Speaking

I presented at .NET Conf Rome 2025 yesterday, and it went very well, or at least that was my impression. I enjoyed myself, and the reception seemed great, from the organizers, the other speakers (most of whom are fellow MVPs), and the audience. But the kicker was just before the session when, at the coffee break, an attendant approached me to shake hands and tell me he had known me for a long time because he discovered and used Eve in a research project he was working on years ago. As I recall, he had attended one of my Eve sessions at EuroPython, maybe in Berlin in 2014. As is often the case, he had no immediate need for my project and shelved it as “interesting, and cool that it’s by an Italian author, but I don’t need really it”. Then, a couple of years later, in a time of need, he recalled that little presentation of mine, and, long story short, Eve ended up being adopted by a big, unnamed corp or research institute. I thanked him from the bottom of my heart and told him it was worth preparing for the talk, waking up at 4 am and travelling to Rome to meet him and hear his story. It’s moments like this that make it all worth it. Also, hearing such a Python story at a .NET event was unexpected. ...

I sat to jot down a quick introduction to my C# 13 What’s New and Interesting session next week, and what I ended up with instead is a long rant or, should I dare, stream of consciousness that is certainly inappropriate for a five-minute introduction. I’ll have to cut most of it down, especially on the personal story part, but my site might be a good place to host it in all its completeness. I may reference this post at the start of the session on Monday for those few poor souls who might be interested. ...

I’m speaking at the .NET Conference Italia 2024 on Dec 16th in Milan at the Microsoft House. My session is titled C# 13 What’s New and Interesting and will be on the latest iteration of the C# language. We’ll also briefly touch on .NET 9, which was also just released. Hope to see you there (make sure to come to me to say Hi!)

The video my OAuth2 and OpenID Connect session at WebDay 2024 Milan is available online. It is in Italian, and you need to login or register in order to see it (sorry, I don’t have control over it.)

This is a follow-up post to C# 12 Primary Constructors. Like that article, this one originates from the preparation notes for my presentation at the ABP Dotnet Conference 2024. I love collection expressions. Like primary constructors, collection expressions will see a significant adoption in the long run. Collection expressions introduce a new way to initialize common collection values in a terse, unified syntax. This is how we initialize collections today: var x1 = new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4 }; var x2 = Array.Empty<int>(); WriteByteArray(new[] { (byte)1, (byte)2, (byte)3 }); List<int> x3 = new() { 1, 2, 3, 4 }; Span<DateTime> dates = stackalloc DateTime[] { GetDate(0), GetDate(1) }; WriteByteSpan(stackalloc[] { (byte)1, (byte)2, (byte)3 }); Notice how the code is diverse depending on the type and the context. It is also verbose. Look at how we initialize an empty int array (second line); it’s lengthy and starkly contrasts with the previous line, where we initialize the same type with some actual values. In many situations, casting is needed; again, take a look at the WriteByteArray and WriteByteSpan calls. ...

I wrapped up my C# 12 session at the ABP Dotnet Conference 2024, and I wanted to share the take-home points, at least about the most relevant features in this language version. Posting the slides made no sense as they were minimal; all the content was packed in the live demo. In a follow-up post, I plan to address Collection Expressions (done) and maybe “type any aliases”; this is about Primary Constructors. ...

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to present at an international conference once again. On May 9th, I will speak at the ABP Donet Conf'24. My session, titled C #12: What’s New and Interesting, is on a topic I’m passionate about. With the alignment of C# and Dotnet Core release cycles, the C# release cadence has increased (we’re on a yearly cycle now), while feature quantity has reduced for individual releases, which is good. The faster, smaller iterations allow for quicker course corrections, and introducing fewer new features makes it easier to embrace the changes. ...

Among the essential reasons I continue to make presentations at various conferences is that the preparation required to deliver good content forces me to learn and comprehend a topic in greater depth. I always try to talk about the stuff I am working on: the commitment to explaining what I am learning in public forces me into a higher level of knowledge. In the past few weeks, I have spoken about OAuth2 at two different conferences, and OAuth2 has been precisely the subject of my work for the past few months, and it still is now. It goes like this: I study and implement things, and while doing that, I say to myself, hey, this could be an exciting topic for other devs, too. I let the idea cool down for a few days, and then, if it still seems good, I start looking for a fitting call for papers. Magic happens if the proposal is accepted: I am forced to turn from a superficial connoisseur to someone close to a field expert. That’s the level of competence to aim for if one wants to talk publicly, especially on a technical topic. ...

I am speaking about OAuth2 and Open ID Connect with ASP.NET Core 8 at Rome .NET Conference 2024 on March 22 and then, less than a week later, at WebDay 2024 in Milan. I am always particularly excited when I can present the stuff I’m currently working on. Being forced to share as I learn encourages me to go deeper into the topic to reinforce my comprehension and better explain it to the audience—a win-win situation. ...

The video and slides of my C# 12 session at .NET Conference Italia 2023 is finally available online. Unfortunately it’s just my voice and my laptop screen, and that’s too bad because the location was as cool as it can get, and the room was packed. It is in Italian1 and you need to login in order to see it (sorry, I don’t have control over it.) I also submitted to several international conferences; let’s see what happens. Since the COVID hiatus, I’ve had no luck with international events. ↩︎ ...