Attended a Python training recently, and instantly fell in love with it. Mostly, because I could appreciate the ‘beauty’ of the language coming from the oh-so-verbose-Java background. And it is then that I realized, what is it that prevented me from exploring it wayy back when I had heard about it! Hmm.
Anyway, now that I have been formally introduced to it, I’m looking forward to it as a long-term association. 🙂
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Also attended Spring training. I don’t have words to express on what all the Spring community has done to come-up with a light-weight J2EE framework, with seamless integration with about anything! I did have a chance to work with 1.2.x version somewhere around 2006, but then other technologies took priority and I could not keep in touch. Nevertheless, I plan to explore it much more this time around.
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Java concurrency is another thing I’ve started following up now. I remember, of the numerous interviews I’ve attended, I’ve (confessionally) remained on the back-foot when it comes to discussions about concurrency. Decided to break this trend, and actively see what it’s all about.
I would highly recommend Java Concurrency in Practice to get your hands dirty with Java concurrency fundamentals. It has my favourite author ‘Joshua Bloch’ as a co-author.
The only let-down is that this book is currently out-of-stock in India (at least Mumbai & Pune (as of Jun’10)), but it’s worth the wait!