On August 21st I’ll once again venture out of my cave for a trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana where I’ll spread more F# love with my friends at NUFW.
If you’re in the Fort Wayne area and want to learn about how F# and functional programming principles can improve your software, please join us. The doors open at 6:00 for networking and the main event begins at 6:30. Be sure to check NUFW ‘s events page for the latest logistics information.
I know I’ve been quiet for a few months but don’t worry, I haven’t disappeared. Instead I’ve been hard at work on an upcoming F# book! The book has consumed most of my time but not being one to pass up a chance to talk about my obsession I’m making the trip down to Bloomington, IN at the end of the month to talk to the Bloomington .NET Society.
If you’re in the Bloomington area on June 27th and interested in learning about F#, please join us. You can find the full meeting details on the group’s site: http://dotnet.indiana.edu/news/jun-2013-meeting.
I hope to see you there!
The March IndySA meeting is this Thursday. I’m excited for the opportunity to spread around a bit more F# love as this month’s speaker. If you’re looking for a fun way to fill the evening please join us at the SEP office in Carmel at 5:30 PM. All of the logistics details are available on the meetup site.
I hope to see you there!
About the Talk
F# Needs Love Too
Originally developed by Microsoft Research, Cambridge, F# is an open-source, functional-first language in the ML family. Despite its lofty position as a first-class Visual Studio language for the past two releases and its cross-platform availability it hasn’t seen widespread adoption in the business world. In this talk we’ll take an introductory look at F#, exploring how its constructs and terse syntax can allow you to write more stable, maintainable code while keeping you focused on the problem rather than the plumbing.
This isn’t the post I wanted to write tonight but I knew the time was coming. The leadership of the Indianapolis .NET Developers Association (IndyNDA) announced in its LinkedIn group that its December meeting will be its last.
IndyNDA has had a good run. Having endured for nearly 12 years it has been a cornerstone of the Indianapolis development community. When I moved to Indianapolis seven years ago it was the go-to place for all things .NET. Having come from a small user group in Fort Wayne I was a bit overwhelmed by the size of IndyNDA meetings at first but it has been part of my life most of the time I’ve lived here, increasingly so over the past four years.
I credit IndyNDA for helping craft me into the developer I am today. Over time IndyNDA broke me out of my shell. Through IndyNDA I’ve learned about things I probably would never been exposed to; I’ve formed relationships with people I’d probably never have met; and I’ve had opportunities I’d probably never have found on my own. I can’t thank the people of IndyNDA enough for its impact on me.
While I’m sad to see the group end I understand. The world has changed a lot in the past decade. When IndyNDA started it was the only game in town. Back then we didn’t have social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn; we didn’t have answer sites like StackExchange; and we didn’t have webcasts of every major development conference. All of this comes at a price though and in this case it’s that groups like IndyNDA have diminished importance.
IndyNDA may be coming to an end but I have high hopes for the future of the Indianapolis development community. Per the announcement IndyTechFest will be making a comeback next year and there are certainly other events around town as evidenced by a quick Meetup search. In the meantime though I’d like to thank Brad Jones, Dave Leininger, Dan Rigsby, Joel Dart, Alex Gheith, and everyone else that has led the group through the years. Your contributions are appreciated.
Thanks to everyone that attended one of my Microsoft Fakes talks this week. I hope the sessions were beneficial. I just uploaded the slides to SlideShare for you to review at your leisure.
If you attended one of my sessions could do me a quick favor by taking a moment to rate the talk on SpeakerRate?
NUFW (6/12/2012)
IndyNDA (6/14/2012)
Thanks!
If you’re interested in learning about the Fakes framework (formerly Microsoft Moles) that’s included with Visual Studio 2012 you have two opportunities to do so this week. Those in Fort Wayne, Indiana should attend tomorrow’s (June 12) NUFW meeting. If Indianapolis is more convenient, feel free to attend Thursday’s IndyNDA meeting instead. Of course, if you just want to heckle me attending both is also an option!
If either of these events interest you please check the appropriate group’s site for logistics. I hope to see you there!
When Jay Harris told me at KalamazooX that he was going to be speaking at IndyNDA soon I got really excited. That’s why I’m upset that for the first time in nearly two years I can’t make it! On the bright side, I’ll be hanging out with my wife in Las Vegas as we celebrate our 10 year anniversary.
This month Jay is going to discuss a few of the ASP.NET MVC view engines, namely Spark, Razor, and NHaml. Jay is a great speaker and an all around good guy so if you can make this event I highly recommend it.
This month’s meeting will be at:
Wiley Publishing
10475 Crosspoint Blvd
Indianapolis, IN 46256
Ok, this should be the last post about speaking engagements for a while ;) I have something else in the works that’s going to take a lot of my attention for some time (more on that on Friday).
I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be returning to Fort Wayne in June to talk about the Microsoft Fakes framework (formerly the Moles framework). In this talk I’ll introduce the Fakes framework, discuss the use cases for the different isolation techniques, and show how to take advantage of them in your unit tests.
The meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 12 at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center. Pizza and drinks will be available at 6:00 with the presentation starting at 6:30. For more information please check the NUFW site.
A new .NET User Group has formed at Indiana University and I have the honor of being their first speaker. Join us on Thursday, April 19 from 2:00 – 4:00 PM in room CG 2061 at the Kelley School of Business in Bloomington. For this event I’ll be covering Parallel Programming in .NET 4. We may even look at a few examples of the upcoming async and await keywords – time permitting, of course.
Be sure to check the IU .NET User Group page for logistics information including a remote viewing location and streaming information.
I hope you can attend!
It’s the second week of February so if you read this blog with any frequency you know what that means. That’s right, IndyNDA is this Thursday (9 February)! This month we’re fortunate to have Phil Japikse returning to discuss testing legacy code.
Michael Feathers defines Legacy Code as any code that doesn’t have automated tests, and you agree that automated tests are an important facet of successful software development. Then it happens – you get your next assignment, and it’s your worst nightmare! You have to maintain and enhance a large application that has no tests in place, and there are parts that are just plain scary. Where do you start? Traditional Test Driven Development techniques don’t typically work, since they focus on an inside-out development paradigm.
I will show you the patterns and practices that will help you turn the scary big ball of mud into a tested code base.
I’m excited to have Phil back. I’ve heard him speak many times and have always found his talks both informative and entertaining.
This month we’re meeting in the 2nd floor conference room at 900 E. 96th Street. Registration begins at 5:30 and the main event kicks off at 6:00. Snacks and soft drinks will be provided.
I hope to see you there!
Didactic Code 