Software Developer/Architect

My hobbies include tennis, photography and reading. I also try to pen my thoughts here on a number of topics that interest me which include software development/architecture as well as history, science, mathematics, linguistics and travel. I am also working slowly on completing an e-Book (on HL7 programming) for release next year.

Hello, Visitor. My name is Saravanan Subramanian (an old Tamil name that is pronounced “seruh-va-nun sue-bruh-money-yen”). I live in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, and make a living designing, developing and documenting web-based and desktop-based software applications using a number of object-oriented tools and technologies.

Over the last fourteen years, I have helped to solve information technology problems at large financial and healthcare-related organizations. The applications I have helped build over the years include graphical desktop as well as rich Internet applications for data entry and display, tele-radiology, alerting and notifications, as well as secure document transmission, messaging and generation using PGP, XML, HL7, DICOM and PDF standards.

I have many years experience in developing messaging applications using both commercial and open source middleware. I am currently employed, and work with a smart group of individuals on on a number of challenging initiatives including enterprise messaging, business intelligence and reporting, as well as electronic content management.

Technologies that I am most familiar with include Java and JEE, .NET, Hibernate, Adobe LiveCycle, Mirth Connect, Oracle, SQL Server and PostgreSQL (see my profile). If you need reach me, please send me an email, or leave me a voice message at (306) 501-7542.

"Ironically, the thing that will likely make the least improvement in the ease of use of software-based products is new technology. There is little difference technically between a complicated, confusing program and a simple, fun, and powerful product."

Alan Cooper, The Inmates are Running the Asylum

INTRODUCTION TO THE DICOM STANDARD (USING OSIRIX)

I decided to write an introductory tutorial on the DICOM standard as there were not many articles on the Internet that singularly cover all aspects of this very large standard through an example based approach which helps the learner relate to the underlying concepts quickly by means of association. Many people I know who work with DICOM on a daily basis often deal only with a few aspects of this vast standard. Read more...

UNIT TESTING 101 FOR NON-PROGRAMMERS

Seeing the many challenges in the field in terms of adopting unit tests, I am totally convinced that a basic awareness needs to exist of the inner workings of unit testing even for the non-programmer who works closely with software delivery teams to ensure that teams use unit testing to help produce high quality software that is easy to enhance or modify. This article explains the fundamentals of unit testing as well as how to adopt unit testing within your organization. Read more...

HL7 PROGRAMMING USING JAVA - A SHORT TUTORIAL

Before we get started on this tutorial, have a quick look at my earlier article titled “A Very Short Introduction to the HL7 2.x Standard” for information on the HL7 standard. Please note that this tutorial assumes you know Java or any equivalent object-oriented language. A basic understanding of network as well as thread programming is also useful, but not necessary. Building custom Read more...

PEOPLE-ORIENTED SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Recently, I was a lucky recipient of a free book on software development titled “Domain Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software” by Eric Evans. Many people in the field consider this book a “classic”, and I quickly found out why. Reading the book sparked my motivation to finally Read more...

My Latest Articles

Some Hobbies

A Favourite Quote...