koans and katas, oh my! from Øredev 2010

Øredev - Malmö, Sweden

Koans and Katas, Oh My! Cory Foy, Senior Consultant, Net Objectives

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Koans


Koans

Katas


Koans

Katas

Code Retreats


Tuesday, November 9, 2010The method in which we do these exercises is a vital part of how we learn. One key model of Skills Acquisition is the Dreyfus model, which defines 5 stages from beginner to expert. But the key is that the earlier stages of learning require greater context and concrete steps for the student to help them work through the exercises and begin the understanding which leads them down the path of intuitive decision making.

Novice

Advanced Beginner

Competent

Proficient

Expert


Novice

Advanced Beginner

Competent

Proficient

Expert

Works More From Intuition


Novice

Advanced Beginner

Competent

Proficient

Expert

Requires More Context

Works More From Intuition


Tuesday, November 9, 2010An alternative way of expressing this transition is through the concept of Shu Ha Ri. In this model the student first learns by following the rules (Shu). Overtime, the student can formalize and abide by the rules. At this point they move into a phase of attempting to break the rules (Ha) by reflection on self-knowledge and exploration of exceptions and anti-theses. When the student can break and see both sides of all of the rules, they enter into a phase where they attempt to leave the rules (Ri) by becoming free of the rules by leaving the practices and focusing instead on the flow.

Shu


Shu Ha


Shu Ha Ri


✤ Kihon (Basics)


✤ Kihon (Basics)

✤ Kata (Forms)


✤ Kihon (Basics)

✤ Kata (Forms)

✤ Kumite (Sparring)


✤ Kihon (Basics)

✤ Kata (Forms)

✤ Kumite (Sparring)

✤ Koan (Transcending)


http://rubykoans.com/



But Koans are a journey. A path towards greater learning. An investment. You’re learning. And we need learning. But we also need practice. Which takes us to Katas.

max_bit.times { |i| count += word[i] }


The concept of software Katas was coined by “Pragmatic” Dave Thomas. It came to him after he took this unreadable mess and converted it into this glimmering example of a much more readable (and faster!) version

((max_bit+29)/30).times do |offset| x = (word >> (offset*30)) & 0x3fffffff next if x.zero? x = x - ((x >> 1) & 0x55555555) x = (x & 0x33333333) + ((x >> 2) & 0x33333333) x = (x + (x >> 4)) & 0x0f0f0f0f; x = x + (x >> 8) x = x + (x >> 16) count += x & 0x3f end



So he created this CodeKata site with a series of focused problems developers could solve. But over time, the discussion drifted from providing a series of problems to solve, to a series of solutions one could practice.


This led to the KataCasts site, which were a series of Screencasts released by Corey Haines and Enrique Comba (among others) which highlighted specific solutions. We saw one of those earlier with the String Calculator Kata. The goal of these Katas were to allow one to practice their toolsets, their languages and themselves while building a known solution. Which is something I want us to try now.

http://codingdojo.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?KataFizzBuzz


This is the infamous FizzBuzz exercise. To get our blood flowing (and our keyboards going) I want us to run through 3 iterations of this exercise. But we’re going to modify it slightly. Instead of doing 1 to 100, I just want you to print the numbers 1 to 10.


Katas are a great way to practice many things, because they are short, and you can do them just about anywhere. As you saw from the FizzBuzz exercise, repetition is important so that you can learn things. In the spirit of that (and things like Coding Dojos) Nayan Hajaratwala, Corey Haines, Patrick Welsh and others created CodeRetreats


Code Retreats are full day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life




Credits and Links

Firefighters: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1018822Martial Arts: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=68048&redirect=photoDoctor: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1314903&redirect=photoGuitar: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=863840&redirect=photoCars: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=900749&redirect=photoBlacksmith: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=166615&redirect=photoCraftsman: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=470477&redirect=photoShuHaRi: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/ShuHaRi.pngKihon: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1129310Kata: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/2963773652/sizes/l/in/photostream/Kumite: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgoulet/3341918877/sizes/z/in/photostream/Koan: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seandreilinger/4127197962/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Photos

Linkshttp://www.coderetreat.com/how-it-works.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Lifehttp://geekswithblogs.net/onefloridacoder/archive/2010/08/16/setting-up-for-the-orlando-code-retreat.aspxhttp://coderetreat.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-run-a-coderetreathttp://www.alexbolboaca.ro/wordpress/articles/how-to-organize-a-code-retreathttp://gojko.net/2009/02/27/thought-provoking-tdd-exercise-at-the-software-craftsmanship-conference/http://gojko.net/2009/08/02/tdd-as-if-you-meant-it-revisited/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Danhttp://codekata.pragprog.com/2007/01/kata_kumite_koa.htmlhttp://saraford.net/2010/01/17/coding-is-not-kata/http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?ShuHaRihttp://rubykoans.com/windowshttp://codingdojo.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?KataFizzBuzz


http://www.coderetreat.com/how-it-works.html

http://www.coderetreat.com/how-it-works.html



http://geekswithblogs.net/onefloridacoder/archive/2010/08/16/setting-up-for-the-orlando-code-retreat.aspx

http://geekswithblogs.net/onefloridacoder/archive/2010/08/16/setting-up-for-the-orlando-code-retreat.aspx

http://coderetreat.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-run-a-coderetreat

http://coderetreat.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-run-a-coderetreat

http://www.alexbolboaca.ro/wordpress/articles/how-to-organize-a-code-retreat

http://www.alexbolboaca.ro/wordpress/articles/how-to-organize-a-code-retreat

http://gojko.net/2009/02/27/thought-provoking-tdd-exercise-at-the-software-craftsmanship-conference/

http://gojko.net/2009/02/27/thought-provoking-tdd-exercise-at-the-software-craftsmanship-conference/

http://gojko.net/2009/08/02/tdd-as-if-you-meant-it-revisited/

http://gojko.net/2009/08/02/tdd-as-if-you-meant-it-revisited/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dan

http://codekata.pragprog.com/2007/01/kata_kumite_koa.html

http://codekata.pragprog.com/2007/01/kata_kumite_koa.html

http://saraford.net/2010/01/17/coding-is-not-kata/

http://saraford.net/2010/01/17/coding-is-not-kata/

http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?ShuHaRi

http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?ShuHaRi

http://rubykoans.com/windows

http://rubykoans.com/windows

koans and katas, oh my! from Øredev 2010

Technology

intuitive

shu ha ri

corey haines

defines 5

2010code retreats

vital part

concrete steps

2010the method