Old habits can be hard to break, but sometimes it's worth the effort.

By Susan Gantner

Are you as productive in your programming as you could be? If you're still using the same toolset you used five or 10 (or more) years ago (i.e., PDM, SEU, SDA, and a green-screen debugger), then almost certainly not. Maybe it's time you gave some modern tools a try.

If you want to know how SOA works in the real world, this is your book.

There's a lot of hype and fanfare surrounding service-oriented architecture (SOA), but the authors of SOA for the Business Developer have obviously gotten their hands dirty participating in real-world SOA projects. The content of their book reflects that experience.

They begin by pointing out the simple truth that "SOA includes ideas that have been around for decades." Comparing and contrasting new concepts with old, familiar software design principles quickly brings the reader up to speed with the overarching principles of SOA.

MC Press Online is pleased to announce the launch of its completely new Web site designed to help System i professionals be more productive on the job and get more out of their career. Rest assured that the site still contains all of the content and features that you've come to expect, but it now also offers several powerful enhancements you're sure to find extremely useful:

Quit whining about the fact that your company isn't educating you. Educate yourself!

As I write this article, I realize that this will be the final installment in MC Press Online's iApplication Designer for 2007. I can't believe that 2007 is almost history! Traditionally, the last column of a year is used for reflection. And who am I to flout tradition?

I'll soon be celebrating another birthday, one that puts me within spitting range of the half-century mark. I haven't had the fabled mid-life crises (yet), but that hasn't stopped me from having the physical manifestations that age brings: the receding hairline and expanding waistline. I have come to the stunning revelation that I now have been working in the computer field for over half of my life and I really enjoy it. I'd like to think that I'm going to be able to retire in the field. To that end, I take three simple steps: I try to eat right, I try to get enough rest and exercise, and I try to keep my skills current—all with varying degrees of success. While the first two revolve around quality-of-life issues, your skill set is what keeps you marketable. You have to keep up-to-date if you want a long, successful career.

In these days of multiple languages and architectures, how do you cohesively train a group of people with very different development goals?

"We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
—Benjamin Franklin

Two schools of thought exist in preparing software development teams. One is the compartmentalized approach, in which each person is involved in only his or her specific portion of the code and has no real contact with the other developers in the team, except through a project-tracking system.

The second approach is the group development effort, in which people not only are experts of their own domains, but are forced to walk a little way in the shoes of not only their coworkers but even their clients.

This book isn't a training manual; it's a reference book.

The Modern RPG IV Language, Fourth Edition by Robert Cozzi, Jr. is the latest version of a book that has enjoyed a long history of popularity in the RPG community. With this book, MC Press continues its tradition of providing relevant and timely materials in a quality book format.