adam bien's blog

"In this special episode of the Inside Java Podcast, Nicolai Parlog talks to Adam Bien about scripting with Java, to Maurice Naftalin about the history and tradeoffs of the collections framework and erasure, and to Tom Cools about the innovative way the Belgian Java User Group organizes itself."

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1. AI tools in software development: European companies' fear of AI solutions vs. the rest of the world -- will the EU fall further behind?
2. Upcoming JDK 26 features worth waiting for
3. Number of Java "shorts" tools in daily use
4. MCP server for Maven Central repository
5. airails.dev announcement
6. Zero Dependency Java Seeds announcement: github.com/adambien/zeeds
7. Time machine: 100 episodes back (43rd episode):

   JavaONE 2017 News: keynotes, impressions, EE4J, project FN, Dynamic JMS listeners, SSO, timeout and JWT, Serverside rendering vs JavaScript UI, openJDK vs. Oracle JDK in Docker, User properties and Keycloak, Testing JAX-RS with Keycloak, 2 EARs one EJB jar problem, Java EE and logging, JSF conversations with architects, Java EE versioning strategies, User-friendly URIs in MVC / Ozark, Optimistic and pessimistic locking, Ideas for overengineering Pet Projects, WildFly Datasource configuration in Docker, @RequestScope with @Suspended, Implementing a batch job, POJO and JsonObject serialization in Java EE, Qualifier instantiation in Java EE, JPA-level security, bind vs. self / this in JavaScript

Any questions left? Ask now: gist.github.com/AdamBien/0ca87bbd4b765764c5de295fc34ac6b6 and get the answers at the next airhacks.tv. Some questions are also answered with a short video: 60 seconds or less with Java

Ask questions during the show via twitter mentioning me: https://twitter.com/AdamBien (@AdamBien),using the hashtag: #airhacks or built-in chat at: airhacks.tv. You can join the Q&A session live each first Monday of month, 8 P.M at airhacks.tv

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

1. Agent zSmith
2. How to define the size of a connection pool for a database on the cloud?
3. Java And Apple Shortcuts
4. Zero-Dependency News
5. Overbooked Workshops
6. Time machine: 100 episodes back (42nd episode):

   ForkJoin support in Java EE 8, Java FX in the browser, Code coverage in system tests, Opensource Java EE, Auto-scanning JAX-RS resources, Java and the job market, @Stateless as an interceptor?, Asynchronous CDI Events, Empty POST or PUT, @Stateful EJBs and usecases for the Gateway pattern, Will CDI replace EJB in the future?, Java EE 7 server recommendations, GlassFish clustering / workshop, JSF and pixel perfect applications, Impact of react and angular on the delivery pipeline, How to build JS frontends with Java EE backends, Using multithreaded JAX RS 2.0 in Java SE, Incrementally splitting a monolith: protocols, security processes

Any questions left? Ask now: gist.github.com/AdamBien/3c2c2eaeb07e551d1af162d61b693c30 and get the answers at the next airhacks.tv. Some questions are also answered with a short video: 60 seconds or less with Java

Ask questions during the show via twitter mentioning me: https://twitter.com/AdamBien (@AdamBien),using the hashtag: #airhacks or built-in chat at: airhacks.tv. You can join the Q&A session live each first Monday of month, 8 P.M at airhacks.tv

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

May your 2026 be as clean as your pom.xml:

🎊Wishing you a year where:

1. Your main() method stays simple and your classpath stays empty.
2. You forgot the import statements.
3. You never have to explain why you don't need Spring for a REST endpoint.
4. Your JAR files remain measured in kilobytes, not megabytes.

May your code compile faster than others can download their node_modules.

🥂 Here's to a year of:

jshell experiments

that actually make it to production

Records

that replace your boilerplate

Pattern matching

that makes your switch statements beautiful

Virtual threads

that make your concurrent code readable

String templates

that end your StringBuilder nightmares

May your dependencies be few, your JDK be current, and your NullPointerExceptions be... well, actually helpful now!

"🎆 In 2026, may you write code so clean that even the JVM garbage collector gets bored."

Happy New Year! May your builds be fast, your tests be green, and your stack traces be short!

