Sustainability for Java Developers

Towards an Understanding of Sustainable Java Software Development

Discover how Java developers can contribute to a sustainable future. Written by Java Champions and community experts, this collaborative guide explores practical approaches to sustainable software engineering, from resource-efficient design to mindful architecture, empowering you to reduce your environmental impact while building better systems.

Vasco Correia Veloso,

Ko Turk,

Hanno Embregts, and

Maarten Mulders

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About

About the Book

Our world is an ever-changing complex system. As Software Engineers, we are uniquely aware of how even the smallest change in an input can have far-reaching consequences in a system that is built up from many components. Even if we are unaware of our exact impact, you can safely assume that almost anything you do in life has an effect on something.

In the decades preceding this book, a growing fraction of people have come to understand that we have been rather consistent in manipulating some of the inputs of our Planet's various systems. The current outlook on the consequences of these actions have many people feeling uneasy, or even fearful of the future. As global temperatures are rising, weather patterns are changing and even social tensions are rising, many people have already started wondering "What can I do?".

This book before you is the result of a group of people from the global Java Software Engineering community, who were all looking for a way to contribute to a more sustainable world and work on creating a future for generations to come. Many of them were already involved in various initiatives to raise awareness or educate software developers to their role in the transition to come.

Through the magic of the open Foojay community, they have been able to find each other and bundle their efforts into this book.

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About the Authors

Geertjan

Frank Delporte

Software developer and Java Champion with over 30 years of experience in video, multimedia, technical project management, digital signage, and (web) programming.

At work focusing on Java, but also used or using ASP.NET, C#, JavaScript, SQL Server, Flex, CSS, HTML5, Java, Eclipse, Qt...

I love to KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) and try to do this in everything I do.

Once a month lead coach of the CoderDojo Belgium club in Ieper, where we teach children (7-18) the fun of programming with Scratch, Arduino, Lego Mindstorms, and Minecraft...

Episode 234

An Interview with Frank Delporte

Simon Martinelli

Simon Martinelli is a Java Champion and an Oracle ACE Associate, and he received the Vaadin Community Award in 2021 and 2022 due to his commitment to the Java and Vaadin communities.

He regularly shares his knowledge in articles, speaks at international conferences, and writes his blog: https://martinelli.ch. His current interest is increasing the efficiency of full-stack development with Java.

He owns 72 Services LLC and has worked as a software architect, developer, consultant, and trainer for three decades, especially in the Java Enterprise environment. Besides his work, he has been a lecturer at the Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH and the University of Applied Science Northern Switzerland FHNW for modern architecture and integrating distributed systems and persistence technologies with Java and DevOps since 2007. He also served as an expert group member of JSR-352 Java Batch and JSR-354 Money and Currency.

Markus Westergren

Markus Westergren is a staff engineer with over 20 years of experience. During his work with large backend projects, Markus has repeatedly seen the big impact code quality has on the outcome of the projects and the careers of the developers working on them. Because of that, Markus focuses on helping professional Java back-end developers write maintainable code so that they become sought-after experts in the software development industry.

Jan Ouwens

Jan is a senior developer, trainer and speaker at Yoink in the Netherlands; he is interested in back-end systems, functional programming and languages. He has worked in various fields, such as banking, retail, law enforcement, transportation and electron microscopy, but he is perhaps best known for being the author of EqualsVerifier, a tool that rigourously tests Java's equals and hashCode methods in a single line.

Jan-Hendrik Kuperus

Jan-Hendrik is a developer turned founder who is constantly thinking about the future. He strives to create a better tomorrow every day by pointing his attention to making IT more Sustainable, educating younger generations to harness technology and keep improving themselves. He has worked on many Java-projects in various different domains. His interest in new technology is still as fresh as it was when he first learned to use computers at school.

jlengrand

A N M Bazlur Rahman

A N M Bazlur Rahman is a Software Engineer with over a decade of specialized experience in Java and related technologies. His expertise has been formally recognized through the prestigious title of Java Champion. Beyond his professional commitments, Mr. Rahman is deeply involved in community outreach and education. He is the founder and current moderator of the Java User Group in Bangladesh, where he has organized educational meetups and conferences since 2013.

In the past two years, Mr. Rahman has been an active speaker at various international conferences and Java user groups. His talks have often focused on specialized topics such as concurrency and virtual threads. In addition to his community work, Mr. Rahman also serves as an editor for Java Queue at InfoQ and Foojay.io, both of which are leading platforms for technology content. Notably, he has authored five books on the Java programming language in Bengali, three of which have become best sellers in Bangladesh.

He is currently writing a new book with O'Reilly titled "Modern Concurrency in Java".

https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/modern-concurrency-in/9781098165406/

Vasco Correia Veloso

Vasco has been building software for almost thirty years. From assembly, through C, C++, and Prolog, to Java, Scala, and Kotlin, on big and small computers, from floppy disks to SSDs, on-premises, and cloud, he's been there, done that, and used it.

Besides software engineering, he's a theatrical improviser, loves photography, and has flown ultralight aircraft.

Ko Turk

Ko Turk is a Software Architect, Java Engineer, and Community Builder with more than 15+ years of experience in development, architecture, speaking, and building communities.

🦊 Voxxed Days Amsterdam conference organiser

👥 JUGLeader @CodeLabJUG

🌱 Green Software Champion

🫶🏻 Voxxed Days Amsterdam Program committee, DevoxxBE Community reviewer

🧑‍💻 Working @CodeLab, assignment @Rabobank.

