Passed 142

[Yuriy Fuksenko]

I had FBN project without conversion tool.
I used RMI, unreferenced, changed Data class.
But it really doesn't matter.
Could suggest one thing - do not overengeneer it.
It isn't a competion with inviting the best to work for Sun.
All that you need - just to pass it.
Any simple design is good, if it reasonable and you document it well.
It took me 6 days to do the project - as simple as I can. The only complicated thing was unreferenced - and I'm pretty sure you could pass without it.
I didn't care about adding/deleting from database - did exactly what spec ask. (except one thing - for search in a spec they ask to provide string in a form "field='value',..." - I did it "field=value,..." without single quotes. Did not document this - Don't think they mention).
For testing used simple class, that created collisions, never tryed this pogram on any other system than NT (documented this in readme).
So - my 2 cents - make it simple, pass it, and if you enjoying making the state of art application - do it for yourself later and post it somewhere.
thanks.

[Gennady Shapiro]

The best posting I've read so far.
Good job, Yuriy.

[Peter den Haan]

Seconded about overengineering - it's easily done and unnecessary.
Be careful about not testing on other platforms. I actually got some wildly different (buggy) behaviour on the NT platform than on my Win98 development platform. Had I not tested it and the examiner had used NT, things wouldn't have looked good. I had to change a security setting and work around a Swing bug.
Do take some time thinking about the application if you can afford it. It can be one of the most instructive experiences in your programming career - in ordinary projects you often don't have the time to go through the process in such depth.
- Peter