EDITOR'S EYE

The World of Software Development.

November 2006

It doesn't matter how many times you've seen them, flybys can still tingle your toes--no matter if its is the Blue Angels buzzing San Francisco during Fleet Week, a B-2 Stealth Bomber sneaking up on a stadium full of football fans, or even a 60-year old B-17 buzzing an airshow crowd.

That said, a tingle in the toes probably isn't what Larry Ellison, sponsor of the aerobatic Team Oracle and founder, CEO, and everything else at Oracle, felt when (and if) he looked out his window not long ago. If he did take a peek, what he likely would have seen was a plane towing a banner around Oracle headquarters (just down the hill and across Highway 101 from Dr. Dobb's world headquarters) pleading for a charitable donation.

According to Ronald Kaplan, founder and Executive Director of the American Songbook Preservation Society and requestor of the donation, the money would go towards fulfilling the group's goal -- to preserve the Great American Songbook by presenting this music to the public at home and abroad as Ambassadors of Song. The request comes as a result of a 2005 settlement requiring Ellison to dispense $100 million within 5 years to the charities of his choice.

Amazingly, Kaplan did hear from Oracle, but the news wasn't good -- there would be no funds available as the $100 million has already been designated.

"We are looking for donors who believe in this American Cultural Legacy and want their name or business associated with the Foundation in perpetuity as we fulfill our mission. The end of the 2006 tax year is rapidly coming to a close. We are asking that concerned individuals help us make this happen with their support, and as the Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby and Oscar Hammerstein II song goes, 'Give Me A Kiss To Build A Dream On'," says Kaplan.

But enough of this Oscar Hammerstein, Tin Pan Alley, and Hollywood musicals. If you want real music, you only have to go as far as (okay, here it comes again) The Trailer Park Troubadours. But the Troubs are into more than just music. They're also into doing good -- and not just good music -- this time of the year. Their vehicle for doing so is the Mary Lou McClain Memorial Fund (named after Antsy's mother) which collects money for those in need. Don't be shy. It's that time of year.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 01:44 PM  Permalink |

I'm not a big fan of salary surveys. One of the reasons why is that every time I run across one that even remotely applies to what I do, I end up getting in trouble. For instance, when I recently pointed one survey out to the boss, her response was "Can you say 'Do you want fries with that?'," followed by "Quit your whining and get back to work."

Still, salary surveys have their place, particularly when organizations are planning budgets for the coming year(s), or when you're considering your future. But it is important to keep in mind all of the variables involved. Location, longevity, skill sets, and the like all factor in. Some of these you can control Other variables -- such as how the economy or the organization are doing, financially speaking -- you have no control over.

But there is purpose and place for every survey, even if for curiosity if nothing else. EE Times, Information Week, and CRN, all of which like Dr. Dobb's are part of CMP, conduct annual surveys. Certainly TechCareers, an online career resource center that's also part of CMP, relies in part on salary surveys such as these.

The most recent salary survey I've run across is the "Robert Half Technology 2007 Salary Guide," conducted by (you guessed it) Robert Half Technology. Like all surveys, however, it would seem that there are variables and caveats to keep in mind. For one thing, Robert Half Technology is a staffing firm. Which means that the company probably generates revenue from commissions paid when hooking up employees with employers. So in a business like this, churn is good. Likewise, there's every likelihood that the amount of fees paid to placement firms depend on the salaries. So in a business like this, high salaries are good too. There's nothing wrong with this at all, of course. Just more variables to keep in mind.

So according to the Robert Half Technology 2007 Salary Guide, IT professionals in the U.S. can expect starting salaries in 2007 to increase an average of 2.8 percent over 2006.

In the realm of application development:

• software architects can expect a 4.0 percent increase, upwards of $112,750.
• Lead application developers can bank on a 2.8 percent increase, to between $75,000 and $100,000 annually.
• Moreover, developers with C++ skills can add 5 percent to this.
• Java skills add 7 percent
• Visual Basic 5 percent
• C# development skills can add 10 percent.
• Visual Basic .NET skills bring in an additional 10 percent.

In the database arena:

• database developers can expect an increase of 3.2 percent, to about $103,000 a year
• 10 percent can be added for Oracle skills
• 10 percent for Microsoft SQL Server skills
• 7 percent for DB2 skills.

