Ruby Pair Programming

Want to level-up your Ruby dev chops (http://www.quora.com/Why-does-the-phrase-dev-chops-make-me-think-of-cannibalism)?

Miss the social interactions of being in a team (http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/crabs.jpg)? Would you like to improve your communication skills (http://images.sussexpublishers.netdna-cdn.com/article-top/blogs/84326/2012/04/93794-91127.jpg)?

Tired of working on a problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle) and getting nowhere? Is your rubber duck (http://www.nerdmeritbadges.com/products/rubberduck) fed up of listening to you?

Or are you just curious about Ruby and want to learn more about this great language from Real Ruby Devs?

Then Ruby Pair Programming might just be the thing you need!

What is Pair Programming?

From Wikipedia: "Pair programming is an agile software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. One, the driver, writes code while the other...reviews each line of code as it is typed in. The two programmers switch roles frequently."

About the Ruby Pair Programming Session

• It's a 3 hour guided session for people at all levels: beginner, intermediate or expert

• The objective of this session is to learn during the process. Don't fret if at the end of the day you find that you haven't achieved anything "productive"

• Ruby, Ruby, Ruby - we'll allow you to use other technologies, e.g., Javascript :) but please focus on using Ruby as the primary language

• Ruby doesn't just mean Rails. Feel free to work on a script, start a gem, hack on a Sinatra app, etc

• Use Test Driven Development if you can (or at least have tests in place). Despite what some people think, we've found that TDD works well in most circumstances

• Different people will use different tools (editors, test frameworks, etc). You might be unfamiliar with your pair's setup, but take this as a chance to learn something new. Maybe you will like what you see!

• Pair programming doesn't strictly have to be pairs. If !n.modulo(2).zero? we can have a triplet group

What to Bring

Your laptop with Ruby and a test framework installed (Minitest comes with Ruby; many Ruby devs prefer RSpec). Your favourite editor. An open mind.

If you don't know where to start, don't worry. We can help you install Ruby and set up your laptop at the session.

We'll provide power, desks, air-conditioning and WiFi. And hopefully an enjoyable morning of coding.

Programme

After an introduction to the session, we'll help set up the pairings and leave you to it. At the end of the session, we'll have a huddle and perhaps discuss what we learned.