Lone Star Software Symposium
November 4 - 6, 2005 - Dallas, TX
Venkat Subramaniam
Founder of Agile Developer, Inc.
Dr. Venkat Subramaniam, founder of Agile Developer, Inc., has trained and mentored thousands of software developers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Venkat helps his clients effectively apply and succeed with agile practices on their software projects, and speaks frequently at international conferences and user groups. Venkat is also an adjunct faculty and teaches CS courses remotely at the University of Houston. He is author of ".NET Gotchas," coauthor of 2007 Jolt Productivity Award winning "Practices of an Agile Developer," author of "Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer" and "Programming Scala: Tackle Multi-Core Complexity on the Java Virtual Machine" (Pragmatic Bookshelf).
Presentations
Programming with Mock objects
You are convinced that Test Driven Development is good for you and your project. You realize the benefits it has to offer. What's holding you back? All the code and components that your code so heavily depends on is most likely making you wonder if TDD is really for you. We will start out by looking at dependency and dependency inversion. Then we will discuss how mock objects can help separate our code from its dependencies.
In this presentation, we will take an examples oriented approach to utilizing mock objects. We will first hand toss a mock and see how our code benefits from it. Then we will take a look at using frameworks that can assist with the creation of mocks.
Good, Bad and Ugly of Java Generics
Java introduced Generics in the 1.5 version (Java 5). What are the capabilities of Generics? How do you use it? Are there some gotchas in using it? In this example driven presentation, we will start at the basics of generics and look at its capabilities. We will then look at some of the under the hood details on generics implementation. We will then delve into the details of some of the changes to Java libraries to accommodate generics. Finally we will take a look at some restrictions and pitfalls that we need to be familiar with when it comes to practical and prudent use of generics.
Topics: • Need for Generics • Generics in Java • Bounded Parameters • Wildcard • Restrictions • Generics Implementation • Effect of Erasure • Java libraries changes • Pitfalls and pragmatics
Benefits: • Know your generics • See how to create your own generics • Understand issues with converting to genetics • Learn the limitations • Attain the wisdom • Decide if this if for your project
Programming with Aspects
OOP is currently the most popular and practical software development approach. One of the reasons for its popularity is the ability to separate concerns, focusing on behaviors as they relate to business or technical issues. But this very same capability reaches its limits in OOP when it comes to global and crosscutting concerns. Aspect Oriented Programming is receiving attention for its ability to address these concerns. How is it similar and different from OOP? What are the traits of AOP and what are the limitations of utilizing it in projects? In this interactive presentation, the speaker will introduce AOP, discuss its capabilities and benefits, and share his cautious optimism on how to put it to use in your projects.
Topics: • Limitations of OO • Separation of concern • What are Aspects? • What is AOP? • What makes an aspect? • AspectJ, PointCut, Eclipse Plugin • Developmental aspects vs. production aspects • Strengths and pitfalls
Benefits: • Learn what Aspects are • Learn from examples • See how you can use them for your project right now • Understand the pros and cons of aspects • Get ahead on this emerging field
Groovy for Java Programmers
Object-oriented scripting languages, or agile dynamic languages, as some like to call those, are gaining programmers' attention. Groovy bring this excitement to the Java platform with its ability to generate byte code. You can use Groovy instead of Java for some parts of your application. By learning it, you can switch between the languages where you consider fit.
In this session we will learn what Groovy is. We will take an example driven approach to look at interesting features. We will see how a piece of code you would write in Java can be written, elegantly, using Groovy. In addition to the current features, we will also discuss the state of the language and tools.
Agile Methodologies
Agile development is picking up steam. You have heard about eXtreme Programming(XP). What other Agile methodologies are you familar with and what do they bring of interest or significant to the table of Agility? More important, why should you learn about these different methodologies instead of simply focusing on one? There is no one shoe that fits all. Any methodology that requires you to follow it in totality and not let you adapt is rather dogmatic, not pragmatic. To be effective we have to take the best of different approaches and apply to our projects base on our specific needs.
