March Meeting – Coding Dojo

This month we’re going to be running a coding dojo.  For those who don’t know what one of these are here’s a definition from the CodingDojo wiki:

A Coding Dojo is a meeting where a bunch of coders get together to work on a programming challenge. They are there have fun and to engage in DeliberatePractice in order to improve their skills.

We’re going to pick something simple for the challenge so that you don’t have to think about the subject domain too much letting you focus more on the techniques you use.  So if you’re still learning TDD, or you want to try MSpec, or you want to practice pairing with someone and see how that works, or you want to try solving a problem using F#, or you just want to come and geek out with some code then this is for you.

And when you come, remember to bring not only a willingness to learn and try something new, but also a willingness to help others out.  These things work best when everyone is willing to help everyone else.

Oh, don’t forget, bring your laptop if you have one, and if you don’t have one, then don’t worry! We’ll get you paired up with someone else on the night. :-)

Finally, don’t forget to RSVP (on the right) so we can sort out catering as well.  See you there!

Automated Build and Deploy slides & links

Following on from last Tuesday's meeting, here are some links and slides for those wanting to look further into Rake builds and PowerShell deployments.

nRake on GitHub
nRake slides from last meeting

psDeploy on GitHub
psDeploy slides from last meeting

February Meeting – Automated Build and Deploy

Sure, many people do automated builds, but how many do automated deployments?  And if they do, how do they actually do it?

This month Romain Prieto and James Crisp will be talking about various automated build and deployment options with a number of tools being talked about, including nRake (Rake builds for .NET), TFS Deployer and PowerShell.  If you’ve got something of your own you’d like to show off then come along prepared to talk about it :-)

We’ll also chat about the latest happenings and toss around some ideas for coding dojos so come along and be a part of the community.  We’d love to see you there!

January Meeting - iPhone and MonoTouch

The first meeting in the new year will be on 19 January (not 26th as this is Australia day). As well as the usual news segment, and pizza, Ali Shafai will be giving us a taste of iPhone development, comparing both Objective C and MonoTouch.

In his own words:
In this session I'm planning to write a simple enough application in Objective-C and explain the structure of an iPhone application. Then we'll write the same application in C# using MonoTouch and we can compare the code and see the differences. I will assume you don't have any Objective-C knowledge, however being familiar with the C syntax is crucial. I will compare the Apple "recommended" pattern (observe the lack of "S" in front of pattern) to develop Objective-C applications to what we have in .Net land. I will at the end come to a conclusion why and when I would choose which tool. This is a real "Alt".Net session!

Also, here's Ali's bio:
Ali Shafai started programming a few months before he could touch a computer, during this time, he was the programmer, the program and the computer. Then he got his hands to real computers and learned COBOL, PL/I, BASIC, C, Prolog, X86 Assembly, C++, Object Pascal, C#, Python and Objective-C in that exact order. He can still remember the first program he wrote and the joy he felt writing it.
He moved to Sydney in 2001, was introduced to XP, TDD, CI and some other acronyms. In 2004 the company he was working for (EDI) won the 2004 Consensus Software Award and Microsoft Realising Potential Award, he then joined forces with Chris Anderson and Mark Wallis and formed PeerPlacements, a software talent management company. He is still enjoying programming and does freelance software development. His latest joy is Silverlight/Prism/Unity + iPhone/ObjC/MonoTouch.

As usual, please RSVP using the poll on the right to help with catering. I'll be sending out a reminder closer to date too to the Facebook group.

Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas and see you in the new year!

It’s That Time Of Year Already

November’s meeting is the last Sydney alt.net get together for the year so this month we’re going to have an alt.net beers evening with the excuse of it being an early Christmas party – yes it’s that time of year already.

We’ll be gathering at the Brooklyn (cnr Gorsvenor and George St’s) at the usual time, chatting about alt.net topics, telling war stories, talking about whatever comes out of PDC, and generally being social and having a good ol’ time.

No need to RSVP this month – just come along!

October Meeting – Selenium and Mass Transit

This month we’re going to have 2 short presentations as follows:

First up, Jodie Miners (@jodiem) will be presenting a slightly longer version of the lightning talk she prepared for Tech.Ed (which didn’t quite happen) on automated functional testing with Selenium.

In the other mini-talk David Keaveny will be talking about Mass Transit and how it’s being used in a large, real world environment and some of the lesson’s learned.

Both talks should be great, plus we’ll have room in the schedule for more of the conversation that made last months meeting so much fun, so why don’t you put October 27th in your diaries and we’ll see you there.

Oh, if you could RSVP via the poll on the right as per usual we’d appreciate it. Thanks!

September Meeting

Next week is our September meeting and in the spirit of “try a lot of things and keep what works” we’re going to try an unstructured open discussion evening.  Think of it a little like lightning talks, only more random and spontaneous :-)

Here’s the way it’ll work:

• Everyone turns up and consumes beer and pizza
• We start to talk about something
• We see where the conversation goes from there
• As soon as the conversation slows we switch to another topic

To make this actually useful and not just a case of sitting around and staring at each other, it would be great if you could think of a few things you’d like to talk about before hand and brings those ideas with you on the night.  Either something you want to share or an idea you want to explore and understand further.  (Feel free to leave a comment if you have a goldfish like attention span and will probably forget your great idea by the time Tuesday rolls around).

Whatever happens we’ll do our best to make the night as amusing and informative as we can so that the time you take out of your evening to attend is well worthwhile.

P.S. There’s a few topics I have in mind as backups so don’t panic if you can’t think of anything.

RSVP via the poll on the site as per usual and we’ll you there!