Methods & Tools - News, Facts & Comments Edition - May 2006

*** News ***************************************************************

* Towards Open AJAX Compatibility

At the beginning of this month, the OpenAJAX Consortium announced that 13 new members have joined. Among them, we can mention Adobe, Intel, Opera and SAP. 15 companies created the OpenAJAX Consortium in February 2006, including BEA, Borland, Google, IBM, Mozilla, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat and Yahoo. The goal is to promote Ajax (the acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) to improve web surfing for users with compatible solutions across technologies. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is working in the same direction with the publication of a first draft standard for the XMLHttpRequest Object. This object is a fundamental part of the AJAX architecture use to manage asynchronous communication between the client and the server.

Microsoft is an important company missing in these initiatives, as it controls a major share of the web interface market with Internet Explorer. As you may know, implementation of standards like HTML or JavaScript (an ECMA standard) vary between different browser versions. Nevertheless, the Consortium is already working with a lot of important names for the Web and it could yield interesting results for developing compatible user interfaces.

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* www.softdevnews.com

Get continuous software development news from the Web on our new RSS-based portal where you can choose between different channels: general news, databases, programming languages (C, .NET, Java, PHP), etc. Go to www.softdevnews.com

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* M&T Press Releases Forums

You can view the last product and company press releases from software development tools vendors on our forum

*** Numbers ************************************************************

* Java Number One in Language Popularity

The TIOBE Programming Community index gives an indication of the popularity of programming languages. The index is updated once a month. The ratings are based on the world-wide availability of skilled engineers, courses and third party vendors. The popular search engines Google, MSN, and Yahoo are used to calculate the ratings. Observe that the TPC index is not about the best programming language or the language in which most lines of code have been written.

1. Java
2. C
3. C++
4. PHP
5. (Visual) Basic
6. Perl
7. C#
8. Python
9. JavaScript
10. Delphi/Kylix
11. SAS
12. PL/SQL
13. Visual FoxPro
14. Lisp/Scheme
15. COBOL
16. ColdFusion
17. VB.NET
18. Ada
19. D
20. Ruby

Even if this index is based on Internet data and could therefore be favourable for Internet related languages (that C or Cobol are not for instance) it is an interesting view on how languages are perceived. On the web site you will find more information on popularity trends and the position of other languages.

Source: TIOBE Programming Community Index for May 2006 http://www.tiobe.com/tiobe_index/index.htm

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* Quality of Open Source Software Development Tools

More and more developers, especially for web applications, are using development tools produced by the open source community like MySQL, Eclipse, PHP or JBoss. Our new poll examines how the quality of open source tools is perceived against their commercial competitors. We run a similar poll 2 years ago and it will be interesting to compare the results.

Go to www.methodsandtools.com/dynpoll/vote.php to participate and to see intermediate results. The final results will be published in our August issue.

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* Archived Polls from Methods & Tools

We have created a poll archive where you can now view the results of all our previous polls

*** Books **************************************************************

* Foundations of Ajax

This book from Ryan Asleson and Nathaniel Schutta is a basic introduction to Ajax focused on the user interaction aspects. Therefore, most of the book focuses on how to use JavaScript to enhance user experience on web sites. After introducing the XMLHttpRequest object and server communication, the authors show how the Ajax approach can be used in various interaction contexts. The final chapters of the book are dedicated to tools than can ease JavaScript development, particularly for the testing and debugging activities.

Although it is targeted to developers that already master JavaScript and HTML, the clarity of examples makes this book accessible to a larger audience, even if you do not have a PhD in JavaScript. Some may think that the focus of the book (client side scripting) is limited, but I see this book is a good starting point for practical Ajax implementation, especially to enhance an existing web site. The fact that the few server code examples are in Java may however be seen as a disadvantage for readers using another server-side language and that are looking for a broader coverage on their specific configuration.

To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com click below:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590595823/methotools-20

To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk click below:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590595823/methotools-21

*** Conferences ********************************************************

Better Software Conference & EXPO, June 26-29, 2006, Las Vegas

Attend the Better Software Conference & EXPO 2006
Beat the Odds on Your Next Software Development Project
June 26-29, 2006 * Las Vegas, NV
--- EXPLORING DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE PRACTICES ---
Managing Projects & Teams * Plan-Driven Development
Agile Development * Process Improvement & Measurement
Testing & Quality Assurance * Security & Special Topics
Register now and Save $200!

http://www.sqe.com/bsce6mt

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* European SEPG 2006, June 12-15, Amsterdam

European practitioners of CMMI-based process improvement gather to learn and discuss best practice with inspirational speakers from Europe and around the world. This vibrant and informative event is a must for those who wish to make significant improvements in quality, cost and delivery precision with software and systems. A joint initiative with the Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh.

