wllm

I finally got around to opening my copy of Core J2EE Patterns: Best Practices and Design Strategies, published by Prentice Hall and Sun Microsystems Press. While I'm only about 5 chapters in to it, I can already tell you this is absolutely essential reading for any Java/J2EE technologist. Why? Because it lays out all the workarounds, superfluous code, and numerous abstractions required for sustainable development of any J2EE application- no matter how trivial. I think that it is at least as valuable for pointing out J2EE's shortcomings for the average application as it is for capturing best practices and design patterns (some of which would be obviated by a better designed framework). This book speaks directly to a suspicion that I've had throughout my career as a developer: building web applications shouldn't be so hard. I'm also reading through Ruby for Rails to check out a framework that many say keeps the promise of simple web app development. I'll get back to you on that one. In any case, I hold firm in my belief that J2EE's "meet you halfway" approach to complex web app development is overly complex and unweildy for 99% of the web apps written out there. And considering the relative shortage of employable people who seem to be able handle this complexity, I think we'll be seeing better answers soon.