Finally, I managed to attend a meeting of the Softwerkskammer Karlsruhe, a group of software professionals dedicated to improving their craft. Todays topic was Flow Design and Event Based Components, a presentation graciously provided by Tilmann Kuhn. He gave a short overview of Flow Design and then dove into a sample implementation using Event Based Components in Java (a language I used to be more familiar with in the 90s). Java’s (and the associated frameworks’) verboseness aside, flow design and its implementation very much reminded me of Prograph CPX, a graphical data flow language of the early 90s. In order to close the daunting gap between the flow design’s graphical representation and its textual implementation an integrated IDE is (IMHO) essential.
Then, Hayati Ayguen presented his take of a flow implementation in C++ for signal processing. Terse. Brief. Very focussed on a specific use case – Signal processing. Just enough infrastructure to make it work efficiently. A wonderful contrast to the Java implementation – which does have its merits, don’t get me wrong.
A great and thought provoking evening. Thanks to the organizers. I look forward to participate in upcoming meetings.
[Update 3/2/12 - Fixed up an incomplete sentence - Looks like it was way to late Wednesday night (or I got distracted by the late night soccer game analysis on TV ;-)]
Nice write-up!
I really like the diversity of the professional backgrounds people in this group have. That is the best way to learn and to re-evaluate your habits. The different solutions presented by Tillmann and Hayati are the best example for this.
I am really looking forward attending the next meeting ( btw. 21.03.2012 Karlsruhe).
Hope to see you there (and anyone reading your blog who would like to attend)
Steffen