The wishes were generated by zSmith, a Java 25 zero-dependency agent:

import airhacks.zsmith.agent.boundary.Agent;

void main() {
  var newYearAgent = new Agent(
  """
  As a marketing specialist,
  you focus on humorous wording
  for specific occasions,
  such as New Year's.
  """
  ).withTemperature(0.1f);

  var response = newYearAgent.chat("""
    Write New Year wishes for
    all the Java developers out
    there who write simple Java 25 code
    without any external dependencies.
  """);
  IO.println(response);
}

The above content was originally created in a YouTube short on: youtube.com/bienadam/shorts:

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

1. Java vs. C++ performance
2. Angular with or without AI
3. Web development trends and opinions
4. Testing business logic with external dependencies
5. BCE - where to put DTOs
6. How to build a multi-tenant monolith
7. Time machine: 100 episodes back (41st episode):

   "React over Angular? ...and WebStandards, JSR-375 and REST, Reactive Programming vs. CompletableFuture, Blocking @Asynchronous calls, Interceptors with EntityManager, AMQP and data masses, To Framework Or Not To Framework, Unit Testing Primefaces, Multi-Threaded JAX-RS 2.0 Clients, Java EE "vs." .NET, Dynamic entities, Data encryption, Working offline with JPA, Sample Projects, Industry trends, Conferences and Co., Server Side Rendering with Java EE 7, Naming CRUD in BCE, Java 9 Logging interface, Generic REST client, React.js / Polymer examples, Session replication challenges"" adambien.blog/roller/abien/entry/react_over_angular_reactive_programming

Any questions left? Ask now: adambien.blog/roller/abien/entry/react_over_angular_reactive_programming and get the answers at the next airhacks.tv. Some questions are also answered with a short video: 60 seconds or less with Java

Ask questions during the show via twitter mentioning me: https://twitter.com/AdamBien (@AdamBien),using the hashtag: #airhacks or built-in chat at: airhacks.tv. You can join the Q&A session live each first Monday of month, 8 P.M at airhacks.tv

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

constructions.cloud provides a curated collection of Java-based AWS deployment examples using CDK infrastructure-as-code. The repository contains production-ready patterns for building serverless applications on AWS.

The collection includes repositories covering common AWS patterns:

Foundation & Setup

CDK development environment configuration and foundational templates

Serverless Compute

Lambda implementations from minimal POJO examples to Quarkus-powered HTTP APIs

AI Integration

Bedrock Agent Core implementations including runtime agents and MCP gateway patterns

Storage & CDN

S3 integration examples and CI/CD pipelines with CloudFront distribution

Each repository follows the bce.design architecture with minimal dependencies. The Quarkus examples replace traditional microservices with serverless HTTP APIs. The POJO examples handle AWS events (S3, SQS, EventBridge) without framework overhead.

Visit constructions.cloud to explore the collection.

Escape outdated JDK 1.X practices from the 90s with practical, modern Java development. This session provides concrete Java 21+ techniques that eliminate bloat, increase productivity, and streamline your business logic.

• Structuring efficient monoliths and microservices
• Streamlined testing approaches
• Logging and error handling
• Implement data-oriented programming
• Remoting and caching
• Persistence strategies
• Documentation and Javadoc
• Build and CI
• Replace external dependencies with built-in functionality
• Adapting code structure for LLM-driven development

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

Subscribe to airhacks.fm podcast via: spotify| iTunes| RSS

1. What is the future of reactive frameworks?
2. Input formatting and validation with Java records
3. constructions.cloud announcement
4. Quarkus HTTP API Lambda example
5. Quarkus MicroProfile on AWS Bedrock Agent Core example
6. airhacks.live update The 50x Java Dev: Crafting Elegant Code with LLM
7. airhacks.live update Architecting Applications with MCP, A2A and AI Agents
8. Back from JUGM with; After 30 Years: Why Java is The Most Productive Platform for LLM-Driven Development (report)
9. Time machine: 100 episodes back (40th episode):

   "JASPIC for securing Java EE 7 applications, Thoughts on lambdas and more functional Java, Thoughts on AWS lambdas, The size of ReactJs -- and possible optimisations, Thoughts on custom servlet login module, How to handle transactions in Thin WARs, Primefaces as "one stop" solution, REST as communication "protocol" between Thin WARs, WebSockets vs. Long Polling, JSONObject as DTO and inheritance issues, Microservices and Jenkins, Opinions on Docker Swarm, Threads and EJBs, Is MVC dying (everywhere), Programmatically deploy and undeploy Java EE applications" adambien.blog/roller/abien/entry/ear_use_cases_jsf_modularization

Any questions left? Ask now: gist.github.com/AdamBien/c15cc2ca8533d980525a0fb790105b4a and get the answers at the next airhacks.tv. Some questions are also answered with a short video: 60 seconds or less with Java

Ask questions during the show via twitter mentioning me: https://twitter.com/AdamBien (@AdamBien),using the hashtag: #airhacks or built-in chat at: airhacks.tv. You can join the Q&A session live each first Monday of month, 8 P.M at airhacks.tv

I started with an empty project (Quarkus and MicroProfile), gradually adding features and tests and carrying out refactoring using the bce.design approach. I began with Claude Code, then moved on to Kiro.

There was a general agreement that beautiful Java code can be written really quickly. I hope I surprised some of the attendees! 😊

Some attendees handled 'TrainAboutToDepartException' with impressive speed, which is a positive sign.

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