Duke Dollars - Featured Developer

Rene Chennault is one of the most active participants in the Java Community Forums. Posting under the user “handle” CeciNEstPasUnProgrammeur, he routinely takes part in what is considered by most to be a very active community. He's made many online friends through his participation in the forums, some of whom he plans to see during a tour of the US this summer. It is with great pleasure that we feature Rene Chennault as our first Forum Developer Profile.

Q:Tell us a bit about yourself. Where you were educated, what types of technology interest you, what are you interested in learning more about?
A: My first close encounter with PCs was my (much) younger cousin's 80286. That thing was brand new back then, but he had no idea how to use it. Neither had I when I spent my vacations with him, but I found the manual and learned how to use MS-DOS. We finally were able to spend many hours playing Sokoban and Tetris.

Then I got computer science in school, and my dad agreed to buy me my own 286. Being the only one in the family that actually had a little experience, I set up the OS, installed Windows 3 and gradually learned more and more about that thing just by trial and error. School taught me GW BASIC, then Turbo Pascal, and then I decided to stop taking computer science lessons because suddenly I really had to know what I'm doing instead of hacking together some BASIC programs, and felt like I wouldn't last long. I graduated school and became a technician, trained in mechanics, electronics and IT stuff like Unix and Windows NT administration, networks, and even C programming.

Eventually I wound up studying for a software company. I guess by American standards it was something like a Business Administration major and Computer Science minor. Between the semesters I spent working at the company, and on my first day, someone gave me a copy of "Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days" mentioning that I'd do my coworkers a big favor if I learned Java. So I took the time to teach myself Java, occasionally asking questions to the coworkers, and posting at the SDN Java Developer's forum. When the next semester started, I had my first Java lectures and I already knew way more than what we were taught. My informal education always kept me ahead of my formal training.

Maybe things would have been different if the company relied more heavily on C or C++, but during my constant use of Java, I learned to appreciate both the values of OOP and the simplicity of the language. Being a technician by nature, I still don't feel like a programmer - but if I have to code, then I definitely prefer it to be Java. The Java technology I personally like the most are servlets and JSPs: relatively easy to learn, they provide many interesting possibilities to explore.

Q: How are you using Java? That is, what does your application do, what are some of the fundamental problems it solves?
A:The application I'm working with is designed for automated document creation: bills, forms, letters... documents whose instances usually don't differ much in content, that can be quickly and dynamically created without the need for a user to edit Word templates, and that are based on live business data. Given its universal nature, it uses Java to be usable in many environments. There are many platforms our code runs on: heavy iron, AS400, Unix servers, office PCs. I don't think it'd be as versatile as it is now if it were written in any other language.

Q: How did you come to decide to use Java for your development projects? Did you consider developing projects in any other way?
A: Personally, I like to create dynamic web content, and I'm aware I could do it with ASP or PHP or PERL, too. But Java is what I know best, so I use it the most. Professionally, I don't have much of a choice anyway. Most of our company's code is written in Java, our development tools are Java-centric and it's what the developers know best. As long as its a suitable tool for the job at hand, there's no real reason why any other language should be used.

Q: If Java hadn't existed, how would you have gone about doing this?
A: For my private projects: if I hadn't learned about servlets, I probably never would have tried to provide dynamic content at all. I also think that I would have spend less time on any other private programming projects. On the job, I think we would have ended up with a overly complicated building and packaging process.

Q: What Sun Developer Network benefits do you use the most (events, newsletters, free tool downloads, etc.)?
A: I use the tutorials quite often, but what I definitely use the most are the developer forums. I've learned quite a lot about Java by just participating and found many friends there too.

Q: What SDN benefit would you like to see offered?
A: I can't think of anything I'm missing. Recently, someone asked for more video tutorials like MSDN supposedly provides, especially for those that have a hard time working on theoretical texts. Personally, I'm fine with what I got, but there might be a demand for it by others.

Q: What are you reading right now and why? Who would you recommend these books to?
A:On IT: "Pro Hibernate 3" by Dave Minter and Jeff Linwood. I like it, it's well written, understandable even for a non-native English speaker like me and it gave me a good idea of what Hibernate is all about and how to use it.

Off IT: "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. I don't know if I'd recommend it. It might be interesting for some people (and I think it ranks very high on the bestseller lists), but personally, I expected it to be much more economy-based, instead of being a social study.

Q: What sets you apart from other developers?
A: One thing that definitely sets me apart from other developers is my insistence on actually not being a developer at all. My business card still says so, but my job description says "consultant" my brain says "management" and my heart has tattooed "field service technician" over it. I'm doing a good job developing software, but deep down I know I belong somewhere else.

One thing I like to point out is that the JDC (now SDN Developer Forums) gave me the chance to get into contact with many interesting people from all over the world, and some of them grew to be close friends. It can be much more than a simple Question-and-Answer forum, but it takes patience and presence there to notice that. It might not look like that to the casual observer, but the interaction of the regulars - like seeing familiar faces in one's favorite pub - is what keeps the forums going. Without it, there'd be less incentive to stay and answer questions.

Q: Anything coming up in the future that you'd like to discuss? What are your hopes, your dreams?
A:One of my dreams already came true as I'm the proud owner of a beautiful motorcycle. All I now need is the good weather necessary to ride it. Another dream is to visit those friends I made at the forums. In fact, I'll be doing so in a few months, on a long trip across the USA. But this also shows: I'm less of a dreamer and more of a doer.