At the end of March, Yatta will be off to the U.S. to attend the premiere of Devoxx US in San Jose as a bronze sponsor. If you happen to be there too, make sure to swing by our booth (#505) – especially if you are interested in learning more about jumpstarting your project with Yatta Profiles for Eclipse (Though we are more than happy to chat about other things, too!).

For the first time, Devoxx will take place in the U.S. As a community-driven conference “from developers for developers”, as the official claim says, it is packed with new and hot tech topics – ranging from Java and other programming languages to modern web and container technologies, Big Data, mobile and embedded programming.

When attending a big three-day conference with ten parallel tracks and 157 speakers, some people might find it difficult to keep track of what’s really worth seeing. This is why we put together our personal hit parade for you – 15 talks and other program highlights we think you shouldn’t miss. The focus is on Eclipse and Java topics. But we also selected some general talks about software development. Hopefully little conference guide piques!

Yatta conference guide: Hot talks on Tuesday, 21 March

Keynote by Janelle Klein: What is identity?

To those who like to think outside the box, this keynote by Janelle Klein (artist, developer, cognitive scientist) is a great way to start the first conference day. Going beyond bits and bytes, Klein will invite the audience to view software as a metaphor of the human brain and as a mirror of identity. In other words: Show me your code, and I’ll tell you who you are. Or: You are what you code. Needless to say, in times of rapidly developing AI technology, this kind of human-machine interface thinking is no longer esoteric.

Wayne Beaton, Developing Java Applications with the Eclipse IDE, Neon Edition

This session is a must for Java developers and Eclipse users. Wayne Beaton (Eclipse Foundation) and Gunnar Wagenknecht (Salesforce) will not only explain Eclipse Neon’s new features, but also provide an outlook of what’s in store for the next Eclipse version, Oxygen, which will offer Java 9 support, among other things. 10:30-11:20 am, room 5.

Linda DeMichiel: Java EE 8 Work in Progress

Unfortunately, Linda DeMichiel’s (Oracle) talk will happen at the same time as Gunnar’s and Wayne’s. But it is just as worth attending. Tough choice for attendees! Linda, who is specification lead of the Java Enterprise Edition, will present the latest updates from the Java EE 8 platform. 10:30-11:20 am, room 2.

Tyler Jewell, The Rise of Cloud Development - The Growth and Future of Eclipse Che - Next Generation Eclipse IDE

Ever wondered how web-based software development affects the Eclipse IDE? This topic will be addressed by Tyler Jewell (Codenvy) in his talk on the cloud-based IDE Eclipse Che. Tyler will also talk about general market trends concerning cloud development, most likely offering lots of interesting insights for all cloud enthusiasts out there. 11:20 am-12:10 pm, room 4.

Sarah Saunders: The Monster coming over the Hill - Enterprise Coding is Dead

The title’s provocative statement might seem bewildering at first, but upon a close reading of the abstract, it’s clear what sort of concerns Sarah Saunders (Capgemini) will be dealing with – and perhaps even eliminate – in her session: Given the ubiquitous availability of code snippets (thanks to Stackoverflow, code generators, and open source projects), self-written code can be perceived as, well, quite useless. However, there are other skills apart from pure coding that developers need today, as Saunders & Co. found out in a study which she will present in this session. 3:00-3:50 pm, room 7.

Stuart Marks, Steve Poole: Ten Simple Rules for Writing Great Test Cases

If your jetlag hasn’t caught up with you by the end of the first conference day, you should absolutely stop by Stuart Marks’ (Oracle) and Steve Poole’s (IBM) session. The two experienced speakers will provide best practices on how to write test cases. Their guidelines are based on proven techniques rather than new trends and hypes such as Cloud Computing and the ubiquitous “Dockerization” of applications. After all, Docker might not be the be-all and end-all for all use (and test) cases. 4:30-5:20 pm, room 7.

