As I check out Is it CodeMash yet?, I see that the day has finally come. Yesterday, when I arrived at the Kalahari Conference Center, I was totally at a loss for words. This place is larger than life, simply amazing. I have had many people tell me about the awesomeness of CodeMash, and I think I'll see why they said all that they did.

Last night, I met some of the guys that Joe Fiorini talks about on Twitter. I also met some of the people who follow me on Twitter. It was great to meet the guys last night, and I look forward to meeting more people today. I'm not good at the initial face and name recognition, so please don't be offended if I don't say hi right away - come by and introduce yourself!

I will be hanging out at the CodeJam for a bit of the day. So if you're attending the Precompiler, come to the Indigo room and hack with us there!

Later tonight, there'll be a Panel Discussion and the .NET Rocks! Show with Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell, so if you're arriving later, check that out.

---

This is my first CodeMash, and I'm definitely looking forward to see what's in store. I hope to blog throughout the event, and I will be taking pictures as well. So for pictures, keep an eye on my CodeMash 2009 Flickr stream.

Hope to see some of you out here!

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette

Tomorrow is the start of my first CodeMash experience, at the Precompiler. There are so many tutorials that I want to check out, but I will mostly be hiding out in the CodeJam.

It all started in 2007, when my buddy Russ from work told me about CodeMash. He's gone to past CodeMashes, and whenever he talks about it, his excitement gets to me. I didn't meet him in time for 2007, but he could have talked me into 2008. However, I also was uncertain of my vacation time and how I would handle taking time off with my husband. Lame excuses, I know... but I didn't go to CodeMash in 2008.

Of course, I met more people who reminded me of my epic fail - including Jeff Blankenburg, Mike Eaton, Michael Letterle, and Joe O'Brien. Thanks to the push from all of these guys (and all the others who helped), I made it a point to set the dates aside. But I had talked with one of my friends earlier in the year, and he had figured that I'd go and enjoy my first year as an attendee and worry about presenting there the following year. As much as that sounded like a good idea, I knew better - it was pretty much expected that I'd submit talks for it.

So it's my first CodeMash, and I am going as an event co-lead (CodeJam), presenter (IronPython), and attendee. Thanks to my friends for encouraging me to attend. I've been looking forward to it for the past few months, and it's finally here.

If you are there and you see me, come up and introduce yourself! I look forward to meeting you there!

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, Jeff Blankenburg, Joe O'Brien, Michael Letterle, Mike Eaton

Today's countdown feature is the event known as Open Spaces.

While looking at the CodeMash schedule, you may find yourself not interested in any of the topics in a particular time slot. If you find yourself in that position, I'd recommend you check out Open Spaces and see what's going on there.

What are Open Spaces?

As noted in the Heartland Open Spaces wiki:

"The open-space meeting or open space meeting is a generic term describing a wide variety of different styles of meeting in which participants define the agenda with a relatively rigorous process, and may adjust it as the meeting proceeds. A large meeting of this sort is called an open space conference or unconference."

- From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-space_meeting

What can I expect?

Go with an open mind and some ideas, and come out enlightened. Although topics aren't decided until the conference itself (based on whatever participants propose), you may have ideas that you want to talk about. Propose a topic, post it on the open spaces board, and show up at the time you plan on talking. Or if someone else proposes a topic you're interested in talking about, check out their session.



Open Spaces topics may include talks on technologies, tools, methodologies, and everything else under the sun. Check out the Open Spaces area for more details.

If you are neither learning nor contributing in a session you are required to get up and leave and join another session in progress where you feel you'll be more useful and inspired. - the Law of Two Feet

Who is running Open Spaces at CodeMash?

According to @codemash on Twitter, the Open Spaces at CodeMash are being coordinated by Corey Haines, Steven Harman, and Alan Stevens.

Alan was the awesome facilitator for the Open Spaces at devLink 2008, where the Open Spaces board from above was used. I expect that the Open Spaces at CodeMash will rock just as much - so definitely check them out!

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, open spaces

Last year, I wanted to learn another programming language. A part of me wanted to learn Ruby, since the cool kids were all doing it. But at the same time, I wanted to be different. One of my friends recommended that I look at python. When I saw that there was a .NET implementation, I decided to explore IronPython. Since about March of 2008, I've been reading up on IronPython and presenting on it a little in the area.

