Thoughts on My First Code Retreat

When I turned up at the annual Melbourne Coderetreat, I was nervous and reticent.  I am not a professional programmer -- yet -- and I had no illusions of keeping pace with people who do this for a living.  Nevertheless, I stuck it out and learned an awful lot.  The organisers Tomasz and Ilya did a fine job of running the event, and I appreciate their encouragement.

Conclusions and Ideas:

1. Do puzzle programming.
2. Make code kata a regular practice.
3. Focus on one language, either Python or Ruby and learn programming concepts thoroughly.
4. Attend programming meet-ups, preferably for Python or Ruby, and seek out a mentor.
5. Attend a DevOps meet-up, at least once.
6. Make code dojos and retreats a priority.
7. Learn TDD. (Test-driven development)
8. Familiarise myself with a testing framework.  Using a text editor and the terminal is all well and good when starting out, but using a properly kitted out IDE is essential.

I will return to this post and add more.  Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.

UPDATE: Some useful comments

• 8: Pick one and get settled: 10 reviews of python ides

• Choose one that supports multiple languages: python, ruby,

• Eventually you'll want to learn emacs or vim, buth these can wait

• Many of these are combinable: 1 + 2 + 3 + 7

• http://www.codekatas.org/

• https://programmingpraxis.com/

• https://www.google.com.au/search?q=python+online+courses