IndicThreads >> You have been a regular contributor to Jakarta Commons. Do you think components like those in the Commons project are underused by developers and that developers should put more effort into reusing code?

Henri Yandell >> Reusing code is hard and I completely understand why developers may shy away from it. A large part of my day job involves juggling CVS branches, modules and Maven dependencies so as to avoid creating new branches, which are really just clever and hopefully temporary ways to do copy and paste. Probably the biggest pain has come from a single reusable library at the heart of everything, if you put too much in there, it comes back to haunt you, too little and it's useless.

"Reusing code is hard and I completely
understand why developers may shy away from it..."

Commons isn't aware of your particular business domain though, so the likelihood of such pain is much diminished. The major pain I know of through using Commons libraries are a symptom of their success: it's too easy to end up with the need to have multiple versions of the same component in your classpath. The same problem exists for other things, XML parsing for example, and the issue is really at the Java level. Jars need to have a way to state their desired version, much like how Java Webstart/JNLP can say it depends on JDK 1.3+ or just bugfixes of JDK 1.3. For me this is just a problem to be faced when it occurs.

"Benefits of code reuse are so huge that they outweigh the pain..."

The quandary we face with reusable code is that the benefits of code reuse are so huge that they outweigh the pain. Even reusing tiny methods can help to avoid seeing the same bug again and again. Speaking from experience, a system that is rife with copy and paste is far more painful to deal with as it grows larger than a system built on reuse. Even if both had the same level of pain, embracing reusable components forces the developers to manage their codebase and not let it evolve into anarchy. At the end of the day that management is very noticeable.

IndicThreads >>You did your studies and even worked for a few years in the UK before you moved to the US. Also through open source work you must have worked with developers from all over the globe. So did you find a difference in how developers and companies from different nations function?

Henri Yandell >> Sadly I've not worked in as many cultures as I'd like to. Various parts of the UK, though chiefly London, here in Kentucky, USA and a brief project in Vienna, Austria.

The pace of life is different between them, but the developers and companies are largely the same in style. I suspect you could draw a matrix with 'Large | Small' on one side and 'Product | Consultant' on the other and you'd have categorized the major styles of company, and I suspect this would be true of any major IT country in the world. One constant is that it is rare to find communication moving across the boundaries of a company. Few developers talk regularly to a group of developers at their competitors.

"The Internet lets us talk, and open-source communities ride this wave..."

The Internet lets us talk though, and open-source communities ride this wave. The only difference I've ever found in the open-source community is when there is a separation by language.

To finish this with something very on topic to your site; this puts India in a pretty good position. Brazil, China and Japan all seem to have their own very strong Internet cultures, and thus, I think, to a certain extent their own open-source communities. While the large projects like the Linux kernel, Apache Httpd and Tomcat will be a part of these communities, and have members from these communities, it seems likely that a lot of the energy spent will remain inside these cultures.

"As this (open source work) means contacts,
free further education and CV/resume strength,
it can only be a good thing for Indian developers..."

If and when India explodes into open-source, and forgive me but it seems as though it hasn't yet, it seems very likely that they'll be affected and have a much larger effect on the global/western/English-speaking/whatever-name-won't-offend open-source community than the other nations India competes with in the global IT market. As this means contacts, free further education and CV/resume strength, it can only be a good thing for Indian developers.

IndicThreads >> Thanks Henri. It?s been good talking to you. We look forward to many more super projects from Apache.

Henri Yandell >> My pleasure. So do we.

IndicThreads >> A last note for our readers. If you wish to stay updated about Henri's Java and football exploits, check out his blog: The Goldfish Chronicles.

Your Name / Email Address
Comment
Spam Protection - Please enter the code in the image -

Listen to code