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3 Tips for Developing on Linux
Developing Java applications on the Linux platform can give you time-saving benefits for your projects
by Adam Kolawa and Jeehong Min
August 18, 2004
Linux provides an ideal software development platform that can streamline your efforts developing Java applications. For a detailed discussion on verifying incremental stages of Java application development through implementation of error prevention during the development life cycle, see the article "Verify Java App Development on Linux" by Adam Kolawa and Jeehong Min (FTPOnline, August 2004). Here are three tips for deriving the benefits of developing software on the Linux platform.
1 – Linux as a Development Platform
Because the Linux kernel can be customized easily, you can prepare development machines for your specific needs, and often you'll find that Linux requires less horsepower and hardware than other operating systems do. These benefits mean your code can be written and tested on Linux, and then moved to another platform for deployment, if necessary. Moreover, because many of the tools you need come with Linux, you can assemble this infrastructure quite inexpensively if you use Linux.
2 – Linux and Source Control
One of the best ways to configure source control on Linux is to configure what looks like a simple LAN, where each developer is connected to a Linux server that hosts a central repository for the entire source base. Development machines can be configured as needed, running Linux, for example. Developers access the central repository from these machines through SAMBA, X-Term, dial-up access, or a Web browser. Where development is aimed at a specific version or several versions of an Intel-based OS, VMware can be used to instantly load the required environment on a development machine for testing, while retaining Linux as a "host" OS.
The software you select for this repository must provide a record of the evolution of the source base—the standard who, what, when, where, and why questions from Journalism 101. With this capability you significantly reduce the risk of change, making it possible to recover older, more stable versions. At the same time, it becomes less expensive to try different approaches to your goals. Tools in this category include GNU Revision Control System (RCS) and GNU Version Control System (CVS). You'll find RCS and CVS in most Linux distributions. Visit the gnu.org site for a full list of GNU software and how to obtain it.
3 – Linux and Automated Builds and Tests
Nightly build and test processes are usually set up with in-house scripts combined with makefiles or Ant tasks. See the article "Automating Builds on Linux" by Adam Kolawa and Sang Uk Seong (June 2004) at the Linux Journal Web site for a detailed explanation and examples of how Linux can be used to automate this process.
About the Authors
Dr. Adam Kolawa holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology and is the cofounder and CEO of Parasoft, a leading provider of Automated Error Prevention (AEP) software solutions. He is coauthor of Bulletproofing Web Applications (Hungry Minds 2001), has contributed to and written over 100 commentary pieces and technical articles for a variety of national and trade publications, and he has authored numerous scientific papers on physics and parallel processing. Jeehong Min holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and focuses his development efforts on SOAPtest, Parasoft's tool for testing Web services, and WebKing, their testing tool for dynamic Web applications. Contact Adam at , and contact Jeehong at .
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