This year, I hope to get my IronPython resources section together here on CodingGeekette.com and blog about it a bit more. I will be talking about IronPython at CodeMash, PyCon, and quite possibly PyOhio. If other people want to hear me talk on it, just send me an email at sarah at codinggeekette dot com.

While looking at the session list, I noticed that there's a python implementation that's written in Java - Jython.

So today's languages are python, its Java implementation, and its .NET implementation.

Language: Python
Website: Python Programming Language -- Official Site

Language: Jython
Website: The Jython Project

Language: IronPython
Website: IronPython

Where will these be seen at CodeMash?

Python

• Precompiler Event CodeMash Code Jam


• Python Data Visualization and Imaging, presented by Zach Steindler

Jython

• JVM scripting with Jython, presented by Mark Ramm

IronPython

• Pumping Iron into Python: Intro to FePy, presented by Sarah Dutkiewicz

Where can I learn more about these languages?

For Python, check out The Python Tutorial, Dive Into Python, and Useless Python

For Jython, check out the Jython User Guide.

For IronPython, the places I tend to look the most are DevHawk's blog, The IronPython Cookbook, and Michael Foord's blog.

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, IronPython, Jython, python

My buddy Russ from work was one of the first people to mention Ruby to me. He was all excited about this language, and his excitement definitely got me a little curious. Within a few months after hearing it from Russ, I heard about it from Joe, Corey, and Mike. I was curious to hear more about it, and when I saw that we had Joe O'Brien coming to Cleveland Day of .NET 2008, I figured I'd check his "Why Ruby?" talk out. I didn't really look into it on my own because it seemed like "everybody's doing it". Unfortunately, I was busy in that first session, allocating swag and making sure things were running smoothly, so I didn't get a chance to see Joe's talk. To this day, I have yet to catch it, but he's one I'd like to hear more from on it.

There is a .NET implementation of the language called IronRuby. Mike Letterle happened to get into it, and whenever I want to find out more about IronRuby, I know that he'd be the guy to ask. If he isn't around, then I'd get in touch with Carey Payette, as she's also tinkered around with IronRuby.

So today's CodeMash countdown languages are Ruby and IronRuby.

Language: Ruby
Website: ruby-lang.org

Language: IronRuby
Website: IronRuby.net

Where will these be seen at CodeMash?

Ruby

• Precompiler Event: Ruby 101 with Jim Weirich and Joe O'Brien


• Ruby Desktop Application Framework, presented by Lance Carlson


• What? Threads Are Hard?, presented by Jim Weirich


• Ruby Isn't Just About Rails, presented by Adam Wiggins


• Developing JoeMetric for the iPhone, presented by Joe O'Brien


• Testing Rails, presented by Joe O'Brien

IronRuby

• IronRuby In The Real World, presented by Michael Letterle

Where can I learn more about Ruby and IronRuby?

If you're looking for people who eat, breathe, and sleep Ruby or IronRuby, check out the following blogs: Jim Weirich, Joe O'Brien, and Michael Letterle.

Other sites to check out include: Ruby Revival, Programming Ruby: The Pragmatic Programmer's Guide, and Justin Etheredge's posts on IronRuby.

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, IronRuby, Ruby

Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.


When I had first learned about Java, I was in college. The first time I started working with it was at OOPSLA '99, when my team implemented a coffee vending machine in Java with Swing. I had never worked with it or had seen it, but having had other languages in my past, I was able to pick it up well. About a year and a half later, I had a class on Java, where I actually learned about it in more detail. However, I didn't get that interested in it, and I hadn't realized just how big it had gotten.

Java has grown from what I learned it, and it has a full track dedicated to it at CodeMash. There are 200+ languages out there that run on the Java virtual machine - including Groovy and Scala. A more comprehensive list can be seen here.

So today's language set includes Java, Groovy, and Scala.

Language: Java
Website: Developer Resources for Java (java.sun.com)

Language: Groovy
Website: Groovy - Home (codehaus.org)

Language: Scala
Website: The Scala Programming Language

Where will these languages be seen at CodeMash?

At the Precompiler, check out the full day tutorial of Java, Groovy, and Grails 101 with Chris Judd and Jim Shingler.

