking "hard-heavy-mutants", just plain JDBC and Spring. That is Agile. But why Ruby that much? My experience with it is weak, but I see it to be much interesting than PHP. But Java with Spring is a neat tool, really nice and easy at the same time. Flexible also, I should say. So why Ruby? Because it's the only alternative which is not "big" like C/C++/Java? Any thoughts?

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green on "Comments to "How To Use Java at a Startup""

green — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:28:00 +0000

Kurt Williams in his blog posted interesting post "How To Use Java at a Startup".

It does sound right, in terms of how Java is really good solution, but it's too critical to Ruby, PHP, etc. They all are open-source clones - no matter what -- and they are enough powerful to accomplish many project tasks. I am reading Kurt's post once again, and again... and it's only speaking about GUI or third-party-whatever else tools. I do not get it. If I need a GUI, I pretty much will be fine AJAX, or well, Flash-powered Flex or Laszlo. Desktop GUI? Probably - but I actually know as little as none of recent startups which are Web + GUI. They all are Web, or just GUI. And well, what is the problem of having backend in Java, Ruby, PHP, you-name-it - once you can utilize XML and have fun creating Web Services without really caring about what "language" is about to use this service?
Yes, I do agree in general. But Java is edgy too. All these EJBs and application containers - that's a terrible heavy-weight thing. You need to work hard to make use of them useful. And they are useful. But definitely not for many of startups with almost nothing of load. Spring + plain JDBC can do pretty nice job, with simple Tomcat as container. But when I am saying "edgy" - I mean that even by choosing right language "Java" you can get wrong solution inside it.

I've been a Java developer. And I still develop code. And I did architecting job considering Java & PHP. I know the topic pretty much. Although I do like Java much better than Ruby or PHP, I still _even for myself_ will consider Java and Ruby and PHP at the same time.

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abresko on "What kind of organization your company is?"

abresko — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:34:50 +0000

The company which employs me on a full time is a small group of techies. One is CTO and he is CEO at the same time. Other one is co-founder, which I think manages all the finances. Yeah, we do have also receiptionist, but everybody else are just full time employees. By having like 10 big clients they can pay salary to all employees, and probably have their own nice piece of cake! ;-) That by the way inspired me to start working on my own product, and I wish to be some day at the same stage where I can employ people, and make my own income. But back to the question - our company is "client-driven" - we had product developed long time ago, and now it's mostly adding features and fixing bugs. All requests are coming from our clients.

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johnw on "What kind of organization your company is?"

johnw — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:32:23 +0000

I am working in a big company (pretty big, around 500+ employees in our office, and we have other one in US) - and our department is very-very-very stupid boss driven ;-) You do not have this definition in your list, but we do have it in our office. All the directions we have to follow he chooses on his own, and usually it's a waste of time. I can hardly wait to get in sync with my thoughts and to quit. I feel like launching my ISV sometime soon, so hope to get rid of all of corporate crap which we have down here.

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white on "What kind of organization your company is?"

white — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:53:38 +0000

Speaking about the organization type, what kind of organisation type your company is? I.e., Robert Wysocki in his book on Effective Software Project Management narrows three types of organization: the Staff-driven, the Process-drive and Technology-driven. In easy words, you can have see the main role of a particular Project in a Staff, independently of what Technology are they using, then the Staff makes the Project Management way and chooses the Technology to be used; or you have a stable Project Management style, which guides you how to choose the Staff and the Technology; or, at least, you are having a Technology, which chooses a Staff, and sets the Project Management style. (Yeah, I know, Mr. Wysocki is making some easy things too hard).

So, my question is the following: which organization type is the best? I know there is no silver bullet, but it's not about it now, it's about the organization type we should to achieve to get the highest results. As I understood the Mr. Wysocki position, he believes that the ultimate and the best solution is Staff-driven. The Process-driven organisation sucks, and Technology-driven organisation is in the middle of them.

Well, I am agree about his point concerning the Process-driven type. You can't have a one fits all solution. There are no shoes which fit all, there are no clothes that fit all and even one size caps aren't good for everyone. So why should the Process be?

Speaking about the Staff-driven vs. Technology-driven process, I am not that sure about Staff-driven type superiority. I see it simple. Every company should have a core thing, which defines (or even dictates) the rules and limits. The Google wouldn't use FAT32 file system instead of GoogleFS just because Staff wants it for their project. My company wouldn't install MS SQL database server instead of MySQL or Oracle just because we hired a new Staff, who wants it instead. The technology depends on more then single person nowadays. And even if you are really great and over talented .NET developer, the company, which runs N projects on Unix and Java, should not start using Windows and .NET just because you think it's good for this Project and you, as a Staff, wants it. No way. The company will look for a Unix and Java guy to work in the existing environment.

That's my understanding. Do you see it differently? Please, share your thoughts. Thanks.

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