At the very beginning of last year, I decided to track my reading habits and share the best stuff here, on Baeldung. Haven’t missed a review since.

Here we go…

1. Spring and Java

>> Notes on Reactive Programming Part II: Writing Some Code [spring.io]

A reactive system is an entirely different beast, and such a good fit for a small set of scenarios.

A great writeup to go through if you want to skate where the puck is going.

>> Java EE 8 in Crisis [xenonique.co.uk]

And since we’re talking about where we’re headed, the state and outlook of Java EE 8 is significant for the entire Java community and ecosystem.

>> How to implement a custom String-based sequence identifier generator with Hibernate [vladmihalcea.com]

A super practical, focused solution on generating String ids with Hibernate (which is actually something I wandered about in the past).

And, as always, Vlad’s picking his topics with the help and involvement of the community, which is a really a solid way to go about things. A cool resource.

>> How To Implement hashCode Correctly [codefx.org]

The next back-to-basics writeup after we had a look at equals last week. I knew this one was coming.

>> Configure Once, Run Everywhere: Decoupling Configuration and Runtime [infoq.com]

Real-world project configuration is never as easy as we might initially think.

Now – I’m not sure if a standard is the answer here, but the practical approach here looks interesting.

>> It’s Time to Unlearn Everything You Know About Java Exceptions [takipi.com]

A high level piece about how to actually do exceptions well. It also reads well, I think Alex had some fun writing this one.

>> Should you use JPA for your next project? [thoughts-on-java.org]

Hibernate and JPA are certainly not a good fit for every type of project out there, but they’re a solid base for a lot of them. And if you really get to know the tool well, it can be surprising how far you can go.

This interactive writeup can be helpful in making the decision when you’re starting up a new project, or at least give you some context around that decision.

>> JDK 9 is not (yet) Feature Complete — how will we get there? [mail.openjdk.java.net]

Yeah.

Also worth reading:

Webinars and presentations:

Time to upgrade:

2. Technical

>> Mutation Testing [cleancoder.com]

A good intro to mutation testing and also to a library that might be interesting to explore – pitest.

>> Serverless Architectures [martinfowler.com]

>> Serverless Reference Architectures with AWS Lambda [allthingsdistributed.com]

I don’t know much about this architectural style, and these writeups were a good way to get started.

Also worth reading:

3. Musings

>> Creating Your Code Review Checklist [daedtech.com]

Some good aspects to think about on your next code review.

>> Three Martini Open Office Plans [daedtech.com]

A fun exploration of whether or not open office plans make sense, from the POV of an outsider.

For me personally it’s been long enough since I last had the experience of trying to get work done in an open office, so I can half-laugh about it. But I very distinctly remember it wasn’t easy to pull off.

Also worth reading:

4. Comics

And my favorite Dilberts of the week:

>> What do you think management is? [dilbert.com]

>> He’s wearing headphones, what do I do? [dilbert.com]

>> All roads headed in this direction – I just took the shortest one [dilbert.com]