Java Development

[peter_strange]

I'm on holiday and not been following the forum, but while I had the opportunity, I wanted to just say a few words about DevCon 2010, and give you my 3 picks from the conference.  I hope other people will chip in to with their picks - more on why later..... 

But first I have got to say a big HELLO to all the people I meet while in San Francisco, including the brilliant people from Argentina (sorry that should be Hola!), and give a big thanks to all the RIM people that I harassed while I was there. 

Re DevCon, I actually thought it was the best DevCon ever, because most of the time I had two sessions that I wanted to go to. 

In the Key Note, I especially liked the bits on advertising, instrumentation and "in app" payment.  The PlayBook was the big ticket item, but I want to see more about how it can be used before I pass judgment on that.

With 100+ sessions, I wanted to pick 3, that I thought were the most useful.  I'd love to publish the material from these, but we are not allowed to without getting permission from RIM, which I can't do right now (I'm on holiday!).  But RIM might make some of these into KB articles and sooner rather than later if we all say they are good.  So that is the idea, Pick your favorites and that will help RIM decide which to make into KB articles.

Anyway, here are my three:

COM15 - Learn from Our Mistakes - 8 Lessons About Super App Development

Presented by a chap from FIXMO, this went through all the things that new developers hit, like the process model, with statics not being singletons, and not looping in the background.  All well explained.  Going to that one presentation would have saved me a load of pain, except it is now too late for me!

DEV19 - Creating Custom Fields and Managers is Easier than You Think!

Many of you will have used this KB article:

http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Java-Development/Implement-advanced-buttons-fields-and-manage...

This was originally presented in DevCon 2009, by Terrill Dent.  Terrill (and friends) did a few similar sessions at DevCon 2010, which hopefully will also come out as KB articles, but I hope this one comes first - if only for the Two Column Manager and the ToolBar. 

DEV32: - Network Connectivity Made Easy

I am really hoping that when Shadid's code gets published (it is not available as of now), I will be able to finish of my Connectivity Thread and mark a solution!  Fingers crossed.

[rcmaniac25]

DEV19 and DEV32 should be very useful when/if they are released (though I expect they will be released). I remember how popular the Advanced Fields, Buttons, and Managers was.

If you are a registered DevCon attendee (though it would be nice for those who did not attend to see them), everything is available as a MP3 and source code: http://www.blackberrydevcon.com/content/devcon-on-demand

Now just out of interest.

I would have been interested in:

• DEV16 (apps for blind, visually impaired)
• DEV58 (apps with media peripherals)
• DEV63 (UI from RIM)
• DEV52 (Intro to tablet OS)
• DEV02 (streaming encrypted media)
• COM26 (advanced UI for old OS)
• DEV18 (realistic UI)
• DEV35 (security)
• COM07 (automated testing)
• COM16 (APNs)
• COM20 (reading barcodes)
• COM17 (Making games)
• DEV07 (Profiler)
• DEV41 (OpenGL and OpenVG)

Have you been to any of these and if so how was it?

[JCarty]

It was great meeting you Peter and like you said it was good to put a face to these posts. 

My favs (only because I actually sat in on these sessions) were:

COM15 - Learn from Our Mistakes - 8 Lessons About Super App Development

DEV20 - You Can Create Today's Most Popular Layouts

DEV67 - The BlackBerry Web Platform

I do wish I had the chance to sit in on the other optimization sessions but I guess I was more interested it some of the newer stuff. 

[haagmm]

18/19/20/21 were based on 1 unfied codebase from tarrell (and co)  I saw 19 and 20 i think, but they kind of were coving all the different bases.

I did COM26 I can email you the slides or the code if you like, I need a little more time to clean it up.

DEV52 was packed, and interesting, it was very technical but high level.  The most fun was watching the rim guy try and hold back the two super excited QNX people

DEV63 was really awesome, and they talked alot about the interaction design process at rim.

[jonberry]

I liked the hands on labs a lot.

I hope they do more of those next year.

Maybe they can find a little quieter room for those.

[dnepr]

I liked the Dev19,20, etc sessions (the 4 of them).  Very well made.

I also found

DEV57 - Managing Large Collections - Performance and UI Tips

to be extremely informative as well.  Very well made sessions with lots of good info.

[dnepr]

Didn't Mike Kirkup mention that they would be opening up the On-Demand portion to everyone soon (don't quote me on this)?

[rcmaniac25]

Yes, they put it up... for people who are registered for DevCon. I can't find any other way to get to them... Are they still taking registrations?

@haagmm: It's OK, I was just interested to know the general explanation of the event. Was it like Advanced Buttons, Fields, and Mangers for older OSs, was their something that made you go "That's cool" and what was it, etc.

[mkirkup]

Thanks Peter for starting this thread!  It is great to read everyone's feedback on the sessions that really seemed to reasonate.  As you can imagine we spent a lot of time and effort shaping the sessions selected for this year and I am happy to hear it was well received.

You are quite correct that we are going to provide all of the DevCon content to the community for free!

All DevCon sessions now available at no cost to registered developers [New Developers sign up here] or existing developers log in here to view all of the sessions.  It isn't the same experience/portal as those who attended the conference itself but will provide everyone with the key aspects (sessions, sample code, etc).

We are also hard at work combing through all of the great feedback we received at the conference so that your requests and suggestions can make their way into the next round of product updates.

[rcmaniac25]

Awesome @mikeup. Time to go downloading.

Is the rest of the sessions going to be put up? It only goes up to Wednesday. Didn't read the header.