What is Katacasts?
Katacasts is an ongoing series of performance katas, done as screencasts, by Enrique Comba Riepenhausen and Corey Haines. Along with Enrique and Corey, special guest appearances are planned by others. The screencasts are released weekly, usually Monday or Tuesday.
A primary goal of the series is to provide inspiration for others to gain benefit from using katas in their own practice.
What is a Code Kata?
Code Katas were originally created by Dave Thomas of the Pragmatic Programmers as small exercises/problems to solve. They were generally small with an interesting twist, or two. You can find more information on the Code Katas site.
Over time, the concept of katas grew from a problem to solve to a solution to practice. Uncle Bob Martin (among others) began talking about the idea of practicing the solution to a kata until the steps and keystrokes became like second nature, and you could do them without thinking. In this way, you can internalize the process/technique you are practicing until it is ‘under your fingers.’ Corey Haines gave a lightning talk at Acts As Conference 2009 on this idea; you can watch it here.
What is a Performance Kata?
At the 2008 RubyConf, Micah Martin gave a talk giving a background on the idea of kata in the martial arts. While a martial art kata is about memorizing motions, there is a significant part of it related to the performance. When you do a kata in front of your master, dojo and others, you are explicitly looking for feedback on improvement; having an external viewpoint can provide others insight into your own practice. I highly recommend watching Micah’s talk, as he performs a kata, himself, Langston’s Ant.
Corey Haines also gave a short talk and performance to the Orlando Ruby Users Group; you can see it here.
Why Music?
While there is a significant benefit to listening to someone’s thought process while they solve a problem, a code kata is not a representation of the ‘figuring it out’ process, but, instead, a representation of the final solution. The practice and memorization of a kata tries to approach a ‘perfect process’ representation. That is, we strive to show a reasonable view of how we would like to code, not just when we are at our best, but when we are under pressure, as well.
The initial idea for classical music came from watching a screencast of Uncle Bob doing the prime factors kata.
Kata Commentary
While there is a significant benefit to watching someone code silently, a code kata can provide a great learning mechanism for others. Listening to an experienced practitioner describe why certain decisions are made can provide insight into one’s one practice and techniques. To this end, we intend to also post versions of the katacasts with narration.
Want to join?
We are always looking for guest performances, such as this one by Chris Parsons. If you would like to join in, feel free to do your own katacast and post it somewhere. Send us an email, and we’llWhat is Katacasts?
Katacasts is an ongoing series of performance katas, done as screencasts, by Enrique Comba and Corey Haines. Along with Enrique and Corey, special guest appearances are planned by others. The screencasts are released weekly, usually Monday or Tuesday.
A primary goal of the series is to provide inspiration for others to gain benefit from using katas in their own practice.
What is a Code Kata?
Code Katas were originally created by Dave Thomas of the Pragmatic Programmers as small exercises/problems to solve. They were generally small with an interesting twist, or two. You can find more information on the Code Katas site.
Over time, the concept of katas grew from a problem to solve to a solution to practice. Uncle Bob Martin (among others) began talking about the idea of practicing the solution to a kata until the steps and keystrokes became like second nature, and you could do them without thinking. In this way, you can internalize the process/technique you are practicing until it is ‘under your fingers.’ Corey Haines gave a lightning talk at Acts As Conference 2009 on this idea; you can watch it here.
What is a Performance Kata?
At the 2008 RubyConf, Micah Martin gave a talk giving a background on the idea of kata in the martial arts. While a martial art kata is about memorizing motions, there is a significant part of it related to the performance. When you do a kata in front of your master, dojo and others, you are explicitly looking for feedback on improvement; having an external viewpoint can provide others insight into your own practice. I highly recommend watching Micah’s talk, as he performs a kata, himself, Langston’s Ant.
Corey Haines also gave a short talk and performance to the Orlando Ruby Users Group; you can see it here.
Why Music?
While there is a significant benefit to listening to someone’s thought process while they solve a problem, a code kata is not a representation of the ‘figuring it out’ process, but, instead, a representation of the final solution. The practice and memorization of a kata tries to approach a ‘perfect process’ representation. That is, we strive to show a reasonable view of how we would like to code, not just when we are at our best, but when we are under pressure, as well.
The initial idea for classical music came from watching a screencast of Uncle Bob doing the prime factors kata.
Kata Commentary
While there is a significant benefit to watching someone code silently, a code kata can provide a great learning mechanism for others. Listening to an experienced practitioner describe why certain decisions are made can provide insight into one’s one practice and techniques. To this end, we intend to also post versions of the katacasts with narration.
Want to join?
We are always looking for guest performances, such as this one by Chris Parsons. If you would like to join in, feel free to do your own katacast and post it somewhere. Send us an email, and we’ll link to it.
What is Katacasts?
Katacasts is an ongoing series of performance katas, done as screencasts, by Enrique Comba and Corey Haines. Along with Enrique and Corey, special guest appearances are planned by others. The screencasts are released weekly, usually Monday or Tuesday.
