[jsr-314-open] Quebec Trip report

[David Geary]

I just got done with two days of training in Quebec City (you can follow my
exploits, if you're interested, at twitter.com/davidgeary). The first day
was advanced JSF 1.2, and I watched students' eyes glaze over as I covered
the complexities of custom components, renderers, converters, and
validators. Java code, XML configuration, encoding, decoding, etc. -- you
know the drill. One of the developers had used Rails, and he looked
downright depressed. But I knew day 2 would be different. Oh yeah.

Because day 2 was all JSF 2, and it was an entirely different story. I
started with an overview of the new features in JSF 2, and then dove deeply
into Facelets, templates, composite components, and Ajax. Students were
blown away. Blown. Away.

What was a fairly sullen group on day one turned into a rambunctious group
of excited developers on day two. Could they use JSF with WebLogic 10? they
wanted to know. What about RichFaces, when will that support JSF 2?, they
asked. Until we upgrade to JSF 2, can we do this templating stuff with the
open source version of Facelets?. The Rails guy was all smiles. This is
pretty cool, eh? I said (eh, if you don't know, is Canadian for hunh). Oh
yeah, they said. Oh yeah.

As I was covering JSF 2, I could feel the excitement building in the room.
Lots of smiles, lots of laughter, and excited chatting and whispers in the
incredibly beautiful language that is Quebec French, between students. It
was really phenomenal.

Early in the morning, the blizzard started. I'm teaching class, and, out the
window, snow is coming down like hell, in all different directions because
of the fierce winds that accompanied a major snowstorm that dumped nearly a
foot of snow on the ground during class. I started out with 11 students, and
by the time I finished class at the end of the day, I had ... 10 students!
I'm telling you, those guys were mesmerized by JSF 2. Even though the
weather gave them good reason to leave class early, only one guy, who had
kids that he had to pick up because les ecoles etait fermer, left class
early.

I got done with the material, and told them that they were free to go, that
they probably should go because of the storm, but that I'd be happy to
answer questions, and even with the intense blizzard raging outside, they
all stuck around for another 1/2 hour, brainstorming with me about how they
could upgrade from 1.2 to 2.0, given their current situation.

For me, this training, unlike any other I've ever done, was almost a
religious experience. For us, it's validation that all the hard work we've
put into JSF 2 is paying off.

A bientot,


david
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