Previously this site was run under the Mambo CMS project. Unfortunately due to code quality, security concerns, and other issues, I have decided to switch. In my opinion, one of the biggest issues faced with Mambo at the moment, is that plugin files require a specific format and sequence of checks to verify things like remote file includes and sql injections don’t occur.

I am a big fan of assertions in C++, and I always thought it would be great if Java had such a feature. I have known about the JUnit assertTrue() and assertFalse() statements, but they don’t act the same as the C++ equivalents. Exceptions are a decent option, but they have the drawback that non-RuntimeExceptions must be explicitly caught. Not only that but the logic to check simple things like pre and post conditions can be intrusive with if statements that usually take up at least three lines. Fortunately I have learned of a new feature to Java 1.4; the assert keyword. This shows where to learn the syntax as well as how to use them with javac, Apache Ant, and Eclipse.