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I recently blogged (on my blogger site) about my quest to find a more effective way of coding Java GUI applications. This resulted in the creation of a one-day workshop that I am very excited about.

The details from the JTraining website are:

Fast-tracking Java GUI Development
This is a great one-day workshop that discusses a number of concerns with developing Graphical User Interfaces applications with Java, and explore various ways to improve the speed and efficiency of development.

• Do you sometimes think that coding in Java is perhaps not the best way of constructing GUIs?
• Do you feel that your team should be able to develop GUI applications much faster?
• Are you frustrated with the amount of “donkey code” you are writing to implement some basic GUI features?
• Are the new team members struggling with the high learning curve of the Java GUI framework you are using?
• Are you spending more time on coding GUI behaviour than you spend on coding domain behaviour?
• Do your team find it difficult to add or modify existing features of a GUI application?

The above questions highlight some of the issues typically found when doing GUI application development. We have been specialising in Java GUI development for more than a decade, and in this time we have investigated and used a wide range of frameworks, tools and techniques to help us build GUI applications more effectively. This workshop explores a number of these options, in a highly interactive and hands-on way.

Visual GUI builder tools, code generators, UI DSLs: these are some of the topics we will investigate.

However, none of these have any meaning if a good foundation of UI development principles and practices is not embraced in a project. The workshop also aims to instil a number of important principles and practices that is a must for any good GUI development team.

I’m also giving away more detail here (I still have to finalize the content and outline, will add that to our website later):
A) discussion of frustrations & issues with “traditional” approach to GUI development using something like RCP/Swing
[interactive discussion]
B) exploration of alternatives:
* Tools (e.g. SWT Designer, Eclipse e4, etc)
* UI DSLs (e.g. Glimmer, Gryphon, XScalaWT)
* Code Generation (e.g. XText, ANTler)
[I want to demo some of the options, and allow for practical hands-on use of at least one. My current idea is that we divide in groups, and each develop a UI DSL, using something like XText, or a more dynamic language like Scala]
C) Discussion of Practices and Principles when doing GUI development, including:
- UI Design
- UI Testing
- Tool (in)dependency
- Domain Driven UIs
[This discussion will also involve a whiteboard/interactive design session (also done in groups).]

And all this will be taking place on 1 July 2010 at my new training and agile office venue in Worcester (or if the group gets to big, we’ll move to an extremely nice country lodge nearby).

Please see our training website for more details.

I have been doing a lot of work around renewing my Java courses, talking to Heinz Kabutz in Crete, creating a new website.
Why?
Because I realized I have a passion for teaching others how to become great programmers. So am starting to concentrate more on training (while still doing enough real development work to keep the balance).

I am very excited to announce three new open Java courses that are going to be presented in June/July in South Africa by me.

First we have the Java and OO Foundation course, from 14-15 and 17-18 June 2010 (16th is Youth Day), happening in Worcester, South Africa, at our new training facility there. I can recommend this course to anyone starting out with OO and Java. Most of the content comes from my friend Heinz Kabutz’s JavaSpecialist Java Foundation course.

Then we have our first presentation of the Java Intermediate Course happening from 5 to 8 July, also in Worcester. I can recommend this course to developers who are comfortable with the basics of the Java language and OO, and who wants to learn more about real life Java topics like using JUnit, concurrency, generics and annotations.

Finally we have another big first for Africa: the first presentation of the now famous Java Specialist Master Course, from 13 to 16 July 2010. All those Soccer World Cup fans out there: stay a week longer in South Africa and come attend this brilliant course, authored by Heinz Kabutz.

I am extremely excited about our new training facilities in Worcester, which we call “The Loft @ PolymorphHQ”. Worcester is only about 100km away from Cape Town, a very scenic drive over the mountains. I am planning to combine all courses presented in Worcester with a bit of wine-tasting or even game-drive experiences. We are also investigating providing special packages that include accommodation. And we will definitely work in a nice steak and some good red wine with great Java discussions one of the evenings of the course.

I also want to announce our The Loft opening special: if you register for both the Java and OO Foundation (14 June 2010) and the Java Intermediate (5 July 2010) courses, you save R7,000.

I hope to have a lot of great Java developers coming out of Worcester these next few years

If you:

• are a fast and willing learner
• are passionate about developing quality software
• are self-disciplined and self-motivating
• tired of the typical city and office life
• need more flexibility in your working day
• have experience in Object-oriented development
• have experience in Java (acronyms optional)
• are willing to either move to Worcester or work remotely with regular visits to Worcester

Then we:

• want to talk to you about contracting or permanent employee options
• want to provide training and mentoring
• want to make you part of a newly founded team that has the goal of becoming the leading Southern Africa Eclipse RCP/RAP and OSGi development team
• want to expose you not only to exciting new software projects, prototyping, and technology research, but also to interesting consultation opportunities, and unfortunately a bit of less interesting maintenance work

Email us at: jobs@richclientgui.com