To a non-geek, spending a weekend in hotel conference rooms listening to presentations on the latest technologies in software development might make them beg, "just shoot me now, please". But to someone interested in keeping abreast of these sorts of things, for both company and personal reasons, it was a very nice way to do just that. Plus, it was hot as hell outside, the neighborhood pool is even hot, and the lake is just too far away.
The Lone Star Symposium was held this past weekend here in Austin, and it was a great show. The lack of vendor presence at these conferences allow software developers to focus on the technology itself. The people who put this conference together go out of their way to provide all the amenities to the attendees, such as good food, snacks, not to mention some of the best industry experts out there. With regard to the experts, I am always pleased to find not only those who write about the technologies at this show, but also those who have had a hand in developing them. A case in point, the presenter for the Spring Framework was Keith Donald, one of principals and founders.
It's always a shame that you can't make it to all the sessions in this type of conference, but you generally can't go wrong with any selection. Just to sort of sum up, the hottest topics this year were the ones concerning dynamic languages, such as Groovy, and it's related framework, Grails. Also, Spring continues to be THE overarching framework for J2EE development.
My favorite session, though, was one by Neil Ford, titled "Productive Programmer: Acceleration & Automation". I am a sucker for cool command line tools, and he talked about such great productivity enhancers such as Auto-Hot Key, which allows you to define (and redefine) hot keys in Windows, and clcl, which allows you to maintain multiple clipboards. I am very keyboard-oriented, and these tools will allow me to stay away from my carpal-inducing mouse.
Next time one of these conferences makes its way near you, check it out. Especially if its a hot summer weekend!
In Spring Framework, Groovy
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