π₯§ Pie mail - Linting and hacking and other stuff π₯§
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Hello friend! It's pie-mail time again!
I feel like the last two weeks have whizzed by. I'm pretty sure I've been in meetings the whole time.
This weeks email is a bit late - I've been waiting for an event to be published so I could add it to the events list. I'm one of the speakers at it, so, my intentions are purely selfish :P. Sorry for the delay!
I've seen a lot of noise online about Racket this week (haha pun). Does anyone use it? Let me know! I have an account, but no followers.
Anyway, here's your slightly late newsletter, hope you like it!
π This week I learned... π
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...how to create a GitHub action!
GitHub actions are workflows you can create to run in GitHub.
A typical example might be, to run some tests every time you merge a pull request.
Here's a typical GitHub action workflow - here you can see four jobs it's running.
GitHub actions are a really good tool for CI/CD. I've worked on them a little bit, but I never actually took the time to learn how to build one myself.
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The good news is, it's pretty easy!
I created a little GitHub action this week to run ESLint every time I push changes. (ESLint is a linting tool for JavaScript - it checks code for formatting and syntax errors and inconsistencies).
Describing all the steps to do this would take a long time, but I worked through a couple of tutorials:
I followed the steps to install ESLint here, and then the steps to create a GitHub action for it here. You can do it too!
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βHere's my GitHub action in action - as you can see it's failing (it's meant to be). Yay!
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A side note:
I talk to a lot of graduates & jobseekers, who are looking for ways they can up-skill to help their job search.
Learning about GitHub actions is one way to do that. Even having a basic understanding of how GitHub actions work will help you stand out against a candidate that doesn't. It should only take an afternoon to learn. If you haven't done it, do it today!
(I'm thinking this would make for a good workshop session - reply to this email if you'd be keen for that)
β¨ Some interesting links β¨
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Bug finding in Legend of Zelda:
I feel like I talk about Zelda a lot - in fact there's probably a whole newsletter about Zelda coming soon. This is an article about why there are "so few bugs" in Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
It's in Japanese, so I had to Google Translate it, but the gist of it is:
- They devised a way to make reporting bugs easy
- They fixed bugs early
Who woulda thunk, eh!
βThe three domino rule:
βThree rules for a successful software development team from Mike Petrovich. The third rule is really thought provoking for me, especially: "When quality is sacrificed once, itβs more likely to be sacrificed again."
I'm guilty of breaking this - justifiably, in my opinion, but - it makes me wonder what impact it has.
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TempAPI:
A nifty tool for creating short lived REST APIs for testing. I think this will be really useful!
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𧩠Puzzle time π§©
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At my job, we use Hatjitsu for story point estimation. If you're not familiar with it, it's a story point estimation tool for Scrum.
One person creates a room, and all team members join the room. For a team member, it looks like this:
You pick how many points you think a story will be, and the host reveals everybody's answer once you've all voted.
I've been trying to find a way to mess with the system - to submit story points that don't match the normal story point numbers. For example, you're not normally allowed to pick '4' story points.
Today I achieved it! Here's the proof (this is the admin view, the number has been sent from a different session):
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So, today's puzzle is simply - can you find a way to send through numbers that aren't available in the selection?
I think this is a hard one, it took me a bit of time. If you don't have time to dive deep into this - maybe think about what your first step would be to trying this?
Some clues (written in white text, highlight to view):
- It doesn't use HTTP, it's using a WebSocket.
- You can connect to a WebSocket and make calls from Chrome Dev Tools
- You gotta be quick!
πͺ Events coming up πͺ
Doesn't seem like there's heaps on at the moment! Here's a few things coming up though:
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Testing Essentials AMA with Dan Ashby (June 1)
Ministry of Testing are hosting Dan Ashby to answer all your questions on the essential things you need to be a great tester.
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Automate your testing with DevOps (June 3)
Auckland's own Manil Kapoor is teaming up with Navdip Kaur Kalsi on this talk about where testing fits in the world of DevOps. Manil is good people, so this should be worth a watch!
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An ode to product managers (June 23)
Product Talks Auckland present "An ode to Product Managers". Five people from five non-product disciplines, talking about how they work best with Product teams. I'll be sharing about how Test teams and Product can work together, it's going to be a fun one!
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π Thanks for reading! π
Take care, and reach out to me any time on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Cheers,
James a.k.a. JPie π₯§
βhttps://jpie.nzβ
Hi, Iβm a creator
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