There is a full track dedicated to Java. From what I can tell, you'll see these languages at the following presentations:

Java

• Actor Concurrency, presented by Alex Miller


• Executable documentation with easyb, presented by Andrew Glover


• Spring 2.5 MVC, presented by Ken Sipe


• RIAs with Java, Spring, Hibernate, BlazeDS, and Flex, presented by James Ward

Groovy

• Rich Apps with Groovy's SwingBuilder, presented by Andres Almiray


• Dynamic Languages and the JVM, presented by Nathaniel Schutta


• Griffon in front, Grails in back, presented by Jim Shingler


• Groovy/Grails for non-Java developers, presented by Michael Kimsal

Scala

• Programming in Scala, presented by Venkat Subramaniam


• Practical Scala, presented by Dianne Marsh


• Actor Concurrency, presented by Alex Miller

Where can I learn more about these languages?

Java

• Java Tutorials on java.sun.com


• Java Tutorial on VisualBuilder


• Java 101

Groovy

• Groovy Beginners Tutorial on codehaus


• Grails & Groovy Tutorials


• Fluently Groovy, from IBM

Scala

• Getting Start with Scala


• Scala Blog


• The busy Java developer's guide to Scala: Scala and servlets

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, Groovy, Java, Scala

My first post in 2009 is a continuation of the CodeMash countdown, resuming with languages. Today's language is one that I've had a love/hate affair with for many years. It was only with AJAX that I really started to have a change of heart and started writing in it more. However, I still design my public sites at work for users who may have Javascript disabled.

Without further ado, here's Javascript...

Language: Javascript
Website: ECMA 262 Standards

A Little About Javascript

Once upon a time, there was a company called Netscape. They wanted to introduce a scripting language to their browser to make web pages interactive. Enter Livescript, the first implementation of this language. Shortly after Java came out, Netscape renamed their Livescript language to Javascript.

To compete with Netscape, Internet Explorer came out with its own scripting languages - vbscript and JScript. However, Netscape had a huge following, and IE's JScript grew closer and closer to Netscape's Javascript.

Javascript is currently a standardized language, maintained by ECMA. Although they renamed the language to ECMAScript, most developers continue to call it by its familiar name of Javascript.

Where will this be seen at CodeMash?

Javascript and its many forms will be seen at the following presentations:

• Introducing Prototype and Scriptaculous, presented by Leon Gersing


• Improving Web Application Performance and Scalability, presented by Steve Smith


• Microsoft Virtual Earth, Now in 3D , presented by Aydin Akcasu (possibly)

Where can I learn more about Javascript?

Some good resources I've come across include:

• JavaScript.com


• Javascript Tutorial at W3Schools


• JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: My rhino book followed me through college and now sits on my desk at work as a reference book. I've found it very helpful as a reference guide.

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, Javascript

Today's CodeMash Countdown isn't about one of the languages, but rather
about one of the Precompiler events. Over the past few months, I've been working with Gary Bernhardt, Joe Fiorini, Corey Haines, and John Stockton on planning the CodeJam.

No, we're not make jams and jellies out of code. Nor are we making music with our code - although that would be quite fun!

So who are these guys that I'm working with?

Gary Bernhardt is the leader of the Cleveland Python Users Group. Joe Fiorini is one of the Cleveland Ruby Brigade organizers. Corey Haines is the famous Corey Haines of the recent pair programming tour. John Stockton was the leader behind Cleveland Day of .NET 2008 and is a co-author of a Silverlight book. I'm always excited to work with these guys - great senses of humor and just great to work with overall. Our bios are included with the event description on the Precompiler page.

And just what is the CodeJam? As John best described it:

Come take a look at how you can cross-breed technologies in your application to take advantage of the advantages of each. In this all-day lab we will be demonstrating an end-to-end solution using Silverlight, Ruby, Python, Django and MySQL. Experts in each technology will be on hand to show you how we did it and help you create a version of your own. Build a single tier or build it all, it's up to you.

Showing up ready to build in any of these technologies will make the day faster but we can help you install the tools as well. In fact, we will even have a pair of VPCs to provide attendees with the entire source code and trial versions of the dev environments so you can just show up, load up and code.

We'll have VMware images of a Linux environment and a Windows environment, so that if you want to develop in an environment other than your own, the VMs will work. These virtual machines can be run through the VMware Player.

