Read about the Beginner Developer Learning Center, Oracle’s attempts to keep MySQL, the Eclipse Summit Europe, and more.

———————————————————————————————-

Oracle released Application Testing Suite 9.0

Oracle released version 9 of its Oracle Application Testing Suite product. It looks like the major improvements are in testing Web applications.

JPA 2.0 adds new concurrency models

The Java Persistence API 2.0 has added pessimistic locking functionality in addition to the optimistic locking present in version 1. Read this Sun blog for complete details.

IronScheme: Who knew?

This item falls under “I should have guessed, but I didn’t”: It turns out that there is an IronScheme project that aims to bring Scheme to the .NET platform. I wish this project the best of luck! I would love to be able to get back into Scheme or Lisp work, and this would be one path to get there again.

Microsoft opens MSDN to novice developers

MSDN has always had specialized sections, like the concurrency section and patterns and practices. MSDN has opened up a new section called the Beginner Developer Learning Center that is aimed expressly at programming novices. It offers four tracks: Web, Windows, Aspiring Pro, and Kid’s Corner. While I appreciate the idea, and someone should be doing this, I am not sure I would recommend the site for brand new developers. While the Microsoft ecosystem is a good place to earn a living, I feel that the site is not the best place to learn the fundamentals.

Oracle to keep MySQL despite possible legal problems

Oracle is working to keep MySQL after the Sun acquisition, even though it may cause them some headaches from the EU regarding monopoly concerns. I have not met any MySQL developers or admins who are happy about the prospect of Oracle owning MySQL, so this is a bit of a disappointment.

IronPython 2.6 Release Candidate 1 released

IronPython 2.6 is getting very close to being released in final form; the first release candidate was just made available. There are a ton of bug fixes, and IronPython 2.6 should be fully CPython 2.6 compliant.

Azure management API previewed

Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft has made a preview available of its API to manage Azure. If you are looking at Azure, you will want to check it out.

Performance modeling of J2EE apps

Oracle has a good tutorial on how to use WebLogic Diagnostics; it will give you an idea of what an application would perform like under load. If you are working on Java apps where performance is a concern, you will want to take a look.

Microsoft announces WebsiteSpark, Web PI 2, and Web App Gallery 2

Last week, Microsoft announced WebsiteSpark (a program similar to BizSpark, but for Web development/design shops), Web Platform Installer (PI) 2 RTM, and Web App Gallery 2. WebsiteSpark makes it dirt cheap to start designing, developing, and deploying Web sites to the Microsoft platform; this is a clear shot at the LAMP stack. Web PI 2 makes it a snap to install Web apps onto a server, and the Web App gallery lets you easily post and download Web applications and install them via Web PI.

Google Chrome Frame lets Web devs embed Chrome in pages

This is a novel idea: Google has released an IE plug-in that will render HTML tags with a special attribute in the Chrome browser in an inline frame. It’s definitely neat at a technological level, but I fail to see why anyone would want to do this.

Silverlight reaches more devices

ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley reports that Silverlight is now available on Microsoft Windows Embedded CE.

Alliance aims to make PHP cloud development easier

An alliance, which includes Zend, IBM, and Microsoft, is working on APIs to make developing PHP apps for cloud deployment easier.

Eclipse Summit Europe starting October 27th

The Eclipse Summit Europe event will take place October 27 – 29 in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Something that surprised me was that Microsoft is involved.

J.Ja

Disclosure of Justin’s industry affiliations: Justin James has a contract with Spiceworks to write product buying guides. He is also under contract to OpenAmplify, which is owned by Hapax, to write a series of blogs, tutorials, and other articles.

—————————————————————————————

Get weekly development tips in your inbox
Keep your developer skills sharp by signing up for TechRepublic’s free Web Developer newsletter, delivered each Tuesday. Automatically subscribe today!