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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>Wade Chandler</h1> |
| <img alt="Wade Chandler" |
| src="../../../images_www/articles/dreamteam/wade_chandler.jpg" |
| style="width: 213px; height: 281px;" align="left" hspace="10" |
| vspace="5"> |
| <h5>Please |
| tell us a bit about yourself.</h5> |
| I've been a software engineer since 2000. Currently, I work for <a |
| href="http://www.ddiofsc.com">Decision Dynamics</a>, Inc., a |
| Lexington, South Carolina-based software company, but I work remotely |
| from Knoxville, Tennessee. <br> |
| <br> |
| I was previously employed by <a href="http://www.redesetgrow.com">Red-e |
| Set Grow</a>, of Winston Salem, North Carolina, where I developed |
| multiple Java and C++ applications. One of my tasks there was to |
| develop a custom Java API to tie into the Palm synchronization process |
| and APIs. This was different than the Palm Java Sync libraries because |
| it allowed developers to use any JRE they wanted on the desktop, and it |
| used SuperWaba on Palm handhelds. The API worked directly with Palm |
| databases and allowed the sharing of data objects on the desktop, |
| back-end server, and hand held.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>How are you involved with the NetBeans Community?</h5> |
| I use NetBeans daily, and participate actively in the NetBeans |
| community. I am a member of the form, beans, and core modules. I |
| contribute by answering questions on the NetBeans nbusers mailing list, |
| <a href="mailto:dev@openide.netbeans.org">dev@openide.netbeans.org</a>, |
| and other mailing lists and in the #netbeans channel on |
| irc.freenode.org.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>When was your introduction to NetBeans?<br> |
| </h5> |
| I started using NetBeans when it was Forte for Java 1.0. I think at |
| that time everyone was trying to get a feel for Java IDEs. There were |
| different offerings out there, but none of them were really just |
| awesome, and Forte was free. I used it on and off for years depending |
| on the project, and around 3.5, I made it my IDE of choice, and got |
| involved on the mailing lists answering questions. Around 4.0 or 4.1, I |
| started really digging into the source code and contributing more.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>What stands out for you in the evolution of NetBeans?</h5> |
| I believe one of the best evolutions was adding Module/Plug-in |
| development support and project types to the IDE. From an overall |
| perspective, the constant growth of the support for different |
| technologies has been something which has kept my attention. NetBeans |
| keeps evolving and incrementally getting better while supporting the |
| core Java technologies. Now of course, in 6.0 it will support other |
| languages, but I use it mostly for its Java support. Though I believe |
| NetBeans's support of technologies outside of Java fits the project's |
| natural tendency to keep supporting new features and technologies. One |
| thing I find really interesting is the new languages and technologies |
| supported, at least many of them, can be blended with Java. JRuby and |
| PHP are two examples of such things.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>What does it mean for you to be a member of the Dream Team, and |
| what do you hope to accomplish as a member?</h5> |
| For me, being a Dream Team member is yet another avenue for me to |
| participate in the project. It gives me a closer relationship with the |
| project engineers, support, and general Sun Microsystems staff. As I |
| have actively contributed to the project for some time, this seemed |
| like the next progressive step for me. I was happy when I was contacted |
| about it.<br> |
| <br> |
| I would like to accomplish a number of things, such as, working to |
| publicize NetBeans in magazines, web sites, and competitions |
| (maybe module competitions); getting more third party developers to |
| contribute to NetBeans. Collectively, I'd like the Dream Team to be |
| involved in projects such as taking stock of 6.0—what needs to be |
| improved or worked out before adding new feature sets. There is a |
| saying that one can be a Jack of all trades and a master of none. I |
| think NetBeans is good at a lot of things, but some things could be |
| better.<br> |
| <br> |
| One thing I have noted recently on the nbusers mailing list: |
| discussions of performance and memory issues. I think it would be |
| beneficial for NetBeans to put together a team much like Visual Web |
| project's “<a |
| href="http://wiki.netbeans.org/wiki/view/VW_PerformanceTigerTeam">Performance |
| Tiger Team</a>” to look into these. Some of the performance issues make |
| NetBeans appear slow, and in some cases, it is. But in some cases, |
| speed is not the issue, but that the order of operations makes it |
| appear slow. Error correction in the editor is an example. <br> |
| <br> |
| The file is parsed and then error annotations are removed if they are |
| fixed. In the instance of code editor hints and fixes, the error |
| annotation could be removed as soon as the editor hint action adds the |
| logic to the file before another parse of the file ever occurs. The |
| fixed issue is then removed from the error list. Actually, it's not |
| necessary for |
| another parse of the file to occur since the user cannot do two things |
| at once. Therefore, no other sources in the file should be changed, and |
| the hint fixes should not produce more errors, thus saving memory and |
| CPU cycles. And the user doesn't experience delay parsing the entire |
| document for errors. I created an <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=113110">issuezilla |
| report</a> for this based on input from nbusers.<br> |
| <br> |
| This is just one issue. The point is that I'd like to see a team, even |
| possibly some Dream Team members, work with the community at large to |
| figure out where the issues are, analyze them, create Issuezilla |
| reports, and provide updates.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>How would you rate the progress of the Dream Team?</h5> |
| We have many good ideas, but we could do more. One year is not |
| enough time to get a program such as this completely running at full |
| speed, and we have limited time because of other required activities, |
| mainly our jobs. Still, I think we will get there if we can keep our |
| passion and momentum. <br> |
| <br> |
| I don't mean to suggest that we haven't done anything useful. |
| Some of us have been writing articles and tutorials about NetBeans. |
| Others have been contributing to projects, such as translations and IDE |
| and Platform development. Others have been involved with NetBeans |
| Software Days. Most of us are involved with the mailing lists. We have |
| come up with a few governing rules, and just elected our newest member, |
