Application Architect at ThoughtWorks, Inc.
Neal Ford is an Application Architect for ThoughtWorks. He is an architect, designer, and developer of applications, instructional materials, magazine articles, and video/DVD presentations. Neal is also the author of Developing with Delphi: Object-Oriented Techniques (Prentice Hall PTR, 1996), JBuilder 3 Unleashed (SAMS Publishing, 1999), and Art of Java Web Development (Manning, 2003). His language proficiencies include Java, C#/.NET, Ruby, Object Pascal, C++, and C. Neal’s primary consulting focus is the design and construction of large-scale enterprise applications. He is also an internationally acclaimed speaker, having spoken at over 30 developers’ conferences worldwide.Presentations by Neal Ford
Code Metrics & Analysis for Agile Projects
What does code + methodology have to do with one another? Everything! Agile projects focus on delivering working code, and tools exist to allow you to verify some quality metrics for your code. This session is a survey of tools and metrics that allow you to determine the quality of your code and strategies to "wire it" into your agile project.The Productive Programmer: Mechanics
Developers from the 1980s would be shocked at how inefficiently developers use their computers because of the advent of graphical operating systems. This talk describes how to reclaim productivity afforded by intelligent use of command lines and other ways of accelerating your interaction with the computer and bending computers to do your bidding. Stop working so hard for your computer!Evolutionary SOA
This session demonstrates that "Agility" and "SOA" complement each other quite well. Just because SOA is buzz-word compliant doesn't mean that you should throw good practices out the window. This session demonstrates how you can apply the principles of agility to building highly complex distributed enterprises.Comparing JRuby and Groovy
Rather than stand around and sling mud between the Groovy and JRuby tribes, this session delves deep into the similarities and differences between the two, allowing attendees to make informed decisions about their next Java dialect.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.Dynamicizing Your Day Job
This session shows you how you can introduce dynamic languages like Groovy and JRuby into you day job without making anyone nervous.Test Driven Design
Most developers think that "TDD" stands for Test-driven Development. But it really should stand for "Test-driven Design". Rigorously using TDD makes your code much better in multiple ways.Rails for JRuby
This session explains all the hype surrounding Ruby on Rails, in a context familiar to Java developers. It covers convention over configuration, ActiveRecord, controllers, views, Ajax, scaffolding, testing, and deployment...on the JVM, using JRuby.Productive Programmer: Acceleration & Automation
Developers from the 1980s would be shocked at how inefficiently developers use their computers because of the advent of graphical operating systems. This talk describes how to reclaim productivity afforded by intelligent use of command lines and other ways of accelerating your interaction with the computer and bending computers to do your bidding. Stop working so hard for your computer!Meta-programming JRuby for Fun & Profit
Ruby is the revenge of the Smalltalkers. Not since Smalltalk has a language had such powerful meta-programming facilities. While this may seem like a minor feature, it turns out that surgical meta-programming allows solutions to problems that are clearer, more concise, more maintainable, and take orders of magnitudes fewer lines of code."Design Patterns" in Dynamic Languages
The Gang of Four book should have been entitled "Palliatives for Statically Typed Languages", because the recipes it provides are cumbersome solutions to the problems it poses. Using powerful languages makes the solutions in the GoF book look hopelessly complicated. This session shows how to solve the same problems concisely, elegantly, and with far fewer lines of code using the facilities of dynamic languages.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.Building DSLs in Static and Dynamic Languages
This session discusses building Domain Specific Languages and DSL-style code in Java, Groovy, and Ruby. It discusses the different types of DSLs, details on how to implement them in Java, Groovy, and Ruby, and example problem domains where DSLs make sense.Keynote: Ancient Philosophers & Blowhard Jamborees
It turns out that ancient philosophers knew a lot about software -- did you know that Plato defined object-oriented programming? This keynote applies old lessons to new problems and old problems to new lessons. It describes why SOA is so hard, and why people in your company make bone-headed decisions. What other keynote includes Rube Goldberg, Aristotle, Dave Thomas, and Chindia?Pragmatic Extreme Programming
This session talks about how to actually get XP done in the real world (and what to tell your boss).Agile Project Management (With Just a Bit About Mingle)
You can read books about Agile projects, but you must consult real-world experience to really understand the dynamics of agile project management. This session discusses agile management topics including estimation, project tracking, and useful metrics (and how to obtain them). And just a little about Mingle, the agile project tracking tool from ThoughtWorks.Productive Programmer: Canonicality & Focus
Getting work done in modern office environments is a daunting task. This session tackles 2 of the things that drag down developer productivity: lack of focus and creeping repetition.Introduction to JRuby
This session describes JRuby, the 100% pure-Java implementation of the Ruby programming language. It covers the basics of programming with JRuby and examples of how to integrate it into existing Java projects.Books by Neal Ford
by Neal Ford
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A guide to the topics required for state of the art web development, this book covers wide-ranging topics, including a variety of web development frameworks and best practices. Beginning with coverage of the history of the architecture of web applications, highlighting the uses of the standard web API to create applications with increasingly sophisticated architectures, developers are led through a discussion on the development of industry accepted best practices for architecture.
