Hong Kong
Code Conf

Many languages, libraries and frameworks boast of their ability to eliminate boilerplate code. But does boilerplate code always deserve to die? This talk will argue that sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. It will draw examples primarily from the Java ecosystem, but will aim to offer techniques for designing and selecting abstractions which will be useful to all software engineers.

D's compiler already has some advanced code analysis tools. For example, it currently uses Value Range Propagation (VRP) for implicit casting between integers of different sizes, but that's only one of the many things VRP is useful for. VRP can be extended to include code optimization, branch prediction, static code analysis, and proof code correctness.

Last year, after I ranted about swartwatches being useless, a bunch of people told me to look at Pebble - and they were right! This year, Pebble is releasing new devices, and a new OS and SDK revision, including the ability to write onboard 'native' apps in JavaScript. Let's see what it can do...

Demand for talented developers far exceeds resources available. One key to grow new talent is to help individuals with aptitudes and potential for software development to try out this new career path. Codeschools have proven faster and less expensive than universities but still demand a significant investment and have fixed learning cycles. Parallel to the rise of co-working and thanks to the availability of online content such as FreeCodeCamp, we propose a project-focused curriculum in a community with mentors where peers help each other learn new concepts and find work in their new chosen profession.

Software development, especially multi-threaded, has become increasingly complex, which impacts our ability to reason and create reliable systems. Actor-based systems take a different approach, accepting failure, and providing strategies for recovery. In this talk we'll explore the motivations and rationale behind actors, example implementations, and how they might be used to increase system resilience.

Developers are lifelong learners. There are new languages and frameworks becoming popular from time to time. In order to stay competitive, we have to learn constantly. But what should we learn and master? The hottest ones can maximize the number of our potential job matches; the oldest ones give us tons of tools and libraries to use; the latest ones gives us shinny cutting-edge features. I myself, however, chose a different path. In this talk, I will share my experience of how mastering a lesser known programming language (Haxe) gave me a chance to stand out, to speak at various conferences, to be known by oversea developers, and to get my first job.

Object-relational mapping (ORM) is convenient and widely used in many frameworks to manipulate objects without writing tedious SQL. But meanwhile it also brings a lot of problems on system performance, maintenance and scalability. On the other hand, programming SQL (e.g. PostgreSQL) for your data logic is perhaps not as bad as you think, and should not be ignored.

After too many evenings fruitlessly fluttering away ten-dollar notes at the iconic Happy Valley Racecourse, we decided to use our Data Science skillz for the power of good: to make money betting on horse races.

What happened in between visitors entering their credit card number on your site to you receiving the fund?

Douglas Crockford, JS guru and the inventor of the JSON format, once said that JS is "world's most misunderstood programming language". In the talk I'll cover key concepts of the JS language that I found to be critical for true understanding of the language, among other things I'll talk about Closures, the "this" word and prototypical inheritance. The talk is for developers that use JS and want to deepen their understanding of the language.

"DevOps" is one of those buzzwords that, even though not everybody agrees on its definition, it is known of its importance in today's software industry. DevOps culture has a fast growing community, with daily new tools available to make every engineers' life better, faster, more efficient and more scalable. In this talk, I will speak about the DevOps culture, why it was born, why is it important and how flexible and dynamic it is. I will also talk about the crucial points of my life that directed me to get into this field and what you can do to help others and yourself to grow into a better engineer.