The Java keyword, synchronized, is the simplest form of concurrency control in Java. With the advent of the work by Doug Lea and notible others on the new java.util.concurrent package, there are more tools. When dealing with highly contested resources, distributing the locking is key.

In Joy any number is an executable program, which pushes the the number on to the stack. This begs the question: what is the type of 42? In Cat I created two separate types, but now I am rethinking that choice.

In which your humble narrator ponders what to speak about and asks for community input.

For the first time since 1989, I'm attending OOPSLA. Some things have changed, others have not. Here are a couple of reflections...

Most of us wish for more time, bigger budgets, and more help in completing projects. Could that be wishing for the very things that push us further away from success? Should we, instead, wish for shorter deadlines, less people to work with, and even for smaller budgets?

How a new digital audio player required the application of techno-geek skills to obtain full as-advertised functionality. A notorious monopoly seems to be the culprit. Gee thanks, Bill!

How do you transfer knowledge about a system in an optimal way, without forever being the 'guy who knows'? What practices will help you exit gracefully? Or, even if you aren't leaving this area of the project, how do you lessen the documentation burden?

One of the areas receiving a lot of attention for J7 is simplifying and extending the capabilities of inner classes or adding a new construct the closure. This blog examines the options and compares the different proposals using a typical example, inject.

I've heard a lot about recursive types, but I never really paid attention until I found a weakness in the Cat type system which demanded one.

While various Web frameworks devote lots of attention to making complex systems easier to build, most frameworks default to using a flavor of XML to specify how those complex systems are configured. A few projects started to innovate in the configuration space, but the requirements for an ideal configuration solution are still to be defined.

Debugging memory use in a Python program is hard, and sometimes you have to fight the garbage collector.

Since I was going to be in the area to give the keynote at the CodeMash in Sandusky OH, we decided to hold the TurboGears Jam in Ann Arbor, where the main developers live.

What to do if you are stuck with existing libraries and API's.

I was writing code in front of a colleague of mine yesterday and he noted that my style was a form of intentional programming.

Code can be perfect, and also perfectly useless at the same time. Getting requirements right is as important as making sure that requirements are implemented correctly. How do you verify that users' requirements are addressed in the code you're working on?