Global Day Of Coderetreat 2016
š Published: ā¢ Thomas Queste
Saturday was the Global day of Coderetreat, an event occurring every year and which brings people, in their free time, to pair-program with complete strangers. The website tells about 115 participating cities and many developers worldwide.
I was one of them, and Wow, it was really enjoyable!
What we did
Six rounds of 45 minutes, with another developer, starting fresh each time (the code is thrown every time, that robot voice shouting āDELETE THE CODEā¦NOW!ā).
Each time with different constraints. I should say with different game rules.
For example, we did:
- a TDD approach, classical
- a Fast TDD loop, aka Ping-pong: one writes the test, the other the code, the first refactoring, then we start over
- an Extreme TDD loop:
git reset --hardif something is not working in 2 minutes - Silent pair-programming: no talking completely, no message, communicate just by coding
- Develop with one or many constraints: only keyboard (no mouse/touchpad), no primitivesā¦
What I learnt
I learnt many things, and the first one is that I can write code (share the keyboard) with complete strangers and enjoy it a lot on a saturday!
Two things I will try:
First, I will experiment with a Commit-per-Pomodoro approach. I sometimes commit more often than 25 minutes, and sometimes I do not commit for hours. Aiming for a task/subtask, every 25 minutes can be a good thing to try.
Second, when pair-programming for too much time, I will propose to renew how we do it. Letās add a new rule, like not using the mouse. This should be lightweight and fun. The purpose is to get a little boost of motivation when tired and when we ācanātā stop pair-programming.
Next
The global day was really fun. A log of good vibes, and interesting discussions at lunch.
Next year, I will be there!
Thanks
Thanks to Julien Jakubowski, Antoine Blancke, Fabien Goguillon and Xavier Balloy for animating.
Thanks to Axa Web Center for hosting the event.