Accessible Java using JAAPI

Due to the proliferation of Java applications and applets on the Internet, it is essential that accessibility barriers are not introduced during their development.

O'Gribin, Niall. Erigena (2006). Articles>Accessibility>Programming>Java

Ajax for Java Developers: Java Object Serialization for Ajax

If you're doing Java Web development using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), then delivering data from the server to the client is probably your top concern. In this second article in the Ajax for Java developers series, Philip McCarthy walks you through five approaches to Java object serialization and gives you all the information you need to choose the data format and technology best suited to your application.

McCarthy, Philip. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Programming>Ajax

Ajax Performance Analysis

Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) continues to raise user expectations for interactivity and performance, and developers are increasingly treating Ajax as a must-have component of their Web applications. As more code is moved client side and the network model changes, the community is responding by building more tools to address the unique performance challenges of Ajax. Examine toolsets that find and correct performance problems within your Ajax-enriched applications.

Zyp, Kristopher William. IBM (2008). Articles>Web Design>Programming>Ajax

All Hail Shale: Shale Isn't Struts

What Shale isn't is a shrink-wrapped, well-documented, well-tested product complete with an automated installer and a polished management interface. Now find out what it is, as Brett McLaughlin unveils this mighty -- and rightful-- heir to the legacy of Struts. In this first of a five-part series, Brett explains what Shale is, how it's different from the Struts framework, and how to install and set it up in your development environment.

McLaughlin, Brett D. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Programming

Are you ready for XOP (XML-Oriented Programming)?

The domain model is a familiar concept to most OOP (Object Oriented Programming) developers and architects, and has been used successfully in a variety of systems and projects. But how does this principle apply to SOA-based solutions?

Xu, Peter. IBM (2007). Articles>Information Design>Programming>XML

The Art of Defensive Programming

If you can't understand a program, then you can't debug it. Even with code that you have written yourself, if you come back to it six months or a year later, you may find yourself wondering “Why on earth did I write that? What was it for?” It doesn't take long to forget the details of a program when you aren't working on it any more. Make life easier for yourself, and write programs as clearly as possible. Also, provide such defences as you can against the possibility that VBA might change between versions of Word.

West, Jonathan. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word

The Art of the Developer Resume

Resumes may seem like something of a mundane topic, but after spending the last few weeks wading through resumes from software developers, it is clear to me that most developers need help with their resumes. This impression is backed up by many past resume reading experiences. While I have come across very few truly awful resumes, the majority of the resumes I have read in the last week have been substandard. Only a few have been what I would call really well done.

Read, Daniel. developer.star (2001). Careers>Resumes>Programming

Avoid Unnecessary Ajax Traffic with Session State

Where possible, creating Web applications -- including Ajax-based applications -- in a RESTful way avoids a large class of bugs. However, a pitfall of REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is sending duplicate data across similar XMLHttpRequests. This tip shows how the moderate use of session cookies can maintain just enough server-side state to significantly reduce client-server traffic, while still allowing fallback to cookie-free operation.

Mertz, David. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Programming>Ajax

Battle of the Wizards: Dojo Vs. Microsoft

Two wizards are compared. One client script from DOJO and the other server component from Microsoft. Both fo them work exceedingly well in IE 7.0. Dojo wizard looks smashing.

Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. DevShed (2007). Articles>Computing>Programming>JavaScript

Building Block Definitions (Containers)

Dives into the components of the building block system. Each has a place in his design framework for dashboards and portals.

Lamantia, Joe. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Design>Web Design>Programming

A Byte of Python

A book on programming using the Python language. It serves as a tutorial or guide to the Python language for anyone. If all you know about your computers is how to save text files, then this is the book for you. If you are an experienced programmer who loves C, Perl or Java, you can also learn Python from this book.

dpawson.co.uk (2004). Resources>Software>Programming>Python

Call SOAP Web Services with Ajax, Part 1: Build the Web Services Client

Implement a Web browser-based SOAP Web services client using the Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) design pattern.

Snell, James. IBM (2006). Articles>Web Design>Programming>Ajax

Can Lightweight Markup Languages Be Used for Documentation?

A lightweight markup language uses syntax that is similar to wiki syntax -- keyboard characters are used to define formatting. This blog post argues that if your documentation needs are simple, and you have a low or non-existent budget, then a lightweight markup language might be worth investigating.

DMN Communications (2008). Articles>Documentation>Programming>Wikis

Code Diagrams Enable 'Point-and-Click' Programming

Non-programmers could play a major part in developing complex computer programs, thanks to a new language developed by Sun Microsystems. Ace is based on Sun's successful Java language and provides software development tools that give a graphical representation of computer code. Manipulating the diagram on-screen automatically alters the underlying code. For example, moving a line connecting two boxes could change the point at which a piece of input data is entered into a program. 'Non-programmers can use Ace to build a skeleton of their application,' says Ali Sayed, a member of the Ace project team. 'But to make it completely working they [or a colleague] will have to write some minimal amount of code.' Ace should also let non-experts modify a program after its core components have been written.

