The More You Know

OPP 2007 East Keynote

The key note speaker for OPP 2007 east was Steven Feurstein from Quest Software. Being a key note speaker his job is to welcome everyone to the conference and bring an over all tone to conference. What Steven did was bring to light many topics that are both generically interesting to all programmers, no matter the language and environment, but also bring something that the PL/SQL community is lacking, modern methodologies. Ideas like extreme programming, test driven development, and agile development.

Since my induction into the world of PL/SQL, I have noticed a near complete lack of progressive programming tactics. This can be seen in the types of tools that are present in the market that cover PL/SQL. What you will find is that the leading companies offering tools, is in fact Quest Software. This is not to say that all PL/SQL programmers are ignorant to these new topics. However, I think the presence of new methodologies has been lacking in presence. Even simple ideas of unit testing seem to escape the community. Maybe it is due to a lack of tools…

Steven is also a very quirky guy who appears to have a very solid interest in health and fitness, he even opened part of his speech on ergonomics and the need to drink more water. A quire refreshing topic as I have seen too many developer’s let their bodies waste away due to lack of exercise and the consumption of quick food. Either way you look at it, programmatically, personally, or even fitness wise Steven’s opening notes were worth the time spent and he even threw in quite a few sly remarks that came off as big laughs.