I’ve known about CodeMash for about 3 years, and of those three years, I had to skip out on TWO of them. The first year had already sold out before I found out, so there wasn’t much I could do in that situation. The second year, our daughter was born one week before (which I obviously knew ahead of time), so I couldn’t go then either.
Finally, with no children being expected, plenty of forewarning, and a ticket paid for by my [awesome] company, Heuristic Solutions (hey, we’re hiring), I was able to attend!
I didn’t end up attending any of the pre-compilers, only the main two days of sessions.
Let’s get to it!
Day One
Ten Practical Tips for Automated Testing of Web Applications - Jim Holmes
Jim is an experienced tester, and a great speaker – so this is a fantastic session for anyone interested in testing (obviously).
I walked away with some good tips, and a testing framework that I hadn’t heard of before.
The Future of C# is Now! - Dustin Campbell
I went into this session expecting an overview of new C# features, and I got that.
However, Dustin was also showing off a code analyzer that he built using Roslyn that included fixes for migration pre-C# 6.0 code to C# 6.0.
My love for Roslyn begins.
Decoupling the Frontend through Modular CSS - Julie Cameron
I am the furthest thing from a front-end designer as you can get, but I do have to think about stuff like it on a daily basis.
I, more or less, went to this session by recommendation, and I’m actually glad I did.
Julie gave some great tips for structuring your HTML, CSS, & JavaScript that I hadn’t paid much attention to before. She also went over some conventions that I had never even known about, so all in all, this was an excellent session.
Xamarin Forms and The Future of Mobile Application Development - Jesse Liberty
This was one of the vendor sessions, but since it was being presented by Jesse Liberty, I had to go. I tend to enjoy his style of teaching (I think I’ve watched every single one of his Pluralsight courses :))
Not only that, but Xamarin Forms is on my radar of things to deep dive, so I figured this would be a great session.
I was let down a little bit, to be honest. It was very introductory to what Xamarin Forms is and the basics on how to use it. I expected somewhat of a deeper look into it.
Still a good session, if that’s what you’re looking for.
Building Code Aware Frameworks using the .NET Compiler Platform (“Roslyn”) - Kevin Pilch-Bisson
As you previously read, I have fallen in love with Roslyn, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sit on a session dedicated to it.
Ironically, I had received the latest MSDN magazine in the mail prior to leaving for CodeMash, and had brought it along to read (which I did). This session demonstrated the concepts and sample code from one of the articles in that issue.
It was still a great session, and just the conversation and questions that went on were worth it.
Day Two
Getting More Out of Git - Jordan Kasper
I was a little late to this session – hey, it was early, alright! – and it was packed, so I ended up sitting in the floor. Comfy.
Anyway, there were a lot of good tips packed into this session, and Jordan did a great job of presenting. For me, though, I wish it had been later in the day, because I might have zoned out a time or two. Maybe. Probably. Yeah, I did.
Clean Code: Writing for Humans - Cory House
I’ve been following Cory for a while now, and was actually able to meet him and see his session while at CodeMash. Cory is an awesome guy, super cool, super nice, and gives a great session on clean code to boot.
The funny thing about this session, is, you listen to it, nodding your head the whole time agreeing with everything he says. Something about the material being reiterated to you in a fantastic presentation really makes the session worth it.
From Backbone to Ember and Back(bone) Again - Jonathan Knapp
I wasn’t fond of this session, mainly because it outlined a contracting gig where they did exactly what the title says. It didn’t hit home with me because I’ve never used either of those frameworks (and likely won’t for some time). Jonathan gave some metrics as to LOC/Speed/etc difference between the two, which was nice to see – but then ended up picking the slower/bigger one, and I don’t quite understand why. The whole time he kept reiterating that the original developers didn’t know JavaScript, and I suppose that’s a fair reasoning for being there, I think I expected more of why I should choose one of these frameworks over another – and, unfortunately, I still don’t have that answer.
Do You Even Kanban? - David Neal
This was another vendor session, and quite honestly, I was a little let down with it.
What I thought would be a session with a lot of information on LeanKit, it turned out to be an introduction to Kanban.
I already Kanban.
OPEN SESSION: Roslyn
Guys, this was awesome (as are most open sessions).
This open session was packed, with people such as:
- Kevin Pilch-Bisson
- Dustin Campbell
- Jon Skeet
- Tim Rayburn
- Kathleen Dollard
If you don’t know who those people are, go find out. NOW.
I didn’t contribute much to the overall conversation, but listening to these industry leaders talk about Roslyn made my day. I followed along with most of it (some definitely went over my head).
You can have your movie star idols – some of mine are listed right here. It was very difficult to choose those sessions, there were a ton of options for every time slot, and you want to see them all!
Conclusion
To summarize:
- CodeMash is awesome.
- The people that attend CodeMash are awesome.
- The sessions are awesome.
- The food is awesome.
- Meeting new people is awesome.
Get your ticket and attend next time – find me and say hello, cause you better believe I’m going back next year!
This post, "CodeMash 2015 Review", first appeared on https://www.codingwithcalvin.net/codemash-2015-review/