London Software Craftsmanship - Robot Tournament

To usher in the new format for LSCC Hands On Sessions we had an all evening session at the Google Campus!

WHAT WENT DOWN

The kata of the night was a straightforward implementation of a TicTacToe robot. The driving principles behind the night were around releasing early and regularly. At the end of each 5 minute round, each pair's robot would play all other robots. Along with doing TDD, this all meant we got fast feedback on how well our code/strategy was performing :)

I was lucky enough to pair with Sandro and it was really interesting working with him! I've forked the original repository and upgraded the code to use Java 8 Lambdas here:

https://github.com/arkangelofkaos/lscc_robot

MY IMPRESSIONS

Listening to feedback is invaluable

Actually paying attention to feedback is incredibly important. There were loads of problems with our Java 6/7 setup which regular and quick releases highlighted. Sadly we didn't pay more attention to the problem and we could have solved it sooner!

Focus on value

Whenever you are doing any coding, it is very important to understand why you are doing things and how you can measure the benefit. Software development is very intangible but it is our duty as software craftsman to deliver tangible value!

LESSONS LEARNT

Design upfront!
I think from now on I'm going to practice the Green Cross Code everything I under take a kata: 

1. Stop - Think about the problem and check your understanding with your pair.
2. Look - See if the problem has been solved or has a simple solution.
3. Listen - Discuss ideas for how to tackle the problem and agree a path only after listening!
4. Go - Write your first test! :P

A quick sketch of things never hurts either!

Rushing gets you nowhere fast

As the anti-thesis of the above, blindly rushing in "Leeeeroy" style really isn't beneficial at all, especially when time is tight!