In this session, we will look at different methodologies (XP, Scrum, FDD, Crystal, ...) that promote agility. We then will compare and contrast the features of each. You can take away from the presentation what makes the most sense for your project and team.
Books
by Venkat Subramaniam
List Price: $34.95
Price: $23.18
You Save: $11.77 (34%)
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The increasing popularity and availability of multicore processors is creating a whole new set of challenges--although you can enjoy true concurrency, you're now faced with higher contention and synchronization issues. Deploying an existing application on a multicore processor may bring out previously hidden concurrency issues. Java's multi-threading facility by itself isn't enough---it's a very low level abstraction. Instead, you need a paradigm that provides a higher level of abstraction to deal with concurrency. It's time to embrace Functional Programming.
Scala is a hybrid Object-Oriented/Functional Programming language on the JVM. Using Scala, you can create traditional imperative programs, intermix them with Java code, and at the same time take advantage of higher levels of abstraction. You can use features that lead to concise, highly expressive code that remove the pain of dealing with concurrency.
Programming Scala will show you the fundamentals of functional programming using Scala. Very quickly, you'll learn how this statically typed language can give you dynamic capabilities to create concise, scalable, highly capable concurrent code.
Pragmatic programmers always use the right tool for the job. For concurrent programming on the Java VM, Scala is the tool, and Programming Scala by award-winning author Venkat Subramaniam is your guide.
Price: $23.18
You Save: $11.77 (34%)
-
The increasing popularity and availability of multicore processors is creating a whole new set of challenges--although you can enjoy true concurrency, you're now faced with higher contention and synchronization issues. Deploying an existing application on a multicore processor may bring out previously hidden concurrency issues. Java's multi-threading facility by itself isn't enough---it's a very low level abstraction. Instead, you need a paradigm that provides a higher level of abstraction to deal with concurrency. It's time to embrace Functional Programming.
Scala is a hybrid Object-Oriented/Functional Programming language on the JVM. Using Scala, you can create traditional imperative programs, intermix them with Java code, and at the same time take advantage of higher levels of abstraction. You can use features that lead to concise, highly expressive code that remove the pain of dealing with concurrency.
Programming Scala will show you the fundamentals of functional programming using Scala. Very quickly, you'll learn how this statically typed language can give you dynamic capabilities to create concise, scalable, highly capable concurrent code.
Pragmatic programmers always use the right tool for the job. For concurrent programming on the Java VM, Scala is the tool, and Programming Scala by award-winning author Venkat Subramaniam is your guide.
by Venkat Subramaniam
List Price: $34.95
Price: $21.66
You Save: $13.29 (38%)
-
The strength of Java is no longer in the language itself; it's in the Java Platform (the JVM, JDK, and rich frameworks and libraries). But recently, the industry has turned to dynamic languages for increased productivity and speed to market.
Groovy is one of a new breed of dynamic languages that run on the Java platform. You can use these new languages on the JVM and intermix them with your existing Java code. You can leverage your Java investments while benefiting from advanced features including true Closures, Meta Programming, the ability to create internal DSLs, and a higher level of abstraction.
If you're an experienced Java developer, Programming Groovy will help you learn the necessary fundamentals of programming in Groovy. You'll see how to use Groovy to do advanced programming including using Meta Programming, Builders, Unit Testing with Mock objects, processing XML, working with Databases and creating your own Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs).
Price: $21.66
You Save: $13.29 (38%)
-
The strength of Java is no longer in the language itself; it's in the Java Platform (the JVM, JDK, and rich frameworks and libraries). But recently, the industry has turned to dynamic languages for increased productivity and speed to market.
Groovy is one of a new breed of dynamic languages that run on the Java platform. You can use these new languages on the JVM and intermix them with your existing Java code. You can leverage your Java investments while benefiting from advanced features including true Closures, Meta Programming, the ability to create internal DSLs, and a higher level of abstraction.
