Introduction to the Commons

Writing good code is always a challenge. The key to writing good code is understanding a few techniques and then using them often in different combinations. Knowing a few good techniques and their variations makes it possible to understand a complex system. In the Apache Jakarta project, there are literally millions of lines of Java source code. The Apache Jakarta source code would be a good place to start if you want to see what programming techniques do and don't work. In this chapter, we show you some of the more important and common Jakarta programming techniques. Most reusable techniques tend to appear in the projects Commons, Commons Sandbox, and XML Commons. These projects are components that have shown themselves to be reusable and commonly used.