On the Internet and e-commerce front:

• Web developers are looking at a 4.2 percent increase
• with Java skill garnering 7 percent more
• Java 2 Enterprise Edition skills getting 10 percent more
• ColdFusion skills 5 percent
• Web services getting 7 percent more
• C#developers can expect 10 percent more
• Visual Basic .NET skills will bring 10 percent more
• Weblogic clustering admin skills will bring home 5 percent more.

Needless to say, the Robert Half Technology 2007 Salary Guide goes into more detail than what I've sketched out here, including North American regional issues.

In the meantime, I'll be talking to the boss -- and asking her if she wants cream and sugar with that coffee.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 11:42 AM  Permalink |

We recently posted a pair of articles which deserve special mention -- Objects and Databases: State of the Union 2006 and MSDN Wiki: What's Up?.

First of all, let me warn you: "Objects and Databases: State of the Union 2006" is a big article. Really big. But it is worth every byte of your time to read it. In a nutshell, the article is the transcript of an OOPSLA 2006 panel discussion moderated by William Cook of the University of Texas at Austin (and co-author of the article Native Queries for Persistent Objects). Participants in the panel include Robert Greene from Versant, Derek Henninger of Progress Software, Patrick Linskey, BEA, Erik Meijer from Microsoft, Craig Russell from Sun, Bob Walker of Gemstone Systems, and Christof Wittig of db4objects.

While object databases are the focus of the panel, the participants tackle a range of topics, including the future of programming languages, what's right about Ruby On Rails, what database development might look like 10 years from now, and what's the impact of social environments like Second Life. It's a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion from start to finish (and there's a lot there between the two). Thanks to Roberto Zicari and the odbms.org for making this available.

The second article that you'll find particularly interesting in a Web 2.0 sort of way, is Scott Swigart's interview with Molly Bostic and Rob Caron who talk about Microsoft's MSDN Wiki project. It's also long, but not as long as "Objects and Databases." The goal of the project is to deliver MSDN documentation via a Wiki, which also opens the door for community members to contribute to the effort.

Bostic and Caron are core members of the MSDN Wiki team and if you develop for Windows and use MSDN at all, you better read this article because it lays out how you'll be getting Windows information in the future.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 10:03 AM  Permalink |

My guess is that it took Stompin' Tom Connors about 15 minutes to write "Bud the Spud" and Antsy McClain a bit longer to write "Living In Aluminum." Which makes you wonder why it took Microsoft 18 months to come up with the Vista four-second startup tune. But then, rolling stuff out in a hurry never has been Microsoft's forte.

Of course, masterpieces like "It Ain’t Home Til You Take the Wheels Off" only appeal to those of us who have discriminating tastes in music, while Microsoft's four-seconds of sound has to please everyone -- "a wide demographic" as Antsy McClain says. Still, a year-and-a-half for four-seconds?

To get that four-seconds down right, Microsoft brought world-famous guitarist and founder of the progressive rock band King Crimson Robert Fripp into Redmond, who recorded hours and hours of his signature guitar sounds. Presumably a committee of Microsoft marketing types then spent the next year or so analyzing, dissecting, commenting on, recommending, sucking down Starbucks, humming along, and -- when they just flat ran out of time and couldn't have any more meetings over it -- deciding on which four-seconds of sound.

The startup clip, which consists of four chords (one for each color in the Vista graphic), is supposed to evoke the rhythm of "Win-dows Vis-ta." Sounds a little subtle to me, but then recall I'm a fan of the Trailer Park Troubadours. And there isn't a whole lot subtle about them.

As for the Vista start-up sound when I get to it, I bet it doesn't take me 18 minutes -- let alone 18 months -- to uncheck that checkbox that says "Play Windows Startup Sound." It's already sounding good to me.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 06:40 PM  Permalink |

The last time I mentioned Sandia National Labs, I took a thumping from readers who either didn't agree with my minor point regarding the government giving back to taxpayers by releasing software such as the Acro 1.0 optimization toolkit, or were irritated by my clumsey sentence structure. So just to prove that my head is harder than their slings, arrows, and barbs, I'll take another run at it.

Sandia National Labs has released for licensing Jess 7.0, a rule engine that lets you embed intelligence in the form of business rules directly into Java applications. Jess 7.0 includes new tools, improved features, and enhanced performance for managing and controlling business rules in an enterprise environment. Among Jess’s new features is an Eclipse-based IDE for rules that supposedly increases programmer productivity and enhances collaboration.
Jess supports the JSR94 Java Rule Engine API as well as its own interface. Jess executes rules written both in its own expressive rule language and in XML.

