New England Software Symposium

March 9 - 11, 2007 - Boston, MA


Sheraton Ferncroft
50 Ferncroft Road
Danvers, MA   01923
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Neal Ford

Application Architect at ThoughtWorks, Inc.

Neal is Software Architect and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy with an exclusive focus on end-to-end software development and delivery.

Before joining ThoughtWorks, Neal was the Chief Technology Officer at The DSW Group, Ltd., a nationally recognized training and development firm. Neal has a degree in Computer Science from Georgia State University specializing in languages and compilers and a minor in mathematics specializing in statistical analysis.

He is also the designer and developer of applications, instructional materials, magazine articles, video presentations, and author of 6 books, including the most recent The Productive Programmer. His language proficiencies include Java, C#/.NET, Ruby, Groovy, functional languages, Scheme, Object Pascal, C++, and C. His primary consulting focus is the design and construction of large-scale enterprise applications. Neal has taught on-site classes nationally and internationally to all phases of the military and to many Fortune 500 companies. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, having spoken at over 100 developer conferences worldwide, delivering more than 600 talks. If you have an insatiable curiosity about Neal, visit his web site at http://www.nealford.com. He welcomes feedback and can be reached at nford@thoughtworks.com.



Presentations

The Productive Programmer: Practice (10 Ways to Improve Your Code)

No one writes perfect code: even the best developers fall into bad habits and traps. These topics from The Productive Programmer illustrate blind spots and helps you write better code.

It is too easy to get into a coding slump and not realize it. This talk revitalizes your relationship to code, forcing you to rethink some of the thing that you take for granted and showing new approaches to solving hard problems. It covers topics that range from improve the overall structure of your code to the way you write JavaBeans, with lots of examples. Everything in this talk may not be new to you, but I guarantee that you'll see some things that will make you reevaluate the way you think about your code.

Session Outline:

  1. TDD
  2. Static Analysis
  3. Good Citizenship
    • getters and setters
    • Constructors
    • Static State
  4. YAGNI
  5. Occam and His Razor
  6. Question Authority
    • DSLs
    • JavaBean Specification
  7. SLAP
  8. New Languages
  9. Every Nuance
  10. Anti-objects

Implementing SOA

This talk avoids SOA hype and gets to the meat of the matter: how do you implement a Service-Oriented Architecture, what are the technological pitfalls, how do you test it, and what traps should you avoid. No marketecture: just implementation details.

No subject has been subject to more recent hype than Service-Oriented Architecture (I think it was because of a really good article in an in-flight magazine). For whatever the reason, the CxO has decided that we need one. It's up to you to implement it. This session is all about the technical considerations required to implement a service oriented architecture. It discusses technology choices, what is in (and out) of SOA's scope, how to implement transformations, routing, and other key services, how to version endpoints, and finally testing and debugging SOA. This session is marketecture free: it covers the details you need to implement this style of architecture.

Session Topics:

  • What SOA means to those who must implement it
  • Technology choices
  • Routing
  • The WS deathstar
  • MOM
  • Implementing transformations
  • Versioning services
  • Testing SOA
  • Debugging SOA implementations

Regular Expressions in Java

Regular expressions should be an integral part of every developer?s toolbox, but most don?t realize what an important topic it is. Regular expressions have existed for decades, but many developers don't understand how to take full advantage of this powerful mechanism, either through command line tools and editors or in their development.

This session shows how to fully exploit regular expressions. It begins with the basic premise of how regular expressions work, then shows how to take advantage of the RegEx library built into the Java platform. This session shows how to use wildcards, escape characters, meta-tags, character class operators, look-aheads/look-behinds, and how to use the greedy operators effectively. It covers regular expressions from the beginning through to advanced usage, both in Java and in tools that support regular expressions. This session is packed with real examples of regular expressions (including a game show with no fabulous prizes).

Key Session Points:

  • Regular expressions defined
  • Examples
  • Using the regex classes in Java
  • Regular expression techniques
  • Patterns
  • Groups and subgroups
  • RegEx Game Show!
  • Back references
  • Greedy, reluctant, and possessive qualifiers
  • Lookaheads and lookbehinds
  • Practical regular expressions
  • Best practices
  • Common Regex mistakes

  • Keynote: Software "Engineering" & Polyglot Programming

    About bridges, languages, engineering, polyglot programming, and the near future.

    Other engineers sneer at us when we call ourselves "Software Engineers", and they have a point. This keynote discusses real comparisons between traditional engineering and the software kind. It also delves into what it will take to make our profession a real engineering discipline and the near future of languages and environments. Come see your future.