Hot talks on Wednesday, 22 March

Jonas Helming: Your first Application/Plugin based on Eclipse – FAQ

Eclipse is a powerful tool for Java developers, but also a quite complex construction that makes it difficult for application and plug-in developers to make the right architectural decisions and to keep cool in every phase of a project. Jonas Helming (EclipseSource) has collected the most frequently asked questions – and corresponding answers – over the years. 10:20-11:10 am, room 6.

Aurelio Garcia-Ribeyro: Preparing for JDK 9 - AKA The Sharp Edges of JDK 9

From July 27, 2017, Java 9 will be generally available. Those who would like to find out what consequences the language changes will have on existing applications – since it will affect most applications – shouldn’t miss this session by Aurelio Garcia-Ribeyro (Oracle). 12:20-1:10 pm, room 8.

More program highlights:

Wayne Beaton and Gunnar Wagenknecht: Contributing to Open Source

Open Source is and will continue to be the cornerstone of many groundbreaking innovations. This is why it’s so important to know how to become part of an existing OSS project. Attend this “Quickie” intro to find out: 1.20-1.35 pm, room 9.

John Clingan and Emily Jiang: Eclipse MicroProfile: Accelerating the adoption of Java Microservices

BOF (Birds of a feather) session on the new Eclipse project which provides a Microservices platform for Java developers. 9-10 pm, room 5.

Hot talks on Thursday, 23 March

Joe Kutner: 5 JVM Languages in 50 minutes

Up for a quick crash course in programming languages other than Java? Then you should probably attend this talk by Joe Kutner (Heroku) on the morning of the third conference day. The speaker will demonstrate the characteristics and differences of the languages Clojure, Scala, JRuby, Groovy, and Kotlin, all of which are based on the JVM. At the end of the session you should know what language is best suited for what use case. 11:00-11:50 am, room 10.

Simon Ritter: 55 Features in JDK 9

Speaking of the number 5: 55 new features of the Java Development Kit 9, divided into 5 categories, will be demonstrated by Simon Ritter (Azul Systems). Modularity, a frequently discussed topic, will be just one of the features on his agenda. This session is definitely worth attending, not least because Ritter, a member of the JCP Executive Committee and a Java Champion, is a renowned expert in this area. 12:00-12:50 pm, room 1.

Daniel Bryant: The Seven (More) Deadly Sins of Microservices

Buzzwords are nothing but smoke and mirrors. Unfortunately, this often goes for the technologies behind them as well. When it comes to the Microservices hype, there is not only the usual euphoric praise but also critical opinions – for example, when the particular requirements of this architectural principle are disregarded, resulting in a full-fledged spaghetti code disaster. The rise of anti-patterns, says Daniel Bryant, is often a sign of an architectural paradigm’s maturity. In his session, he will show what pitfalls to avoid. Be prepared for an in-depth analysis of Microservices going beyond the hype. 1:50-2:40 pm, room 4.

Simon Scholz: Modern User Interfaces with SWT and Eclipse 4

This hands-on lab with Simon Scholz will show how to customize the user interface of an Eclipse 4 RCP application. 1:50-4:50, room 6.

Lars Vogel: Eclipse Platform News - The return of the IDE

“Tools in Action” Session on the updates and enhancements around the Eclipse platform, reported by the Eclipse platform UI lead himself. 2:50-3:20 pm, room 1.

Fred Bricon: 5 things you can do with Maven in Eclipse other IDEs don't want you to know

Another “Tools in Action” Session about the outstanding Maven integration in Eclipse, which is quite unique in the IDE market. 4:10-4:40 pm, room 7.

Final Keynote: Java Posse

The grand finale of Devoxx US will be a reunion of a special kind: Java Posse, the famous podcast on all things Java, which broadcast its last episode in 2015, will get together again for the last keynote, adding a crowning touch to the premiere of Devoxx US.

Have fun at Devoxx US 2017!