The Orlando PHP Meetup Group Monthly Meetup

For those of you that haven't figured this out yet, if I can't come up with another idea, presentation, or volunteer, we usually default back to the easiest thing for everyone to participate in: Coding Dojo. The rules are simple, everyone that wants gets a turn at the keyboard, and we all usually learn something. Best of all, I don't end up making endless presentations to the group!

Here's the gist.

First, pick a problem. A trivial problem. Something that sounds really simple but no one ever really needs the answer to... There's probably a million solutions anyway. The point isn't to pick a really hard problem that really needs solving. No, the point is to practice our coding skills on a really soft problem... That's always more complicated than it sounds.

Second, pair up on one computer. One person is writing code - the pilot; the other is there to help and talk things out - the copilot. Everyone else is in the audience, and every so often a timer sounds. The pilot's turn is over, and he goes back to the audience. The copilot gets promoted to pilot, and someone from the audience becomes the new copilot. This rotation continues until everyone gets a turn, we run out of problem to solve, or we run out of time.

Finally, since we're practicing here, we're going to agree to follow a particular strategy to help us discover the solution to our problem: Object-Oriented Programming with Test-Driven Development. That is, we're going to write one or more classes as a part of our solution, and we're going to write tests first. That's right, before we write a line of code towards our answer, we're going to write code that tests the expected behavior of that code first.

This experience should change the way you write code. Slowly. Oh yeah, it's slow-going at first, but the the techniques we'll uncover while on the way to that Roman Numeral decoder or Tic-Tac-Toe game will astound you... And teach you exactly how hard writing gaming engines really is...! O_O

Because the Dojo works best when everyone can see your work, we'll be meeting at the clubhouse at Camden apartments in downtown Orlando, with its enormous TV, courtesy of Demetrius Ford (https://meetup.orlandophp.org/members/8430828/), our official Location Coordinator. The address is:

688 N Orange Ave
Orlando, FL 32801
(map) (https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=668+N+Orange+Ave,+Orlando,+FL+32801&sll=28.552474,-81.379214&sspn=0.011346,0.017574&ie=UTF8&ll=28.553182,-81.379209&spn=0.011346,0.017574&z=16&iwloc=A)

You can park in the parking lot in front of the complex and in the adjacent lot, just not in the garage. The clubhouse is inside the main complex, secured by a maglock, and it's super sweet. We'll try to leave someone outside to lead people in, but try to come earlier rather than later. If you get locked out, just ping one of us by cell phone or Twitter; I'll try to keep an eye on ye ole @orlandophp (https://twitter.com/orlandophp) account.

Looking forward to another great meeting this month,

David @ OrlandoPHP.org