Yakov Fain

Our publisher sent us for approval the image of a cover of the upcoming book on Web development. We were told that the name of the bird is Roseate Spoonbill. Why they decided that Roseate Spoonbill should be associated Web development will remain a mystery. I guess, since the beak of this birdy is pointing at the word “Web”, the customer of the book store should think to himself, “Hmm, I have no idea what kind of bird this is and I don’t know how to develop for the Web. Let me buy this book!” In the unlikely event that you’re also not overly familiar with Roseate Spoonbill, please refer to THE SOURCE. But this cover pales in comparison with the book epilogue. This book is about HTML5, and one would expect some drum roll and fanfares praising HTML5. Here’s what the current version of the book epilogue reads: Epilogue Even though this book is about HTML5, the authors... (more)

HTML5 or Flex Framework

More than a year passed since Adobe decided to stop supporting Flex framework and gave it away to Apache Foundation. This writeup is based on the conversation I had with my colleague Anatole Tartakovsky in January of 2013. In this conversation I’ve been representing the HTML5 community while Anatole fought for Flex framework. I’m trying to find arguments against using FLex framework even though I believe that it remains the best and the most production way for developing Web applications. I’ll be just playing devil’s advocate here. Anatole also believes that Flex is the best fr... (more)

Secrets Of The Masters: Core Java Job Interview Questions

JDJ's Enterprise Editor, Yakov Fain (pictured) writes: If you are planning to hit the job market,  you may need to refresh some of the Java basic terms and techniques to prepare yourself for a technical interview. Let me offer you some of the core Java questions that you might expect during the interviews.  For  most questions  I’ve provided only  short  answers to encourage further research.  I have included only  questions for mid (*) and senior level (**) Java developers. These sample questions could also become handy for people who need to interview Java developers (see also ... (more)

Configuring Eclipse with Apache Tomcat and Ext JS

While Eclipse IDE is not the best one for JavaScript developers, it’s the most popular IDE among enterprise Java developers. If an enterprise Java developer needs to start developing in JavaScript, the first question comes to his/her mind is “Can I stay with my familiar Eclipse”. At this point some people will start thinking, “Doesn’t he know that IntelliJ IDE or WebStorm are the best for JavaScript?” I know. I was not sitting under the rock. But you may be surprised, but having your project manager spend $50 on the WebStorm license may be mission impossible. But let’s talk not j... (more)

Java Is Better Than JavaScript

Tоday I was participating in a discussion on one Java forum – the question was if Java is an easy or difficult programming language to learn. IMO, Java is not difficult to learn, to teach, and to use. It’s a strongly typed compiled language with tools that help you identify most of the errors before you even run the program. While participating in this discussion I was writing code in a different programming language called JavaScript, which gave me a chance to illustrate a lot of things the Java developer takes for granted, while there are people who work in a more hostile envi... (more)