Until the Covid-19 boogeyman goes away, we will be doing these meetups as usual, hands-on, in sessions, working side-by-side, but entirely REMOTE.
We use the Code Craftsman Saturdays Slack channel (once you register on EventBrite, you will get an invitation to join the group). This way, we have a common method of exchanging information and asking questions for a scheduled event, and a way to stay in touch and ask questions in between scheduled events.
On the day of an event, around 8:30 am we join the screen sharing and video sharing platform using the link that will be posted in Slack. In March it was Google Hangouts. We may use Zoom instead next time.
As the image above suggests, to keep things simple and avoid having to download anything or negotiate which IDE is better, we use Cyber-Dojo.org. It’s easy, flexible, and has 30 different languages, each already setup with a compiler, at least one testing framework, version control with revert/fork/etc, and even syntax highlighting. With a very high degree of reliability, it just works.
We mob program, switching who is driving every so many minutes, usually 5-7 minutes. This keeps everyone alert and works well for up to about 8 people. Past that and we break off into more than one mob.
To sync up, we agree to return to slack group or the original hangout/zoom session, aiming for hourly. Once synched up, we compare notes:
- What did we just do, and what did we learn?
- How did that go?
- What do we want to do differently next time?
- ..and we do it again, but with a different mob or pair.
This periodic change is a key contributor to learning new habits, and learning from, and with, one another.