Michigan Tech University (1998). Design>User Centered Design>Programming

Comments on Comments

The right kind of comments to speed up the development process and enable a couple of interesting possibilities to generate documentations automatically. This article tries to reflect on the pros and cons of comments and to show some interesting possibilities for automatic comment parsing. Comment Basics

Opitz, Pascal. Content with Style (2006). Articles>Computing>Programming

Creating a Macro With No Programming Experience Using the Recorder

Word's macro recorder can help you acquaint yourself with macros and with Office 97's VBA programming language.

Coan, Bill. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Programming>Microsoft Word

Cross-Browser Web Application Testing Made Easy

'Test on multiple browsers' has been a mantra ever since there have been multiple browsers to test on. Testing them all--especially these days--is impossible. But you can come a lot closer than you may think. In this article, learn a variety of techniques for cross-browser testing, from the very thorough to the quick and dirty. The choice you make will depend on your resources, but this is an issue you can't ignore.

Fruhlinger, Joshua A. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Programming>Testing

Crossing the Chasm: Promoting Usability in the Software Development Community

User-centered design should be a core part of every software development effort yet, despite its well-documented paybacks, it has yet to be widely adopted. Too often, user-centered design remains the province of visionaries rather than the everyday practice of programmers and analysts. Despite a general consensus on a basic approach to user-centered design (UCD), there is little understanding of the process and how it fits into larger software development methodologies.

Quesenbery, Whitney. WQusability (2000). Articles>User Centered Design>Programming

Curbing JavaScript Dependency

JavaScript can be used as an enhancement, but too often it ends up rendering a page unusable to people who don't run it. There are a number of good reasons why it might not be running in a given browser, and pages should never depend on it. MSG is a 'flavor enhancer,' with one slight problem -- some people are allergic to it. Most people don't seem to care much either way, but a small number of people seems to have bad reactions to it. If you ask people in the industry who sell it, they'll tell you it's quite safe, but there are others who claim that it's potentially lethal to some (very, very few) people.

Seebach, Peter. IBM (2001). Design>Web Design>Programming>JavaScript

Dealing With an IT Scourge: Process Documentation  

In this article, we outline how IT analysts can effectively make determinations about the value of process documentation, and in the process, transform a potential scourge into a possible blessing.

Schiesser, Rich. TechRepublic (2005). Articles>Documentation>Programming>Project Management

Debugging JavaScript Using Venkman

Most people who do even a little bit of JavaScript programming, even those who are simply tweaking somebody else’s code, are familiar with the rudimentary JavaScript debugger in the recent versions of Internet Explorer. Click on the yellow warning icon in your browser, and you get a listing of various JavaScript errors in your code. It is simple, and for many people it is enough, but it’s not really the type of fully-fledged debugging environment with features programmers have come to expect in other development languages. If you find yourself doing a lot of JavaScript programming or tweaking and you are concerned with cross-browser support for your scripts, then Venkman is worth checking out.

Schengili-Roberts, Keith. WebRef (2003). Design>Web Design>Programming>DHTML

Debunking the Myths of User Interface Design

The software development industry is relatively young, rapidly evolving, and surprisingly little is automated. It is therefore an intensely human and social endeavor, having all the phenomena characteristic of any cultural activity -- communication issues, organizational issues, customs, values, fashions, and myths. It brings out the best and the worst in people. Personalities determine much of what happens. It is more like making movies than engineering cars. Software development would benefit greatly from extensive study by sociologists, anthropologists, and clinical psychologists. As we await such analyses, let's document some beliefs embedded in the culture of software development, specifically about user interface design. This article identifies a series of cultural myths and presents realistic conclusions from my extensive experience in user interface design.

Smith, Paul. IBM (2001). Design>User Interface>Programming

Designing User Experiences for Applications Versus Information Resources on the Web

The relatively recent adoption of user-focused design practices by the Web design and development community--including personas, participatory design, paper prototyping, and the like--highlights important distinctions between the user experiences of desktop applications and those of information spaces. With the growing desire for usable Web applications, these distinctions become more topical and important to understand. Though the process of designing and creating application and information space user experiences for the Web is virtually the same--even if the deliverable design documents may differ--their user experiences are fundamentally and profoundly different. For designers, business analysts, marketing consultants, and others who are sincerely interested in delivering the best user experiences online, understanding these distinctions can reduce the cost of design and improve the likelihood of user acceptance.

Frishberg, Leo. UXmatters (2006). Design>User Experience>Programming

Developers.net

Offers a large database of jobs for Software Developers and IT Professionals with the option to sign up for an email notification of the latest additions to the database.

Tapestry.Net. Careers>TC>Programming

The Development of a Game Playing Framework Using Interface-based Programming

The Java programming language contains object-oriented features enabling the construction of interface-based application frameworks. Interfaces separate module implementation from core implementation, thus simplifying module development. The following article demonstrates how to take advantage of Java interfaces by designing and implementing a game playing application framework.

Cohen, Mark A. ACM Crossroads (2004). Design>User Interface>Programming