On Oct 17, 2007, at 6:17 pm, David Chelimsky wrote: > On 10/17/07, Pat Maddox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> I think you'll BOTH learn more and be far more efficient if you pair >> together rather than giving him a bit of theory/tips & tricks and >> then >> leaving him to his own devices. > > Hear, hear!!!!!!!
Yep you were both right! Today I sat down with Jim, took over typing for a while and let him jump in as soon as he looked like he knew what was going on. Was about 10x as productive as before, and made me realise (a) you need a lot of experience to catch edge cases and spec obscure Ruby code (unfair to dump on someone just learning), and, more importantly (b) BDD is much more of an art than a science. I learnt something priceless too: I found I was trying to solve problems in my head in an attempt to avoid writing bad code, and tried to explain things on paper when really, I didn't know what the solution was anyway. BAD IDEA! Eventually I said to him - I'm going to pretend you're not here and just work like I normally would. It worked, and now I know that the secret to BDD is KEEP BASHING THE KEYBOARD! It's amazing how quickly you can make useful, elegant code out of complete garbage. I've had to apologise several times for the shocking stuff I was writing, tell him "don't worry, I don't care it's ugly, we'll see to that when it's working". Ashley -- blog @ http://aviewfromafar.net/ linked-in @ http://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleymoran currently @ home -- blog @ http://aviewfromafar.net/ linked-in @ http://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleymoran currently @ home _______________________________________________ rspec-users mailing list rspec-users@rubyforge.org http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
