OOPSLA 2006

The morning was spent listening to a great keynote on animism and the relationship between Aristotle’s ideas on poetry and modern technology, like sensor networks.

Following the keynote was a panel on ORM mapping that peeked my interrest in object databases, so I’ll definately have a look at db4o and others.

After lunch I attended my first DesignFest with the assignment to design a tracking system for Squash Ratings, and it was a very interresting experience. Most of the time was spent getting to know the other participants, building a common language, and understanding the problem domain. We got a class diagram, a sequence diagram, asumptions, design decisions, and the main algorithm done, but I suspect we could have implemented the whole application using Rails in shorter time than it took to design it :)

In the evening there was a tribute to John Vlisides. There was food! and a panel by the remaining GoF gyus. As always it was interresting to meet the people behind the book s I have read and put what they have written in a better context.