I attended my first coding dojo last night for our Orlando PHP Meetup.
Boy was I confused. In my mind I was thinking the javascript library Dojo. I thought maybe they used Dojo as a front end to a PHP backend, and just did some coding samples. I have been wanting to use Dojo (the javascript library) lately, so that is why if was top of mind.
The coding dojo is interesting. Simply put, it’s like a karate dojo, in the sense that it is a programming practice. Pick a simple problem, lay the groundwork, and start developing. Not start coding. They guys running the group stress good TDD (Test Driven Design) practices, which was great. I heard many people last night say something to the effect that the project will take twice as long, because you are writing twice as much code.
While I feel I am a decent programming and make a living, I realize that there are many new programmers that come to these meetups. It was nice to feel like I was contributing to someone else’s learning. I was able to relay some of my personal experience with spaghetti code that I am working on untangling now. TDD is the best way for me to untangle the mess.
All in all, I prefer the presentations when they have them. I have volunteered to do one (I want to improve my speaking skills). I may not make all the dojo’s, only because I drive an hour each way, however I will definitely contribute to others learning when I can.
Thanks #OrlandoPHP