Birds-of-a-feather: Code Katas for Java by Chandra Guntur
Jim Grisanzio with Chandra Guntur
Duke’s Corner Podcast — OracleDevLive Preview — March 14, 2022
https://dukescorner.libsyn.com/oracledevlive-preview-birds-of-a-feather-code-katas-for-java
Duke’s Corner Podcast with Java Champion Chandra Guntur who previews his Birds-of-a-Feather session — Code Katas for Java — for the upcoming Oracle Developer Live Java Innovations conference on March 22nd and 24th.
Transcript:
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Hey, it’s Jim.
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Got a cool conversation here coming up with Chandra Guntur.
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Chandra is a Java champion.
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He’s a user group leader.
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And he’s an engineer in the financial services industry on the East Coast of the U.S.
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And he’s also a speaker at the Oracle Developer Live Java Innovations Conference,
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which is coming up next week.
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And so I’ll have links in the show notes so you can register and get involved with that.
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It’s going to be a great event.
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And Chandra’s session he’s going to run is going to be about Code Katas.
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And this is really cool.
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I’m going to be there because I’m really interested in this.
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I didn’t know these existed until now.
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But the general topic of learning, skill enhancement…
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uh is really really a lot of interest to me personally and that’s what he’s going
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to be talking about using this methodology of of you know code katas i’ll let him
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explain it we’ll talk to you soon bye chandra welcome welcome to the program
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Hello, Jim.
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How are you doing?
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It’s very good to meet you.
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I’ve seen you online.
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I’ve seen some of your videos, but we haven’t actually met.
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This is the first time, and that’s cool.
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I’m always interested in meeting new people.
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And so the events team tells me that you are participating at this conference next month.
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It’s Oracle Developer Live, Java Innovations.
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And so they wanted me to have a quick conversation actually with you.
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And I hear you’re talking about code katas.
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And this is a BOF session.
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So this is something new here for this particular event.
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And so explain to me a little bit about what a Code Kata is.
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Pleasure meeting you on video.
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And I look forward to meeting you in person soon.
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So I am speaking at this, I’m participating rather at this developer live session next month.
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And I’ll be talking about Code Katas.
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Code Kata is very similar if you’re familiar with martial arts.
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Katas are forms of exercises that help you build your muscle memory through repeated patterns.
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So you go perform a certain task.
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If you watch the movie Karate Kid,
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Mr.
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Miyagi asked the kid to actually go wax on and wax off a lot of times.
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And what it does is that it’s actually building our defense mechanisms for the kid
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without him realizing it.
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A CodeCata does something very similar.
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A CodeCata is a programming exercise that helps you hone your skills through practice.
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So you practice some programming exercises,
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you repeat them a few times,
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you know how to use a certain technology.
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There are different ways in which a CodeCata can be set up.
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And I’m just going to quote Confucius.
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I don’t know how much this is true, but it’s… Well, I live in Japan, so…
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So I live in Japan, so I’m familiar with Confucius and this whole concept here.
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So yeah, please go ahead.
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Yeah, so hopefully this is true of Confucius having said this, but it does go like that.
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It says, I hear and I forget.
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So when you sit in the classroom and you hear something, you have a tendency to forget it afterwards.
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You see and you remember, you watch somebody do something and you may actually remember how it’s done.
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But if I do, I understand.
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And that’s what a CodeCata gives you.
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It gives you the ability to perform a task repeatedly,
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multiple number of times if you wish to,
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so you can better understand how it works.
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And that’s exactly the intent and purpose of using a CodeCata.
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New concepts are introduced as coding exercises.
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And if you are taking the CADA,
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yours is the initiative to actually go solve it and try to understand why you’re
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solving it in a certain way.
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So, OK, so it’s a specific.
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So it’s not just a bunch of exercises like a homework assignment.
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There are specific specific patterns that you’re introducing here.
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Right.
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And so the concept is to repeat them.
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So I’m a little bit unclear about like,
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OK,
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if you solve the problem once,
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do you then solve it again or do you build upon it?
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That’s an excellent question.
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And there are multiple ways in which you can do this, right?
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There’s a form where you could actually just take a blank slate and start writing some code.
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And through trial and error, figure out how certain things work.
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The problem with the trial and error approach is that you actually may actually
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skip over some of those elements that got you to the final solution.
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What if someone else already knows the solution, the right way to do it?
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And what they did was take away some of the key pieces that you do need to learn
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and deletes them,
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replaces them with to do,
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fix these things so you can get this code to work.
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And you’re only focused on solving that particular API construct or programming
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part that gets you to solve the problem.
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What it does is tends to focus more on the actual items that you would like to learn.
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This template of code that would finally work,
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but is missing the vital pieces that you need to learn,
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and you repeat this template a few times,
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you know how this piece of code works.
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It’s a different approach compared to a trial and error of,
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let me write everything from a blank slate and let’s see how it works.
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That’s the intended purpose of using a CodeCarta over,
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let’s say,
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any other programming practice where you are just repeatedly writing something from
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a blank template.
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Interesting.
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So is this a well-known technique in software engineering education?
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Is this something that everyone is familiar with?
