Hi, I'm César

The True Value of Attending Academic Conferences

It's not only about the technical content

Posted on November 19, 2022

I recently attended the 29th edition of ESEC/FSE 2022 in Singapore. ESEC/FSE is one of the most prestigious conferences in the Software Engineering field.1 This was my first time participating in an academic conference (in person). I went there to present two papers. But let me admit it, I had...

The Execution Lifecycle of a Java Application

Or... what happens when you run a Java program?

Posted on October 20, 2022

If you are reading this post it’s likely that you already know how to write Java code. That’s very good for you, I think everyone should know how to code these days (in the same way everyone should know about basic math operations such as +, -, *, and /...

On the Parkinson's Law of Triviality for Computer Science Researchers

It must stop!

Posted on July 22, 2022

The Parkinson’s Law of Triviality is a real thing (more on this later). And for Computer Science researchers, it is part of everyday life. As we know, research is a very time-consuming activity. There are uncertain tasks that typically take a lot of time to complete. This state of things...

My Ultimate Terminal Customizations for macOS

A guide

Posted on May 22, 2022

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There is a common belief that top-class software developers can do their job without ever abandoning the terminal. I think this is true to some extent. It is almost impossible to become an outstanding software developer without knowing how to get the most out of the terminal. Personally, I treat...

No One Cares About Your Research!

A comfortable truth

Posted on May 11, 2022

That’s the truth. No one cares about what you’re doing in your PhD, no one, no one!1 But don’t be sad, because this is actually a very comfortable truth. I only came to this realization after a while. Once you get it, then you will start looking at your PhD...

The Dynamic Features of Java

A long-standing challenge for static analyzers

Posted on April 22, 2022

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The existence of dynamic features built-in within the language allows Java developers to dynamically transform their program executions at runtime. For example, using the Java Reflection API, one can inspect and interact with otherwise static language constructs such as classes, fields, and methods, e.g., to instantiate objects, set fields and...

Inversion of Control and Dependency Injection in Java

The holy grails of modern enterprise Java frameworks

Posted on April 12, 2022

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Inversion of Control (IoC) is a programming principle. The idea of IoC is delegating the control of parts of our application to a framework that initializes some specific task for us. Dependency injection (DI) is a popular design pattern that applies the IoC principle. This pattern was made popular by...

AOT vs. JIT Compilation in Java

Which one is better?

Posted on March 27, 2022

There are two ways of compiling a Java application: using Just in Time Compilation (JIT) or Ahead of Time Compilation (AOT). The first is the default mode, and it is used by the Java Hotspot Virtual Machine to translate bytecode into machine code at runtime. The latter is supported by...

How to Write a Good Revision Letter

My system to address major revisions and get my papers accepted

Posted on March 13, 2022

I just finished a major revision for one of my research papers.1 It was a lot of work, as usual. Writing a response letter for the editor and reviewers is always a challenging process. After receiving the editor’s decision, I had to put aside what I’m working on at the...

Staying in Academia: How PhD Profiles are Evaluated?

An overview

Posted on February 22, 2022

Let’s say that you just finished your PhD and have decided to stay in academia.1 Typically, the next move is applying for a temporally position as PostDoc at some good university. To get a good PostDoc, at the end of the PhD your profile will be rigorously evaluated. At this...