🎤 Conference speaker, speaks about everything around Java

➡️ Website: http://koturk.nl/

Hanno Embregts

Maarten Mulders

Passionate architect, senior developer and trainer; also Java Champion. Passionate about "building the right thing" and "building the thing right". Focusing on lean and elegant solutions. Love to share new ideas and knowledge. Outside work, I appreciate creating and consuming good food, photography, and music, in no particular order.

Table of Contents

About This Book

Book History
The Foojay Community
Contributing to this Book
How to use this book
The Authors
A N M Bazlur Rahman
Frank Delporte
Geertjan Wielenga
Hanno Embregts
Jan Ouwens
Jan-Hendrik Kuperus
Julien Lengrand-Lambert
Ko Turk
Maarten Mulders
Markus Westergren
Simon Martinelli
Vasco Veloso
Legal Notes

Introduction

Towards an Understanding of Sustainable Java Software Development
What is Sustainability?
What is Sustainability to us?
Why is Sustainability important now?
But AI will fix this, right?
What is Sustainable Software Engineering?

Overview of Basic Concepts

Architecture Shapes Sustainability
Build Caching and Automation
Business Case for Sustainability
Career Sustainability
Cloud Paradox
Collective Action Multiplies Impact
Data Has Weight
Fair Trade Software
Feedback Loop Between Code and Wellbeing
Five Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle
Human-Readable Data Is Not Free
Investing in Longevity
LightSwitchOps: The Lost Art of Turning Things Off
Math of Marginal Gains
Measurement as the Foundation of Optimization
Observability for Efficiency
Power of Saying No
Stop Chasing Nines
Thinking Before Coding

Chapter 1: Fair Trade Software

The Justice Dimension of Sustainability
Software’s Raw Materials
The Paradox of Free
What Is a Fair Price for Something Intentionally Free?
Toward Fair Trade Software
1. Transparency about our supply chains
2. Contributing back proportionally
3. Respecting maintainer well-being
4. Supporting the ecosystem, not just individual projects
Practical Steps for Organizations
1. Establish a sustainability budget
2. Audit your dependencies
3. Contribute upstream
4. Sponsor strategically
5. Build sustainability into procurement
Software Architecture and Sustainable Choices
Beyond Open Source: The Broader Picture
Conclusion: Conscious Choices in Software Development

Chapter 2: Stopping the Data Madness

Why Should Data Between Services be Human-Readable?
Bits and Bytes
Byte Data in Electronics
Use the Power of the Code
Use the Power of the Tools
Think Before You Send

Chapter 3: Impact of Architecture

Gathering Requirements
Deployment Architecture
The Sustainability Cost of Distribution
Modular Monolith: The Sustainable Middle Ground
When Microservices Are Justified
Architectural Considerations
Communication Styles
Data Redundancy
Efficient Resource Usage
Application-Level Caching
API Design for Efficiency
Scaling for Sustainability
Scale-to-Zero
Right-Sizing and Auto-Scaling
Conclusion

Chapter 4: Career and Wellbeing

Introduction
Java’s Evolution and Developer Wellbeing
How Java Supports Developer Wellbeing
The relationship between code quality and personal sustainability
Understanding Sustainable Career Development
What is Career Sustainability for Java Developers?
Why Career Sustainability Matters
The Sustainability Mindset Shift
Sustainability Through Career Phases
Sustainable Career Development Framework
Inner Development Goals for Java developers
Being
Relating
Thinking
Collaborating
Acting
Sustainable Habits for Developers
Physical training
Sharing Knowledge Sustainability
Automation for Sustainability
Focus
Reflect
Empathy
Simplify
Mentorship and Community
Mentorship and Community: Growing Together
Finding a Java Mentor
The Benefits of Having a Mentor
Becoming a Mentor Yourself
Community Involvement and Knowledge Sharing
The Mentorship Lifecycle
Action Plan for Career Sustainability
Building Your Sustainability Roadmap
Implementing Your Plan Through Habit Stacking
Your Next Steps
Conclusion: Your Sustainable Java Journey
The Ripple Effect of Sustainable Practices
A Call to Action: Beginning Your Sustainable Career Journey
The Legacy of Sustainable Development

Chapter 5: Sustaining Success: Java’s Evergreen Appeal in a Rapidly Changing Tech Landscape

Longevity and Evolution of Java
Broad Applicability
Stable Ecosystem
Community and Support
Employment Opportunities
Scalability and Performance
Slow Rate of Obsolescence

Chapter 6: Simple things you can do right now

Configure build caching
Enable local caching
Enable remote caching
Make a donation to a charity

Chapter 7: Java as a Scripting Language: Sustainable Code from Day One

The Sustainability Case for Java Scripts
Running Java Source Files Directly
Shebang Scripts: Native Executable Java
Multi-File Programs: Sustainable Growth
Compact Source Files: Maximum Signal, Minimum Noise
The IO Class: Simple Console Operations
Practical Patterns for Sustainable Scripts
File Processing: Let the Platform Do the Work
HTTP Requests: Modern and Efficient
System Commands: When Shell Integration Is Needed
Database Queries: JDBC Still Works
JSON Processing: The Honest Reality
Feature Status in Java 25
Building a Sustainable Script Library
Conclusion: Sustainable by Design

Conclusion

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