About the Author
Rik Scarborough

Rik Scarborough

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Rik Scarborough is a Kansas City-based software developer on the Keyhole Software team. He specializes in Enterprise Application Development using Java, Web Application Development, Spring Batch, Google's Appengine, Google Web Toolkit (GWT), and Groovy. Also, a student of conversational American Sign Language.

Writing High Quality Code

Writing Quality Code: Practicing “Make It Work, Make It Right, Make It Fast”

Rik Scarborough Programming, Soft Skills Leave a Comment

Kent Beck, a software engineer famous enough to have his own Wikipedia page, is quoted as saying, “Make it work, make it right, make it fast.” A quick web search will show you several pages discussing this quote, some in great detail.

So, I’ll write another, and hopefully, I’ll provide two things to build on the existing literature. First, I’d like to put this concept in front of some programmers that might not have heard it, or if they have, haven’t taken it to heart.

Second, I’ll provide my own philosophy on the subject. Maybe it will different enough that you’ll get something new from it. I do have a slightly different take on it. Although I don’t want anyone to change the quote, maybe we can instead think of it as, “Solve the problem, make it maintainable, and make it perform.”

Improve Java Skills By Going Old School

Want to Get Better at Java? Go Old School.

Rik Scarborough Java, Programming Leave a Comment

So you’re a Java programmer, and you want to take your skills to a higher level. I’m going to suggest you take a project and go old school.

Over the course of this blog, I’ll explain what “going old school” means as well as give you some tips and tricks to get started. We’re going to step away from most modern tools and go back to the basics, so you gain a deeper understanding of what Java is and how it works. By the end, you should be well on your way to improving your Java skill set.

FreeBSD

FreeBSD for Writing Java

Rik Scarborough Development Technologies, Groovy, Java Leave a Comment

This one is just for fun. I’ve been using FreeBSD off and on since the late 90’s when a good friend, who has since passed, introduced me to the operating system.

Recently, for personal reasons, I’ve decided to move away from the big IT providers and install FreeBSD on my primary desktop for personal use. Just so it’s clear, I still use the operating system my client uses for work, but for my own personal desktop and coding projects, I’ve decided to once again install and run FreeBSD.

This post is not a tutorial, but let’s take some time to look at using this “Unix-like” operating system for real-world situations, such as developing Java applications for fun and profit.

GINQ for the win

Using Groovy 4: GINQ for the Win

Rik Scarborough Development Technologies, Groovy, Java, Programming 4 Comments

In my last blog post Back in the Groovy 4, I briefly mentioned Groovy-Integrated Query (GINQ). I’ve been wanting to write about how I would use this new feature, and I decided to take this opportunity to do so.

In this post, I will be describing two examples in which I used GINQ. The first requirement I faced on a recent project of mine and demonstrating how I used GINQ to fulfill it. A quick disclaimer: this is not a tutorial on GINQ. This blog is merely a discussion of how I’ve used GINQ and how I plan on making it part of my toolkit.

Groovy 4

Back in the Groovy 4

Rik Scarborough Development Technologies, Groovy, Java Leave a Comment

When I heard that Groovy 4 is coming out, I decided to get ahead of it. I went online to explore what new features we were getting and how I could start using them in my own code.

This article will not be a full list of the new features of Groovy 4; there are simply too many for one post. This post will simply be my thoughts on a select few of those features and how I would plan to use them.

Let’s get started!