Jim Barnabee

As the popularity of Java increases, many information services departments are embracing Java as the solution to their cross-platform challenges. As this trend progresses, many developers will be faced with the challenge of migrating their Java servers from UNIX to an NT boot-time environment. Administrators tend to take the attitude that since Java is a cross-platform language, this migration should be effortless. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. The thread management of child threads in the current Java Virtual Machine from Microsoft can cause problems for those developers migrating from a UNIX environment. This article explores one workaround for the thread management and garbage collection differences between the Sun and Microsoft JVMs. Microsoft recently agreed to implement a court decision to make their JVM ISO-compliant. It remains to be seen whether this ... (more)

The Power of Polymorphism

Polymorphism is an often-misunderstood concept within the developer community. Outside the community it's often a buzzword used to create an image of intellectual capital accumulating in a vault somewhere. This article will attempt to define, in a very basic way: What polymorphism is What types of polymorphism exist How they can benefit the Java developer and architect in building better systems What Is Polymorphism? Polymorphism is the ability of one object to be treated, or used, like another. In their ACM report Cardelli and Wegner detailed the types of polymorphism and their r... (more)