Not all the good stuff is in these Journal articles. The Saloon sees lots of insight and wisdom all the time, and the staff is continuously reviewing interesting books and blogging about this, that and the other. Plus, we've got book authors hanging out with us all the time. So here are a few nuggets you may have missed that should prove interesting to many folks.
Big Moose Saloon
Recognizing that Java isn't the be-all and end-all of languages, and that JVM-based languages are all the rage nowadays, we've started new forums for Groovy and Scala. So head over there with all your questions, and be sure to let your programming buddies know about them.
A rancher wonders when is the right time to commit source code to the repository in Macro vs Micro commits: (just about) every time a change is made, or only after major chunks of work have been completed and tested?
A discussion on the various possibilities of generating Swing GUIs ensues in Designing GUIs. While the original question concerns using a GUI builder tool like Matisse vs. coding GUIs by hand, ranchers' opinions also cover building GUIs from XML descriptions, and point to various libraries that may help.
Using JAAS and Single-Sign-On (SSO) are frequently-discussed topics on the ranch. Now a member asks about a portable JAAS solution for multiple web apps, for which SSO will also be needed. Various options and approaches are discussed in Understanding JAAS/Web app SSO.
For years the Word Association thread has been the longest (and longest-running) topic on JavaRanch. Now there's a newcomer with an interesting twist: Picture Association. Thanks to fellow rancher Robert Liguori for starting this one – it's an intriguing concept.
Book Reviews
To make it easier to find books we have reviewed, there's now a Book Search. It allows you to search the library of reviews by title, author, publisher, ISBN, reviewer, review contents and category. The search criteria can also be combined, and the results bookmarked.
Beautiful Code by various authors
Emergent Design by Scott L. Bain
Effective Java by Joshua Bloch
Core Java, Vol. II -- Advanced Features by Cay Horstmann and Gary Cornell
ThoughtWorks Anthology by various ThoughtWorks Inc. authors
Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer by Venkat Subramaniam
Code Barn
The Code Barn is one of the oldest sections of the ranch, and maybe one of the lesser-known ones. It collects fully-functioning code snippets that demonstrate how various Java features (or 3rd party libraries) work. It has been moved to the wiki a while ago -so it is editable by anyone who's logged into the Saloon-, and we welcome comments and contributions. So if you have a piece you wrote for a particular purpose, and you think it might help others, let us know about it (or add it yourself, if you feel strong with the wiki force). Currently, there are sections for applets, servlets/JSP, XML, 3rd party libraries, and various uncategorized items in beginner, intermediate and advanced coding levels, but we can certainly add new categories if there's interest and code to start with.
Upcoming Promotions
On August 5, Dan Allen will be answering questions about Seam in Action
On August 12, Jevgeni Kabanov & Toomas Römer introduce Java Rebel
On August 19, Riyad Kalla talks about MyEclipse