Yesterday, I participated in a great event  “CodeRetreat” in Wroclaw. It took place in one of the conference rooms in the Hotel Patio. It was organized by people from the  Wroclaw’s Jug and Kunszt groups. Corporation Tieto was the main sponsor. Thank you Tieto thank you guys for a great time.

 

CodeRetreat ? What ?

 

You can read a full description of it here. Briefly, It is an  initiative started by the Corey Haines to promote a self learning process in order to be a better “Software Craftsmen”.

Check the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto .

It is a gathering of  passionate programmers who want to improve their skills and are willing to “sharpen their saw”. While attending you are participating in a couple of programming sessions pairing with someone else. Every pair is working on the Game Of Life implementation.  The game of life is  just an example. The idea is not to create “product” but to train and learn by approaching the problem from different angles and try the things for which you don’t have time at work. [Because you are constantly fighting with the deadlines]

 

 

It is always a pleasure to meet people who are so passionate about their job that they are willing to waste their free Saturday to learn, teach and have fun while programming. I was one of the 2 guys with only the .Net experience. There were 61 people and most of them from the “Java World”  so pairing with the java programmers was a nice experience. I had an opportunity to watch great programmers in eclipse, and I have to say WOW!.

 

We need more events like that