InfoQ has posted the video of my talk at last year’s QCon San Francisco on Radical Simplification through Polyglot and Poly-paradigm Programming. I make the case that relying on just one programming language or one modularity paradigm (i.e., object-oriented programming, functional programming, etc.) is insufficient for most applications that we’re building today. That includes embedded systems, games, up to complex Internet and enterprise applications.

I’m giving an updated version of this talk at the Strange Loop Conference, October 22-23, in St. Louis. I hope to see you there.

Tonight is our first meeting, at the ThoughtWorks offices in the Aon building downtown. If you’re going and you haven’t RSVP’ed, either send a tweet to @chicagoscala or reply here ASAP!

Hope to see you there. Our meetings will be the 3rd Thursday of each month.

I’m organizing a group in Chicago for people interested in Scala, called the Chicago Area Scala Enthusiasts (CASE). If you’re interested, join the google group for more information.

Confreaks has started posting the videos from RubyConf. Here’s mine on Better Ruby through Functional Programming.

Please ignore the occasional Ruby (and Scala) bugs…

I’m speaking this Friday at RubyConf on Better Ruby Through Functional Programming. I’ll introduce long-overlooked ideas from FP, why they are important for Ruby programmers, and how to use them in Ruby.

In two weeks, I’m speaking on Wednesday, 11/19 at QCon San Francisco on Radical Simplification Through Polyglot and Poly-paradigm Programming. The idea of this talk is that combining the right languages and modularity paradigms (i.e., objects, functions, aspects) can simplify your code base and reduce the amount of code you have to write and manage, providing numerous benefits.

Back in Chicago, I’m speaking at the Polyglot Programmer’s meeting on The Seductions of Scala, 11/13. It’s an intro to the Scala language, which could become the language of choice for the JVM. I’m repeating this talk at the Chicago Java User’s Group on 12/16. I’m co-writing a book on Scala with Alex Payne. O’Reilly will be the publisher.

Incidently, Bob Martin is also speaking in Chicago on 11/13 at the APLN Chicago meeting on Software Professionalism.

I’m speaking on Aquarium this Monday night (Oct. 1st). Details are here. David Chelimsky will also be talking about new developments in RSpec and RBehave.

At the Dec. 3 Chirb meeting, the two of us are reprising our Agile 2007 tutorial Ruby’s Secret Sauce: Metaprogramming.

Please join us!

I’m doing a tutorial on aspect-oriented design principles with examples in Java and AspectJ at OOPSLA this year (October 21st). You can find a description here. I believe Friday, 9/14, is the last day for early, discounted registration, so sign up now!

A short presentation on the same subject can be found here.

I’m giving a talk at the Chicago Java User’s Group West meeting this Thursday at 6:30 PM. The topic is Aspect-Oriented Programming and Software Design in Java and AspectJ. I’ll briefly describe the problems that AOP addresses and how the principles of object-oriented design influence AOP and vice versa. If you’re in the area, I hope to see you there.