Observer Design Pattern

Design patterns are a very important thing in Development. The idea is that experienced developers came up with the idea that no matter the language, the experience, the software they were building, they always ended up on the exact same problems. And then they came up with a “simple solution” for that, simpler than the problem at least.

So, they came up with design patterns they could use next time they would encounter that same problem. Many of them are useful mainly in statically typed languages like Java or C, but most of them are actually useful, for your own logic development, and for the time you might have to end up using these languages.

Also, since it is a pretty complicated notion, it does show people (like recruiters…) that you actually know what you are talking about, which is not a bad thing right?

Yesterday, I did a lightning talk about the Observer Pattern. The idea is that it is a solution to the problem :

• I have objects that must be aware of changed of a particular object

The solution is pretty simple. You actually give all the info to the observed (called observable) object.

• The observer gets an “update” method that will be triggered by the observable with the info it sent.
• The observable gets a “notify” method that triggers the update method of the observers
• The observable has a list of observers and relative methods (add/remove/number of them)

And that is it. According to the language you’ll use, you will have modules to do so (Observable in Ruby), Interfaces (like some implementations in Java), but the idea will always be the same.

Now go on and play with it !

Engineering Empathy Aftermath

We still have Engineering Empathy in phase 2. Yesterday was the last session, about what triggers us and how to respond accordingly.

I did use that without even knowing about what I was doing. The idea is that when something triggers you, you stop, breathe, think about what’s happening, then select the best response and respond. I tend to do that myself, mostly because I am overthinking everything.

Now, yesterday was also 3rd EE session for the phase 1, the Golden Bears. It is a really strong and heavy session, even though it is also a very liberating one. I felt like I wanted to be there for the people and so I spent my evening with anybody I could find, and that was nice.

They are affected, but they seem ok… You may find it strange, but just like a big brother about his younger siblings, I feel relieved to see they are doing fine…

Looking for a job

Things are going well at DBC, but yesterday I had a bit of time and ended up thinking about jobs. After all, that is one of the endpoint of this program, a reason why I came here.

I know that before I came here, hired was the only site I tried to join, and I just not being accepted. But now, things have changed. I have good proofs of what I can do, I have more mastery, people that can vouch for me…

I am thinking about that way in advance, but I feel like I want and have to. Being a foreigner, these things may be trickier, so I need to be better, and faster.

So now, time to work on side project to show my worth, and then use that!