Having missed the boat in the early stages of XML and SOAP development, Sun was shaping up to play the role of a follower, rather than a leader, in the nascent world of Web Services. However, as Java is establishing itself as the natural tool for serious server side development, and there are signs that J2EE standards are becoming more accepted, Sun may well have begun its fight back into the heart of Web Services activity. More info

In recent years my primary interest has become programmer productivity. Programmer cycles are expensive, CPU cycles are cheap, and I believe that we should no longer pay for the latter with the former. More info

An important part of any software development process is getting reliable builds of the software. Despite it's importance, we are often surprised when this isn't done. Here we discuss the process that Matt has put into place on a major project at ThoughtWorks, a process that is increasingly used throughout the company. It stresses a fully automated and reproducible build, including testing, that runs many times a day. This allows each developer to integrate daily thus reducing integration problems. More info

FunctionalTests are programs or scripts configured to test that packages (groups of clusters of classes) meet external requirements and achieve goals, such as performance. They include screen-driving programs that test GUIs from without. More info

A comprehensive unit-test suite is a necessity for a robust program. But how can you be sure that your test suite is testing everything it should? Jester, Ivan Moore's JUnit test tester, excels at finding test-suite problems and provides unique insights into the structure of a code base. Elliotte Rusty Harold introduces Jester and shows how to use it for best results. More info