Hi Folks.
We are pleased to announce that JUDE/Professional 3.1.1 and Community 3.1.1 have been released.

They are both Bug fix version of their former versions.

Since JUDE/Professional 3.1, [Import Java] function for a part of Java 5.0, API Release for Mind Map*, Composite Structure Diagrams (UML2.0) and more UML2.0 elements have been supported!

Download the latest version of JUDE/Professional and Community from here.
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/index.html

We all thank you for your support.
Give us more feedbacks!

Composite Structure Diagram has been added in JUDE/Professional 3.1.

Finally, we have started supporting Import Java 5.0 (Generics have not been supported yet and will be imported as normal classes). Generics will be supported in the near feature.

Now, JUDE provides API for Class and UseCase diagrams and Mind Map. Collaboration function is also available with JUDE/Server3.1.

Please visit our website for more details.
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/product/professional.html

Try 20-day evaluation for JUDE/Professional
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/getEvaluationLicenseButton.do

I tried mind mapping of "Design Patterns" by GoF.
Colors and shapes strongly stimulate the right hemisphere of the cortex, and support human memory capability.

In this experiment, I used a new feature of JUDE/Professional 3.1 which adds a name to a link(dashed line between topics) to illustrate relationships between the patterns.

Get an evaluation license(if you don't have one), and try JUDE/Professional.
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/product/professional.html

AJAX World Conference & Expo was held in Santa Clara, California
on October 3 and 4.

There were over 70 sessions regarding Ajax and Web 2.0. Developers,
researchers and investors were gathering from all over the world.

I attended interesting sessions such as Keynote by
Jesse James Garrett who named "Ajax" (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML),
"Designing for Ajax" by Bill Scott at Yahoo! and so on.

In several sessions, I have heard about user communities (myspace, YouTube, etc.)
were very active in the world. Definitely, they are changing the
world of the Web! According to the venture capitalist's view, "mixi"
(Japanese user community) is also gaining the public attention.

Some companies (Laszlo Systems, Nexaweb, JackBe, etc.) made
presentations and showed demos of Ajax applications. These companies
will help us to speed up our development by providing Ajax platforms and services.

During the conference, I have talked with over 40 people from all over
the world (UK, China, India, Singapore, Korea, Japan and across the United States).
It was a pleasure to meet a devoted JUDE fan from Singapore.

Thanks!
Midori

Today I talked with Matz("the" ruby language designer) in XP Fiesta 2006 Kansai and discussed for a few minutes commonality of Ruby and Agile. Both of us were invited yesterday as speakers of the fiesta.

Ruby is categorized as a light weight language, dynamic language or "P language(with long tail)". Agile software development approaches are also formerly called "Light Weight Methodologies", and changed its umbrella name to "Agile" so to directly express positive properties. Then why not call Ruby an "Agile Language?"

Matz pointed me to a Kikaineko's entry.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/kikaineko/20060903

It's in Japanese, so I'm translating the points he made very briefly.

Agile software development values;
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

These four values can be translated as follows from the language viewppoint.

Languages should be human-oriented, human-friendly.
Languages should guide programmers to readable code
(as a substitution of document)
Language specification should be consistent and hospitable.
(collaboration of programmers and a language over contract between them)
Languages should embrace change.

He is a ruby programmer as well as a developer of Kikaineko-Mocker, a TDD tool which generates mock objects from tests.

Maz and I agreed that programming and software development are both "human activities" which affects each other. Agile and Ruby both value "having fun" in the activity as a Life-hack!

As I mentioned in the last entry, I've been catching a strong "social" commonality of agile and ruby communities in Japan.
http://jude-users.com/en/modules/weblog/details.php?blog_id=17

How about in the other area of the world ? Pragmatic Programmers likes Ruby a lot, and the pragmatic bookshelf series have good Ruby books, too.

After the Fiesta, I went for another drink with several rubists.

P.S.
Here's a wonderful XP Fiesta theme song, "Dear XP" and the movie!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpw8h4OGNxg

Here's a mind map of the "History of XP/Agile Books."

