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| <h1>Series: Meet the Dream Team Members</h1> |
| <span style="font-style: italic;">(In January 2007, we announced the 11 |
| charter members of the <a |
| href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/NetBeansDreamTeam">NetBeans |
| Dream |
| Team</a>, a community-oriented group of highly skilled NetBeans users |
| devoted to promoting NetBeans and working on the NetBeans Project. In |
| these interviews discover who they are, why they are passionate about |
| NetBeans and what goals they have for the NetBeans project.)<br> |
| <br> |
| <br> |
| </span> |
| <h1>Edgar Silva</h1> |
| <img alt="Edgar Silva" |
| src="../../../images_www/articles/dreamteam/edgar-silva.png" |
| style="width: 261px; height: 286px;" align="left" hspace="10" |
| vspace="5"> |
| <h5>Please |
| tell us a bit about yourself.</h5> |
| I work for Red Hat in Brazil as a Solutions Architect in the Sales |
| Engineers Department. I am responsible for many areas related to JBoss |
| products in Brazil, such as helping customers to use JEE, SOA and |
| Middleware technologies properly. <br> |
| <br> |
| Additionally, I have been actively helping the Java Community in Brazil |
| (<a href="http://www.soujava.org.br/">SouJava</a>) since 2004. Before |
| that, I was the founder of the Belém Java User |
| Group (BelJug). Belém is my native city, and located in |
| the Amazon region. Nowadays, BelJug is now known as SouJava |
| Belém.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Can you describe your introduction to NetBeans?</h5> |
| I tried NetBeans 3.x for the first time in 2002 when I was a Java |
| training instructor. At that time, teaching Java Web Development with |
| NetBeans was great because even resources to create new TagLibraries |
| was available in the IDE. So it was really easy for students to focus |
| on relevant issues and not spend as much time configuring XMLs and |
| descriptors. Working in NetBeans even helped people who were studying |
| for Sun's Java Web certification. <br> |
| <br> |
| But I became an official NetBeans user in 2004 after working with my |
| friend Cláudio Miranda at Caixa Economica Federal's Project, and |
| after meeting Charlie Hunt and Tim Boudreau; all three are NetBeans |
| evangelists.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>What stands out for you in the evolution of NetBeans? </h5> |
| It is really impossible for anyone not to agree on NetBeans's |
| evolution, or what I call the “NetBeans Revolution”. Before the |
| improvements, IntelliJ was the leader when we talked about innovation; |
| now this is changing, and you can see it in the incredible new |
| features available in NetBeans, such as the Matisse GUI builder which |
| is revolutionary when you're talking about GUI design in Java Swing. I |
| can't forget the integrations with the Application Servers, and |
| interesting plugins such as the JBoss Seam NetBeans Plugin.<br> |
| <br> |
| I am also impressed with the NetBeans Platform. If people read the new |
| <a href="http://sunlibrary.safaribooksonline.com/9780132354806">Rich |
| Client Programming</a> book by Tim Boudreau, Jaroslav Tulach and |
| Geertjan |
| Wielenga, I'm sure they'll understand the true power of the NetBeans |
| Platform. It is really awesome that it gives you a chance to control |
| your applications and do whatever you want.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>How do you work in the NetBeans environment? </h5> |
| I often create plugins that I call my toys. But I am not the kind |
| of user who knows all the short-cuts and hidden tricks. I've not |
| bothered with that since I did a Jbuilder certification. Why do you |
| need to know ALL of them if you have a good and comfortable mouse?!<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>What does it mean for you to be a member of the Dream Team, and |
| what do you hope to accomplish during your term?</h5> |
| First of all, to be a "Dreamer" for me is a big pleasure because I get |
| to talk with many other talented people from different areas of life |
| and the world. It's a good way to keep informed about NetBeans and many |
| Java-related technologies. The NetBeans Dream Team, in my opinion, |
| might be the strongest link between the Community and NetBeans's |
| Development team. My hope is that by listening to our ideas and those |
| of the community the NetBeans Team will turn NetBeans into a true |
| community-driven project.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Have you started to communicate with the development team?</h5> |
| Yes, we've talked a lot about platform development and internal issues. |
| One particular thread was about the Diff Module in NetBeans IDE.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Before the Dream Team, how were you involved in the NetBeans |
| Community?</h5> |
