My garden is well, how is yours?

Okay, so what does the Software Garden actually mean?

If you’re looking for the original explanation of what the ‘software garden’ is, then I guess you won’t find a better explanation than the one I read years ago in The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas.

There are these books, films, paintings, etc. which revolutionise the way you think in certain aspects. Many people took many things from this influential book: some started boiling frogs, some talking to rubber ducks. I was raised close to the nature, therefore in my opinion the software we create and use is much more like a garden than some architecture or machinery. It lives in a way. It’s never done. The whole ecosystem constantly changes. You pray for the rain. The summer comes after the spring. New plants need space. We need to get rid of bugs to have something to eat. You can’t start with green field every week. And so on…

That’s why years ago I changed my headline from ‘Software Developer’ or ‘Software Engineer’ to ‘Software Gardener’. Sure, it confuses and intrigues some people who haven’t read The Pragmatic Programmer. It also allows me to spot a few other folks with the same description of their position, and we instantly recognise each other.

Therefore, this page is meant to be the internet representation of my ongoing journey in Software Gardening. It’s not industry-scale farm with plant monoculture, acres and acres big. It’s my little garden, with seeds I care about, with birds singing in the sky and for sure, with some bugs as well. Consider yourself invited.

On Security Factors

This post should have a nicer title, but I can’t find it. It’s about security factors and some misperception about them.

JAVIPS Online

I had a great pleasure to take part in the JAVIPS online 2020.

Surfing Java™ 12-16

In the dark ages, we had to wait for 3-4 years to see the new Java version with some new features. Now there are two major releases every year! Can we benefit from the new features before the next LTS release? We don’t have to wait 3 years or so for new features any more. Isn’t that cool? 😉 So… you’d like to check what has happened since Java 11? Record types?

Java 15. What's new and noteworthy?

Another (half a) year has passed, another major Java™ version has been released. Java was supposed “to be slow”. However, Java turns out to evolve so fast, that next releases aren’t just version bumps, but might significantly change the game rules. That’s a good reason for another deep dive in Java. We’re going to cover: Production ready GCs: ZGC and Shenandoah, if you don’t like ice ages Text blocks, which make Strings easy to declare also for non-liners Pattern matching with instanceof A.

Java Records tortured with Lombok again

In one of my previous posts I was torturing Java™ Records using Lombok. After receiving some really encouraging comments (‘what a sick idea you have, respect!'), delivering a deep-dive talk "Java 15. What’s new and noteworthy", and some discussions on JVM Poland Slack channel, I’ve decided to keep torturing. Sorry ;-)

More on shebang in JavaScript(s)

The shebang hasn’t been discussed deeply in the previous post. Let’s find out how can we squeeze this fruit in our beloved JavaScript(s). Is it possible to write the shebang in a way which makes it portable?

JavaScript(s)!

Some people find it shocking, that it’s possible these days to write a script (which will run in CLI) not only in Bash, Perl, Python or PHP, but also in Java.

Little Java riddle - the answer

The competition is over, the prizes are given away… And despite the trainings still going on, it might be time to show the answer to my little riddle, and make a comment on it.

Records in Java - what about Lombok?

When explaining Java records online I was asked several times ‘right, what about Lombok?’ In particular this question was ‘if the records are immutable, how are they different from Lombok’s @Value?’

Records in Java - reflection

When Java 14 was (about to be) released I saw a few discussions following more or less this schema: - Oh, records in Java, cool, finally we have automatically generated setters and getters! - No, records in Java are POJOs without any setters… - Oh, I see… Cool, finally in Java we have generated Beans, without any setters though!
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