I attended this year’s NDC (Norwegian developer conference) in Oslo. It was a very interesting conference, but as a short summary, it saw something like a consolidation. JavaScript – as some people say in its fourth generation (Simple Scripts, AJAX, MVC-Framworks, SPA) – is finally accepted as a language like C# or Java. Also in the agile world there is no hype anymore about Scrum or Kanban. It was more how and when to use it.
One major topic, which I saw in several sessions was maintainable code. Code has to be readable, clear and simple. This is something, what I try to teach my team-members also since a few years (yes, I was also once a geek who tried more or less any new fancy framework).
The highlights were for me the sessions “Seven ineffective coding habits of many programmers” with Kevlin Henney, “Code that fits your brain” with Adam Tornhill and “Beautiful builds” with Roy Osherove.

Here the sessions I attended:

4.6.2014:

• Keynote (It’s a Write/Read (Mobile) Web)
• Developing in a Decade
• Banish your inner critic
• Seven ineffective coding habits of many programmers
• Bridging node.js and .net using edge.js
• Leading without formal autority
• Better Software – No Matter what: The most important design guideline

5.6.2014:

• The mess we’re in
• Docker is the future of shipping our code
• Delivering continuously to 10 million users
• Code that fits your brain
• The future of ASP.NET Part I
• Free is a lie
• The technical debt trap
• Fun with JavaScript

6.6.2014:

• Continuous delivery with Octopus Deploy
• Beautiful builds
• Agile estimating
• Clean architecture and design
• TDD in Tatters
• Using the Scrum rules against your boss

Beside the fun presentation of Scott Hanselman about JavaScript, there was another last funny presentation: “History of programming, Part 1”. You can watch all recorded sessions on vimeo.
After the conference I stayed for the weekend in Oslo. And yes, it is a really nice place to be and the people are really friendly.