A primary goal of the series is to provide inspiration for others to gain benefit from using katas in their own practice.
What is a Code Kata?
Code Katas were originally created by Dave Thomas of the Pragmatic Programmers as small exercises/problems to solve. They were generally small with an interesting twist, or two. You can find more information on the Code Katas site.
Over time, the concept of katas grew from a problem to solve to a solution to practice. Uncle Bob Martin (among others) began talking about the idea of practicing the solution to a kata until the steps and keystrokes became like second nature, and you could do them without thinking. In this way, you can internalize the process/technique you are practicing until it is ‘under your fingers.’ Corey Haines gave a lightning talk at Acts As Conference 2009 on this idea; you can watch it here.
What is a Performance Kata?
At the 2008 RubyConf, Micah Martin gave a talk giving a background on the idea of kata in the martial arts. While a martial art kata is about memorizing motions, there is a significant part of it related to the performance. When you do a kata in front of your master, dojo and others, you are explicitly looking for feedback on improvement; having an external viewpoint can provide others insight into your own practice. I highly recommend watching Micah’s talk, as he performs a kata, himself, Langston’s Ant.
Corey Haines also gave a short talk and performance to the Orlando Ruby Users Group; you can see it here.
Why Music?
While there is a significant benefit to listening to someone’s thought process while they solve a problem, a code kata is not a representation of the ‘figuring it out’ process, but, instead, a representation of the final solution. The practice and memorization of a kata tries to approach a ‘perfect process’ representation. That is, we strive to show a reasonable view of how we would like to code, not just when we are at our best, but when we are under pressure, as well.
The initial idea for classical music came from watching a screencast of Uncle Bob doing the prime factors kata.
Kata Commentary
While there is a significant benefit to watching someone code silently, a code kata can provide a great learning mechanism for others. Listening to an experienced practitioner describe why certain decisions are made can provide insight into one’s one practice and techniques. To this end, we intend to also post versions of the katacasts with narration.
Want to join?
We are always looking for guest performances, such as this one by Chris Parsons. If you would like to join in, feel free to do your own katacast and post it somewhere. Send us an email, and we’ll link to it.
link to it.
The Katacasts series consists of performance katas, done as screencasts, by Enrique Comba and me, Corey Haines. Special guest appearances are planned by others. The screencasts are released weekly, usually between Tuesday and Thursday.
A primary goal of the series is to provide inspiration for others to gain benefit from using katas in their own practice.
For updates, follow us on twitter at @katacasts
What is a Code Kata?
Code Katas were originally created by Dave Thomas of the Pragmatic Programmers as small exercises/problems to solve. They were generally small with an interesting twist, or two. You can find more information on the Code Katas site.
Over time, the concept of katas grew from a problem to solve to a solution to practice. Uncle Bob Martin (among others) began talking about the idea of practicing the solution to a kata until the steps and keystrokes became like second nature, and you could do them without thinking. In this way, you can internalize the process/technique you are practicing until it is ‘under your fingers.’ I gave a lightning talk at Acts As Conference 2009 on this idea.
What is a Performance Kata?
At the 2008 RubyConf, Micah Martin gave a talk giving a background on the idea of kata in the martial arts. While a martial art kata is about memorizing motions, there is a significant part of it related to the performance. When you do a kata in front of your master, dojo and others, you are explicitly looking for feedback on improvement; having an external viewpoint can provide others insight into your own practice. I highly recommend watching Micah’s talk, as he performs a kata, himself, Langston’s Ant.
I also gave a short talk and performance to the Orlando Ruby Users Group; you can see it here.
Why Music?
While there is a significant benefit to listening to someone’s thought process while they solve a problem, a code kata is not a representation of the ‘figuring it out’ process, but, instead, a representation of the final solution. The practice and memorization of a kata tries to approach a ‘perfect process’ representation. That is, we strive to show a reasonable view of how we would like to code, not just when we are at our best, but when we are under pressure, as well.
The initial idea for classical music came from watching a screencast of Uncle Bob doing the prime factors kata.
Kata Commentary
While there is a significant benefit to watching someone code silently, a code kata can provide a great learning mechanism for others. Listening to an experienced practitioner describe why certain decisions are made can provide insight into one’s one practice and techniques. To this end, we intend to also post versions of the katacasts with narration. Given the time constraints around creating a katacast, these may or may not be done in a timely manner. 
Want To Join?
We are always looking for guest performances, such as this one by Chris Parsons. If you would like to join in, feel free to do your own katacast and post it somewhere. Send us an email, and we’ll link to it.
Sponsors
Much thanks to Techsmith for sponsoring us with licenses for their excellent Camtasia software. This is what we use to record and edit the screencasts.
If you would like to sponsor us, please contact Corey Haines.
Hi!
I’ve recorded av C# version of the Prime Factors Kata which I’d like you to see.
I have been practicing it for a while but it is not total perfection but I think it’s interesting and since you haven’t featured a C# version yet…
You’ll find it on my blog.
Best regards / Rickard Nilsson