At the end of April, we were able to attend the BuildStuff Software Development Conference. Today we bring you a summary of the talks given by speakers like Greg Young and Eric Evans. This is a conference that traditionally takes place in Lithuania and has quite a reputation (the 2018 edition will feature over 70 speakers). Starting in 2017, they have decided to hold an annual edition in Mallorca as well. They have already opened pre-registration for next year's edition! Before we get to the interviews, we leave you the photo album we managed to take 📸. They could be intimate photos of the two, but lamenting the disappointment, we advance that they are photos of some of the standout slides from the talks we attended 😊 Many thanks to the event organizers for inviting us, and to the people from the Software Craftsmanship Mallorca community who were at the event since we also had a great time with them 🙂
These aren’t the requirements you're looking for - Udi Dahan
Udi introduced us to project management in an entertaining and pleasant way. A good starting point for the first day of the conference. He addressed the most common problems that can arise when reconsidering "mega-refactorings" with the approach "this time for sure, we start from 0 and you'll see":
From Dependency injection to dependency rejection - Mark Seemann
Mark chose to talk about his well-known work regarding dependency management in functional programming. Highlight the concept of "sandwich" he discusses in the linked post 🙂. Once again, we can see how functional programming is not just for crazy mathematicians. Join the LambdaWorld with the raffle we are conducting and discover it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VF8FFT1DbM
Software Craftsmanship for kids - Felienne
One of the talks that we undoubtedly liked the most. A remarkable piece of work by Felienne 🎩. Here are some slides to give you an idea:
56% of the analyzed Scratch projects do not include interactions. This reinforces the theory that Scratch is not just for designing small games, but that children also enjoy telling animated stories!
They analyzed even the cognitive capacity in relation to the different concepts associated with programming, and how they differed by age:
Good Design is Imperfect Design - Eric Evans
From those talks that occasionally it's good to hear from well-known figures in the sector. Full slide phrases like:
- "Give awkward names to awkward concepts," validating the approach "if we still don't know what the best name is, it’s better to have a catchy one so we have to refactor it as soon as we come back here."
- "Avoid abstractions when concepts aren't clear," reinforcing the idea of avoiding over-engineering and premature generalization.
Of course, Eric also touched on topics related to DDD. For example, he emphasized the importance of not sharing infrastructure between Bounded Contexts, and that the Don't Repeat Yourself principle should only be considered within the same Bounded Context. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQbQYRqjbwM
The Elephant in the Room - Greg Young
Finally, Greg closed the event talking about Event Sourcing and the "elephant in the room" when discussing it: Event versioning (here's his free book on event sourcing). He addressed very interesting topics such as concepts like the "transformation stream." Additionally, he took the opportunity to revive other historic concepts like the "Lamport clock," underscoring their relevance even today. More information and links on the topic in the video description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDBlw95sX38