On Wednesday it was Brighton Java, where Richard Dallaway gave a preview of his QCon session, Types working for you, not against you. Richard has spoken at Brighton Java twice before (an Introduction to Scala and Lambda Expressions in Java 8) and it was good to welcome him back.
While I don’t know Scala at all, the talk was a fascinating insight into the language. By focussing on types, the talk gave an idea of Scala’s power and flexibility. Richard described Scala as an ‘unopinionated language’, allowing for a great freedom of style. It was also interesting to learn a little about Monoids and the ways they could be used.
The talk reminded me that I really need to look into Scala more. While I recently became excited about groovy, I found this quote from James Strachan, the language’s designer: “if someone had shown me the Programming in Scala book… back in 2003 I’d probably have never created Groovy”. Richard listed some good starting points for investigating Scala – see the threads here.
Wednesday was the first Brighton Java meeting held at the Brandwatch HQ. We had a record number of signups, with 50 people turning up on the night. I’m pleased to see this much engagement from Brighton’s Java community.
On a personal level, I’m delighted with how Brighton Java has grown. The audience has increased massively since the first meeting back in August 2012. The ongoing support of Brandwatch and the Skiff have been fantastic. I’ve also really appreciated the help of my co-organisers Luke and James. Things have really got going since they came on board.
Now to organise our April events. Yes, for the first time we’re going to be doing two events in a month. Let’s see how this goes.
