Topic: Software Development
The Open Solutions Alliance is a new organization made up primarily of commercial open source application software vendors aims to improve interoperability between these vendors' products. Barry Klawans of JasperSoft heads the OSA's interoperability working group. Klawans describes the OSA's goals and paths for participation, and how it embraces companies whose software doesn't strictly fit the Open Software Initiative's definition of open source.
In his work with Sun Microsystems, Chet Haase is in a unique position to discuss the current status of Java. Co-author of an upcoming book on developing desktop Java effects, he joins Phil, Scott, and Ben to talk about how Sun is working on improvements to the consumer Java client. He also reviews the company's applet strategy. The group evaluates the status of JavaFX scripting as well. The conversation is technical in nature, but interesting in its review of an important tool in online technology.
Although Roy Fielding's now-infamous Ph.D. thesis popularized the term REST - otherwise known as Representational State Transfer - and defined its principles, there hasn't been a practical guide to the application of those principles. A new book by Leonard Richardson and Sam Ruby, "RESTful Web Services," meets that need. In this Conversation with Innovators, the authors discuss what those principles are, and how to apply then in ways that make the programmable Web better - that is, "more uniform, better structured, and using the features of HTTP to greatest advantage."
Customers are now implementing solutions based upon the OASIS OpenDocument Format (ODF) and Microsoft's OpenXML standard but that's just the tip of the iceberg. OpenDocument expert Gary Edwards believes that adopting OpenXML means lock-in to Microsoft products and services on an unprecedented scale. In this podcast, Edwards defends OpenDocument's capabilities but also challenges the ODF community to out-innovate Microsoft to provide a competitive alternative to Microsoft's lock-in.
The book Mac OS X Internals describes the architecture and design of Apple's operating system. The book is targeted at anybody who is curious about Mac OS X and has a system-level interest in operating systems. At a very high (and simplistic) level, the book appeals to both those who use Mac OS X, and also those who do not. The book's author, Amit Singh, joins Phil and Scott in a discussion of his book, as well as the evolution of the Mac OS. They also talk about MacFUSE, a Mac version of the FUSE specification.
OASIS, an international standards consortium, recently announced its Open Composite Services Architecture (Open CSA) Member Section, a new initiative to advance standards that simplify Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) application development. In this episode, Jeff Mischkinsky of Oracle and OASIS' board of directors explains Open CSA's role in speeding development and assembly of business services. Mischkinsky speaks about forthcoming OASIS-compliant developer tools which will "make SOA concrete."
There is an increasing need for companies to deal with challenges in creating compelling and profitable user experiences: a long-term vision and roadmap must be developed in parallel with defining near term offerings and tactical development decisions. This leads to tensions and obstacles that need to be managed effectively. Adam Richardson of frog design uses the example of the Alltel Celltop product to look at dealing with the complex challenges that schizophrenic projects create.
Ben Galbraith returns as co-host of Technometria and it gives Phil and Scott the chance to chat with him about recent travels and projects. Scott discusses his disappointing trip to the CTIA Wireless Conference. The group also discusses the iPhone and other current issues related to mobile devices. They also talk about Ben's recent work converting a COBOL application to a modern Java GUI, methods being developed to measure productivity, as well as issues with Python.
In this edition of Technometria, Phil and Scott talk to Joseph Smarr, the Chief Platform Architect at Plaxo. Plaxo makes great use of AJAX in its product offerings and the conversation centers on techniques for overcoming cross-site scripting limitations along with performance considerations for Web sites making heavy use of Javascript. Finally the show ends with a discussion of the coming open social Web.
The issue of patents for software is a major controversy, particularly in the open source community. On March 19, 2007, Bruce Perens held a news conference to criticize Novell's recent agreement with Microsoft as a betrayal of the open source community. On the same day, he joined Phil and Scott to discuss his criticism. In addition, he gives a clear overview of the United States patent system as it relates to software and how he believes it is a problem to open source developers.
