1 00:00:07,450 --> 00:00:09,639 After watching this video, you will be able to: 2 00:00:09,639 --> 00:00:14,700 Describe social coding principles and recognize how pair programming creates better code and 3 00:00:14,700 --> 00:00:16,990 better programmers. 4 00:00:16,990 --> 00:00:19,160 What is social coding? 5 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:22,750 I like to call it "Open Source for Inner Source." 6 00:00:22,750 --> 00:00:26,630 Social coding is something that the open-source community has been doing for years. 7 00:00:26,630 --> 00:00:32,270 What’s new is bringing these concepts into the enterprise and coding as a community on 8 00:00:32,270 --> 00:00:33,320 internal projects. 9 00:00:33,320 --> 00:00:38,070 In the past, developers worked in private repositories (repos) and you had to be a member 10 00:00:38,070 --> 00:00:39,770 of the team to contribute. 11 00:00:39,770 --> 00:00:43,840 Everything was controlled by access control lists and a strict "need to know" basis. 12 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:48,510 The problem with that is no one knows that you're working on it, so there is no possibility 13 00:00:48,510 --> 00:00:51,640 of reusing code because no one even knows it exists. 14 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:57,370 So, enterprises continually re-invent the wheel because no one knows the wheel has already 15 00:00:57,370 --> 00:00:59,410 been built. 16 00:00:59,410 --> 00:01:04,510 With social coding, repositories are public, and everyone is encouraged to fork the code 17 00:01:04,510 --> 00:01:05,750 and contribute. 18 00:01:05,750 --> 00:01:08,327 This is a hugely different way of thinking. 19 00:01:08,327 --> 00:01:12,920 Development teams love to think "this is my code and no one else can touch it" but they 20 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:16,549 need to get over that for the good of the company. 21 00:01:16,549 --> 00:01:21,270 You would think that anarchy would ensue, but actually, it works quite well because 22 00:01:21,270 --> 00:01:24,100 it’s controlled by the repository owner. 23 00:01:24,100 --> 00:01:29,679 The person who owns the repository is still in complete control of the contributions. 24 00:01:29,679 --> 00:01:31,630 What problem is social coding solving? 25 00:01:31,630 --> 00:01:37,119 Let's say, you see a component, it’s 80% of what you need, but there are some missing 26 00:01:37,119 --> 00:01:38,549 features. 27 00:01:38,549 --> 00:01:40,789 How do you add those missing features? 28 00:01:40,789 --> 00:01:44,040 You now have a decision to make: 29 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:48,529 Do you make a feature request to the repo owner for a new feature and risk that your 30 00:01:48,529 --> 00:01:50,639 request will be at the bottom of their priority list? 31 00:01:50,639 --> 00:01:55,250 Or worse, their funding gets cut, and your request will be cut out first. 32 00:01:55,250 --> 00:02:01,159 Or do you rebuild 100% of the code just to get the 20% that you need so as not to have 33 00:02:01,159 --> 00:02:02,840 a dependency on another team? 34 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:09,289 It’s sad to report, but many teams select the latter and re-invent the entire wheel 35 00:02:09,289 --> 00:02:11,310 just to get the functionality they need. 36 00:02:11,310 --> 00:02:16,849 This is a huge waste of resources for any company, but it happens all the time. 37 00:02:16,849 --> 00:02:20,190 How does adopting social coding principles solve this? 38 00:02:20,190 --> 00:02:24,450 You discuss the new feature with the repo owner, and you agree to develop it for them. 39 00:02:24,450 --> 00:02:28,311 This allows you to leverage everything that they've done and add the feature that you 40 00:02:28,311 --> 00:02:29,311 need. 41 00:02:29,311 --> 00:02:34,150 You open up a GitHub Issue and you assign it to yourself so that everyone knows you’re 42 00:02:34,150 --> 00:02:35,510 working on it. 43 00:02:35,510 --> 00:02:39,870 Then you fork the repo, create a branch, and make your changes. 44 00:02:39,870 --> 00:02:44,019 When you’re all done and have something to contribute back, then you issue a pull 45 00:02:44,019 --> 00:02:49,470 request signaling that you are ready for a review and the repo owner can decide whether 46 00:02:49,470 --> 00:02:53,239 to merge your code back into the main project. 47 00:02:53,239 --> 00:02:56,370 The repo owners are in full control. 48 00:02:56,370 --> 00:03:00,079 They can ask for changes because they do the merge. 49 00:03:00,079 --> 00:03:03,430 They can ask that you write more test cases if you don't have adequate test coverage. 50 00:03:03,430 --> 00:03:07,040 They treat you and your contribution like any other member of the team. 51 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:08,420 This is a win-win situation. 