June’s cvu - the magazine of the ACCU - has arrived and with it fairly full round-up of the 2007 ACCU Conference which is worth reading to get a flavour of the event.

A couple of comments stood out for me:

• Paul Greyner writes “The ACCU is still perceived as the Association of C/C++ users, and it’s certainly true that, although other languages are creeping in, the majority of the conference is still C++ focussed. I think we seriously need to change our perception…I don’t think C++ is dying yet, [my emphasis] but other languages are growing…”
• Anna-Jayne Metcalfe writes “One thing that came out very strongly [from Mary Poppendieck's keynote] was the contrast between large systems, smaller systems and software products - the latter are not prone to failure in the same way, and indeed my own experiences bears this out - none of the [product] projects I’ve worked on have failed, and all have been delivered.” - Unfortunately my own experience is different. My first job was in a product development company and that company failed after 30 months, although this was primarily down to problems outside the software development department in my view.

The article also includes edited versions of my blog posts from the conference:

Chaos aids learning - coaching software development teams - Anna-Jayne also writes about this session.

Simplicity in Software

Mobile convergence - it’s nice because there’s so much of it! - Nicola Mussatti also comments on this session.

Generative Programming in the large - applied meta-programming

I’m afraid that cvu is only available to ACCU members, but membership is really cheap and the journals are good quality publications. A must if you’re into C/C++/Java etc.