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I am not sure how familiar a lot of folk are with the code cutter models.
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I mean, there are a few models in which people learn.
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Some people learn by reading books.
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Some people learn by watching videos.
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And then there is a third group of people.
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Unfortunately,
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I belong to that group of people who can only learn by getting their hands dirty
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with whatever they’re trying to learn.
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This model or this set of people or individuals will heavily benefit from having
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code cutters as a way of learning a new programming practice or a programming technology.
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What also helps is the fact that when you create a code cutter,
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you can also include some amount of theory in terms of comments or in terms of how
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the API is laid out,
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which also helps the reading audience understand the code better as well.
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There are different venues and then you can always create videos of you solving the
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code kata for folk who would like to learn through a video mechanism.
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I think a code kata is probably one of the easiest ways in which you can cover all
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kinds of folk who want to learn.
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I’m not sure how familiar a lot of developers are with Code Cutters, but it is quickly catching on.
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As of now,
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I’m familiar with a lot of Code Cutters that exist on GitHub,
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and a lot of folk are availing of these and contributing to them as well.
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I believe it’s a growing mechanism.
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Interesting.
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I’m really interested in innovative ways to learn, you know, whatever it is.
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And so this sounds fascinating to me.
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I’m actually going to explore this for myself, to be perfectly honest.
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Okay, so you’re going to run this session.
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It’s a birds of a feather session.
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So tell me a little bit about how it’s actually going to be run.
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Yeah, sure.
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So what we intend to do in the words of first session is one,
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understand where the necessity for Code Katas came into being,
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at least for me,
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how I went about building Code Katas,
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what Code Katas have I already contributed towards,
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and how these are being used to sort of learn new techniques and how a code cutter
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in general is created,
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right?
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What do we do?
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There’s a certain process to how a code cutter is created.
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Now, it’s not very prescriptive.
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There are several ways in which you can create code cutters, but there are some…
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helpful features that anyone new who’s trying to create a codecutter,
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not just take one,
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but to create one,
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should be aware of.
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It’s a developer experience concept that we’re going to talk or discuss heavily in the session.
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Okay, so it’s going to be very interactive then, right?
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Absolutely.
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It will have to be very interactive because there will be a lot of back and forth
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on how things can be handled in terms of developer empathy,
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for lack of a better word,
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understanding how a code carter taker understands and uses a certain technology,
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what they should and shouldn’t know.
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how we have to put ourselves in the place of that individual who’s taking the
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CodeCarta and understand what they’re trying to learn.
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What are we sharing with them that would help them better grasp or keep or retain
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their interest in continuing with the CodeCarta?
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These are important concepts,
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and this will be something that I hope will be on the agenda when we talk about this,
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or at least I’ll try to steer the conversation towards that.
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It sounds really interesting.
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It also sounds like just,
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you know,
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we’re meeting here for the first time,
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but I’m just listening to you explain this.
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It sounds like this is something that you’re genuinely interested in,
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but also you’re genuinely interested in sort of teaching.
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Is that something like in terms of working with the community that you do a lot in your career?
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I am quite passionate about teaching myself.
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I’ve been teaching for a long time,
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not through some certified programs,
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but I’ve been participating in some sort of a teaching mechanism for over two
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decades now.
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What I am very interested in is sharing what I know,
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not with the intent of just sharing it, but learning what I don’t know by sharing it.
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When I share,
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it’s the only time when someone else realizes that I’m making a mistake,
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and that’s when they have an opportunity to correct me.
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So I always find that to be a very open model,
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and I am absolutely welcoming of anyone who can come in,
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critique,
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suggest,
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or otherwise give me some alternates of what I’m sharing.
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If I don’t share what I don’t know,
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If I don’t share what I know, I will never come to know what I don’t know.
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And that’s a model I approach it with.
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I’ve been involved in the community for a while.
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I’ve been at the New York JavaScript for almost two decades now.
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I’m a founding member of the Garden State Java User Group, which is the New Jersey Java User Group.
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And I guess I’ve been participating in both volunteering and leading at the Java User Group communities.
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And that’s something I believe brings people together, networks, and I’m quite passionate about that.
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Wow, that’s really cool.
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Okay, so this is really fascinating.
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I’m looking forward to your session.
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I’ll be there for sure because I’m interested personally now that you’ve piqued my interest here.
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And hopefully in the future we’ll meet – I’m actually from New York originally,
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by the way,
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so I’m from your part of the world –
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and um hopefully i can get back there for uh for some conferences in person real
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live not virtual stuff um i think my fingers that happen soon i look forward to
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that but okay but for now we got uh next month march 22nd and 24th got those dates
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right yeah march 22nd and 24th we’ll have links for people for people to register
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it’s going to be a great conference this is like two dozen speakers there so it’s
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going to be a lot of variety
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a lot of Oracle engineers, and also from the community as well.
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So it’s going to be a slightly different mix, so that’ll be good.
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And Chandra, it was great talking to you.
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We’ll see you soon.
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I look forward to meeting you in person, and thank you so much for taking the time for this.
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Thanks.
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Bye-bye now.
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Take care.
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Bye-bye.