| Tom Wheeler, whom many may know from the mailing lists and his recent |
| interview on the NetBeans site.<br> |
| <br> |
| As we grow we will be able to do more than just evangelize; we will be |
| able to tackle different community issues. We are community members |
| first, so we should be poised to talk directly with other community |
| members and new users and come up with information to make the project |
| better, make the processes more transparent, and help developers.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>People have described you as a highly active NetBeans advocate, |
| even prior to the Dream Team. Why have you been so passionate about |
| NetBeans?</h5> |
| Short answer: I just like it. If I had to explain, there are a few key |
| reasons: I use it every day for my job, it is an IDE that I can write |
| software with, it uses Swing, it is open-sourced, and many of the |
| NetBeans developers that I wrote to when I started contributing to the |
| project were really nice and willing to help me learn their code.<br> |
| <br> |
| I think its association with Sun plays a role as well. Sun has had a |
| tremendous impact on my life, and I'll explain why.<br> |
| <br> |
| I have been into software, computers, and electronics for as long as I |
| can remember. I had a monochrome Apple IIe (if I remember the model |
| correctly) when I was a young boy. A bank had given it to my dad for |
| free when he opened a commercial bank account for his business. I |
| started writing software with BASIC and simple languages on that |
| computer. (I took a short BASIC class in middle school.) My parents |
| divorced when I was 10 and I lived with my mom. When I was a bit |
| older I bought my own computer and my father let me get |
| a screen name on his AOL account. I soon became hooked on the Internet. |
| As I grew, I discovered Sun tools, tutorials and projects online. In |
| college, I was able to study with Java tools because they were free, |
| which was very important since I put myself through college and had |
| little money. In a way, I am a developer today because of Sun.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Will you be attending any upcoming NetBeans events, such as a |
| NetBeans Day in the U.S.?</h5> |
| I have been thinking about going to NetBeans Day in Atlanta. Boston is |
| too far for me to travel at the moment because of time and funds. I |
| would like to see a NetBeans Day Nashville someday. :-)<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>What are your thoughts on NetBeans's possible adoption of dual |
| licensing?</h5> |
| I think as long as we still have the CDDL then I'm happy. I don't want |
| to use the GPL for anything I base on NetBeans. I don't really care for |
| things that claim to be about freedom when in many ways they are not. |
| This is my opinion.<br> |
| <br> |
| Some of the reaction from the GPL-or-nothing crowd to me is |
| contradictory—you're telling a person that he/she is not open-minded |
| about an issue, yet you are close-minded yourself because you want to |
| impose your opinions on others. It is sort of a GNU.<br> |
| <br> |
| As long as dual licensing doesn't have any real impact on me I don't |
| care. If this is just to get NetBeans in Linux distributions... I |
| don't really like having every package in the world in my Linux |
| distributions. You get things like GCJ linked as Java and a |
| GCJ-compiled Tomcat and have to remove them and put your own on the |
| system anyways. I figure the same thing will be happening with |
| NetBeans. I will probably get an older version and end up using the |
| dailys or the latest release.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>What projects are you working on individually?</h5> |
| The main project I'm currently working on is the implementation of <a |
| href="http://www.exchangenetwork.net">Exchange Network</a> for the |
| state of South Carolina. It's a site for exchanging data with the |
| Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other information trading |
| partners. I used NetBeans to develop the software. It is a set of web |
| services developed with Apache AXIS and other free libraries. The |
| back-end database and application server are Oracle 9i and 10g. <br> |
| <br> |
| I would also like to get a project started: having a "good" open source |
| mobile JVM for Palm and Windows Mobile that can support either the full |
| JRE (memory and CPU speed has greatly increased on these devices) or to |
| support the full CDC profile. In the higher end hand-held sector, we |
| need a good runtime similar to what we have on desktop. This is |
| seriously lacking because the commercial products are too expensive to |
| be able to distribute with our applications. This is why my previous |
| employer, Red-e Set Glow used SuperWaba.<br> |
| <br> |
| In NetBeans, I am helping to add refactoring support to the form |
| project. I am also helping with adding the beans module back to |
| NetBeans 6.0+. It was removed but it is integral to JavaBeans |
| development. <br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>You are an admitted computer-centric person, even in your spare |
| time.</h5> |
| Yes, I'm definitely a computer-centric person. I'm even working on a |
| couple of personal applications to use in my spare time. To me, |
| anything involving the computer is fun.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Does this mean you deal with NetBeans even in your spare time? </h5> |
| Yes. I am working on an IRC module for NetBeans which isn't finished |
| yet. I answer emails on the mailing lists if the questions are not too |
| long, in the hopes that when I need help someday it will be there for |
| me as well.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>What other activities engage you?</h5> |
| Away from the computer, I enjoy going down to a bar every now and then |
| with friends or my brothers to take a break. I like the mountains. I |
| live near the Great Smokey Mountain National Forest, so there's plenty |
| to do there. I like to go fishing or to the beach with my family and |
| friends. Pretty much doing anything outdoors when I have the time is |
| enjoyable.<br> |
| <br> |
| <h5>Is it fair to call you a NetBeans addict?</h5> |
| I think I am beyond being an addict. I'm a full fledged junky. I'm on |
| NetBeans Crack. Hopefully, employers won't be testing for that.<br> |
| <br> |
| <div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(August |
| 2007)</span></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-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-silva.html">Edgar |
| Silva</a><br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-urrutia.html">Ibon |
| Urrutia</a><br> |
| <a |
| href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-senger.html"></a> |
| <br> |
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