52 00:03:08,420 --> 00:03:13,090 You get to leverage another team’s code and all the functionality that you need, and 53 00:03:13,090 --> 00:03:16,060 the other team gets a feature added for free. 54 00:03:16,060 --> 00:03:20,930 The company saves money because code is being reused instead of rewritten and everyone is 55 00:03:20,930 --> 00:03:21,930 happy. 56 00:03:21,930 --> 00:03:28,540 This is how open-source works and this is how companies should treat their inner source. 57 00:03:28,540 --> 00:03:33,849 Pair programming is an aspect of social coding that is taken from Extreme Programming. 58 00:03:33,849 --> 00:03:39,400 It consists of two programmers sharing a single workstation (one screen, one keyboard, and 59 00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:41,739 mouse between the pair). 60 00:03:41,739 --> 00:03:45,760 The programmer at the keyboard is usually called the “driver.” 61 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:50,010 The other programmer, also actively involved in the programming task, but focused more 62 00:03:50,010 --> 00:03:53,530 on the overall direction, is called the “navigator.” 63 00:03:53,530 --> 00:03:57,590 While the driver is typing, the navigator is checking their work, or perhaps looking 64 00:03:57,590 --> 00:04:01,130 something up, or thinking about what's coming next. 65 00:04:01,130 --> 00:04:04,450 Then, after about 20 minutes they swap roles. 66 00:04:04,450 --> 00:04:07,829 This way they both get to play each role. 67 00:04:07,829 --> 00:04:10,349 I pair program whenever I can at work. 68 00:04:10,349 --> 00:04:12,629 I like this aspect of social coding. 69 00:04:12,629 --> 00:04:17,970 One of my personal weaknesses is that I will agonize over what to call a new variable or 70 00:04:17,970 --> 00:04:18,970 function. 71 00:04:18,970 --> 00:04:22,070 I want to get it perfect, to make the code as readable as possible. 72 00:04:22,070 --> 00:04:27,170 Having someone else to bounce ideas off of helps me make those decisions faster. 73 00:04:27,170 --> 00:04:31,150 You might think that pair programming is using twice the resources to get the same amount 74 00:04:31,150 --> 00:04:33,290 of work, but it’s not like that. 75 00:04:33,290 --> 00:04:37,070 There are many benefits of pair programming. 76 00:04:37,070 --> 00:04:39,280 The first benefit is higher code quality. 77 00:04:39,280 --> 00:04:44,420 There is something about "programming out loud" that leads to a clearer understanding 78 00:04:44,420 --> 00:04:45,420 of the code. 79 00:04:45,420 --> 00:04:49,370 In the past, when I wrote code, and I wrote it alone, and then when I explained it to 80 00:04:49,370 --> 00:04:53,540 someone, I would pick up on a bug as I was talking out loud. 81 00:04:53,540 --> 00:04:58,040 I didn’t see the bug when I was looking over the code in my head, but I saw it as 82 00:04:58,040 --> 00:04:59,650 I talked out loud. 83 00:04:59,650 --> 00:05:03,220 Having to explain code to someone forces clarity. 84 00:05:03,220 --> 00:05:05,070 This means that defects are found earlier. 85 00:05:05,070 --> 00:05:10,340 That's a good thing because it lowers the maintenance costs right down the line. 86 00:05:10,340 --> 00:05:14,970 The later a defect is found in the process, the more it costs to fix. 87 00:05:14,970 --> 00:05:18,310 Pair programming also forces skills transfer, creating better programmers. 88 00:05:18,310 --> 00:05:22,050 I like to pair junior programmer developers with senior developers. 89 00:05:22,050 --> 00:05:26,280 I do this all the time so that each one learns from the other’s approach to a problem. 90 00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:28,240 They pick up tips and tricks that the other one uses. 91 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:30,060 It creates better programmers. 92 00:05:30,060 --> 00:05:33,690 You also get two sets of eyes on every line of code. 93 00:05:33,690 --> 00:05:36,530 You don't want code that only one person understands. 94 00:05:36,530 --> 00:05:41,570 Then, that person goes on vacation, and no one knows how to fix their code. 95 00:05:41,570 --> 00:05:44,930 Pair programming leads to a better understanding of the code. 96 00:05:44,930 --> 00:05:49,310 More people understand the code well enough to fix and enhance it. 97 00:05:49,310 --> 00:05:51,440 In this video, you learned that: 98 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:55,990 Social coding is done communally with public repositories and all team members are encouraged 99 00:05:55,990 --> 00:05:57,860 to contribute. 100 00:05:57,860 --> 00:06:03,050 Pair programming results in higher quality code because defects are found earlier, costs 101 00:06:03,050 --> 00:06:07,008 are lowered, and there is a broader understanding of the codebase.