| I blogged frequently on my <a |
| href="http://weblogs.java.net/blog/edgars/">Java.net blog</a>, created |
| screencasts, and gave |
| many talks in Brazil. In the past, I also evangelized frequently about |
| NetBeans to SouJava, and tried to show how valuable NetBeans was for |
| any |
| development team. I still do all of these things. One of my plans now |
| is to spend some of my free time creating integrations between JBoss |
| projects and NetBeans, mainly JBoss Seam and JBoss Rules. <br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>You maintain two blogs.</h5> |
| Yes, I do. <a href="http://www.edgarsilva.com.br">One in Portuguese</a>, |
| in |
| which I |
| talk about various things, from my family to new Classloaders issues; |
| and the <a href="http://weblogs.java.net/blog/edgars/">second in |
| English</a> at Java.net that I've already mentioned. It's more serious |
| because I talk about Java technologies and NetBeans. <br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Is the NetBeans IDE popular among Brazilian developers? </h5> |
| When we talk about IDEs in Brazil, NetBeans is a real choice. This is a |
| result of the excellent evangelizing done since 2004 by people such as |
| Tim Boudreau and Charlie Hunt. They're not Brazilians but these guys |
| almost speak Portuguese well because of their many, many trips all over |
| Brazil, presenting and |
| talking about NetBeans, and carefully teaching from the basic to the |
| deep |
| details. I think they've had a great time in the process: Charlie, for |
| example, was in Belém, and tried Açaí, an amazing |
| fruit from the North, while Tim, in Porto Alegre, enjoyed the very best |
| barbecues from the Southern region of Brazil. <br> |
| <br> |
| But I can't forget about one other person, who for me is the most |
| important NetBeans evangelist from/in Brazil: <a |
| href="http://www.claudius.com.br">Claudio Miranda</a>. He does awesome |
| work |
| promoting NetBeans in Brazil: testing, reporting |
| bugs and working hard at being the NetBeans Guy around here. He not |
| only speaks about NetBeans at important Java events in Brazil, but he |
| also blogs about it in English and in Portuguese. In the past, we |
| promoted the NetBeans Plugins Contest, which motivated |
| many teams to create very creative and valuable plugins for NetBeans |
| users not only in Brazil but all over the world.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>You and three members of the Dream Team made an appearance at |
| JavaOne. What was that event like for you?</h5> |
| I enjoyed it. I talked to many people at JavaOne about NetBeans and EJB |
| 3.0, the subject of my Technical Session there, because developing |
| EJB 3 Applications using NetBeans is really easy nowadays. I believe |
| that the community needs to know more about Dream Team, and interviews |
| like these are good. The community needs to know that we are real |
| people and than they can trust in our visions and our work together |
| with NetBeans Development team.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>How would you rate the current progress of the Dream Team?</h5> |
| Personally, I've been “hibernating” in the last two months because I've |
| been really busy, but there are some Dream Teamers who NEVER STOP! I |
| read many of their e-mails, and respond to important ones. Overall, |
| I'll echo Bruno Souza who said, “I think we are 'walking'”, which is |
| better than standing still.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Are you working on any projects that involve NetBeans?</h5> |
| I have many projects, but my special one is called <a |
| href="http://greenbox.dev.java.net">Greenbox</a>, which I |
| founded. Greenbox is a code-generator framework based on the principles |
| of MOF – |
| <a href="http://www.omg.org/technology/documents/formal/mof.htm">Metamodel |
| Object Facility</a>. I created the project in 2002 due to the need to |
| prove to customers |
| that Java could be as productive as environment as Delphi or MS Visual |
| Basic. In 2005, I created the NetBeans Greenbox plugin, which generates |
| Web |
| Applications on top of technologies like JSF, Hibernate and Spring. <br> |
| <div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Greenbox System" |
| src="../../../images_www/articles/dreamteam/greenbox-graphic.jpg" |
| style="width: 733px; height: 462px;" align="middle" vspace="5"><br> |
| <span style="font-style: italic;">The Greenbox System</span><br> |
| <div style="text-align: left;"><br> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| As part of this work, I presented a BOF at JavaOne 2006 with Alexandre |
| Gomes, about how we created this plugin, which used many NetBeans |
| resources, such as MBR, which is the MOF implementation inside the |
| NetBeans |
| platform before NetBeans 6.0. <a href="https://netbeans.org/projects/java/">MBR</a> |
| in NetBeans |