    Debugging and Testing the Web Tier

    As out applications have spilled from the server across the wire to the web tier, we increasingly must debug and test in the browser. This session covers debugging and testing tools for clients, JavaScript, and Ajax.

    As the browser has become important again, our applications have spilled out of the server side to the web tier, and now we have to debug and test there. This session is all about debugging and testing the web tier. I discuss the tools Firebug, Venkman, the Developer's toolbar, and bookmarklets for debugging JavaScript, Ajax, and general browser behavior. Then, I discuss testing the web tier, first with unit testing via JsUnit, the user acceptance testing with Selenium and Sahi. This session is packed with examples and demonstrations, including real-world scenarios and pitfalls.

    Session Topics:

    • Debugging
      • Firebug
      • Venkman
      • Developer's Toolbar
      • Bookmarklets
    • Testing
      • JsUnit
      • Selenium
      • Sahi

    Advanced Selenium

    This session discusses advanced Selenium techniques for testing web applications. It discusses techniques for both TestRunner and Remote Control Selenium, including data driven tests, creating branch points, testing Ajax applications, creating flexible tests, integration with continuous integration, and tons more.

    By now, just about everyone has heard of Selenium, the revolutionary open source testing tool for web applications. This session takes Selenium to the next level, showing how to handle complex, real world scenarios in Selenium. It discusses Selenium setup for both TestRunner and Remote Control. Mostly, though, this session delves into specific techniques for testing real world kinds of behaviors in web applications. I discuss data driven tests, generated tests, decision points in tests, interactive Remote Control, integration with continuous integration, testing Ajax applications (including applications that only Selenium can test), and future directions. This session will turn up the volume on your testing to "11".

    Session Topics:

    • Generating random values
    • Data-driven tests
    • Remote control Selenium
      • Setup
      • Interactive mode
      • Writing and running tests
      • Decisions, decisions
      • Test Reusability
    • Integration with continuous integration
    • Documenting tests
    • Choosing the right mode for the job
    • Extending Selenium
    • Testing Ajax applications
      • Testing data
      • Testing dynamic user interface
    • Specialized Selenium
    • Future directions

    Productive Programmer: Acceleration, Focus, and Indirection

    This session discusses how to use the Productive Programmer principles of acceleration, focus, and indirection to become a more productive programmer. This session describes these principles, but the primary focus of this session is demonstration of these principles with real-world examples.

    In The Productive Programmer, David Bock and I identify 5 principles of productivity: this talk goes into great detail on 3 of those principles. The session defines the principles and describes their use, but the primary focus of this talk is on real-world examples of how you can use these principles to make yourself a more productive programmer. Acceleration covers keyboard shortcuts (including ways to make better use of them) in both IntelliJ and Eclipse. Focus describes how you can modify both the operating system and your code base to eliminate noise. Indirection shows how a simple concept can have profound effects, including how to share a common set of plugins across an entire Eclipse project. This talk includes tons of examples, all culled from real-world projects.

    Session Topics:

    • The Productive Programmer
    • Acceleration defined
      • Applying Acceleration
      • Keyboard shortcuts
      • Plug-ins
      • Getting around in a hurry
      • Launching stuff
    • Focus defined
      • Applying Focus
      • Get out of the trees
      • Searching several ways
      • Code focus
      • Avoiding the trash pile
    • Indirection
      • Applying Indirection
      • links vs. shortcuts
      • Sharing stuff
      • Canonical plug-ins
      • Environment isolation

    Note: This is a companion talk to my other talk, Productive Programmer: Automation and Canonicality, but each talk is completely independent of the other -- they are not "Part 1" and "Part 2".

    Productive Programmer: Automation and Canonicality

    This session discusses how to use the Productive Programmer principles of automation and canonicality to become a more productive programmer. This session describes these principles, but the primary focus of this session is demonstration of these principles with real-world examples.
    

    In The Productive Programmer, David Bock and I identify 5 principles of productivity: this talk goes into great detail on 2 of those principles. The session defines the principles and describes their use, but the primary focus of this talk is on real-world examples of how you can use these principles to make yourself a more productive programmer. Canonicality (the DRY principle from The Pragmatic Programmer) discourages repeating artifacts in projects. This talk shows effective ways to avoid this repetition. For example, I show how to reuse documentation via a Subversion hook that posts comments to a Wiki with an RSS feed. Automation refers to making the computer do more work for you. This talk includes tons of examples, all culled from real-world projects.

