OO Programming Newsletter #54 from Bruce Eckel August 2004 Calendar: http://www.mindview.net/Calendar Seminars: http://www.mindview.net/Seminars MindView, Inc. 5343 Valle Vista La Mesa, CA 91941 = = = Contents = = = * Burning Man: come by and visit * Remote learning seminar for Thinking in Java (J2SE 5/JDK 1.5) * Interested in seminar on concurrency? * Seminars and Thinking in Java 4e * Signed copies of Thinking in C++ V2 and other books * Project reviews =================================== * Burning Man: come by and visit I'll be at Burning Man August 30 - midday Sept 4, at the Cosmic Nectar Camp, which will be located near 8:00 and Mercury. Please come by and say hi if you're attending the festival. =================================== * Remote learning seminar for Thinking in Java 4e (J2SE 5/JDK 1.5) I'm considering giving a remote learning seminar for the current version of "Thinking in Java" (the 4th edition which I'm working on now, which should be on bookshelves in February), which would include all the most current features on the new version of the language. The advantages are: 1) Lower seminar fee ($1000). 1) No travel time or travel expenses 2) The seminar would be more "gentle" than the 5-day version. Instead of trying to cover everything in 5 days, The remote seminar would probably occur twice a week, for roughly 1 hour each time. This would give you more time to absorb the material slowly. 3) We wouldn't have the time restrictions of the 5-day course. If things take longer, then we could allot more time (the seminar would not have a fixed ending point, although it would probably take at least 15 weeks, plus the occasional break). The downside is a reduced level of interactivity, and also the fact that you won't be removed from your normal distractions like you are with a live seminar. Here's how it would work: 1) Before each lecture, you would be instructed to download a PDF file containing the slides for the lecture. By downloading the entire set of slides onto your machine ahead of time, problems with internet latency are eliminated. 2) At a specified time, you call in to listen to the presentation using a standard phone. As I talk, I will verbally direct you to move to the next slide and tell you the slide number that I'm on. 3) You won't be able to speak during the presentation, but you'll have a special email address to send questions to. I'll either address these verbally by the end of the presentation, or via email afterwards. 4) If you are unable to be available for a particular presentation, the phone-bridge system will keep a recorded version of the presentation for roughly 10 days, so you can call in and listen later in order to catch up. (I'm still searching for a reasonably-priced phone bridge system that will do this; if you can recommend on please let me know -- freeconference, for example, doesn't scale well for this). If you are interested, please email with the subject "Distance Learning". My mailblocks spam-blocking system will challenge you. =================================== * Interested in seminar on concurrency? For Thinking in C++ Volume 2, I wrote a chapter on concurrency (primarily multithreading) which took about 8 months. This is the longest time I've ever spent on a chapter, and certainly the most complex one I've written. For thinking in Java 4th edition, I had to rewrite the concurrency chapter because of the new JDK 1.5 java.util.concurrent libraries, and again it has taken months of effort. It occurs to me that if I have had this much of a struggle to understand this material, other people probably will too, and that a lecture or two during the "Thinking in Java" seminar is not going to give you the kind of depth you need to really grasp concurrency and threading issues. Thus I'm considering creating a seminar on Java Concurrency. If you would be interested in such a seminar please email with the subject "Concurrency Seminar". My mailblocks spam-blocking system will challenge you. =================================== * Seminars and Thinking in Java 4e Because of my work on the fourth edition of Thinking in Java (a big job, since JDK 1.5 may be the largest change to the language since its origin), I'm not doing much in the way of public seminars until the book is finished (In the ideal case you may see the book on shelves by February. No promises, though). I *may* have time to give an in-house seminar during this time, depending on your schedule, so if this is something you'd like, contact me. =================================== * Signed copies of Thinking in C++ V2 and other books You can now buy signed copies of Thinking in C++, Volume 2, as well as a number of my books, both in English and various translations. See http://mindview.net/Books/Signed =================================== * Project reviews Project reviews generally take from 2-5 days and involve an intensive walkthrough including all or part of your team, examining your architecture, design, or code, depending on where your project is. During this process, it's likely that we'll discover numerous places where the design and implementation can be improved. A review is also valuable as a team communication tool, to help people understand parts of a project they might not otherwise have the opportunity to study. I've also found that the review process typically offers chances for impromptu learning sessions, whenever we discover programming concepts that aren't quite clear to everyone. If you'd like to consider scheduling a review, you can email me directly. ___| Until Next Time... |________________________ Speaking & Seminar schedule: http://www.mindview.net/Calendar/ Interviews and blogs on programming: http://www.artima.com Java programming questions: http://www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/JavaQuestions.html Anyone can sign up for this free newsletter by visiting: http://www.mindview.net/Newsletter Bruce Eckel http://www.mindview.net