"Programming with rules allows software to express real-world concepts in a natural, expressive way that helps business and IT professionals collaborate in bringing enterprise applications to life," said Craig Smith, software licensing manager at Sandia.

Jess uses an enhanced version of the Rete matching algorithm to process rules. Jess supports backwards chaining and working memory queries, and can directly manipulate and reason about Java objects. Jess provides a Java scripting environment that lets you Java objects, call Java methods, and implement Java interfaces without compiling any Java code.

And since Jess isn't freely available, I'm off the hook. Still, I wouldn't mind hearing from anyone who has used Jess.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 04:36 PM  Permalink |

Trivia Question of the Day: Who is the only person to appear in both "Dr. Dobb's" and "Lou Dobbs"?

Give up? The answer is Herbert ("Hugh") Thompson. Yes, the same Hugh Thompson who has written several articles for Dr. Dobb's, including:

• Software Security, Bar Fights, And Animated Paperclips.
• Rethinking Software Security.
• Red-Team Application Security Testing.
• Testing for Software Security

Considering that Hugh is Chief Security Strategist at SecurityInnovation, you can probably can figure out why Hugh pops up from time to time in Dr. Dobb's. What he's doing on Lou Dobbs CNN news analysis TV program is probably not as obvious.

The answer to that has to do with the U.S. national elections on November 7, and the role that electronic voting will play in the outcome. Security of the voting process is paramount in everyone's mind -- and security is what Hugh knows best. That's why Lou Dobbs turned to Hugh for the details. Here's where you can catch a clip of Hugh on Lou Dobbs. Hugh also appeared recently on an MSNBC program on e-voting.

Hugh was also a prominent player in the recent controversial HBO documentary Hacking Democracy.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that, as I said last week, Hugh will be going with us to India early next year for Dr. Dobb's Best Practices India/2007 where he will be presenting at Hyderabad on January 16, Chennai on January 17, and Bangalore on January 19.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:44 AM  Permalink |

I promise I won't do this to you too often, but still I want to let you know about the following stuff:

Dr. Dobb's DVD Release 3

We've just announced this year's annual DVD archive and will be releasing it to the replicator next week, which gives you the chance to pre-order at a special price. This year's DVD contains the usual stuff plus a new feature--podcasts:

• 18 years of Dr. Dobb's Journal. That's January 1988 through December 2006.
• 14+ years of C/C++ Users Journal.
• 4 years of The Perl Journal.
• 4 years of Dr. Dobb's Sourcebook.
• Dozens (and dozens) of Podcasts on topics ranging from .NET development to Rich Internet Applications and more.
• All the source code.
• And finally, it look likes we'll also be including video presentations (assuming there's enough room on the DVD, which shouldn't be an issue).

The DVD is fully searchable across all publications and media and platform independent. It really is handy to have around. Check it out.

Dr. Dobb's Best Practices India/2007

That's right. I've told you before that the boss likes me better when I'm not hanging around the office. So along with Scott Meyers, Herbert Thompson, Andrew Stellman, and Ken Pugh, we're off to India in January 2007 and we'd welcome the opportunity to meet you at the events. We'll be meeting first at Hyderabad on January 16, then Chennai on January 17, and finally Bangalore on January 19. (Actually, I've just learned that the city fathers of "Bangalore" have officially changed the name of the city back to its vernacular original "Bengalooru". According to Reuters, historians say Bengalooru is derived from "Bendakalooru," meaning a town of boiled beans, as the place was named when it was born in the 14th century.) Whatever, as long as someone points me to the right bus, I'll be there--and hope to see you there as well.

Dr. Dobb's Best Practices Moscow/2007

And maybe just to prove that she wasn't kidding about keeping me away from the free coffee at the office, the boss is also putting me on the plane (Greyhound won't get me there, or it would be a bus I'm sure) to Russia on April 3-4 for two days of sessions on topics focusing on application development lifecycle to project management. I'm looking forward to the sessions and the chance of meeting the many Dr. Dobb's authors and readers in Russia that I've only known by email over the years.

Dr. Dobb's SD West/2007

And just in case your frequent flyer miles won't get you to India or Russia (I bet mine will by this time next year), don't forget about the upcoming Software Development West Conference in Santa Clara, California, on March 19-23. By my count, this is the 20th anniversary of this conference, and I'm happy to recall that I was at the first conference when it was squirreled away in the hallways of a hotel just south of the San Francisco Airport. Details on the 2007 sessions are being developed and should be available soon. And again, I look forward to seeing you there.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 10:39 AM  Permalink |