Swift London | Hands On

HELLO

Welcome to the Hands On. A "Dojo" style evening where we get our laptops out and work on Swift together. If you came to the talks series, and you want to get your hands on some code in public, this evening is for you. If you want to get together with fellow Swift Londoners and enjoy some collaborative learning-through-doing, then likewise, this is for you.

THE FORMAT

The format for the night is modelled on the London Python Code Dojo (http://ntoll.org/article/how-to-run-an-awesome-code-dojo), which is to the original Dojo concept "as an improvisation in a jazz club is to a string quartet recital." In short, it's an experimental night.

• While we socialise at the start, participants with topic ideas write them on the whiteboard, or on post-it notes stuck to the wall. These should be problems, tasks or challenges to solve.

• We all gather and vote on the suggestions, picking one to spend the evening on. For draws, there'll be a tie-break vote.

• Small groups of no more than 5 are selected at random. Then you have 1hr 30 to try to build something that works.

• We end with a Show & Tell from each group, a kind of open code review. Each group gets a maximum of 5 minutes to demo the code, and point out anything particularly interesting about their approach.

With the problem fresh in our minds, hopefully we can learn from each other's solutions. That's the idea anyway. But it's an experiment, let's see what happens.

REQUIREMENTS

These evenings should be inclusive and open to all. Prior experience with Swift and some knowledge of the Cocoa frameworks would be very handy, but if you don't feel confident enough to bring your laptop and work with others, it's perfectly fine to join and watch, or ask questions. For those who are coding, which will be most of you, bring your MacBook with the latest beta version of Xcode. We'll have a copy on a USB stick for those who need it.

REGISTRATION

We ask that after registering your attendance here, you take a moment to sign in as attending (https://www.skillsmatter.com/meetups/6527-swift-london-september-hands-on) on the venue's event page. They kindly provide us with the space for free, including staff, security, equipment setup and hot drinks. They'd also like to make you nice sticky name badges. To return the favour, that's the little they ask.

ARRIVING / LEAVING

Doors: open from 6pm.

The event is held at Skills Matter (https://skillsmatter.com/locations/96-skills-matter-exchange) | 116-120 Goswell Road | Map (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Skills+Matter/@51.524617,-0.099142,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x48761b574f527be3:0x5cbcad177df0b525).

Please feel free to come down early, grab a cup of tea or coffee and say hello to each other. Ideas are written on the whiteboard or stuck to the wall during the first half hour, so if you want to suggest something you'll need to arrive before the vote.

The best discussions usually happen in the pub afterwards, even on a Monday. All welcome, and you don't have to stay for long. If you gather outside the venue we'll walk you over.

Our local: The Slaughtered Lamb (http://www.theslaughteredlambpub.com) | 34-35 Great Sutton Street | Route map (https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Skills+Matter,+116-120+Goswell+Rd,+London+EC1V+7DP,+United+Kingdom/The+Slaughtered+Lamb,+34-35+Great+Sutton+St,+London+EC1V+0DX,+United+Kingdom/@51.523916,-0.1002514,18z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b574f527be3:0x5cbcad177df0b525!2m2!1d-0.099096!2d51.524559!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b50dc84cbb3:0x11b720e00abc3577!2m2!1d-0.101144!2d51.523307!3e2).

CODE OF CONDUCT

While at the meetup (and hopefully in your life outside), all attendees are asked to behave respectfully in accordance with our CODE OF CONDUCT (https://www.meetup.com/swiftlondon/pages/Code_of_Conduct_%7C_Safe_Spaces/).

In short, be nice, be respectful, consider others.

ALSO OF NOTE:

WORKSHOPS BY SPECIAL REQUEST

For the evening, we will have access to several rooms upstairs. On occasion, this may give us the opportunity to put on workshops for those who request them, which can run alongside the code Dojo. Swift is obviously still a very new and rapidly evolving language. Only a few of us have the time to dive deep so early on, or can keep abreast of changes. This being the case, for the first few months at least language, workshops will be a challenge; coaches will be hard to come by, teaching materials are still being written. And frankly, no one yet knows what the "right" way of doing things will look like. The thought: If there's a specific area you'd like to learn about in a more structured way, with enough people interested (say 10 or more) we can try to arrange a one-off workshop run by those with a little more experience. This doesn't have to be a language workshop either; to use Swift fully you will also need to understand at least some of the Cocoa frameworks, Xcode, Debugging tools, GitHub, and so on. Ask us (Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/swiftLDN) | email) and we will help you set one up.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Every now and then the Hands On session will culminate in a special event. We like interesting ideas in unusual spaces, so if you have any in mind, or you'd like to help set one up, please get in touch! (Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/swiftLDN) | email)