Last week, we got the chance to experience our first ever code retreat as a group with Mark Pearl and Elliott Wanless. It was a great learning exercise and I look forward to doing it again in the near future.

How the Code Retreat was run:

• Problem to solve: [String Calculator Kata] (https://github.com/xpeppers/string-calculator-kata)
• Pair programming: pair changed for each round
• Each round came with at least one constraint, some are listed below:
  • Strict TDD
  • No mouse
  • 4-line methods
  • Solve without regex
  • Implement pair programming in the order of:
    • One person writes the test
    • The other writes the code to pass the test
    • The first person refactors the code
    • Repeat
  • Delete all code at the end of each round

Learning

Some of the key takeways from the session:

Pair Programming

• Communicate your thinking as you’re typing the code so your peer can understand what’s going on and gives feedback or contribute to the brainstorming
• Be open to your peer’s ideas
• Have the IDE set up and running before starting the exercise!
• Knowing shortcut commands greatly enhances the flow of the session and help make the experience so much more seamless

Technical

• It’s good to understand the language you use well, as it helps with implementing your idea in code effectively once you’ve figured out a solution to the problem
• Refactoring after every TDD increment is a great practice to achieve clean code by removing duplications and keeping methods short and focused