If we want unit testing to be done for every single application that is ever written, or if we want unit testing to become the defacto way of writing code, then the teachers need to start using it to teach. I don't mean those school marms in the university or the old ladies teaching in high school, I mean the guys that write articles about how to use Java technologies.
Most novice developers learn from reading articles in JavaWorld, ONJava and IBM's Developer Works. Most of the articles don't include unit tests for the sample applications that they build. I think there was one in the JDJ a while back about command line processing that had unit tests, but that was it. If the guru's of the world (I hope that is who is writing the articles) want the novices of the world to start using unit testing, test driven development or even test first... then they need to start teaching in that manner.
The problem is that new developers don't know the thought process of how to start doing TDD. Otherwise I am sure they would be more than willing to use it. Sometimes we have to spoon feed those less fortunate souls who have feeble brains (like myself :).
So I started working on the front end of a little application today. This is my first foray into Swing. I haven't ventured into GridBagLayout just yet, but I know it is coming soon. One of the problems that I just solved was a JTextArea was not filling the JScrollPane. So, after a couple of hours of searching JavaDocs and talking to friends and scratching my head, I decided to resort to an old HTML trick: Make the borders viewable. So, I started setting borders to pink (this ensures that they don't stay that way :) and on my first try I found the problem. I was putting the panel into the NORTH section of a BorderLayout. So, I put the panel into the CENTER section and now everything is working as expected.
Like I said in my third sentence, GridBagLayout is in the near future. But I will probably enlist the help of Packer a nifty little tool that simplifies life with GridBagLayout. Thanks to Ben Galbraith for the pointer.
Some of the biggest fights I have had with my coworkers were about how to make a presentation. I have been to a couple of No Fluff Just Stuff conferences, and I watched the speakers to learn about presentation skills as well as coding skills. The ones that I liked the most almost always had a story to tell, or were engaging in some way other than the content they were presenting. My coworkers insist on keeping it "professional" which spells "dull" in my book. I love my coworkers, they are all really smart, my boss is one of the funniest guys I know and yet they insist that our presentations be dull.
Anyway, here is an example that dry is not always best. Sometimes we have to get a bit loose with our words and actually have fun while learning new things. The educational community has even started using games to teach because they know that if you keep the kids engaged, they will learn more. The same is true of adults.