Interesting Talk: "Deconstructing the Database"

I've just watched this wonderful talk by Rich Hickey:

• Deconstructing the Database

Kata: Integer Ranges in Clojure

I just did the Integer Ranges kata in Clojure.

These are the tests using Midje:

and this is the resulting code:

As usual I used a mix of TDD and REPL-driven development committing after each green and each refactoring. I also committed the REPL history.

See all the commits here if you want to follow the process.

You can find all the code on GitHub.

Interesting Talk: "Maintaining Balance While Reducing Duplication"

I've just watched this great talk by David Chelimsky:

• Maintaining Balance While Reducing Duplication

Interesting Talk: "A Rubyist in Clojure-land"

I've just watch this great talk by David Chelimsky:

• A Rubyist in Clojure-land

Kata: Password validation in Python

Yesterday I did the Password validation kata in Python.

I used TDD to write the code.

These are the tests using Pytest:

and this is the resulting code:



If you want to follow the process step by step, have a look at the commits.

You can find all the code in GitHub.

Kata: Word wrap in Clojure

Last night I did the Word Wrap kata in Clojure.

It was proposed in the last Barcelona Software Craftsmanship coding dojo but I couldn't attend, so I did it at home.

These are the tests using Midje:

and this is the resulting code:

As usual I used a mix of TDD and REPL-driven development committing after each green and each refactoring. I also committed the REPL history. See all the commits here to follow the process.

Once I got to a tail recursive solution, I tried to make it more readable by extracting some explanatory helpers and working in the naming of bindings, functions and function arguments.

You can find all the code in GitHub.

Interesting Podcast: "When to use modules"

I've just listened to this great Ruby Rogues podcast about Ruby modules:

• When to use modules

Kata: Yatzi refactoring kata in Ruby

Last night I did the Yatzy refactoring kata in Ruby.

I mainly used it to practice with Enumerable functions.

This is the original code:

and this is the refactored one:

I committed after every small refactoring (the commits step by step).

You can find the code in this repository in GitHub.

Interesting Talk: "The Macronomicon"

I've just watched this wonderful talk by Michael Fogus:

• The Macronomicon

Last Pet Project: Glowworm Swarm Optimization in Clojure

Lately I've been working bit by bit in an implementation of the Glowworm Swarm Optimization algorithm (GSO) in Clojure.

Some time ago I implemented the GSO algorithm in C++ to practice TDD.

I decided to implement it it again in Clojure to practice with something larger that Exercism exercises or katas an yet small and familiar enough to finish it in spare bits of time.

This is the code of the resulting Clojure GSO on GitHub.

This GSO Clojure version is much shorter than its C++ version.

Aside from practicing Clojure, I've learned many other things while doing it.

I'll try to enumerate them here:

• Mixing Java and Clojure code in order to use a Sean Luke's Mersenne Twister Java implementation.
• I learned more about Midje's checkers.
• dire library.
• Decomposing a bigger Clojure application in several name spaces according to roles and responsibilities.
• Using maps to model the data.
• Struggling to make the code more readable and keeping functions at the same level of abstraction.
• Using only higher-order functions to compose the algorithm (I set myself the constraint to use no global configuration maps).
• Taking advantage of those higher-order functions to test the different parts of the algorithm in isolation.
• Separating the code that builds the graph of functions that compose the algorithm from the algorithm itself.
• Where would I apply a library like component instead of relying only n higher-order functions.
• Many other little Clojure things.

But overall it's been great fun.

I'd like to thank Álvaro García, Natxo Cabré and Francesc Guillén from the Clojure Developers Barcelona meetup for their feedback and Brian Jiménez for rubbing elbows with me in the first C++ version.

Kata: "Sieve of Eratosthenes" test-driven and explained step by step

Yesterday we practiced doing the Sieve of Eratosthenes kata at a Barcelona Software Craftsmanship event.

My partner Fernando Mora and I used TDD in Scala to write the code.

Today I did it once again in Clojure.

I'd like to explain here how I did it step by step in order to share it with the Barcelona Software Craftsmanship members.

I started by writing this test:

which I quickly got to green by just hard-coding the response:

In this first test I used wishful thinking to get the function and signature I wished.

Then I wrote the following test:

which drove me to generalize the code substituting the hard-coded list by a code that generated a list that was valid for both the first and the second test:

The next test was the first one that drove me to start eliminating multiples of a number, in this case the multiples of 2:

I made it quickly pass by using filter to only keep those that are not multiples of 2 and 2 itself:

Alternatively, I could have taken a smaller step by just eliminating 4, then go on triangulating to also eliminate 6 and finally refactor out the duplication by eliminating all the multiples of 2 that are different from 2.

Since the implementation was obvious and I could rely on filter, I decided not to follow that path and took a larger step.

I've noticed that my TDD baby steps tend to be larger in functional languages. I think the reason is, on one hand, the REPL which complements TDD by providing a faster feedback loop for triangulation and trying things out and, on the other hand, the power of sequence functions in those languages (in the case of this kata the Scala and Clojure ones).

Once the test was passing I started to refactor that ugly one-liner and got to this more readable version:

in which I extracted two helpers and used remove instead of filter to better express the idea of sieving.

My next goal was to write a test to drive me to generalize the code a bit more by eliminating the hard-coded number 2 in line 10 of the code.

To do it I just needed a test that forced the code to also eliminate just the multiples of 3:

Again I could have triangulated to first eliminate 9 and then 12 before refactoring but there was an easier way at this point: to introduce recursion.

But before doing that, I quickly went to green by calling the sieve function twice to eliminate the multiples of 2 and 3:

With this tiny step I both highlighted the recursive pattern and provided a safe place from which to start using refactoring to introduce recursion.

In this case I think that having tried to directly introduce recursion to make the test pass would have been too large a step to take, so I played safe.

Once in green again I safely refactored the code to introduce recursion:

Notice that this version of the code is the first one that solves the kata.

From this point on I just refactored the code trying to make it a bit more readable until I got to this version:

Finally, I wrote a more thorough test that made the stepping-stone tests that helped me drive the solution redundant, so I deleted them:

If you want to have a closer look at the process I followed, please check the commits list where I've also included the REPL history. You can also see all the code in this GitHub repository.

That's all.

I'd like to thank Barcelona Software Craftsmanship members for practicing together every two weeks, especially Álvaro García for facilitating this last kata, and eBay España for kindly having us yesterday (and on many previous events) in their Barcelona office.

Interesting Podcast: "Object Oriented Programming in Rails with Jim Weirich"

I've just listened to this great Ruby Rogues podcast with Jim Weirich talking about Object Oriented Programming in Rails:

• Object Oriented Programming in Rails with Jim Weirich

Interesting Talk: "Writing Testable JavaScript"

I've just watched this great talk by Rebecca Murphey:

• Writing Testable JavaScript

These are the slides.

There is also a great article about the techniques and the example shown in the talk.

And here is the final version of the example code.

Interesting Talk: "The Soul of Software"

I've just watched this wonderful talk by Avdi Grimm:

• The Soul of Software