This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Michael Cote. Original Post: From Better, Faster, Lighter Java Feed Title: Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc. Feed URL: https://cote.io/feed/ Feed Description: Using Java to get to the ideal state. Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Michael Cote Latest Posts From Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc.

If you don't like communication I've got news for you: things are going to get worse before they get better. In a global economy [yawn...], you've got to be efficient. Increasingly, that means developers must handle more and more of software development process. Out of college, I worked for the largest software company in the world. We had more testers than coders on a project team (often, by a factor of 3 to 1), and teams of 10 planners supporting 40 developers. The overall effort was 200 developers strong. Now, that projects might use 10 developers and half the original timeframe to develop the same piece of software. Since the development of better automation and unit testing, each modern developer must shoulder more of the testing load. Coders do more design work and planning than ever before. However, experience shows that many of those developers are not equipped to handle many of the increasing planning and analysis roles that they face.

And so goes the first few sections of Better, Faster, Lighter Java...which is good. O'Reilly books are usually heavy on technology and lite on "peopleware." I've liked Tate's Bitter Java, and I'm planning on going to several of his things at the Lone Star Symposium this year. Maybe JP can catch him at JavaOne if he's there.

I forget if I mentioned finishing Hardcore Java.... It was all right, but nothing that most readers here would find useful. It certainly would make for a good "optional reading" in a collection of required reading for Java coders, along with the JLS (or a good certification book) to learn all the basics, the classic Effective Java, and, though I haven't read them all, The Pragmatic Bookshelf. Man, I sure wish we could just give a bunch of books to folks sometimes , me included ;>