All true craftsmen need the best tools to do their finest work, and programmers are no different.
Java Power Tools
delivers 30 open source tools designed to improve the development practices of Java developers in any size team or organization. Each chapter includes a series of short articles about one particular tool — whether it's for build systems, version control, or other aspects of the development process — giving you the equivalent of 30 short reference books in one package.
No matter which development method your team chooses, whether it's Agile, RUP, XP, SCRUM, or one of many others available,
provides practical techniques and tools to help you optimize the process. The book discusses key Java development problem areas and best practices, and focuses on open source tools that can help increase productivity in each area of the development cycle, including:
Build tools
including Ant and Maven 2
Version control tools
such as CVS and Subversion, the two most prominent open source tools
Quality metrics
tools that measure different aspects of code quality, including CheckStyle, PMD, FindBugs and Jupiter
Technical documentation tools
that can help you generate good technical documentation without spending too much effort writing and maintaining it
Unit Testing tools
including JUnit 4, TestNG, and the open source coverage tool Cobertura
Integration, Load and Performance Testing
to integrate performance tests into unit tests, load-test your application, and automatically test web services, Swing interfaces and web interfaces
Issue management tools
including Bugzilla and Trac
Continuous Integration tools
such as Continuum, Cruise Control, LuntBuild and Hudson
If you are a Java developer, these tools can help improve your development practices, and make your life easier in the process. Lead developers, software architects and people interested in the wider picture will be able to gather from these pages some useful ideas about improving your project infrastructure and best practices.