Exploration Through Example

Example-driven development, Agile testing, context-driven testing, Agile programming, Ruby, and other things of interest to Brian Marick

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Sat, 13 Sep 2003

PLoP done; a hermit once more

This year's Pattern Languages of Programs conference is over. (I was program chair.) Thanks to everyone who attended and made it work. For me, the highlight of the conference was when Jeff Patton led some of us through a two hour example of his variant of Constantine/Lockwood style usage-centered design. I also liked Linda Rising's demonstration of a Norm Kerth style retrospective (applied to PLoP itself). At Richard Gabriel's suggestion, we brought in Linda Elkin, an experienced teacher of poets. She and Richard (also a poet, as well as Distinguished Engineer at Sun) taught us a great deal about clarity in writing. Finally, Bob Hanmer and Cameron Smith stepped up to keep the games tradition of PLoP alive.

As you can see, PLoP is no ordinary conference.

Thus ends my summer of altruistically organizing (or under-organizing) people. I need a break. So I'm going to do what I do when I need a break: write code. I'll be spending half my non-travelling time building a new app. Since I'm now an expert on usage-centered design (that's a, I say, that's a joke, son), I'm going to start with that.

But wait... we've been talking about starting a local Agile study group, and I think that's really important, and I bet it wouldn't be that much work...

P.S. The postings on agile testing directions will continue. Just don't expect me to organize a conference on the topic.

## Posted at 09:23 in category /misc [permalink] [top]