If you're an experienced Java developer, Programming Groovy will help you learn the necessary fundamentals of programming in Groovy. You'll see how to use Groovy to do advanced programming including using Meta Programming, Builders, Unit Testing with Mock objects, processing XML, working with Databases and creating your own Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs).
by Venkat Subramaniam and Andy Hunt
List Price: $29.95
Price: $19.70
You Save: $10.25 (34%)
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Want to be a better developer? This books collects the personal habits, ideas, and approaches of successful agile software developers and presents them in a series of short, easy-to-digest tips. This isn't academic fluff; follow these ideas and you'll show yourself, your teammates, and your managers real results. These are the proven and effective agile practices that will make you a better developer.
This book will help you improve five areas of your career:
- The Development Process
- What to Do While Coding
- Developer Attitudes
- Project and Team Management
- Iterative and Incremental Learning
These practices provide guidelines that will help you succeed in delivering and meeting your user's expectations, even if the domain is unfamiliar. You'll be able to keep normal project pressure from turning into disastrous stress while writing code, and see how to effectively coordinate mentors, team leads, and developers in harmony.
You can learn all this stuff the hard way, but this book can save you time and pain. Read it, and you'll be a better developer.
Price: $19.70
You Save: $10.25 (34%)
-
Want to be a better developer? This books collects the personal habits, ideas, and approaches of successful agile software developers and presents them in a series of short, easy-to-digest tips. This isn't academic fluff; follow these ideas and you'll show yourself, your teammates, and your managers real results. These are the proven and effective agile practices that will make you a better developer.
This book will help you improve five areas of your career:
- The Development Process
- What to Do While Coding
- Developer Attitudes
- Project and Team Management
- Iterative and Incremental Learning
These practices provide guidelines that will help you succeed in delivering and meeting your user's expectations, even if the domain is unfamiliar. You'll be able to keep normal project pressure from turning into disastrous stress while writing code, and see how to effectively coordinate mentors, team leads, and developers in harmony.
You can learn all this stuff the hard way, but this book can save you time and pain. Read it, and you'll be a better developer.
by Venkat Subramaniam
List Price: $39.95
Price: $25.38
You Save: $14.57 (36%)
-
Like most complex tasks, .NET programming is fraught with potential costly, and time-consuming hazards. The millions of Microsoft developers worldwide who create applications for the .NET platform can attest to that. Thankfully there's now a book that shows you how to avoid such costly and time-consuming mistakes. It's called .NET Gotchas.
The ultimate guide for efficient, pain-free coding, .NET Gotchas from O'Reilly contains 75 common .NET programming pitfalls--and advice on how to work around them. It will help you steer away from those mistakes that cause application performance problems, or so taint code that it just doesn't work right.
The book is organized into nine chapters, each focusing on those features and constructs of the .NET platform that consistently baffle developers. Within each chapter are several "gotchas," with detailed examples, discussions, and guidelines for avoiding them. No doubt about it, when applied, these concise presentations of best practices will help you lead a more productive, stress-free existence.
What's more, because code examples are written in both VB.NET and C#, .NET Gotchas is of interest to more than 75 percent of the growing numbers of .NET programmers. So if you're a .NET developer who's mired in the trenches and yearning for a better way, this book is most definitely for you.
Price: $25.38
You Save: $14.57 (36%)
-
Like most complex tasks, .NET programming is fraught with potential costly, and time-consuming hazards. The millions of Microsoft developers worldwide who create applications for the .NET platform can attest to that. Thankfully there's now a book that shows you how to avoid such costly and time-consuming mistakes. It's called .NET Gotchas.
The ultimate guide for efficient, pain-free coding, .NET Gotchas from O'Reilly contains 75 common .NET programming pitfalls--and advice on how to work around them. It will help you steer away from those mistakes that cause application performance problems, or so taint code that it just doesn't work right.
The book is organized into nine chapters, each focusing on those features and constructs of the .NET platform that consistently baffle developers. Within each chapter are several "gotchas," with detailed examples, discussions, and guidelines for avoiding them. No doubt about it, when applied, these concise presentations of best practices will help you lead a more productive, stress-free existence.
What's more, because code examples are written in both VB.NET and C#, .NET Gotchas is of interest to more than 75 percent of the growing numbers of .NET programmers. So if you're a .NET developer who's mired in the trenches and yearning for a better way, this book is most definitely for you.
