Reia adds classes and objects. Objects are Erlang processes. Interesting.

AMQP implementations like RabbitMQ offer OTP based messaging server. It is fun talking to them with Scala actors at the application layer. Nice concise programming model, along with great concurrency and scalability.

Erlang VM (BEAM) provides extreme reliability semantics. Reia is a Python like language that targets BEAM. Some random thoughts on this issue.

Structural typing can be one way to reduce your inheritance hierarchy. This feature in Scala can address one of the drawbacks of Java typing.

You do not necessarily need a dynamically typed language to design internal DSLs. Scala, with static typing done right also provides adequate language features to implement domain specific languages.

Spring 2.5 offers significant improvements in autowiring of managed components, which leads to much less XML configuration. And meta-annotation is one of the main forces behind this magic.

What exactly is a rich domain model ? Richer is not necessarily fatter.

Are big teams necessarily better teams ? Scale up with productive languages rather than verbose ones. Build up your infrastructure for good developers, not blub programmers.

Want to learn functional programming ? Which programming language would you start from ?

Thinking in Erlang's philosophy of "let it crash". A nice exposition of separation of concerns and a robust platform for distribution mechanism.

The Collector idiom in Scheme has been used extensively in The Little Schemer. While the idiom is complex, it demonstrates the power of lambdas that a language like Scheme enjoys.

Programming languages are cultural artifacts, and their success (i.e., widespread adoption) is critically dependent on cultural factors as well as technical ones. Is the Java culture changing over the last couple of years ?

Javascript as a language has grown up a lot. Its usage is now being patronized in the community. There has not been a better time to learn more of this most misunderstood programming language. This post talks about this learning experience and points to some of the most interesting reasons why you should learn Javascript today.

Scripting in the JVM provides a new option to your architectural toolbox. If you want to have customizable business logic which needs to be flexible enough to allow changes by the customer, scripting is a viable alternative. You can allow customers to write DSL s and convert them to scripts to be executed within the JVM.

This post discusses the strategy of handling alternate business scenarios (aka violation of business constraints) using a combination of the Specification pattern of DDD and Java's checked exceptions.

With Artima hosting the debate between static and dynamic programming languages, it is not out of place to bring up a similar debate between another generation of thought leaders, who ranted on the same topics but with a different set of languages.

Use the power of aspects judiciously and only when you need to address crosscutting concerns.

When modeling your domain layer, do exceptions have to be part of the domain language ?

In today's world of multi language development skill demand, what does it take to be a programmer ? Where are we heading to ?

Think in the language in which you are programming. Try to find out the best possible abstractions while modeling a particular problem. This post discusses how the implementation of the Strategy pattern differs in Ruby and Java.

Localize your object creation logic. It helps you change the strategy of object creation transparently without impacting your clients.

DRY up your test methods using parameterization. DataProvider in TestNG offers a great way to add parameters to your test methods, thereby allowing separation of test data from test code.

Next time when you write a unit test method for your domain class, ensure the test method also speaks the Ubiquitous language of the domain. Refactor mock objects and write domain friendly test methods.

Unit tests are great vehicles for refactoring object collaborations - thus there is a 2-way feedback loop between class design and its unit test design.

Prototype bean creation performance has significantly improved in Spring 2.0.4. But it is still a lot worse than Guice, as this performance benchmark demonstrates.