CPTTM software developer newsletter issue #10

Dear Software Developers,

This CPTTM Software Developer newsletter is to bring useful news to you, software developers in Macau, for references without obligations, so that you can do your jobs easier and better! Hope you like it. if you'd like to unsubscribe or recommend your friends to subscribe, just let me know. Old issues are available here.

Kent Tong, Editor in Chief

Java is now GPL'ed

Sun has open sourced Java under the GPL. This includes Java SE, ME and EE. What are the effects?

Java will become universally available on servers, mobile phones and etc. Therefore, our Java applications will truly run anywhere.
Innovations from the community will likely get into the JDK easier. We can do more with less.
Microsoft will face more pressure to make .NET more open.

Generating UML

UML should be used for communication. That's why I mainly draw it on whiteboards to discuss designs (& erase it afterwards). However, your superiors or customers may insist that you draw lots of UML as documentation (even though probably no one will read it). In that case, you may try a free tool that can generate UML class diagrams from Java code. This way, you can write code as usual and then generate piles of diagrams (probably before the release) to make them happy.

Making money from mobile apps

Mobile phones are the most popular items carried by people, just after keys and wallets. What if you can turn each mobile phone into a sales device promoting your product/service? For example:

You can write and sell mobile games or apps. There are companies such as Nokia that will market the software for you.
Your company can distribute mobile games for free to promote your business. For example, a car racing game showing the Macau world heritage.
Your company can distribute mobile apps to let people conduct business with you. For example, mobile betting.

How to rip the benefits above? You need to learn to write mobile software first. To do that, you can join our upcoming Programming Mobile Devices with MIDP 2.0 course.

Feedbacks

Have any questions, ideas or experiences regarding software development? Contact me at 28781313 or kent at cpttm dot org dot mo.

Until next time,

Kent Tong