Friday, May 21, 2010

Notes for Portland Code Camp Talk Now Available

My presentation isn't until tomorrow, but I somehow managed to finish the materials for it today.  If you're interested in what I have to say on the topic "CPU Caches and Why You Care," I encourage you to download the presentation materials (PDF) and take a look. 

Scott

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Upcoming Talk at Portland Code Camp

I've been interested in Code Camps ever since I heard about them a couple of years ago, but, until this year, my interest never rose to the level of participating. Portland Code Camp will take place in Portland, Oregon, on May 22 (a week from Saturday), and I'll be giving a talk on CPU Caches and Why You Care.  The material is based on my work on Fastware! (which, after a year-long digression into C++0x, I'm finally getting back to), and the talk will serve as an alpha version of material I expect to present in my seminar on Fastware for C++ in Stuttgart (Germany) at the end of September and possibly also at C++ and Beyond in Snohomish, Washington, a month later.

Like all Code Camps, Portland Code Camp is free, so if you live near Portland, Oregon, and don't mind devoting a Saturday to all things code-related, I encourage you to register, then come by my session for a crash course in CPU caches.  It should be interesting to see how it goes, given that the talk currently exists only in my head.  But in my head, it's really good :-)

Scott

"C++ and Beyond" Tickets Going Fast

On April 17, I announced the opening of registration for C++ and Beyond, the end-of-October sort-of-a-conference event featuring me, Andrei Alexandrescu, and Herb Sutter.  Registrations have been coming in at a steady rate ever since.  20 of the 60 available places have now been taken.  At this rate, we'll sell out long before the end of the Early Bird registration period, thus demonstrating why we're known for our technology smarts and not for our business savvy. 

One of the primary features of this event is its limited size, so the number of available spots will not increase.  Once 60 people have signed up, that's it:  registration will close.  (We'll probably set up a waiting list, in case there are cancellations.)

If you're at all interested in C++ and Beyond, I strongly encourage you to subscribe to its RSS feed, because most of what I have to say about that event goes on its blog, not here.  Even if you're not interested in attending C&B (as Herb, Andrei, and I call it), you may find the C&B blog interesting, because that's where we post ideas for technical sessions and otherwise more or less think out loud. Last week, for example, I posted about a prospective session called CPU Caches and Why You Care.

Scott

Monday, May 10, 2010

New ESDS Book: Effective Perl Programming

I was honored when the authors of the new (second) edition of Effective Perl Programming agreed to be a part of my Effective Software Development Series.  I'm not a Perl programmer, and the book's first edition had been very well received, so although I offered a few comments on the manuscript, I primarily tried to stay out of the authors' way and let them do what they clearly know how to do very well:  explain how Perl programmers can use the language more effectively, especially in light of the changes that have taken place in the Perl community since the first edition was published in 1998.

If you're a Perl programmer, I encourage you to give this new edition a look-see.  I think you'll be impressed with what you'll find there.

Scott