| 6.0, as far as I know, is gone or almost gone! So the people from |
| Greenbox might change something to be able to generate codes using |
| NetBeans plugins. They can do that easily using Java standard |
| resources. <br> |
| <br> |
| I'm very proud of Greenbox even though I am no longer the main |
| developer and there are many other people involved in it. A while ago, |
| I asked another Greenbox developer about how to solve an |
| issue, and he said to me: "But you are the creator! How don't you know |
| anything about it?" My answer was: "Greenbox does not belong to me. |
| There have been so many improvements that I'm like a newbie developer.” |
| This is the magic and one of the best things about open-source. Those |
| who are interested can find more information on the <a |
| href="http://greenbox.dev.java.net">Greenbox website</a> and can reach |
| many |
| developers working on it there.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>What do you do in your spare time?</h5> |
| I love martial arts and study their philosophies. I've been training in |
| Jiu-Jitsu since 1990. I am planning a social |
| project involving Jiu-Jitsu and children in Brazil. My plan is to teach |
| two hours of Jiu-Jitsu and the philosophies of martial-arts, such as |
| discipline, respecting others, respecting the limits, respecting the |
| hierarchies and so on. And after the Jiu-Jitsu training, I can help the |
| kids with their school work, such as Math, Portuguese, History and so |
| on. I am saving a bit of money to start it because a Kimono is not as |
| easy |
| as to buy as a soccer ball, and a Tatame—a training room—is not as easy |
| to find as an empty area to play soccer. I hope to start it soon. |
| Furthermore, as I am a Brazilian, I love to play soccer! Unfortunately |
| in São Paulo, my circle of friends don't like to play, but when |
| I return to Belém, I try to play with my friends there.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>At a time you considered becoming a Jiu-Jitsu instructor, why did |
| you go into the technical field?</h5> |
| In Brazil, working as a Jiu-Jitsu instructor is really challenging |
| because we have really good professionals here, and to work in the |
| sport, you must be really dedicated and skilled. When I broke my hands |
| and developed problems in my knees, I said to myself: “I don't want to |
| be an 'almost good' professor”, because to be a GOOD instructor or a |
| great one, you must stay in the competition all time. So I decided on |
| an engineering career, not because it was easier, but because I loved |
| it as well. This made my dad happy.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Are there philosophies from your martial arts training that you |
| apply to your work as a developer? Do the two complement each other at |
| all?</h5> |
| Absolutely! They are similar in that in both you must respect others |
| and your own limits. As I mentioned before: you must respect the |
| hierarchies; know |
| that there are winning days, but also know how to manage the days that |
| you lose and try to identify your mistakes. <br> |
| <br> |
| This is the first time that I'm talking about this passion of my |
| life—martial arts—and how it relates to my professional life. Many of |
| my IT friends are not interested in hearing about it. So, thank you for |
| giving me the opportunity to do so. <br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Which is harder to master: Jiu-Jitsu or Java?</h5> |
| Well, both are changing and getting better all time, so it's really |
| hard to answer. Personally, I am better at Java than at Jiu-Jitsu, |
| maybe because I spend 10 hours a day on Java, and only two hours on |
| Jiu-Jitsu. But both are really similar because you need to study, |
| create and innovate!<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Edgar, thank you for this interview. Good luck with your projects |
| and the Dream Team.</h5> |
| <div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(June |
| 2007)</span><br> |
| </div> |
| <h2>More Dream Team Profiles</h2> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-bien.html">Adam |
| Bien</a><br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-bold.html">Emilian |
| Bold</a><br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-brabant.html">Vincent |
| Brabant</a> |
| <br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-chandler.html">Wade |
| Chandler</a> |
| <br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-giudici.html">Fabrizio |
| Giudici</a><br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-plewe.html">Joerg |
| Plewe</a><br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-senger.html">Vinicius |
| Senger</a><br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-urrutia.html">Ibon |
| Urrutia</a><br> |
| <br> |
| </body> |
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