| We manage and nurture opensource projects, mostly in Java, all kinds of Java: desktop, server, real-time, embedded, and mobile Java.
After some of us have been writing code for more than 30 years, we came to realize that the essence of good code writing was keeping it as simple as possible. Some of our applications may be relatively complex compared to others, but we still keep the code as simple as we can, while satisfying the requirements.
Our current pride and joy is Seadragon, aka. Leafy Seadragon, an application using the Leafy API, another of our open source projects.
We've also designed many systems and architected systems interactions, but at this level, simplicity does not have the same importance. At the design and architecture levels, success is more dependent on finding effective solutions to business and real-world issues. The emphasis is more on the effectiveness of the solution rather than on its simplicity. Effectiveness is to architecture what simplicity is to code.
Leafy Seadragon is an excellent example of an effective and original architecture realized with simple code. The effectiveness and originality of the solution is demonstrated by the fact that such a system had never been done before, at least outside the military. The system impressed Dr James Gosling so much that he mentioned it in his blog in 2005. Dr Gosling is known as the father of Java.
La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever.
(You've achieved perfection, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.) -
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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