Monthly Archives: February 2011

Cross training in software

Several months ago, the opportunity arose to work on a project in Flex.  Brian Genisio has had a lot of experience with WPF and Silverlight and he expressed interest in the Flex project.   While there are a lot of differences between the Adobe world and the Microsoft world, Brian found similarities as well.  And he learned that there are things about each platform that he appreciates over the other.  By learning Flex, he’s become a better Silverlight developer, and by knowing Silverlight, he had quick and substantial success with Flex.  He’s been blogging about the experience, and it’s quite interesting.

We asked James Ward if he would like to do a Flex Jam in Ann Arbor, as we’ve done in previous years. We were thrilled when he agreed.  If you think that you might want to join James (and Brian) in learning Flex in an interactive coding workshop, you can get more information or register at http://www.srtsolutions.com/flex-training.  It’s not just for Java or Flex developers!  If you’re a Silverlight developer, check out Brian’s blog and see if you think learning Flex would help make you a better developer.

Scala training from Escalate Software coming to Ann Arbor in May

Bill Venners, co-author of Programming in Scala 2nd Edition, and Dick Wall, Scala aficionado and podcaster extraordinare, will be coming to Ann Arbor from May 23-27 to teach their intensive hands-on Scala course.  You can attend the beginner course (3 days) or the advance course (2 days) or both.  You don’t need to be a functional programming guru to attend.  The assumption is that you have had exposure to one or more object-oriented languages.  C# or Java experience might be helpful but is not required.

Bill and Dick have previously taught this class in the Bay Area, but this is the first time that they will offer it outside of that region.   I’m thrilled that they have chosen Ann Arbor for the class!

You can get more information about the workshop on the registration page. The page includes recommendations from previous attendees as well as travel information for the Ann Arbor class.  Registration is now live.  Early bird pricing goes through March 22.

I know that I’m looking forward to the course.  I hope that you will join us!