Coding Dojo Introduction: Perfection in any craft comes from long hours of practice, and exploration of the solution space. Programming is both an art and a science. We learn the theory in college and by reading books, but to enhance programming skills to the level of mastery we need to practice. Methodology: A coding dojo is an exercise that brings the element of practice to programming. It is usually conducted for a group of 8 – 16 people in a room with one computer and a projector. Participants are welcome to bring their laptops to research during the session, but the programming happens on one computer. In each session the participants work on a specific problem statement and make it the base for their learnings. Each session starts with the coach explaining the problem, followed by a quick design discussion. Once everyone has understood the requirements and the design, the first pair comes at the front and starts programming. The rest of the developers act as a participative audience. They watch the solution unfold on the projector screen and also point alternate paths, mistakes, or suggestions to the coding pair. Each pair programs for 20 minutes in a round robin manner. The coach acts as a facilitator, pointing out mistakes, better programming approaches and also takes opportunities to transfer technical knowledge. For instance, if the participants are writing IO related code, the coach may talk about the difference in InputStream and Reader hierarchies in Java, and why they use the decorator design pattern. Learning happens informally but very effectively because explanations are within the context of code. The final ½ hour is reserved for discussing the main learnings. Dojo's can also be conducted with a specific goal – like refactoring to design patterns. Duration and benefits: Dojo sessions can be of a duration of 4 – 6 hours depending on the number of participants and the problem statement. After each session the participants will have:

• Improved programming skills
• Improved design skills
• Understood approaches to problem solving and the implications of various design decisions
• Gained an enhanced understanding of the technology and API's used while solving the problem.

Infrastructure: Computer, projector, language runtime and editor (JDK 1.4+ and Eclipse/Netbeans)

Frequently Asked Questions

Venue : Pune IT Labs,
Plot No-5, Shivaji Housing Society,
Behind International Convention Center,
Senapati Bapat Road,
Pune - 411016. Date : 17 Feb 2007. Time : 3 PM - 7 PM. Registration Fees : Special introductory price of Rs. 500/-.