Join us Tuesday, February 10th. We have two great sessions for you to enjoy featuring Scott Davis. The 6:00 PM session "Lizard Brain Web Design" and the 7:30 PM session "DSLs in Groovy: Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say". Make plans to join us!
Big Thanks to Big Sky Technology (www.bigskytechnology.com) who pays for our meeting room rental every month and Tek-Systems (www.teksystems.com) who pays for our food each month! We appreciate your support!!
DATE: Tuesday - February 10th, 2009
LOCATION: Wolf Law Building, Room #207
2450 Kittredge Loop Road
Boulder, CO 80309
TIME: 6:00 PM start with Pizza/Drinks being served @ 7:00 PM
6:00 PM Lizard Brain Web Design - by Scott Davis
"There’s an old story about the person who wished his computer were as easy to use as his telephone. That wish has come true, since I no longer know how to use my telephone." (Bjarne Stroustrup)
The "lizard brain" is the oldest part of the human brain -- the part responsible for autonomic functions like breathing, heart rate, and navigating websites. OK, maybe not that last part, but your website should be easy to use. Stupid easy. Lizard brain easy. Any time your user spends figuring out how to do something -- even for a split second -- is wasted time due to poor design. Inspired by Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think", this talk answers the question, "Why is that website so hard to use?"
In this talk, we look at what make a "good" website "good". Simple changes in the layout or sort order can yield drastic improvements. We'll get inside the heads of typical users and see how their view of our website is drastically different than what we painstakingly planned out. You'll learn how to cater to "Browsers" and "Searchers" -- the human kind, not the software kind. "Lizard Brain Web Design" answers these questions and more in a funny and informative way.
7:30 PM - DSLs in Groovy: Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say - by Scott Davis
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." (Leonardo da Vinci)
The history of computer programming has been bridging the gap between what the user says ("We need to add sales tax to each item in the order") and what the programming language requires you to say ("for Iterator i = orderList.iterator();"). Building Domain Specific Languages (DSLs) allow you to express the solution in the language of the domain user instead of the language of the programmer.
DSLs can be written in any programming language, but the more flexible the programming language used, the closer to plain English the DSL can be. Groovy is a dynamic language for the Java platform that is ideally suited for creating DSLs. Come see how Groovy can leverage the power of Java in a way that your users might actually be able to read and understand.
Bio: Scott Davis
email: scott@thirstyhead.com
Scott Davis is the founder of ThirstyHead.com, a training company that specializes in Groovy and Grails training.
Scott published one of the first public websites implemented in Grails in 2006 and has been actively working with the technology ever since. Author of the book Groovy Recipes: Greasing the Wheels of Java and two ongoing IBM developerWorks article series (Mastering Grails and in 2009, Practically Groovy), Scott writes extensively about how Groovy and Grails are the future of Java development.
Scott teaches public and private classes on Groovy and Grails for start-ups and Fortune 100 companies. He is the co-founder of the Groovy/Grails Experience conference and is a regular presenter on the international technical conference circuit (including No Fluff Just Stuff, JavaOne, OSCON, TheServerSide, and QCON). In 2008, Scott was voted the top Rock Star at JavaOne for his talk "Groovy, the Red Pill: How to blow the mind of a buttoned-down Java developer".
