mgroves.com

Today was my last day at The Ohio State University.

I have taken a position as a Software Consultant with Quick Solutions, Inc, where I will be working as a Microsoft developer.

I'm still trudging through the CodeKata exercices.

Code Kata 2 is a challenge to implement the binary search algorithm. Binary search is an algorithm that is used to search sorted arrays. The idea is very much like a "guess the number" game, where you are pretty much guaranteed to win in a maximum of log₂(n) guesses (n being the size of the array). Compare this to a linear search, where you start at the beginning of the array and search sequentially until you find the value. In the worst case, you'd need to search every element (though binary search doesn't work on an unsorted array).

I'm going to attempt to go through all of the CodeKata exercices. Why? I think it will help me to become a better developer, and I think it will be a lot of fun. (Note that the catalyst for this was Alan Stevens's presentation on "Coding in Public"). I will be recording brief overviews of my "solutions" here. Please feel free to suggest improvements or point out weaknesses, because constructive criticism is, well, constructive.

Code Kata 1 is more of a thought exercise than a coding exercise. However, once I read through it, I thought I would use some code to organize my thoughts better, and actually try to design some classes.

I decided to read Pygmalion this weekend, and of course I had Rex Harrison in mind while reading.

So enjoy this video! By the way, I was reading the comments for the video, and I think I agree that Hugh Laurie would make an excellent Henry Higgins, assuming he can sing.

I like ASP.NET, I really do, especially with .NET 3.5, C#, with VS2008. It's fun and rewarding.

But...I have just a few gripes I'd like to mention: inline styles, leaky abstractions, and ID mangling. These are the challenges that I have dealt with so far with ASP.NET.

I hate onions: the smell, the texture, the flavor. I find the very idea of them being consumed as food offensive. I find everything about them offensive.

For instance, did you know that the chemical responsible for the wretched odor that onions give off is the same chemical as found in the defensive spray that skunks secrete?

You may have heard the term "boxing" in reference to C# or .NET programming. What is it, exactly?

In simple terms, it refers to 'converting' a value type to a reference type.

CodeMash is over.

On day 3, I spent some time in a LINQ session, a TDD session, and even a Cloud Computing session (which I found really boring--not the session, just the topic).

Day 2 of CodeMash is over. I can't imagine a better conference for computer nerds, except maybe a hypothetical CodeMash which was a few days longer.

Today was the first "official" day, and so there were more sessions (which are shorter). I sat in on a Prototype/Scriptaculous session, which was odd because I'm a jQuery guy, and Leon spent a good amount of time praising jQuery. He also stuck it to ASP.NET AJAX, which I found interesting; he also said that it's "going away" now that MS has officially adopted jQuery. MS says that both will coexist, but I think jQuery will cause it to become stale, if not completely go away.

I just finished up the CodeMash "precompiler" (aka the first optional day).

I went to a TDD session and I spent some time in the Microsoft kitchen, where I also did some TDD work. I am more convinced than ever that TDD is the way to go. I'm not even that good at it yet, and yet it feels so natural, so minimalistic, and so correct.