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usertesting / engi-nerd-out

EngiNerdOut is a 5 hour long, intensive practice event, inspired by CodeRetreat, focusing on the fundamentals of software development and design. By providing developers the opportunity to take part in focused practice, away from the pressures of 'getting things done', the coderetreat format has proven itself to be a highly effective means of skill improvement. Practicing the basic principles of modular and object-oriented design, developers can improve their ability to write code that minimizes the cost of change over time.
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Whatever language you want #1

Open kblake opened 9 years ago

kblake commented 9 years ago

Re: https://github.com/usertesting/engi-nerd-out#whatever-language-you-want

I would love to do this in a different language, in Elixir to be exact. My concern is that it may hinder the intended activity goals and slow down pair programming interaction (Ruby familiarity vs. other language syntax/semantics). It could be awesome though. I think it would be a great learning experience for myself and team. Being able to think differently and approaching problems with a different mindset would be super beneficial to the developer. It would stretch us and our comfort zones.

@mattsnyder I would love to hear experiences from other code retreats when a different language is thrown into the mix. Can you ask around and find out?

suan commented 9 years ago

I'd also be curious as to whether it'll be fine or inadvisable to switch the language used mid-day, as opposed to starting with that language from the very first session

mattsnyder commented 9 years ago

@kblake @suan New languages are great! It is a challenge, but this is what it's all about. The entire group does not have to use the same language, in fact it's encouraged that each pair try something different and then share their learnings.

In my experience, switching languages mid-day brought a different perspective to the problem that was enlightening. Trust me, there is no limit to this! Ha! I've gone from Ruby to Java and then to Python in the same day! Just make sure you've done a little homework beforehand and that your machine is ready to run with that language.

Besides @kblake, it sounds like you found a pair to try it out with (looks at @suan) :-)

kblake commented 9 years ago

@mattsnyder Sweet! That is good to hear! Thanks for the info. :)