Live coding is hard
This week, I gave my Test Driven Drupal talk to the Drupal London user group.
The majority of the talk was the same as in previous versions, but I decided to live code the demo section this time instead of demonstrating with slides.
I've done live coding demos in talks before and have done live streams on YouTube, but live coding during a talk is harder as there's a time limit before the next speaker starts or before everyone gets thrown out of the building before it closes.
I've seen live coding demos go well and take a lot from them, but I've also seen them not go well and it can be stressful and awkward for the speaker as well as the audience.
I had some unexpected issues during my demo which the audience were able to help me with, which is why I enjoy pair and group programming. People can spot my typos for me!
When done well, I think live coding can be very impactful when it's done well.
It's something I want to get better at, and I plan to do more YouTube streams soon, such as refreshing my automated testing email course with some new examples, so subscribe on YouTube if you want to know when I next go live.
- Oliver
