How I got started with Groovy (and blogging about it)

My first exposure to Groovy happened at my local Java Users Group (www.ajug.org).  We had a demo over a year ago by none other than Jeff Brown.   I hate to admit that while I was completely blown away by that talk,  I procrastinated actually getting my hands dirty with learning Groovy.   

My first roadblock was being a complete novice to any kind of dynamic language.   My extremely conservative corporate employer had up to now let the Javascript and Web 2.o revolution pass them by.  I had written a few Perl scripts, but never for anything except as a workaround to some of the limitations to shell scripting.    Groovy code doesn't make  whole lotta sense until you can grok closures, and the lightweight syntax.  Thankfully, a coworker pointed me to YUI Theater where Douglas Crockford explains Javascript as a real language.   Now at least I understand the concepts of a robust dynamic language.  

That of course leaves only the small problem of learning to use the language properly.   I find book examples are never all that informative, it doesn't take much to wander off the reservation and end up really lost.  I've recently been advised that lots of free expert advice is available, if only you post to a blog.  Blame Jared Richardson for daring me to post a blog and share my dabblings with the universe at large.