Come on out to the CodeJam and see what it's about!

Labels: Code Jam, CodeMash, Coding Geekette

First, D-flat... and now G-flat... which note will be the next language?

Amanda Laucher has been talking about F#ing for quite awhile. Although that may look like something obscene, all she's doing is talking about (and eating, sleeping, and breathing) a language called F#. The first time I heard about F# was at her presentation last spring at Central Ohio Day of .NET. I have since heard her give her F# talk at the GCPCUG VB.NET/C# SIG, and it is still quite interesting to hear, many months later.

Whether you're new to F# or an advanced user, Amanda covers it all. So if you're at a conference where Amanda is talking on F#, I'd check it out.

So today's CodeMash Countdown language is F#.

Language: F#

Website: F# at Microsoft Research

A Little About F#

Okay, so maybe this isn't a musical language.

Taken from the Microsoft Research site:


F# was developed as a pragmatically-oriented variant of ML that shares a core language with OCaml. Unlike other scripting languages it executes at or near the speed of C# and C++, making use of the performance that comes through strong typing. Unlike many type-inferred, statically-typed languages it also supports many dynamic language techniques, such as property discovery and reflection where needed. F# includes extensions for working across languages and for object-oriented programming, and it works seamlessly with other .NET programming languages and tools.


Where will this be seen at CodeMash?

F# is making its rounds at CodeMash at Dustin Campbell's talk "Multi-threading Mojo with F#".

Where can I learn more about F#?

Check out the Microsoft F# Developer Center on MSDN.

For all news F#, I'd recommend checking out Don Syme's blog.

For those developers familiar with C#, check out What does this C# code look like in F#?.

Dustin's blog also has many examples of F# in action. Matt Podwysocki also appears to have quite a few examples of F# in his blog.

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, F#

I love working with databases. When I look at data, I see database tables, stored procedures, and everything that goes with them. Even when I look at everyday things - like this book sitting on my coffee table - I see various parts of it and how it would fit in a database. Author, title, ISBN number, publisher, page count... and that's just to start. My mind is just geared to see databases and the various relationships that belong to the tables.

My first database project was a freeware address storage app written in Visual Basic 3 with Access as its database. My first experience with databases in the business world was dealing with the ones in my internship right out of high school. For part of that internship, I had to make sure that the data in the database matched the spec sheets. For another part, I worked with a consultant on a VB 6 app that talked to a Microsoft SQL Server database. Towards the end of the internship, the Oracle DBA invited me to his cube to show me how Oracle works.

All of my internships in college dealt with some type of database work. From the one I mentioned above to making FoxPro programs Y2K compliant to upgrading Access forms to VB6/MS SQL, I always had some kind of database experience. Even in my student worker position in college, I co-wrote an inventory system using PHP/MySQL. Getting into the real world, I eventually took on database administration of MS SQL servers, and I am developing apps that work with MS SQL.

Anyhow, enough about my passion for databases and back to the CodeMash Countdown. Today's spotlight is on SQL - structured query language.

Language: SQL

Website: http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip127-2.htm (FIPS Standard for Database Language SQL)

A Little About SQL

This language is used for manipulating databases. Originally developed by IBM for their System R database system, SQL became the standard language for relational databases. SQL is standardized by both the ANSI and ISO systems.

Although there are standards in place, vendors have added their own features for their implementations, so not all SQL queries can be used across multiple database systems. For example, MySQL has a LIMIT clause that can be extremely useful when developing queries for paged data; however, there is no LIMIT clause in Microsoft SQL Server.

Some of the big database systems out there that use SQL include: Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.

Where will this be seen at CodeMash?

You will see SQL in use at the CodeJam at the Precompiler. We are using MySQL as our database.

As for the CodeMash presentations, check out "Well, Isn't that Spatial... (SQL Server 2008 Spatial Data)", presented by Jason Follas.

Where can I learn more about SQL?

For a generic SQL tutorial, check out Webucator's SQL Tutorial.

If you are using Oracle, check out the Oracle/SQL Tutorial.

If you are working with Microsoft SQL Server, check out the SQL Server Developer Center on MSDN.

For MySQL, check out tizag.com's MySQL Tutorial.

