Did you have fun at Codecamp Iasi? We know we had a blast. This past May we celebrated our 10th year anniversary. We want to thank our partners, speakers and attendees for helping us refine the Codecamp mission: to build an IT community like no other.
Great things have happened between May 10 and May 20. We’ve had challenging masterclasses, conferences, and a cool hackathon with practical insights on “How to Develop a Habit of Learning”. We’ve welcomed some of the brightest minds in the IT scene to participate in a race for solutions aimed at solving issues in industries like fin-tech, public transportation, auto, and more.
What happened at the Masterclasses
Top international trainers and IT specialists rocked Codecamp’s Masterclasses. Our attendees learned useful tips and tricks on a range of technologies and disciplines. We were blown away by the energy, and desire to learn of all attendees.
We divided the workshops in 2 days; to give the speakers enough time to share their knowledge and interact with the participants. The topics covered a range of disciplines and technologies, including architecture, Java, .NET, security, and web apps.
Six speakers shared their insight, each focusing on a specific topic of interest. In case you missed the topics, here’s the overview.
- Axel Fontaine – Architecting for Continuous Delivery and Zero Downtime
- DINO ESPOSITO – Developing ASP.NET Core Applications
- RAOUL-GABRIEL URMA – Modern Development with Java 8
- GREG TWOREK – Hacking and Hardening Windows Infrastructure
- Chander Dall – UI, API and Server Side – Beginner to Advanced in One Day
- ADRIAN RÎNDAŞU – Coaching to Build Capacity
Dino Esposito wowed us with some really cool stuff about the art of building software. Author of many popular books on ASP.NET and software architecture, Dino emphasized that a more modern view of DDD, moving the accent onto a different part of the DDD theory—the strategic design patterns—which definitely help in keeping a software project right on track.
“I believe that ASP.NET Core is absolutely crucial for the future of web development on the Microsoft stack. However, for the time being, I don’t consider it to be truly mature from prime time with a few exceptions.
My workshop is mostly about making scenarios that really give business value on .NET Core and ASP.NET Core in particular the evidence and to get people’s attention on those scenarios while making it clear that the present and the future of web development on the Microsoft stack is using the MVC application model which is the only application model supported on Core. So Core is here and will last but is not necessarily a must at this time.”
What happened at the Conference
The Codecamp 2-day International Conference was a real success. We loved the energy, enthusiasm, and the drive of everyone present to learn more about cool topics in the areas of architecture, microservices, continuous delivery, Docker, Java 8 & 9, DDD, security, databases, Node.js, JavaScript, React, Data Driven UI, AI/AR/VR and many more. The first day of the conference (May 12) was split into 3 different tracks.
Raoul-Gabriel Urma kick-started track 1 with some insight into Pragmatic Functional Refactoring with Java 8. There’s been a lot of buzz around functional programming lately. Java 8 recently introduced new features (lambda expressions and method references) and APIs (Streams, Optional and CompletableFutures) inspired from functional ideas such as first-class functions, composition, and immutability. Raoul-Gabriel Urma has shed light on the transition from Java 7 to Java 8 and from Java 8 to Java 9 in a short interview:
“From Java 7 to Java 8 there’s quite a Big Change on how we think about writing code and how we’re making code. Java 8 has many functional programming features which help make the code more readable and maintainable over time.
In terms of Java 8 to Java 9 these are still early days. At the moment Java 9 is still in early access. There’s a lot of discussion about using the module system which makes it a bit unclear whether the community is ready to make use of that. However, Java 9 does include different API additions to streams, collectors, optionals and completable features.
Java is probably one of the last languages to really hop on the functional programming bandwagon. It’s a bit late. Functional programming makes things fun again in Java. More importantly it helps write flexible code and reduces the scope for bugs. Those are characteristics that any software developer should embrace.”
Watch Raoul’s full interview here:
Next, we had Axel Fontaine share some insight into “Immutable Infrastructure: Rise of the Machine Images”.
“I strongly believe that by having less moving parts in your infrastructure when you have your production environment you actually want something that’s as deterministic as possible. This is what immutable infrastructure brings to the table because this is how you know exactly what is present in each machine, by having the machines being derived of some kind of image when you then create instances. If there’s any issue with those instances, you don’t log in and modify them anymore. You just throw them away, create a new one and deploy the new one. You have a highly deterministic process where you can guarantee that you have the same code running across all environments from development all the way to production.” – Axel Fontaine.
Chander Dhall took some time to share with us some tips on scaling a mid-sized application.
“It’s not only about scaling but about the performance that goes in behind it. It’s not only the database but the APIs, the offline processing, the no sequel part, etc. There are so many things to consider when making sure your performance is good. It’s not just regular code but code that works and at the same time scales and performs well.
If you have a mid-size application, whatever you choose, make sure it is something that you can scale later. For example, if you choose a database for no sequel, make sure that it’s something that gives you things you think of today but also things that you may want a few years later.”
Watch the full interview here:
Still concerned with your Windows Security? Greg Tworek has been working with Windows Security since the very beginning of his professional career. He shared:
“If we leave any hole in the guard of the Windows Operating System, it’s very easy to get in and go around and break the whole protection. Sometimes it’s a hard drive that you can take out of the laptop and analyze it somewhere else, sometimes it’s about a week admin password, etc. The point is that if there is one weak point, that can break everything up.”
Other cool speakers and topics covered:
- Alex Moldovan – “Fun and Practical JavaScript”
- Cornel Stefanache – “Data Driven UI”
- Valery Jacobs – “Azure as the Internet for Things”
- Jeroen ter Heerdt – “Big Data and Advanced Analytics in Azure”
To get a good idea of the hot topics that were discussed, you can see the full agenda for Day 1 here: http://iasi.codecamp.ro/archive/CodecampIasiSpring2017/day1.html
On the second day of the conference, we’ve had over 70 talks spread across 10 rooms; and incredible workshops presented on different domains and areas including advanced technologies, architecture, entrepreneurship, product development, big data processing, and more.
Victor Rentea taught us “The Art of Clean Code”, followed by Dan Vusca who shared some amazing details on “Apache Camel – extending legacy systems”. Other talks covered:
- Vlad “Reign” Zelinschi – “The magic behind HTTP/2”
- Stelian Bogza – “5 steps to a successful startup”
- Andrei Postolache – “Are we going to survive AI?”
- Emanuel Martonca – “From Zero to One in Digital Product Development”
Be amazed at the impressive list of speakers and the agenda for Day 2: http://iasi.codecamp.ro/archive/CodecampIasiSpring2017/day2.html
What happened at the Hack
Last but not least, we had the Codecamp Hackathon, on May 19-20: a 24-hour event, a room packed with laptops, talented people, brilliant minds, and several issues in dire need for a solution. Our goal was to try and develop a habit of learning; and encourage people to strive harder, focusing on pragmatic results that help them succeed in their day to day lives.
Now that you know how things unfolded in May, how about you join us again in October? That’s right. We’re planning a Codecamp sequel this fall. Are you ready for some more great talks on technology and everything related to the tech scenario? Here’s an overview of our 10-year anniversary video to get you warmed up about what’s coming on October 27-28: