Dave, over at extremeplanner.com, wrote a nice summary of the talk I gave at XPSD. I completely agree with him that "a review of these fundamentals [is] refreshing." As you can see, I'm doing my part to spread the word:
Many pundits and authors in the software industry are busy promoting the next big product/feature/etc that they seem to forget that these things only provide second order benefits as compared to the more "fundamental" ideas such as good object oriented design. For example, looking through some of the user groups' upcoming meetings you'll find topics like:
- Looking at some Cool New Features of ASP.NET 2.0: Managing Membership and Role Management
- Leveraging the New Windows Mobile APIs
- Visual Studio Team System
- Closer to the Data: Using Managed Code in the Database with SQL Server 2005
Lots of neat, whiz-bang features, but I would contend that 90% of the audience would be much better off if they had heard a good talk about solid OOD or TDD or this list goes on. It's been my experience that much of these old (5-15 years), tried and true fundamentals are unfamiliar to most developers.
So here is my call to action:
If you are a speaker or author, reach for something big for your next topic. Yes it's easier to write/talk about the details of the next version of feature X. But you'll do your audience a service if you reach higher, think bigger, and go for something "fundamental."
If you are attending user groups and code camps, ask for and expect something more than a talk on the of latest version of product X.