Described is the history and evolution towards this architecture and the reasons that it is superior to previous efforts. Also provided is an overview of the most popular web application frameworks, covering their architecture and use. Numerous frameworks exist, but trying to evaluate them is difficult because their documentation stresses their advantages but hides their deficiencies. Here, the same application is built in six different frameworks, providing a way to perform an informed comparison. Also provided is an evaluation of the pros and cons of each framework to assist in making a decision or evaluating a framework on your own. Finally, best practices are covered, including sophisticated user interface techniques, intelligent caching and resource management, performance tuning, debugging, testing, and Web services. - Available At: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1932394060/qid..
Meme Agora
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
It came to my attention recently that I had made a bad assumption about the Productive Programmer book. My understanding (and apparently this is common) is that the technical reviewers of the book would get an entry on the title page of the book. Apparently, that's not the case. That's why I didn't put them in the acknowledgements: I assumed they had already been recognized. But they haven't, so I'm going to rectify it.
First, I've added a special paragraph to the acknowledgements in the 2nd printing of the book, thanking the hard-working technical reviewers. This is a little unusual (generally, nothing changes between printings, but I felt badly about this). The other thing I'm going to do is thank them here. This is the new paragraph in the 2nd printing:
A special thanks goes out to the technical reviewers for this book. Without their hard work and dedication, this book would suffer lots of silly mistakes and confusing explanations. Thanks to Greg Ostravich (who has reviewed every book of mine for the last few years and gotten no recognition, unfortunately), Venkat Subramaniam, David Bock, Nathaniel Schutta, and Matthew McCullough.
Greg gets a special thanks. He's reviewed everything I've written over the past few years, and circumstances keep preventing him from being acknowledged. In the 2006 No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology (which he reviewed), I was under the same mistaken assumption that the reviewers got a shout out. In the 2007 No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology (which he reviewed), I specifically wrote a thanks to him and the other reviewers. But, alas, the book came in too long, and several pieces got cut, along with my original introduction to the book (it was replaced by Ted Neward's). Unfortunately, the shout out got axed with the introduction. And, now, clearly demonstrating hope over experience, Greg volunteered to review the Productive Programmer, and the same thing happened. So while I'm thanking the other Productive Programmer technical reviewers, I'm both thanking and begging forgiveness from Greg. Good job, buddy, and unacknowledged for too long.
First, I've added a special paragraph to the acknowledgements in the 2nd printing of the book, thanking the hard-working technical reviewers. This is a little unusual (generally, nothing changes between printings, but I felt badly about this). The other thing I'm going to do is thank them here. This is the new paragraph in the 2nd printing:
A special thanks goes out to the technical reviewers for this book. Without their hard work and dedication, this book would suffer lots of silly mistakes and confusing explanations. Thanks to Greg Ostravich (who has reviewed every book of mine for the last few years and gotten no recognition, unfortunately), Venkat Subramaniam, David Bock, Nathaniel Schutta, and Matthew McCullough.
