Koans and Katas, Oh My! From Øredev 2010

Øredev - Malmö, Sweden
Koans and Katas, Oh My!
Cory Foy, Senior Consultant, Net Objectives
Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Koans

Koans
Katas

Koans
Katas
Code
Retreats

The method in which we do these exercises is a vital part of how we learn. One key model of Skills Acquisition is the Dreyfus model, which deﬁnes 5 stages from beginner to expert. But the
key is that the earlier stages of learning require greater context and concrete steps for the student to help them work through the exercises and begin the understanding which leads them
down the path of intuitive decision making.

Novice
Advanced Beginner
Competent
Proﬁcient
Expert

Novice
Advanced Beginner
Competent
Proﬁcient
Expert
Works More From
Intuition

Novice
Advanced Beginner
Competent
Proﬁcient
Expert
Requires More
Context
Works More From
Intuition

An alternative way of expressing this transition is through the concept of Shu Ha Ri. In this model the student first learns by following the rules (Shu). Overtime, the student can formalize and
abide by the rules. At this point they move into a phase of attempting to break the rules (Ha) by reflection on self-knowledge and exploration of exceptions and anti-theses. When the student
can break and see both sides of all of the rules, they enter into a phase where they attempt to leave the rules (Ri) by becoming free of the rules by leaving the practices and focusing instead
on the flow.

Shu
on the ﬂow.

Shu Ha
on the ﬂow.

Shu Ha Ri
on the ﬂow.

✤ Kihon
(Basics)

✤ Kihon
(Basics)
✤ Kata
(Forms)

✤ Kihon
(Basics)
✤ Kata
(Forms)
✤ Kumite
(Sparring)

✤ Kihon
(Basics)
✤ Kata
(Forms)
✤ Kumite
(Sparring)
✤ Koan
(Transcending)

http://rubykoans.com/

But Koans are a journey. A path towards greater learning. An investment. You’re learning.
And we need learning. But we also need practice. Which takes us to Katas.

max_bit.times { |i| count += word[i] }
The concept of software Katas was coined by “Pragmatic” Dave Thomas. It came to him after
he took this unreadable mess and converted it into this glimmering example of a much more

((max_bit+29)/30).times do |offset|
x = (word >> (offset*30)) & 0x3fffffff
next if x.zero?
x = x - ((x >> 1) & 0x55555555)
x = (x & 0x33333333) + ((x >> 2) & 0x33333333)
x = (x + (x >> 4)) & 0x0f0f0f0f;
x = x + (x >> 8)
x = x + (x >> 16)
count += x & 0x3f
end

So he created this CodeKata site with a series of focused problems developers could solve.
But over time, the discussion drifted from providing a series of problems to solve, to a series

This led to the KataCasts site, which were a series of Screencasts released by Corey Haines
and Enrique Comba (among others) which highlighted speciﬁc solutions. We saw one of those

http://codingdojo.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?KataFizzBuzz
This is the infamous FizzBuzz exercise. To get our blood ﬂowing (and our keyboards going) I
want us to run through 3 iterations of this exercise. But we’re going to modify it slightly.

Katas are a great way to practice many things, because they are short, and you can do them
just about anywhere. As you saw from the FizzBuzz exercise, repetition is important so that

Code Retreats are full day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life

Credits and Links
Firefighters: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1018822
Martial Arts: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=68048&redirect=photo
Doctor: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1314903&redirect=photo
Guitar: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=863840&redirect=photo
Cars: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=900749&redirect=photo
Blacksmith: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=166615&redirect=photo
Craftsman: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=470477&redirect=photo
ShuHaRi: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/ShuHaRi.png
Kihon: http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=1129310
Kata: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cayusa/2963773652/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Kumite: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgoulet/3341918877/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Koan: http://www.flickr.com/photos/seandreilinger/4127197962/sizes/z/in/photostream/
Photos
Links
http://www.coderetreat.com/how-it-works.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life
http://geekswithblogs.net/onefloridacoder/archive/2010/08/16/setting-up-for-the-orlando-code-retreat.aspx
http://coderetreat.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-run-a-coderetreat
http://www.alexbolboaca.ro/wordpress/articles/how-to-organize-a-code-retreat
http://gojko.net/2009/02/27/thought-provoking-tdd-exercise-at-the-software-craftsmanship-conference/
http://gojko.net/2009/08/02/tdd-as-if-you-meant-it-revisited/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dan
http://codekata.pragprog.com/2007/01/kata_kumite_koa.html
http://saraford.net/2010/01/17/coding-is-not-kata/
http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?ShuHaRi
http://rubykoans.com/windows
http://codingdojo.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?KataFizzBuzz

Koans and Katas, Oh My! From Øredev 2010

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