Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Part 3
The big picture
As the years went by, we found ourselves running more serious rivers. We
also learned to appreciate the bigger picture. Class IV+ Wilson's Creek is a short,
very steep run. Driving a road high above the creek along its full length, we
weren't able to see any fine detail, but we could identify geology changes that
marked the most serious rapids. We could observe features from the car that we
couldn't see from the cockpit of the boat. We later used that knowledge because
steep canyon walls on either side prevented us from scouting the hardest rapid
from river level.
In chapters 9 through 11, we'll look at Java antipatterns at a higher level, in a
broader context. In chapter 9, we'll explore programming hygiene and its sur-
prising impact on antipatterns. In chapter 10, we'll take a look at some anti-
patterns affecting scalability and performance. Some are related to process,
and others to programming or architecture. In chapter 11, I'll offer some
parting thoughts about antipatterns in the Java community.
Some programmers will wonder why higher level topics such as hygiene
and performance belong in this topic at all, while I've left out issues such as
security, usability, and other deployment concerns. Early on, I was struck by
the tight connection between low-level server-side antipatterns and these top-
ics. To this end, I included the hygiene chapter and placed it late in the topic
so that you could view the rules with related antipatterns fresh in your mind. I
also included the performance chapter so you could learn to deal with perfor-
mance issues at a higher level. I didn't consider usability because of its loose
relationship with server-side programming and relative independence from
