Columns: Dev How-To and Advice


Perspective on XML: A custom-fit career in app development

Imagine how the use of basic skills could raise your value in whatever post you occupy, to the extent that you needn’t be looking for a job on anyone else’s terms in the first place.

Open source upsets the apple cart

As Enterprise Linux becomes the poster child for open source and IT budgets remain tight, the question of where real value lies will remain. Customers may not necessarily demand open source, but neither will they pay for functionality that’s a commodity.

Good days for Goodnight and SAS

SAS’ unique business model makes it an oddity in the industry, there is no denying that its peculiar approach to making and selling analytical products has served the firm well during its 26 years of existence.

A first look at IBM–Rational

The integration of Rational into IBM appears to be off to a good start. One does not sense the acrimony that followed the Lotus and Tivoli acquisitions for years.

Product Briefs

A look at software tools and technologies on the market.

Is XQuery an omni-tool?

Just as the community is crafting a great diversity of well-specialized XML processing tools, along comes the XQuery omni-tool, which is complex enough that it is probably not very accessible to the weekend handyman, and yet probably not finely tuned enough to displace the box of professional crafting tools.

The move to open source

In the last few months, there has been a surge in reports of enterprises adopting Linux. The “free” nature of open-source software may appeal to many firms as one way to reduce costs. Meanwhile, the impression that Linux is more secure than Windows has been fostered by a never-ending set of security patches for the various flavors of Windows. Whether this impression is true or not remains to be seen.

Hype or hyper-active? A review of 'Questioning Extreme Programming'

A review of Pete McBreens’s book “Questioning Extreme Programming”

Web services security? Not yet.

Without an effective way to authenticate clients, guarantee the integrity of transferred data and to ensure data remains confidential during transit, Web services can be applied only in limited ways.

XML's demi-decade

XML injects fresh and very productive ideas into the discipline of software development, offering a fundamentally different view of data to programmers. But the debate continues over how to evolve the technology.

Product Briefs

A look at software tools and technologies on the market.

The Skeptical Examiner: Some notes on Linux

A comparison of the evolution and impact of Java and Linux.

Managing IT in 2003

If you act smart, you can do more than survive, you can help ready the business for new opportunities.

Book Review: 'Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering'

Truths and falsehoods from the world of development.

ETL beats at the heart of BI

A look at the relationship between ETL and business intelligence.

Can SOA bring out Web services' potential?

A preview of the cover story on SOA and web services.

Product Briefs

Rundown of new products.

The call of offshore development

A look at outsourcing of software development to overseas firms.

Book Review: Building Web Applications With UML, Second Edition

Getting serious about Web applications? Then this is the book for you.

Java passing endurance tests

Why has Java's image suffered over the past year or so?