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Kenneth Kousen

Kenneth Kousen
   

President, Kousen IT, Inc.

Ken Kousen is a Java Champion, several time JavaOne Rock Star, and a Grails Rock Star. He is the author of the Pragmatic Library books “Mockito Made Clear” and “Help Your Boss Help You,” the O'Reilly books “Kotlin Cookbook”, “Modern Java Recipes”, and “Gradle Recipes for Android”, and the Manning book “Making Java Groovy”. He also has recorded over a dozen video courses for the O'Reilly Learning Platform, covering topics related to Android, Spring, Java, Groovy, Grails, and Gradle.

His academic background include BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mathematics from M.I.T., an MA and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and an MS in Computer Science from R.P.I. He is currently President of Kousen IT, Inc., based in Connecticut.

Presentations

Beyond Managing Your Manager

8:30 PM MDT

This is a revised and updated version of the previous talk, with current thinking from practice and the literature. The talk presents why conflicts with your manager are inevitable based on differences in priorities and perspectives, and how to plan for them. The goal is to show you how to build the loyalty relationship that allows you to get what you need when you need it.

Topics covered will include diagnosing communication styles, lessons from game theory, working within the organizational hierarchy, and lessons on how to build a relationship with your manager that still allows you the freedom to express yourself and what you really want.

Programming in Kotlin

1:30 PM MDT

Learn the basic syntax and semantics for the Kotlin programming language. Kotlin is an alternative JVM language that provides null safety, static typing, and powerful IDE support. This talk will emphasize the relationships between Kotlin and Java, highlighting the differences in types, functional programming, collections, and more.

Demonstrations will include:

  • how to transform Kotlin code to view the equivalent Java
  • how to work with classes, interfaces, and objects
  • how to use collections, streams, and sequences

and much more.

Advanced Kotlin: Coroutines And More

3:15 PM MDT

This talk will examine features of Kotlin at a greater depth than most tutorials. Coroutines – the most popular feature of the language – will be covered, as well as higher order functions, reduction operations like reduce and fold, and lambdas with receivers. Those topics progress toward building DSLs and builders in Kotlin. Terms like “apply”, “let”, “use”, “also”, and “with” will be covered along with their typical use cases.

Details of the type system, including the Any, Unit, and Nothing classes, will be included. Examples will be provided on how to define extension functions, infix operators, and inlining functions for efficiency.

The Kotlin DSL for Gradle

5:00 PM MDT

Gradle introduced Kotlin DSL in 2016 and formally released it in 2019. Recently the Kotlin DSL has become the default language for all new Gradle builds. It's probably time to learn about it: what are its advantages and disadvantages, how you can move from the Groovy DSL to the Kotlin DSL, and whether it's worth your time and effort to learn and use.

The Kotlin DSL brings strong typing, null safety, and, most importantly, powerful IDE support. The goal is to improve the user experience with Gradle build files through code assist and improved readability. This presentation will demonstrate the new build style, both for Java projects and for Kotlin projects.

The talk will include recommendations on how to move from the Groovy DSL to Kotlin, how to navigate and use the Kotlin DSL samples in the documentation, how to define tasks, use plugins, and more.

This Java Goes To 11

9:00 AM MDT

Many new features have been added between the last Long Term Support release in Java 8 and the current one in Java 11. This talk will summarize many of those capabilities, from the Jigsaw implementation of JPMS to unmodifiable collections to local variable type inference and more. In addition to the basic code changes, the new six-month release schedule and associated licensing issues will be reviewed.

If, as anticipated, Java 12 is released in March and Java 13 in September, new features from those versions will also be included, even though they will break the joke in the title of this talk.

Effective JUnit Jupiter, with AssertJ

10:45 AM MDT

The fundamental testing libraries in Java have undergone complete redesigns in the past few years. JUnit 5, known as JUnit Jupiter, redesigns the most well-known tool in all of testing. This talk will demonstrate the new features, how they are intended to be used, and discuss experimental ideas in the pipeline.

JUnit has been remarkably stable over the years and is one of the most widely adopted frameworks in the Java world. The latest version, JUnit 5, takes JUnit to the next level. Full of new features like conditional test execution, parametric testing, labeling and filtering tests, and more, it brings all the modern thinking on testing into the JUnit world. It also takes advantage of the functional features added to Java since version 8 to create a powerful, new library for testing your code.

Books

Modern Java Recipes: Simple Solutions to Difficult Problems in Java 8 and 9

Modern Java Recipes: Simple Solutions to Difficult Problems in Java 8 and 9

by Ken Kousen

The introduction of functional programming concepts in Java SE 8 was a drastic change for this venerable object-oriented language. Lambda expressions, method references, and streams fundamentally changed the idioms of the language, and many developers have been trying to catch up ever since. This cookbook will help. With more than 70 detailed recipes, author Ken Kousen shows you how to use the newest features of Java to solve a wide range of problems.

