Kenneth Kousen
New England Software Symposium
Boston · March 16 - 18, 2018
President, Kousen IT, Inc.
Ken Kousen is a Java Champion, several time JavaOne Rock Star, and a Grails Rock Star. He is the author of the Pragmatic Library books “Mockito Made Clear” and “Help Your Boss Help You,” the O'Reilly books “Kotlin Cookbook”, “Modern Java Recipes”, and “Gradle Recipes for Android”, and the Manning book “Making Java Groovy”. He also has recorded over a dozen video courses for the O'Reilly Learning Platform, covering topics related to Android, Spring, Java, Groovy, Grails, and Gradle.
His academic background include BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from M.I.T., an MA and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and an MS in Computer Science from R.P.I. He is currently President of Kousen IT, Inc., based in Connecticut.
Presentations
Mental Bookmarks and the Fractal Nature of Success
Good discussions are supposed to diverge from their intended path. Free association is a feature, not a bug, and helps you see new connections between ideas. Without structure, however, it can be difficult to add context to new ideas and understand how they relate to more immediate problems. This talk discusses the technique of mental bookmarks – how to remember where you were when a discussion diverged. In addition to giving you a reputation for having an amazing memory, the skill also helps with personal awareness in general.
Kotlin: Safe, Pragmatic Interoperability on the JVM
Kotlin is a practical language designed for the JVM. It focuses on pragmatism and safety, with an emphasis on interoperability and tool support. Kotlin is statically typed and includes null checks in the type system itself. The language runs anywhere Java does, from microservices to Android apps. This workshop will show how to use Kotlin to simplify anything you originally planned to do in Java.
Gradle In Depth
Gradle is the build tool of choice in the open source world, and rapidly becoming the standard in industry as well. Anyone who works with Gradle on a Java project knows the basics of the Java plugin and how to write simple tasks in Groovy. Gradle can do much more, however. This talk will demonstrate how to write your own custom task classes and how to create Gradle plugins from them. Other Gradle features will be demonstrated as well, including file manipulation, incremental builds, generating the Grade wrapper, and resolving conflicts in dependencies.
Beyond Managing Your Manager
This is a revised and updated version of the previous talk, with current thinking from practice and the literature. The talk presents why conflicts with your manager are inevitable based on differences in priorities and perspectives, and how to plan for them. The goal is to show you how to build the loyalty relationship that allows you to get what you need when you need it.
Latest Features In Java
Java is now on a six-month release schedule, with new features being added all the time. This talk summarizes the features that have been added to Java, including collection factory methods, private methods in interfaces, records, the enhanced switch statement, and more. The goal is to show not only what has been added, but why and where to use them.
Gradle Fundamentals
The Gradle build tool is one of the most successful projects in the Groovy ecosystem because it addresses a difficult problem – every major build is a custom build. Gradle builds are written in Groovy, so the full power of the language is available if you need it. Gradle supports Maven project structure and repositories and uses Ivy dependency management without being bound by their normal constraints. With major systems like Grails, Hibernate, and the Spring Framework moving to Gradle, this is a technology worth taking the time to understand.
Android Development, Part 1
There are currently over two billion Android devices in the world, ranging from phones to tablets to wearables to automotive apps. Each of them supports development using the open source Android operating system. This talk will show how to create an Android project, work with Activities and Intents, and work with the underlying Gradle build system.
Android Development, Part 2
Building on Part 1, this talk will add REST capabilities, discuss how to work with SQL databases, and perform asynchronous methods in Android.
Kotlin for Android
Adoption of the Kotlin programming language has been most rapid among Android developers. Kotlin is ideally suited to Android development, because it is safe, fast, and optimized for small footprint environments. It is also officially supported by Google for Android development. This talk will review the features of Kotlin that work best for Android, from using the Android Studio IDE, to working with lambda expressions, using extension methods, and more.
The Groovy Way
Like all languages, Groovy code can be written in many different ways. This talk will review how to write Groovy that follows the most commonly accepted idioms and practices, especially in light of the changes in Java 8. Features demonstrates will include closures, class and method definitions that best accommodate Java integration, testing techniques, and more.