Greg gets a special thanks. He's reviewed everything I've written over the past few years, and circumstances keep preventing him from being acknowledged. In the 2006 No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology (which he reviewed), I was under the same mistaken assumption that the reviewers got a shout out. In the 2007 No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology (which he reviewed), I specifically wrote a thanks to him and the other reviewers. But, alas, the book came in too long, and several pieces got cut, along with my original introduction to the book (it was replaced by Ted Neward's). Unfortunately, the shout out got axed with the introduction. And, now, clearly demonstrating hope over experience, Greg volunteered to review the Productive Programmer, and the same thing happened. So while I'm thanking the other Productive Programmer technical reviewers, I'm both thanking and begging forgiveness from Greg. Good job, buddy, and unacknowledged for too long.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Last year, one of the most refreshing conferences where I spoke was the Rich Web Experience. Too often, conferences are mono-cultures, and mono-cultures are generally boring. RWE is fundamentally different because it's what I call a condiment conference. The focus is on how to make applications better, not how to make the plumbing better. Nothing wrong with plumbing, mind you, it's just refreshing to look at faucets for a change. This conference has an eclectic mix of developers. Hallway conversations lack the implicit assumptions you can generally make at main course conferences. For example, all Java developers have an implicit context. At The Rich Web Experience, you have to throw away your base assumptions, both in sessions and conversations. Just like travel broadens you because you meet people with different contexts and experiences, attending the Rich Web Experience does the same for technologists. Instead of the usual low-level animosity that each technology tribe exhibits for the non-tribe members, everyone focuses on common ground. This year, there are 2: one near the east coast and another on the west.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
OK, it's finally here. I got my copy of The Productive Programmer in the mail last week, and today Amazon updated it's status to "In stock". For all those who have been patiently awaiting this book, it's finally here. Finally! The first glimmer of this book started in 2005(!), so it's taken upwards of 3 years to convert what David Bock and I were talking about into actual tree-ware. Because it took so long to produce, I suggest that, if you are going to buy one, you should go ahead and buy 2, in case you lose one. And, of course, nothing says loving to your spouse like an O'Reilly book. A great gift for anniversaries, birthdays, bar mitzvah's, etc. Even if you don't buy the book (and can ignore my bitter tears) and you still have an interest in developer productivity, you can head over to the Productive Programmer wiki and contribute.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Back in January of 2007, I wrote about my impressions of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the Sony eReader electronic book reader. I thought I’d update that, given my time with the device and the eBook service. And the news isn’t good.
One of the major annoyances of the eReader is the inability to reflow PDFs. That’s a complex problem, so they get a pass on the actual reflowing part. The solution they offered was the ability to view PDFs in either of two formats: either the entire page or just the width of the text on the page. The latter worked reasonably well for most PDFs when viewed in the landscape mode of the eReader. But here’s the fatal bug: when you switch pages in the PDF view, it restores the “width of text” view to the “width of page” view, but doesn’t update the mode on the reader. Thus, you must hit the button to actually get it back to what it thinks is officially “width of page” view, then hit it again to actually get back to “width of text” mode. Page refreshes on the eReader are very slow, which isn’t a big deal when reading a book because you only have to do it occasionally. But forcing the multiple page switches just to restore it to the mode it says it’s on is deadly. It effectively made reading PDFs on the device unpalatable. I reported this back in my original review, and predicted that it would be fixed in a software update (leaving aside for the moment how the device could have ever shipped with such an obvious bug).
It never happened. The new version of the reader came out with no software update in sight for this killer bug. I don’t know if they’ve fixed it in the new version because, frankly, I wouldn’t take one if they gave it to me. They did offer to sell me a new one when my original died. I turned it on one day in December and the screen was a garbled mess. I contacted their support who told me that, since mine was out of warranty, my best course of action was to purchase another, new version. That’s never going to happen.
