2007Sep19SPDojo

**Participants:** BrenoFranco , [DaniloSato](/people/DaniloSato) ,

FabricioSousa , HugoBarauna , HugoCorbucci , JacquelineMarchetti , JulianMonteiro , LeonardoRochael , MarianaBravo , PauloCheque , RodrigoFlores , RodrigoPimentel , ThiagoColucci and Yoshi

Scribe: DaniloSato

Kata: “Saldo de Gols” (in Portuguese) in Python (br.spoj.pl/problems/SALDO/)

Schedule

: 20:00 ~ 20:30 Discussion and Choosing the Problem

Some problems were chosen by e-mail as potential challenges to be solved in this meeting. We decided to solve another algorithmic problem. We had to find a subsequence with maximum sum. We discussed a little about the approaches (the straight-forward O(n^2) version and some sketches of a linear version). The idea is to store two sums: the current sum and the current maximum sum. If the current sum is better than the maximum sum, it becomes the maximum sum. If the current sum is negative, we can discard it and start a new sum from zero.

20:30 ~ 22:00 Coding Session

We tackled the problem in a RandoriKata style, programming in Python and switching pairs every 7 minutes. We were able to solve the problem, but we were not able to submit the solution to the online judge because we didn’t have time to handle the input and output format. We used TDD to drive the algorithm in BabySteps and the final code is available at groups.google.com/group/dojo_sp/files.

22:00 ~ 22:15 Retrospective

The new Retrospective format was used again. Some of the lessons learned from the session were: some didn’t know the linear algorithm to solve the problem; many people appreciated following TDD to solve the problem. The solution turned out to be simpler than expected; Some problems are not as easy as they look; Also, we found that it might be useful to speak on the red bar if the pair asks for help.

This time we decided to record our session, and some people found the camera intimidating. Some people suggested to record a screencast and only the audio, so that people can follow the code easier. This in turn would not capture the discussions and interactions between the individuals at the meeting.