Hello World, and welcome to our Java newsletter - not just any but the very first! Definitely a reason to celebrate so I'm having a beer. If you want to get yourself a drink as well, now would be a good time. I'll wait here and think about what to write next.
▚Introductions
Since we'll be spending some time together, why don't I start by introducing myself? My name's Nicolai and I'm your editor (don't tell SitePoint, they think I'm their editor). I'll be making sure that the Java channel is brimming with relevant content and will work hard to make it your go-to source for everything Java. On top of that, they'll let me out of my cage every two weeks to crank out one of these editorials.
I've been coding Java on and off since 2001 and began doing it professionally in 2011. Being a know-it-all I started blogging in 2014, which led me to becoming a part-time author and eventually an editor. If you want to know more (and why wouldn't you?), you can find me at nipafx.dev. To get in touch use mail, Twitter, or, if you absolutely have to, Google+.
▚So What Is This About?
There are 9 million people out there using Java [citation needed]. Frankly, thinking about that blows my mind. Imagine being in New York City, Cairo, or Bangkok and everyone is a Java developer!
Wherever you go, whoever you talk to, everybody's having a screen right next to them, showing IntelliJ, Eclipse, or Netbeans. Red for failing tests, green for passing, white-on-black consoles trailing logs or watching Maven download the world. Jenkins serves freshly finished builds. In your office, on the streets, in the coffee shop, at parties - everybody's hacking away at some Java project.
Are you wondering about how to manage exceptions in stream pipelines, whether SonarQube makes FindBugs obsolete, how to tune the garbage collector, or whether Java 9 will break your project? Imagine you could strike up a conversation with literally everybody you meet in this Java metropolis of ours.
Now, unfortunately we're not all living in the same city. We're dispersed over all the continents and what holds us together are the conferences, mailing lists, private and company blogs, sites like SitePoint, newsletters, courses, and whatnot. They are constantly and chaotically moving Java along.
But I know that you're busy - working, learning, living takes time and following what's going in the community comes on top. So here's my proposal: I will put my ear to the ground, curate and summarize what I hear, and report back to you every two weeks. Your task is to get in touch with me about anything you find interesting and of course to enjoy reading the newsletter. What do you think - do we have a deal?
Ok, let's go then! I've been blabbering about community a lot so why not continue down that road?
▚Conference Season
After its seasonal break, the conference carousel is picking up again. During the next couple of months a lot of great meetings are taking place all over the world - just to name a few:
- JavaZone, Oslo, last couple of days
- JAXLondon, London, October 10th to 12th
- GeeCON, Pargue, October 20th and 21st
- Devoxx Morocco, Casablanca, November 1st to 3rd
- Devoxx Belgium, Antwerpen, November 7th to 11th
- QCon in Shanghai, San Francisco, and Tokyo
But one overshadows them all: JavaOne. From September 18th to 22nd thousands of Java-ists will meet in San Francisco to discuss everything Java. Don't you wish someone would pay for you and send you there? I sure do... but, alas, nobody does so we have to content ourselves with YouTube, where the talks will show up soon after they were held. I'll binge watch as many as I can and come back with a list of recommendations - including yours if you liked a particular talk and told me about it.
In the meantime you could check out our summary of the Java Virtual Machine Language Summit, which took place in the first week of August in Santa Clara. A great panel of speakers discussed the future of Java and the JVM, mostly related to the projects Jigsaw (modularity), Valhalla (value types and generics over primitives), and Panama (going native). While targeting JVM aficionados there are a lot of takeaways for regular developers like you and me as well.
▚Wrapping Things Up
Let me leave you with a couple of articles I think you might find interesting:
- The Ultimate Guide to Java 9
- HTTP/2 Client in Java 9
- Java, Unicode, and the Mysterious Compile Error
- Using jOOλ to Combine Several Java 8 Collectors into One
I wish you a great time!
so long ... Nicolai