http://www.espi.org/sepg

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* NYPHPCon 2006 June 14-16, 2006m, New York

New York PHP, the leader in uniting business and community for open source, announces that it will host the New York PHP Conference & Expo, June 14 – 16, 2006. The conference, titled "The PHP Business Community," will be held at The New Yorker Hotel in New York City. NYPHPCon 2006 will emphasize both business and technical sessions, giving the audience a chance to learn how to better implement PHP within their enterprise and current infrastructures.

http://www.nyphpcon.com/

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* TheServerSide Java Symposium-Europe, 21-23 June 2006, Barcelona

Focused on bleeding-edge technologies & platform-spanning development practices, TSSJS-Europe covers the industry’s most relevant topics: AJAX, Spring, SOA, AOP & more. Join Simon Phipps, John Davies, Gregor Hohpe, Rod Johnson & many more.

http://javasymposium-europe.techtarget.com/?Offer=JSEmat419

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* ApacheCon Europe 2006, 26-30 June 2006, Dublin, Ireland

ApacheCon Europe 2006 creates a unique platform for the Open Source community to learn about the latest developments in Open Source and to optimize your skills regarding Apache software. You will meet big players, project leaders, experts and independent innovators. Join us for the European Apache Event on June 26-30 at in Dublin!

http://www.eu.apachecon.com

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* WCBF’s Global Six Sigma Summit & Awards, June 27-30, 2006, Las Vegas

Find out how to achieve the same breakthroughs in process improvement as those realized by Manufacturing and Service companies at this cutting-edge event which features a special Software and IT track. 20% discount for readers: use code 5061MandT20.

http://www.gsssa.com/?source=methodsandtools

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* XML Summer School 2006 July 23 - 28 2006, Oxford, England

The XML Summer School is relevant for everyone involved in using, designing or implementing XML-based and related technology solutions. The innovative curriculum is designed by our world renowned chairs. Using their passion for technology to inspire and expand your thinking to enable application for the real world.

http://www.xmlsummerschool.com

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* O'Reilly Open Source Convention, July 24-28, 2006, Portland, Oregon

The O'Reilly Open Source Convention, July 24-28, 2006 in Portland, Oregon, is where early adopters, coders, expert users, entrepreneurs, sys admins, and business people working in free and open source software gather to share ideas, find solutions and discover code. Register now using code OS06MTLS for a 10% discount.

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2006/

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EclipseWorld, September 6-8, Boston

EclipseWorld is the industry's first independent conference for enterprise software developers, architects and development managers using Eclipse tools and technologies. With more than 60 technical classes, developers will learn about the wide range of Eclipse projects that you can use today. Join us Sept. 6-8 in Boston.

http://www.eclipseworld.net

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* VERIFY 2006 Conference October 10-11, Washington DC

VERIFY 2006 addresses technical software testing solutions, i.e. security-, database-, automated-, agile-testing, test modeling, etc. Effective Software Testing requires technical skills, and the conference provides a strong technical program presented by industry leaders and published authors experienced with actual software implementations. Keynote, feature and track presentations plus half-day tutorials. Early-Bird discount for those who register prior to 31 May.

http://www.effectivesoftwaretesting.com/conference_verify.aspx

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* CFP - ICSEA’06 October 29-November 1, 2006, Tahiti, French Polynesia

The International Conference on Software Engineering Advances initiates a series of events covering a broad spectrum of software-related topics. The conference covers fundamentals on designing, implementing, testing, validating and maintaining various kinds of software. Several tracks are proposed to treat the topics from theory to practice, in terms of methodologies, design, implementation, testing, use cases, tools, and lessons learnt. The conference topics cover classical and advanced methodologies, open source, agile software, as well as software deployment and software economics and education.

http://www.iaria.org/conferences/CfPICSEA06.html

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Zend/PHP Conference and Expo October 31-November 2, 2006.

The conference, "Creating Modern Web Applications with PHP", will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in San Jose, California. The conference will include both business and technical sessions targeted at executive management and technical staff as well as keynotes from leading members of the PHP community. New this year is a Framework Pavilion in which API providers will showcase best practices for creating PHP applications for their web services.

http://zendcon06.kbconferences.com/

*** M&T News ***********************************************************

* Future Issues of Methods & Tools

In future issues, you will find articles on:

• Preventing Project Failure
• Agile Adoption at British Telecom
• Managing an Open Source Project
• Framework-based Web Development with Ruby on Rails
• Software Product Lines
• Creating Domain-specific Modelling Language
• Feature Modelling
• Database Testing

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