For developers comfortable with previous Java versions, this guide covers nearly all of Java SE 8, and includes a chapter focused on changes coming in Java 9. Need to understand how functional idioms will change the way you write code? This cookbook—chock full of use cases—is for you.

Recipes cover:

  • The basics of lambda expressions and method references
  • Interfaces in the java.util.function package
  • Stream operations for transforming and filtering data
  • Comparators and Collectors for sorting and converting streaming data
  • Combining lambdas, method references, and streams
  • Creating instances and extract values from Java’s Optional type
  • New I/O capabilities that support functional streams
  • The Date-Time API that replaces the legacy Date and Calendar classes
  • Mechanisms for experimenting with concurrency and parallelism
Gradle Recipes for Android

Gradle Recipes for Android

by Ken Kousen

Using the Android Studio IDE and the Gradle build tool will make Android app development much simpler—as long as you know your way around Gradle. This practical guide shows you how Gradle works with Android so that you can use it effectively on your projects. You’ll learn ways to customize project layouts, add dependencies, and even generate multiple different versions of your application.

  • Use Gradle independently and from with the new preferred IDE, Android Studio
  • Integrate tests into standard Android project builds
  • Easily customize builds to add popular third-party libraries as dependencies
  • Generate artifacts with various properties, like debug or release, and different flavors, like paid or free
Making Java Groovy

Making Java Groovy

by Ken Kousen

Summary

Making Java Groovy is a practical handbook for developers who want to blend Groovy into their day-to-day work with Java. It starts by introducing the key differences between Java and Groovy—and how you can use them to your advantage. Then, it guides you step-by-step through realistic development challenges, from web applications to web services to desktop applications, and shows how Groovy makes them easier to put into production.

About this Book

You don't need the full force of Java when you're writing a build script, a simple system utility, or a lightweight web app—but that's where Groovy shines brightest. This elegant JVM-based dynamic language extends and simplifies Java so you can concentrate on the task at hand instead of managing minute details and unnecessary complexity.

Making Java Groov is a practical guide for developers who want to benefit from Groovy in their work with Java. It starts by introducing the key differences between Java and Groovy and how to use them to your advantage. Then, you'll focus on the situations you face every day, like consuming and creating RESTful web services, working with databases, and using the Spring framework. You'll also explore the great Groovy tools for build processes, testing, and deployment and learn how to write Groovy-based domain-specific languages that simplify Java development.

Written for developers familiar with Java. No Groovy experience required.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

What's Inside

  • Easier Java
  • Closures, builders, and metaprogramming
  • Gradle for builds, Spock for testing
  • Groovy frameworks like Grails and Griffon

About the Author

Ken Kousen is an independent consultant and trainer specializing in Spring, Hibernate, Groovy, and Grails.

Table of Contents

    PART 1: UP TO SPEED WITH GROOVY
  1. Why add Groovy to Java?
  2. Groovy by example
  3. Code-level integration
  4. Using Groovy features in Java
    5. PART 2: GROOVY TOOLS
  5. Build processes
  6. Testing Groovy and Java projects
    7. PART 3: GROOVY IN THE REAL WORLD
  7. The Spring framework
  8. Database access
  9. RESTful web services
  10. Building and testing web applications
Groovy Fundamentals [Online Code]

Groovy Fundamentals [Online Code]

by

Number of Videos: 4 hours - 23 lessons
Author: Ken Kousen
User Level: Beginner
Learn the advantages of using Groovy by itself and with existing Java projects. This video workshop takes you into the heart of this JVM language and shows you how Groovy can help increase your productivity through dynamic language features similar to those of Python, Ruby, and Smalltalk. Presenter and Java consultant Ken Kousen demonstrates how writing anything from a simple build script to a full scale application is much easier with Groovy than with Java. You’ll quickly learn how to add Groovy to your projects, and then explore the language through a host of examples and demonstrations. Once you complete this course, check out Ken’s other videos on the subject: Practical Groovy and Mastering Groovy. - Walk through Groovy’s basic data types. Use the “slashy” string syntax to define regular expressions. - Learn how operator overloading in the libraries simplifies your code - Control and customize all the natural defaults and autogenerated code in POGOs - Get demonstrations on using closures, and mixing Java and Groovy classes together - Know when and how to use Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) transformations - Parse and generate both XML and JSON - Access RESTful web services with ease Ken Kousen, President of Kousen IT, Inc., is a technical trainer, mentor, and consultant in all areas related to Java, specializing in Android, Spring, Hibernate/JPA, Groovy, and Grails. He is the author of Making Java Groovy (Manning) and the upcoming O’Reilly book, Gradle for Android.

System Requirements:
  • Supported OS:   [Mac Mountain Lion 10.8, Mac Lion 10.7, Mac Snow Leopard 10.6, Mac Leopard 10.5, Mac OS X, Macintosh]
  • Processor:   Any
  • RAM:   Any
  • Hard Disk:   3GB
  • Video Card:   Any