So I started this week off with the "oystercard" challenge. Once again we were pairing which is still sort of a week point for me. It's just a matter of getting used to navigating maybe being more useful. I think having the relevant documentation open would be a good way of helping. Having 2 screens is helpful though we can have the challenge description open on one screen and challenge code on the other.
Day 1
I got a lot done Monday I get the feeling it's because after the first week we all got more into the flow of pairing even although my skills can be sharpened. I feel like I say this in every blog but that's because it's true it's interesting to see how someone else works. As it was the start of the week nothing was too intense. Ironically the hardest part was getting set up cause we were told to make our own Gemfile. This was interesting cause we could set the Ruby version required for our programme. We got up to step 8 so we tore through it which gave me a nice boost.
Day 2
Unfortunately, the pace slowed down a little because we were getting onto the more difficult challenges. But that made it a bit more fun we spent a lot of time discussing different ways of doing things and always gave them a try. This just affirmed that we can both have different ideas that work. In most of these cases, they both worked and took up the same amount of lines so we came to a decision quickly. I think I learned a lot from tackling problems like that.
Day 3
We got up to step 14 in this pairing which we were told would be a particularly difficult challenge, so I can't wait to tackle it tomorrow. But today pair partner explained to me in more detail why committing frequently is so important. It's good for yourself in case you make some programme breaking changes, which I already knew, but it's also great for other developers. Committing often creates a log of your work that a developer can go through, it also gives them the chance to go back and see your process. Being able to see another developers process will help you understand why you did certain things. Lastly, it also creates a description of everything you've done through the "git log". So I think from now on I'm going to commit constantly!
Day 4
Started on step 14 today and I can see why they said it was a particularly difficult challenge. We had to split one of our classes into two separate classes. This was quite awkward because I think we started off poorly and then spent a lot of time trying to make that work. Although we did have the sense to reset and try a different approach which I think we were making some headway on which I think gave us a much-needed confidence boost. But unfortunately, we ran out of time but there's always tomorrow.
Day 5
I came down with a bad flu this morning and although I wanted to go in I thought it would be quite ignorant for me to go in an potentially infect the rest of my cohort. I also had a severe headache and I didn't think staring at a screen all day would help that. Now the weekend challenge is coming up too so I'll probably get another crack at it and hopefully complete it.
SUMMARY
I feel like I now have a better grasp of what the user story and domain models are useful for. Which is what I wasn't understanding on week one and doing a pairing with different people every day has made it easier. But the most interesting part is getting other perspectives and learning a couple of tricks along the way!!
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