Blog

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Creating JavaFX Applications

Hand drawing of a JavaFX Dashboard

This week we're doing a Live Stream on JavaFX, and I wanted to use that opportunity to refresh my JavaFX knowledge.

I wanted to investigate two areas in particular:

  • How do the changes in Java 11 (when JavaFX was moved out of the JDK) impact JavaFX applications?
  • How do I get a modern (Java 15) JavaFX application working as expected in IntelliJ IDEA (using either Maven or Gradle as the build tool)?

I now have six different applications that showcase JavaFX! And... they all have slightly different issues... sorry, I mean "subtleties around the best way to run them". Yes.

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Speaker Tips – Bootstrapping Conference Speaking

Photo of Trisha and Daniel presenting at Devoxx

I have loads of advice for aspiring speakers, which is lucky because I get asked about how to get started (or how I got started) all the time. I found an email I sent to someone absolutely years ago (2014) and thought it useful enough to dust off and post. It's interesting to see my mindset back then because now I've largely forgotten what it was like in the early days.

The timing is not great, since in these Coronavirus times no-one's going to or presenting at conferences, but I firmly believe that with all these virtual events and conferences there's a much lower barrier to entry to speaking, and that now is exactly the right time to start presenting if it's something you've ever had on your wish list.

"I was hoping I could get some advice off you as I'm starting to look at ways to get out and speak a little bit more at events. Would you have some insights from how you started?"

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Procrastination

I’ve had a fantastic week of meeting with colleagues and friends, getting to know some of my organisation, brainstorming ideas for next year, working out how to prioritise and plan, being handed greater responsibility and freedom…

Now I’m sat in Berlin airport with loads of time until my next flight and what am I doing? Creating a brand new coding product to play Sudoku, writing a new personal blog post and (of course) updating my personal blog platform software (sigh).

I should be finalising my personal and team objectives for 2020, for Q1, and for February. I should be using those to plan next month/quarter. I should be using all the notes I took this week to create sharable content for the team and maybe even a new blog post or two for work.

But I’m not. I feel the urge to code, and I want to scratch it.

Procrastination? Or using the right energy for the right task when it’s there?

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2019

Right so yes. 2020, hello. One of my 2020 resolutions is to get back to my personal blog. Weekly. Yeah right. Let's
aim for weekly and be happy with monthly.

For my first post let's do the obligatory look-back-over-last-year. Not because it's trendy (I'm 41 now, I don't care about being trendy any more), but because it's super important for me to understand what I went through and what I achieved last year (every year), otherwise I get caught up in the hamster-wheel of the-next-thing-and-the-next-thing-and-the-next-thing. Progress should be celebrated, not just ignored for the next item on the ever growing, ever pressing TODO list. Also, looking back helps me to plan the next year. Doesn't have to be super-planned, but setting some goals, objectives, ideas for which direction I'd prefer to go in helps me decide how to prioritise that ever-growing, ever-pressing TODO list.

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Me Mum

Photo of Therese and Trisha Gee

I didn’t see what an enormous impact Mum made on my life, because she was always there. There’s a quote in the book Good Omens: “It’s for the same reason you can’t see England when you’re in Trafalgar Square” - Mum was a constant, important, dependable presence for my whole life.

I wrote something for Mum while I was on the plane from Spain to spend what was to be our last two weeks together. I’d like to share some of that with you all now.

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Code Review Best Practices

As developers, we all know that code reviews are a good thing in theory. They should help us:

  • Find bugs and security issues early
  • Improve the readability of our code
  • Provide a safety net to ensure all tasks are fully completed

The reality is that code reviews can frequently be an uncomfortable experience for everyone involved, leading to reviews that are combative, ineffective, or even worse, simply not happening.

Here is a quick guide to help you to create an effective code review process.

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