Finally, for PostgreSQL, check out the tutorials found in the official PostgreSQL documentation.

---

SELECT ReaderName FROM BlogReaders WHERE IsAttendingCodeMash = 1

If you're in that result set, I'll see you there!

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, SQL

Here in Cleveland, I have the opportunity to collaborate with a talented and diverse group of developers. Corey Haines is one of those developers, and he's the first person that I've ever heard mention Erlang. I wasn't sure Erlang was, but Corey's talk of it sparked my curiosity. Without further ado, featuring Erlang....

Language: Erlang

Website: http://erlang.org/

A Little on Erlang

Erlang was created in the labs at what is now known as Ericsson AB, originally designed for use in telecom applications. Some of the key features of Erlang include native support for concurrency, distribution, and fault tolerance. It can run on a variety of platforms - including Solaris, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Nowadays, it doesn't stay in the lab - it is an open source language.

For more on Erlang, check out Ericsson's page on Erlang.

Where can this be seen in the wild?

Facebook uses Erlang in their chat system.

Apache's CouchDB database system is written in Erlang.

The IM daemon ejabberd for Jabber is also written in Erlang.

Where will this be seen at CodeMash?

While looking at the CodeMash session list, it looks like there's only one Erlang presentation. Check out "Erlang: The Basics" by Kevin Smith.

Where can I learn more about Erlang?

I'd recommend starting with the Erlang Frequently Asked Questions, to get a base understanding of the language. From there, check out the Getting started section of the official Erlang site.

Tamale.net has a tutorial called Erlang for the C, C++, and Java Programmers.

Kevin Smith has put out a screencast series called "Erlang in Practice". Check it out on the Pragmatic Bookshelf.

Me Dev, You Jane also has some interesting articles on Erlang, including a knock knock joke and a series called Erlang Introduction (For the Ruby Guy).

Finally, for all sorts of Erlang news, check out Erlang Inside and Erlang Community (trapexit.org).

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, Erlang

Continuing the countdown, let's look at the two common .NET languages - C# and VB.NET. Yes, I am combining both of these languages into one post. This may make some C# programmers cringe, as some may find VB.NET inferior. VB.NET seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield language - it gets no respect.

Seriously, though, I'm a C# developer in my day job, but my first foray into the .NET languages was with VB.NET. Before working with C#, I was a VB6 developer, but I knew that the app I was commissioned to make had to be web-based, so no VB6 for that. I figured I'd stick with a language that couldn't be that much different than what I was used to - how hard could it be to work in VB.NET? Boy was I foolish for thinking that!

These languages have been debated for eons, with Dan Appleman writing an eBook on it, Coding Horror blogging on it, and a little more recently, the DotNet Mafia mentioning it. Microsoft did release a white paper on the difference between the two languages. Though I have to wonder - why argue which one is "better"? Every language has its strong points and weak points - learn both and consider them as more tools in your toolbox when it comes to application building.

Both of these languages have the ability to show up in any Microsoft-related developer presentation, as these are the languages that get the most focus when showing off anything code-wise in the .NET realm.

Language: Visual C#
Website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa287558(VS.71).aspx

Language: Visual Basic .NET
Website: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa903378(VS.71).aspx

Where will these be seen at CodeMash?

I'm going to guess that if a Microsoft-technology developer talk shows any code, it'll most likely be C#, as that appears to be the language of choice for most of the .NET blogs that I read. Maybe some of the speakers will see this blog post and throw me off by showing mostly VB.NET examples. (Ok... so maybe that's stretching it.)

Looking at the session list, I'd have to guess that you'll see C# or VB.NET in some of these sessions:

• Modern Web Applications with .NET, presented by Drew Robbins


• Dev Guide: Skinning Silverlight Controls, presented by Jesse Liberty


• Managed Extensibility Framework, presented by Drew Robbins


• A Lap Around the Live Framework and Mesh Services, presented by Jeff Blankenburg


• Scaling Habits of ASP.NET Applications, presented by Richard Campbell


• Deep LINQ: C# Query Expression Pattern, presented by Bill Wagner


• Re-thinking UI - WPF DataTemplates, presented by Carey Payette


• Reverse Engineering Applications, presented by Joe Kuemerle


• Modeling types with extension methods, presented by Bill Wagner


• Developing for Microsoft Surface, presented by Jennifer Marsman


• Cloud Computing with .Net, presented by Wesley Faler

Where can I learn more about C#?

