I can’t put it any simpler: buy and read those 2 books ASAP. Getting Real Rework This is proper stuff. This is stuff that translates into words what you, THE DEVELOPER, would like to have in your daily work life. And probably the reason for which having a pet project, something where you set the rules, helps remaining sane, and sometimes to dream that, one day, you will be on your own.
Just a quick one. First day of the Google I/O 2009 in San Francisco (CA). Apart from a lot of informative and interesting topics and breakout sessions (I mainly focused on App Engine and Android), I came back at home full of: Stickers T-shirt Google Chrome comic paperback version A brand new “Google I/O device”, that is a black HTC Magic sim and firmware unlocked for developers + Android Market with Paid Apps support + Amazon Mp3 store +…!!!. How much? For FREE, of course!!! ...
I just wrote a comment to an article I read on the Symbian Foundation blog: "Improving the developer experience", by David Wood. I think it’s worth replicating it here: detronizator Says: May 18, 2009 at 9:58 AM @Mark Burton: I had EXACTLY the same experience. It was like jumping back to the “future” of software development and see that IT’S NOT MANDATORY to have to deal with ANCIENT C++ to write software for mobile. More funny: it’s all based on Open Source/Open Standard technologies, like gdb and qemu!!! @wtr1: Did you ever see Android running on the Emulator (because that’s what it is: WINSCW is a SIMULATOR)? And Symbian itself? I did when I was there. A guy started working on Symbian for QEMU, achieving to start th OS in a 10th of the time, if not less. Even faster than ANDROID to boot!!! But at that time people took me as a fool for supporting this guy so strongly… Seriously: WINSCW is “theoretically” faster but so badly written that it’s actually slower. @David Wood: I basically agree with you, but to say that “there isn’t such a Symbian controlled by manufacturers”, it’s what I’ll call “more than just a personal and partial opinion”. The control and the “steering” of THE manufacturer (who said “Nokia?”) was in every step that was taken in Symbian. And that was absolutely “correct”: after all Nokia owned the most of it. Now you are “step by step” trying to change this. But the problems you are dealing today are heritage of a “not so far past”. And, as you said yourself, “it’s not going to change overnight”. A last thought: I’m realizing that the most of those posts are focused on discussing the “technical philosophy”, “political moves”, “current market”, “business model” of Symbian but… are we ever actually going to discuss technical and more interesting stuff? And, bear in mind, this is not a critic to the audience here, neither to the bloggers (who always arise good, important and interesting points): my critic is to make people realize that the problems of this Platform are so “deep in developers soul” and “frustrating for beeing so old complex”, that the main discuss driver is always away from the technical stuff. For example: what about “common mistakes made by C++ developers and how symbian address and solve them” or “how to build a Client-Server architecture in 5 minutes” or “how to optimize performance of a UI-intensive application” or “how to generate JSON files in your web-based S60 app”… and I could say more. Developers, at least of my age, want code, snippets, smart patterns and so on… My 5 cents. PS Please, bear in mind that WINSCW is a “SIMULATOR”, while QEMU is an “EMULATOR”, like the ARM one that Nokia preferred to QEMU… and we are still waiting here! :P PPS At least this is the definition you can find on books from Tanenbaum or Sterling. ...
That was pretty exciting. A free, big, enlightening event about the “Google Stuff”… Ok, ok. Who spoke with me here knows that it was NOT so enlightening: most of the knowledge they brought from USA is and was already available on the web. But that’s probably not the point. The point is, I believe, to share. Share the culture, the vision and… the APIs. The Venue: Wembley Stadium!!! I went there for mainly two topics: Android and AppEngine. About Android, the presenter, Mike Jennings, was very funny (and you will see him as the second presenter in the video below) and a “great character”. But his knowledge of the Platform was pretty basic. I believe he sort of Project Manager or something like that. Plus, in the second part they invited to do a “technical talk about the SDK” a guy, Carl-Gustaf Harroch. He is developing an application that involves a bit of LBS (Location Based Services) and some Google Maps. Ok nice, but he straggled quite soon with our questions about… almost everything of the SDK. And, yes, I was quite bastard with my own questions. Come one: how can you do a talk like that without even knowing “enough” what is the meaning of the Tags within the AndroidManifest.xml? He was even quite young and not very confident, and he was unable to introduce the basic concepts before talking about more complex and in deep stuff. At the end, quite disappointing session, I must say. Probably, I knew more about it :-P . The USB freebie ;) About AppEngine, I went to a “CodeLab”: a session where you are supposed to code. And I did, focusing more on my own Python code. They were available for help and questions, either about the application they proposed to build, or about your own. “In chair”, Mano Marks: confident. Probably too confident. But, at the end, he was helpful, even if an answer or two where quite “upsetting” (I mean: if I ask a question about something you don’t know, and I tell you that you are wrong, don’t be arrogant and confident; wait and see my proof!!!). Now, let’s see the Keynote: ...
Google finally announced the winners of the First Round of the Android Developer Challenges. There are 10 x $275,000 prizes and 10 x $100,000 prizes. $3,750,000 in prizes!!!. Not bad I must say. There are some pretty cool apps, with a very clean and nice UI: demonstration of the power and flexibility of the Android Graphical Widgets Framework. Take a look at them in the official gallery. Congratulations to the Winners!!!
This time the main topic was about “Developer Productivity”. It was one of the most funny I have ever attended: a couple of speaker were just “crazy” (but in a good way)! ;) If interested in knowing more, here is a transcript of the event: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dm58hwb_5f93zjrcd.