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The Flexible Java Forum
Here is an annotated list of discussion topics at the Flexible Java Forum:

• Flexibility as a Design Goal -- A look at different people's ideas and opinions on software design and the overall software development process

• Designing Fields and Methods -- The nuts and bolts of designing fields and methods

• Maximizing Method Cohesion -- How to chop up responsibilities into methods

• Finalization and Cleanup -- The end of object lives

• Designing With Exceptions -- When and how to use exceptions

• Thread Safety -- When and how to make classes thread-safe

• When To Bean? -- When to make classes into JavaBeans

• To Bean or Not To Bean -- Text of an e-mail debate on when to make classes into JavaBeans

• Canonical Object Idiom -- A base-level functionality for classes

• Event Generator Idiom -- An idiom that shows how to use notification in Java program designs

• Composition Versus Inheritance -- How to choose between composition and inheritance

• Designing with Interfaces -- When to use interfaces

• Designing with Dynamic Extension -- When use dynamic extension in Java programs

• Designing with Runtime Class Information -- When to use runtime class information in Java programs

A thank-you
Before I go, I'd like to say thanks to all the readers of my Design Techniques articles. I hope you found them useful.

Thanks especially to those who submitted feedback, either through e-mail, through the comment boxes at the bottom of each JavaWorld article, or via the Flexible Java Forum. The feedback, especially criticism, was very helpful.

What's next
From this point forward, my design-oriented writing will be focused on writing Flexible Java. I will be publishing the book-in-progress on my Web site as I write it, so you can follow along and, if you wish, send me feedback. If you would like to receive occasional announcements as I progress through the writing of the book, you can sign up for my mailing list.

As far as JavaWorld goes, another column is in the planning stages. In the next few months, I should return with a monthly column focused on distributed systems programming in Java, RMI, and Jini.

Resources

• Bill's next book is Flexible Java
  http://www.artima.com/flexiblejava/index.html
• An complete online reprint of Chapter 7, "The Linking Model," of Bill's book Inside the Java Virtual Machine
  http://www.artima.com/insidejvm/linkmod.html
• The handout and slides for Bill's "Dynamic Extension in Java" talk
  http://www.artima.com/javaseminars/modules/DynaExt/index.html
• Bill recently returned from his European bike trip. Read about it at
  http://www.artima.com/bv/travel/bike98/index.html
• Links to all previous Design Techniques columns
  http://www.artima.com/designtechniques/index.html
• Recommended books on Java design
  http://www.artima.com/designtechniques/booklist.html
• A transcript of an e-mail debate between Bill Venners, Mark Johnson (JavaWorld's JavaBeans columnist), and Mark Balbe on whether or not all objects should be made into beans
  http://www.artima.com/flexiblejava/comments/beandebate.html
• Object orientation FAQ
  http://www.cyberdyne-object-sys.com/oofaq/
• 7237 Links on Object Orientation
  http://www.rhein-neckar.de/~cetus/software.html
• The Object-Oriented Page
  http://www.well.com/user/ritchie/oo.html
• Collection of information on OO approach
  http://arkhp1.kek.jp:80/managers/computing/activities/OO_CollectInfor/OO_CollectInfo.html
• Design Patterns Home Page
  http://hillside.net/patterns/patterns.html
• A Comparison of OOA and OOD Methods
  http://www.iconcomp.com/papers/comp/comp_1.html
• "Object-Oriented Analysis and Design Methods: A Comparative Review"
  http://wwwis.cs.utwente.nl:8080/dmrg/OODOC/oodoc/oo.html
• Patterns discussion FAQ
  http://gee.cs.oswego.edu/dl/pd-FAQ/pd-FAQ.html
• Patterns in Java AWT
  http://mordor.cs.hut.fi/tik-76.278/group6/awtpat.html
• Software Technology's Design Patterns Page
  http://www.sw-technologies.com/dpattern/
• Previous Design Techniques columns
  http://www.javaworld.com/topicalindex/jw-ti-techniques.html

About the author
Bill Venners has been writing software professionally for 12 years. Based in Silicon Valley, he provides software consulting and training services under the name Artima Software Company. Over the years he has developed software for the consumer electronics, education, semiconductor, and life insurance industries. He has programmed in many languages on many platforms: assembly language on various microprocessors, C on Unix, C++ on Windows, Java on the Web. He is author of the book: Inside the Java Virtual Machine, published by McGraw-Hill. Reach Bill at bv@artima.com.

This article was first published under the name Farewell to 'Design Techniques' in JavaWorld, a division of Web Publishing, Inc., March 1999.