The MSDN C# tutorials cover a variety of features available, each rated either "Simple", "Intermediate", or "Advanced".

The Visual C# Developer Center on MSDN has articles, tutorials, starter kits, and videos just to name a few types of resources. Check out that site for all things C#.

C# Station has a series of tutorials as well, breaking the language into building blocks, similar to my data structures classes in college.

Where can I learn more about VB.NET?

Dan Mabbutt has put together a series of VB.NET tutorials on About.com.

Code samples can be found at VBnet™ Visual Basic Developers Resource Centre.

I've also found some VB.NET ASP.NET examples over at 4 Guys From Rolla.

Finally, to find all things VB.NET - including starter kits, tutorials, and videos - check out the MSDN Visual Basic Developer Center.

Labels: C#, CodeMash, Coding Geekette, VB.NET

I am starting my CodeMash Countdown by featuring a language that I've worked with in the past and that I've helped others learn. Introducing one of my favorite web development languages...

Language: PHP

Website: http://www.php.net

A Little About PHP

PHP, as close to what we know it as today, first appeared in 1997, as PHP 3. What originally started with a guy named a bunch of Perl scripts his "Personal Home Page Tools" eventually evolved into a C implementation language called PHP/FI ("Personal Home Page/Forms Interpreter"). However, a couple guys found PHP/FI underpowered, and they beefed it up into what came out as PHP 3.

PHP 3 brought on a new abbreviation - PHP now is a recursive abbreviation, standing for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor. It also brought a lot of extensibility - talking to more databases, over more protocols, with more APIs.

For a complete history, check out the history of PHP on the official PHP site.

Where can this be seen in the wild?

PHP has been used in an assortment of applications, including content management systems - such as Joomla, PHP-Nuke, and Mambo. Other popular PHP packages include MediaWiki (Wiki software), WordPress (blogging software), Gallery (photo gallery software), phpBB (bulletin board system), and Zen Cart (shopping software).

Some sites that use PHP include:

• Wikipedia


• SimCity Online


• TED


• Cleveland Tech Events

Where will this be seen at CodeMash?

Although there are no sessions featuring the language, it is used at the Code Jam on Day 0. This is my language focus, as I had worked with it extensively in the past, co-writing an inventory system in PHP.

If you want a preview of what kind of fun lies ahead at the CodeJam, you can see some of my JSON at my CodeMash PHP test bed on Cleveland Tech Events.

Where can I learn more about PHP?

The language FAQ is definitely a great place to start to learn about the language itself.

If you want to look at the various PHP frameworks available, check out this article that compares the PHP frameworks available.

You can also find links to articles and tutorials on PHP at DeveloperTutorials.com.

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, PHP

As is true with many of my friends, I'm excited about CodeMash. I had originally heard about it from my friend Russ, who had gone to past CodeMashes and came back excited about what he heard. Many months later, I met Jeff, who made sure to remind me that I missed the 2008 CodeMash and that I should be at 2009. He introduced me to a community, who has a whole have reminded me that I should be there as well. Thanks to everyone and their collective push, I will be at CodeMash this coming January.

So I'm eagerly looking forward to CodeMash 2009, not only as a participant but also as a speaker and precompiler event planner. After getting together for another meeting, I followed the guys to the Winking Lizard, and I managed to join the Code Jam team, bringing on my prior experience in MySQL and PHP. For the past few months, we've done weekly meetings, and I'm super excited about what we have to offer. I've been working with a talented group of guys, with a wide background of languages.

Speaking of languages, there will be plenty of languages to sample at CodeMash. I've always been fascinated with languages, and one of my favorite classes from college was my programming paradigms class. With my love of languages and as part of my countdown, over the rest of the days between now and then, I will give an intro to each language, which sessions may feature it, and links for more information. So look forward to hearing more about PHP, Python, Ruby, Scala, Groovy, Java, C#, VB.NET, IronRuby, SQL, Erlang, IronPython, and possibly other languages.

Towards the end of the series, I will focus on a few things that are going on or other things to note about the event.

Is it CodeMash yet? Hope to see you there!

Labels: CodeMash, Coding Geekette, language