Here is my late blog post about my first week at Code Academy.
First off, getting up that early is pretty tough. I am trying to become a morning person. So far I am doing okay.
We use pair programming in class, and so far I have had a different partner each time. My partner on Thursday knew little about programming. A couple of things mentioned in class were brand new to him. I tried to explain a few things to him, but I think I may have made him more confused.
I also read one of the recommended books: Apprenticeship Patterns: Guidance for the Aspiring Software Craftsman by Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye. It is available online for free. I do not know who Adewale Oshineye is. He is in London now, so I will probably never meet him. However, I have met the other author: Dave Hoover is a lead developer at Groupon here in Chicago. He was a lead developer at a consulting firm here in Chicago called Obtiva which was bought by Groupon. He runs the weekly Geekfest at Groupon (which I might not get to for a while since I am in the Tuesday-Thursday class). He is also a mentor at Code Academy.
The book is full of techniques and strategies for people who are getting into software, as well as people like me who are going from one language to another. I think it was intended for people coming into software, but the patterns apply for all software developers. I read through it in a few sittings in a couple of days. It was probably intended to be read slowly, but a lot of stuff will be thrown at us in Code Academy, so I wanted to get through it. Plus I can always re-read it. It has advice that I think will still be good as long as there is software. Until the moon turns red and the screens turn blue.
It helped shed some light on the software craftsmanship movement as well. I have been seeing people referring to themselves in blogs and profiles as software craftsman and I have seen references to apprentices and apprenticeships. It turns out this movement started about ten years ago and has been gaining momentum ever since. I only became aware of it a little over a year ago. I guess that is what happens when you work for a large multinational.
The only beef is that some of the links are out of date. I got a few “Page Not Found” messages for a few of them.
One neat thing is that I have met quite a few people mentioned and quoted in this book, including Dave Hoover.
Image from Code Academy, assumed allowed under Fair Use.