Value Objects in Java with AutoValue and Lombok

In this post I want to discuss the subject of Value Objects, their purpose and some ways of easily implementing them in Java, specifically, although not exclusively, within the context of Android development. I’ll cover a couple of popular libraries that I’ve tried, namely Project Lombok and AutoValue, how they approach the problem of making value objects easier to create and maintain, plus a few pitfalls. In computer science, a value object is a small object that represents a simple entity whose equality is not based on identity: i.e. two value objects are equal when they have the same value, not necessarily being the same object. Examples of value objects are objects representing an amount of money or a date range. ...

January 14, 2017

How did you start coding?

Recently Usborne books made their beautifully illustrated 1980’s computing books for kids available for download. It turns out several of my friends and Twitter acquaintances picked up their love of coding from these books as youngsters, myself included. I owe my career to these books. I first learned BASIC from this one back in 1993: https://t.co/a9SwJxLTrc https://t.co/cdinNZi47j — Nick Lockwood (@nicklockwood) February 7, 2016 I remember being in a dentist’s waiting room where an old battered copy of “Computer Space Games” lay on the bookshelf. I was so engrossed they actually let me take that book home, and thus began my journey. ...

February 28, 2016