Gears and the Mashup Problem

Mashups are the most interesting innovation in software development in decades. Unfortunately, the browser’s security model did not anticipate this development, so mashups are not safe if there is any confidential information in the page. Since virtually every page has at least some confidential information in it, this is a big problem.

Douglas Crockford is the world’s foremost living authority on JavaScript. He is an architect with Yahoo’s Ajax Strike Force. He is the founder of two startups, and was Director of Technology at Lucasfilm Ltd., Director of New Media at Paramount, and a researcher at Atari and SRI.

Groovy: An Agile Dynamic Language for the JVM

According to James Strachan, expert group lead and Groovy co-founder (with Bob McWhirter), Groovy started with a desire for an alternative to javac, which had the power and expressiveness of Ruby/Python but generated regular Java classes (at runtime or build time) and that worked directly with Java classes without some other layer.

Groovy is like a super version of Java. It can leverage Java’s enterprise capabilities but also has cool productivity features like closures, builders and dynamic typing. If you are a developer, tester or script guru, you have to love Groovy.

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Google Labs: Source Code Search

Google Code Search helps you find function definitions and sample code by giving you one place to search publicly accessible source code hosted on the Internet.

Among other things, it supports POSIX extended regular expression syntax and language, license or filename filtering.

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Good API Design: Why it Matters

Every day around the world, software developers spend much of their time working with a variety of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Some are integral to the core platform, some provide access to widely distributed frameworks, and some are written in-house for use by a few developers.

Good APIs increase the pleasure and productivity of the developers who use them, the quality of the software they produce, and ultimately, the corporate bottom line. Conversely, poorly written APIs are a constant thorn in the developer’s side, and have been known to harm the bottom line to the point of bankruptcy.