In fact, the whole experience has soured me on Sony. They used to compete in mind share at least with Apple for delivering innovative products, with a modicum of understanding things like design and aesthetics. Apparently, they’ve abandoned that. I still own a single Sony product, the PSP Portable, which embodies many good features and design touches. But seeing how they treat their customers for an admittedly small, trivial market is enough for me to cast all their products in doubt. They clearly don’t have any concept of quality assurance (given the original bug) or responsibility (never fixing it). It’s a shame too because reading actual eBooks on the reader wasn’t bad. I probably read about 40 books on it, and liked it a lot. But, given that you can’t read PDFs on it, and their eBook format is proprietary (another annoying characteristic about Sony — memory sticks anyone?), I won’t buy another one.
I’ve looked at the Kindle but haven’t taken the plunge yet. I want a killer user experience, and it doesn’t look like it. I wish Apple (or someone who understands design like Apple) would release an eReader so I could read the Neal Stephenson Baroque Trilogy without herniating myself!
One of the major annoyances of the eReader is the inability to reflow PDFs. That’s a complex problem, so they get a pass on the actual reflowing part. The solution they offered was the ability to view PDFs in either of two formats: either the entire page or just the width of the text on the page. The latter worked reasonably well for most PDFs when viewed in the landscape mode of the eReader. But here’s the fatal bug: when you switch pages in the PDF view, it restores the “width of text” view to the “width of page” view, but doesn’t update the mode on the reader. Thus, you must hit the button to actually get it back to what it thinks is officially “width of page” view, then hit it again to actually get back to “width of text” mode. Page refreshes on the eReader are very slow, which isn’t a big deal when reading a book because you only have to do it occasionally. But forcing the multiple page switches just to restore it to the mode it says it’s on is deadly. It effectively made reading PDFs on the device unpalatable. I reported this back in my original review, and predicted that it would be fixed in a software update (leaving aside for the moment how the device could have ever shipped with such an obvious bug).
It never happened. The new version of the reader came out with no software update in sight for this killer bug. I don’t know if they’ve fixed it in the new version because, frankly, I wouldn’t take one if they gave it to me. They did offer to sell me a new one when my original died. I turned it on one day in December and the screen was a garbled mess. I contacted their support who told me that, since mine was out of warranty, my best course of action was to purchase another, new version. That’s never going to happen.
In fact, the whole experience has soured me on Sony. They used to compete in mind share at least with Apple for delivering innovative products, with a modicum of understanding things like design and aesthetics. Apparently, they’ve abandoned that. I still own a single Sony product, the PSP Portable, which embodies many good features and design touches. But seeing how they treat their customers for an admittedly small, trivial market is enough for me to cast all their products in doubt. They clearly don’t have any concept of quality assurance (given the original bug) or responsibility (never fixing it). It’s a shame too because reading actual eBooks on the reader wasn’t bad. I probably read about 40 books on it, and liked it a lot. But, given that you can’t read PDFs on it, and their eBook format is proprietary (another annoying characteristic about Sony — memory sticks anyone?), I won’t buy another one.
I’ve looked at the Kindle but haven’t taken the plunge yet. I want a killer user experience, and it doesn’t look like it. I wish Apple (or someone who understands design like Apple) would release an eReader so I could read the Neal Stephenson Baroque Trilogy without herniating myself!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Last weekend, I spoke at the Agile Experience in Reston. It was a great conference, lots of interesting topics, and a different crowd than most technical conferences. Half the attendees were managers, and everyone was enthused about Agile development. The experience level with Agile was diverse too, so it was fun to get out-of-the-blue questions. My first talk was Real-World Agile, and I start that talk by soliciting the agenda from the crowd (I open up a text editor and make the group tell me what they want to talk about). That was great here because it let me understand the actual pain points for the attendees, and it makes for a more interesting presentation for me.
On Friday night, we had a wide-ranging expert panel discussion which ranged from methodology to soft skills to cultural fit. And it was recorded. Come hear me stereotype all Americans as assholes!
On Friday night, we had a wide-ranging expert panel discussion which ranged from methodology to soft skills to cultural fit. And it was recorded. Come hear me stereotype all Americans as assholes!
