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 ChiefOur Extreme Programming course has just ended. Here are some comments from the students:
Simon: ...It (XP) helps to reduce time wasting and increase productivity...It is worth to know what is XP and how does it work. Every programmer wants to exert less effort and achieve more. So do you.
Orion: ...Test driven, pair programming, plannings, quick design help me much on my job. It enhances programming qualities.
Brian: ...We always have the problem which is the final product not match the user expectation...(With XP) Users always know the progress of the development, they even conduct functional test during the development phase...It would increase the accuracy and the quality of the product, and also the product success.
Their full comments are here.
We also have some case studies on
how some organizations in Macau are using XP. We will have another XP
course in Nov.
The leading free reporting tools for Java seem to be: JasperReports and BIRT. JasperReports has been there for quite some time, then BIRT Eclipse project was launched and is getting popular. Which one should you choose? I've used JasperReports and it works fine. The report designer is a bit clumsy and sometimes you have to use "sub-reports" which is quite difficult to work with. I have never used BIRT but it is geared towards generating HTML output than paper-based output (PDF). Some comparisons are here and here.
The National
Computer Technology and Software Professional Technology Qualification
Exam will be held for the first time in Nov this year. This is
a good way for you to get certified to enhance your career
in programming. CPTTM, as the exam center in the Macau
region, will hold a briefing session at 3:00pm on Aug 14, 2006, at the
auditorium in the CPTTM Head Office (7 Andar EDF ACM, Rua de Xangai).
It will cover the categories of the exams, enrollment procedure,
syllabus and review courses. To join the briefing, please send your
name, company name and tel # to vqa@cpttm.org.mo. For more info, please
call 8980864 or email vqa@cpttm.org.mo.
Have any questions, ideas or experiences regarding software development? Contact me at 781313 or kent at cpttm dot org dot mo.
Until next time,
Kent Tong