Automation (1 Size Doesn’t Fit All)
– Mike Mitchell (no Twitter found)
- Tool vs framework
- Framework- foundation for dev activities
- An automation framework includes methodology, tools, libraries/languages
- So this definition is different from like a framework ala NUnit?
- Technical Architecture & Design: Application, dependencies, data flow,
technologies used - Business Logic and end users
Mr. Mitchell (who is a local guy, QA Lead @ Claytons) delivered an excellent presentation on automation. It wasn’t related to any specific tool or implementation but rather a wholistic examination of what automation is (and isn’t) and how to approach it in the real world. I’ve done a bit of study on the topic the past few years and I thought this workshop did an excellent job of truly defining “automation” and discussing how it can and should be implemented. It isn’t magic and can mean different things to different stacks.
AWS CDK
- Open source, on
GitHub - A high level of abstraction
- Need to check out typescript and Go
- CDK is a series of Node packages
- Can code in typescript, JS, Python
- Lambda functions?
- CDK is default way for Amazon to develop new systems
- Produce separate immutable deployment artifacts for each stack in your
environment ? As opposed to before it was 1 for all - AWS construct library?
- L3 constructs
- Construct layers are layers of template
- Template goes to cloud formation/ provisioning engine
- Cdkworkshop.com
Each day I chose one workshop that was a challenge (i.e. WAY over my head) and this one was it for my Friday. Mr. Beard was actually from Amazon (all the way from Seattle) and was obviously comfortable and well versed on the subject. The subject? AWS (Amazon’s cloud service, natch) “Cloud Development Kit”. My notes are scribbled in italics above. They might provide a keyhole view into the presentation which was full of a lot of interesting info about deployments, provisioning, and “cloud formation”. This is how Amazon now deploys new systems and as the biggest cloud service out there (to my knowledge) it was cool to at least try to follow along with how it all works. (and it built nicely upon yesterday’s AWS topic, “Intro to Amazon AWS”).
Functional Flavored JavaScript – David Fancher
Look up stuff on
Node.js
Functional prog. – purity (control side effects), favor expressions over
statements, functions as data (they’re just another object)
Immutability
Arrow functions are good. They maintain the parent “this”
Don’t use “this” in functional
Partial function application
Composability- creating functions from other functions
Compose(…functions…, params)
Is this just pipelining?
It is – [PIPE], which is a symbol,
Model-based validation
.reduce
Reflect. ownKeys (gets list of keys)
Node.js
Functional prog. – purity (control side effects), favor expressions over
statements, functions as data (they’re just another object)
Immutability
Arrow functions are good. They maintain the parent “this”
Don’t use “this” in functional
Partial function application
Composability- creating functions from other functions
Compose(…functions…, params)
Is this just pipelining?
It is – [PIPE], which is a symbol,
Model-based validation
.reduce
Reflect. ownKeys (gets list of keys)
This presentation also built nicely upon yesterday’s “FUNctional Programming” course ( 😀 ) wherein we programmed a Mars rover. Today in this presentation we dove a little deeper into Functional Programming, specifically in JavaScript. Some of my main takeaways (seen in my notes above)…”this” is taboo, who knew? Functions each maintain their own little “this” bubble (except for arrow functions) which can make things weird. And JS functions can be daisy-chained in what I think was essentially pipelining? I might be partially (or totally) wrong but I do want to look into it, which is what you want to take away from a conference.
Communicate with Others
For success in any field, being able to communicate effectively is one of the most important soft skills to have, particularly in those where highly complex ideas need to be discussed to get the job done the best way possible.
This presentation will help to increase your self-awareness about how you transmit your ideas. We will analyze a simple communication model to understand the process of communicating any message and the elements that may affect the outcome by describing what happens inside us as we speak and listen. This knowledge will help you to improve your communication skills, which can be applied in any context, professional and personal.
I didn’t actually take notes in this lecture. I dunno…it just wasn’t that sort of lecture. This was the “soft skills” lecture I threw into the mix. The workshop description (from the Codestock site) is listed above. Ms. Hernandez spoke to a packed out room (a large room) which is I thought was interesting – I think a lot of folks in tech have a difficult time communicating and we know it.
One thing I recall from the lecture, even though it wasn’t exactly profound…someone who hears our voice on the phone isn’t actually hearing *our* voice, just a mechanical approximation. I mean…that’s very obvious when you think about it, but I guess I never had. That would preach.