I picked up five BOI's; Addison-Wesley XP series, Agile Project Management Signature series, Pragmatic Bookshelf, Microsoft Professional, Prentice Hall, and Japan. In the XP-Fiesta I printed this mind map in a very large piece of paper and posted on the wall, and vote "which book do you like best" by dot stickers. Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt's "Pragmatic Programmers" got the most points, and Ruby books were popular.

A PDF of the mind map is here;
http://wiki.esm.co.jp/HistoryOfXPAgileBooksbyKenjiHIRANABE.pdf
(this inlcudes Japanese fonts... I'm not sure if its readable in your computers)

The above mind map is drawn by JUDE/Think!

Download
[JUDE/Think! 1.1.2 (for Windows)] 26,259KB
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/files/jude-think-1_1_2-jre-setup.exe

[JUDE/Think! 1.1.2 (for MacOSX)] 9,875KB
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/files/jude-think-1.1.2-MacOs.zip

Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres and their family visited our company Change Vision, Inc in their last visit to Japan! Here's a funny picture of them and our TRICHORD(our product, an Agile Getting-Project-Done tool) team. The left half(including Kent) is doing "X", and the right(including Cynthia) is doing "P."
Funny, isn't it !?

When we took pictures we said "Say Cheese", but Jojo(one of the daughters) said, "Stincky Socks", Why stincky socks !?

In JUDE/Professional 3.1 Beta1, Composite Structure Diagram in UML2.0 has been added.

An evaluation license for JUDE/Professional is available.
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/product/professional.html

-------------------------------------------------------------
Composite Structure Diagram

- Structured Class
- Part
- External Part
- Connector
- Port
- Provided Interface
- Required Interface
- Usage Dependency
-------------------------------------------------------------

There are also new diagram elements in the following diagrams;
-------------------------------------------------------------
Class Diagram

- Provided Interface
- Required Interface
-------------------------------------------------------------
Component Diagram

- Component Notation has been updated (UML2.0)
- Part
- Connector
- Port
- Provided Interface
- Required Interface
- Usage Dependency
-------------------------------------------------------------

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated for the beta version.
We would like to enhance the functions and quality in it as much as possible.

Thanks,
Midori

JUDE/Think! has been released!

JUDE/Think! is a mind map tool to visualize objectives, speed up thinking processes and ideas, leading to new inspiration and results. It can be used for taking minutes, making a project plan, planning an event, and so on.

Let's take a look! An evaluation version is free of charge for 20 days.


*Click image to see Mind Map - "Welcome to JUDE/Think!"

Download
[JUDE/Think! 1.1.2 (for Windows)] 26,259KB
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/files/jude-think-1_1_2-jre-setup.exe

[JUDE/Think! 1.1.2 (for MacOSX)] 9,875KB
http://jude.change-vision.com/jude-web/files/jude-think-1.1.2-MacOs.zip


Your feedback about this product would be greatly appreciated.

JUDE/Think! Forum
http://jude-users.com/en/modules/xhnewbb/viewforum.php?forum=4

Thanks,
Midori

Book review - "Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great"

I really liked this book because it is the first book for retrospective practitioners in the Agile context with lots of insightes and tips in it!(Yes, of course, I like Norm Kerth's bible of Retrospectives, and Jean Takaba's Collaboration book, too. )

In this book, the author divides the session into five phases and provides concrete named activities for each phase(this is the greatest thing of the book).

In Agile Development Conference 2003 and 2004, I participated in Linda Rising and Mary Lynn Manns's retrospective workshop, and also Diana Larsen's and Rachel Davies's. And I remember Jean Takaba introduced to me Sam Kaner's wonderful facilitator's guide book. They are all in the bibliography of this book!

I attached a *personal* Mind Map of the book, please enjoy
(click to magnify)














*Click here to download the original .jude file.

For Japanese, try;
http://blogs.itmedia.co.jp/hiranabe/2006/08/agile_retrospec_e020.html