Željko Filipin's Blog on Software and Testing

Let me tell you about a recent chat with my boss. It went something like this:

Boss: “I do not mean to say that I think you are not organized, but are you interested in improvement?”
Me: “Sure. I am always looking for ways to improve.”
Boss: “I have read Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen. Have you heard about it?”
Me: “Yes. Here and there somebody mentions it.”
Boss: “I really like it. I will send you the book, if you would like to read it.”
Me: “Deal.”
Me (thinking): “But I doubt a buzzword will help me.”

Time passed and I have forgot about it. (My boss lives in another country.) One day, the book arrived. I said to myself: “Well, since he has sent it to me, the least I can do is read it. 250 pages is not so much”.

I was skeptical about GTD. Really, really skeptical. But hey, I am a tester. I should be skeptical. Until I see something working, I do not trust it to work.

I always thought of myself as organized person. But, to be honest, for some time I was not happy with the way I organized my work. Like something was missing. I knew I had to change something, but I had so much to do (at work and after it), so I did not have the time to sit down and think where I could improve.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I have bad memory. Really bad memory. What is not written down is forgotten. At the beginning of the book, the author said that everything should be written down. I said to myself: “I already like it.”

I will not get into detail about GTD. You can find a lot about it using your favorite search engine. I just wanted to say that I implemented it in my life and it looks like it is working.

I guess I will have to say more about it in a year or two.

Long long time ago, I was reviewer of Brian Marick’s Everyday Scripting with Ruby. On February 2, 2007 Pragmatic Programmers said they would send me a free copy, but it did not arrive for a long time. I exchanged a few e-mails with them, and today the book arrived. I did not even have time to unwrap it yet.

I remember that I have heard at school something like this.

If you read a book and not write anything about it, it is like you have not read the book.

If you learn it at school, it must be true. Right?

I have just read Everyday Scripting with Ruby by Brian Marick. It is a good hands-on book written for people that have none or little scripting experience, but there is also useful information for people familiar with both scripting and Ruby. I am using Ruby for more than two years and I do not think that reading it was wasted time.

It starts with instructions how to install Ruby, followed with simple scripts that get more complicated. Methods, logical operators, objects, classes, modules, inheritance, regular expressions, blocks, test driven development, exceptions and other important concepts are introduced as task at hand requires.

Some chapters have exercises with solutions at the end of the book. I just love that way of learning. The new tool is introduced (whatever it is), then you are given a problem that you are supposed to solve with that tool. (It is how mathematics and physics, and of course programming, are learned.) The problem (for writer) is to find set of problems that are interesting and meaningful enough, simple at first, then more complicated, but not too complicated (so reader can solve them and have that great feeling of success), but also challenging enough. I find that Marick has done a excellent job, but quality of exercises degrades in the last few chapters (to complicated).

There are also several Ruby Facts chapters that introduce important things like arrays, regular expressions, hashes, argument lists and modules. Ruby Facts chapters are just great, and with exercises my favourite part of the book.

I was reading the book as I had time for about two weeks and of course that now I do not remember everything I wanted to write about it. I have a really bad memory. I wish I had written a sentence or two after I have finished reading for that day. Now I am smarter. I hope I will remember this when I start reading the next book.

In short, the first three parts (The Basics, Growing a Script, Working in a World Full of People) were great but the fourth part (The Accomplished Scripter) was not so interesting to me. Also, examples were great, but at the end got to complicated for my taste (I think I got lost while doing exercises for chapter 11 or 12).