    Session Topics:

    • The Productive Programmer
    • Automation defined
    • Applying automation
      • Scripting with...
        • Win XP
        • Bash
        • Unix shell/cygwin
        • Ruby
        • Groovy
      • Case Studies
    • Canonicality defined
    • Applying canonicality
      • Hibernate and code generation
      • Documentation Part 1
      • Documentation Part 2

    <cite>Note: This is a companion talk to my other talk, <b>Productive Programmer: Acceleration, Focus, and Indirection</b>, but each talk is completely independent of the other -- they are not "Part 1" and "Part 2".</cite>
    

    Books

    by Neal Ford

    The Productive Programmer (Theory in Practice (O'Reilly)) Buy from Amazon
    List Price: $39.99
    Price: $26.52
    You Save: $13.47 (34%)
    • Anyone who develops software for a living needs a proven way to produce it better, faster, and cheaper. The Productive Programmer offers critical timesaving and productivity tools that you can adopt right away, no matter what platform you use. Master developer Neal Ford not only offers advice on the mechanics of productivity--how to work smarter, spurn interruptions, get the most out your computer, and avoid repetition--he also details valuable practices that will help you elude common traps, improve your code, and become more valuable to your team. You'll learn to:
      • Write the test before you write the code
      • Manage the lifecycle of your objects fastidiously
      • Build only what you need now, not what you might need later
      • Apply ancient philosophies to software development
      • Question authority, rather than blindly adhere to standards
      • Make hard things easier and impossible things possible through meta-programming
      • Be sure all code within a method is at the same level of abstraction
      • Pick the right editor and assemble the best tools for the job

      This isn't theory, but the fruits of Ford's real-world experience as an Application Architect at the global IT consultancy ThoughtWorks. Whether you're a beginner or a pro with years of experience, you'll improve your work and your career with the simple and straightforward principles in The Productive Programmer.


    by ThoughtWorks Inc.

    The Thoughtworks Anthology: Essays on Software Technology and Innovation (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
    List Price: $38.95
    Price: $29.30
    You Save: $9.65 (25%)
    • ThoughtWorks is a well-known global consulting firm; ThoughtWorkers are leaders in areas of design, architecture, SOA, testing, and agile methodologies. This collection of essays brings together contributions from well-known ThoughtWorkers such as Martin Fowler, along with other authors you may not know yet. While ThoughtWorks is perhaps best known for their work in the Agile community, this anthology confronts issues throughout the software development life cycle. From technology issues that transcend methodology, to issues of realizing business value from applications, you'll find it here.


    by

    No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology: The 2006 Edition (Pragmatic Programmers) Buy from Amazon
    List Price: $29.95
    Price: $22.76
    You Save: $7.19 (24%)
    • Twenty-seven weekends a year, the No Fluff, Just Stuff conference rolls into another town, featuring the world's best technical speakers and writers. Up until now, you had to go to one of the shows to soak up their collective wisdom. Now, you can hold it in the palm of your hand. The No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology represents topics presented on the tour, written by the speakers who created it. This book allows the authors the chance to go more in depth on the subjects for which they are passionate. It is guaranteed to surprise, enlighten, and broaden your understanding of the technical world in which you live.

      The No Fluff, Just Stuff Symposium Series is a traveling conference series for software developers visiting 27 cities a year. No Fluff has put on over 75 symposia throughout the U.S. and Canada, with more than 12,000 attendees so far. Its success has been a result of focusing on high quality technical presentations, great speakers, and no marketing hype. Now this world-class material is available to you in print for the first time.


    by Neal Ford

    Art of Java Web Development: Struts, Tapestry, Commons, Velocity, JUnit, Axis, Cocoon, InternetBeans, WebWork Buy from Amazon
    List Price: $44.95
    Price: $34.16
    You Save: $10.79 (24%)
    • A guide to the skills required for state-of-the-art web development, this book covers a variety of web development frameworks. The uses of the standard web API to create applications with increasingly sophisticated architectures are highlighted, and a discussion of the development of industry-accepted best practices for architecture is included. The history and evolution toward this architecture and the reasons it is superior to previous efforts are described, and an overview of the most popular web application frameworks, their architecture, and use is provided. The same application is built in six different frameworks, allowing developers to conduct an informed comparison. An evaluation of the pros and cons of each framework is provided to assist developers in making decisions or evaluating frameworks on their own. Best practices covered include sophisticated user interface techniques, intelligent caching and resource management, performance tuning, debugging, testing, and web services.