Please note: If you assisted the previous Science Code retreat, this is going to work out totally different, the idea is to follow the code retreat format as described here.

  When: Saturday 17th of September 8am 

  Where: AMWorks, Anglesea Mills, 9 Anglesea Row, Dublin 7

   Register

Bring: your good self and a laptop

Thanks to our sponsors:

- http://www.aveclabs.com/

- http://www.demonware.net

- http://www.treemetrics.com/

And our host:
- http://www.amworks.ie/ 

What is a Code Retreat?

Coderetreat is a day-long, intensive practice event, 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.

Coderetreat has an established, time-tested format that is optimized for focused practice.

• Problem: Conway’s Game of Life
• Length of Session: 45 minutes
• Duration: 8.30am to 5 or 6pm (this still on or times slided a bit)
• Pair-programming is necessary, as the knowledge transfer contained in that activity is essential to the practice
• Prefer using Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• After each session, pairs should be swapped
• After each session, code must be deleted, not put in a branch, not stashed, just deleted with no trace left

The Day

The coderetreat day consists of 5-6 sessions, each session’s learnings building upon previous sessions. The morning focuses on becoming comfortable with the problem domain, breaking old habits and beginning focused self-discovery. The afternoon pushes the envelope by challenging pairs to stretch their skills and understanding of abstractions, modular design and test-driven development.

With most groups, the focus should be on the fundamentals of software development and modular design, primarily the 4 rules of simple design. Spend the day practicing these concepts, rather than pushing into new learnings.