Excellent Talk, well structured. A little frustrating that files/instructions weren't available ahead of time to setup my environment, which threw off my attention.
The code preparation was very good. I like how you had examples that started simple and then scaled up. I like how you walked around to help as needed (although the room wasn't really set up to facilitate that very well). I particularly liked the part on mocking.
I think the instruction (not the code), however, needed a bit more scaffolding. For example, the jump from slide 17 to 18 is a huge jump for someone (like me) who has never used phpunit before. A little explanation on phpunit.xml, file structure, the organization of the test file, and finally how to actually run the test, would have made things a little less confusing for me.
Just a tip for general improvement: the typical instructional flow when teaching a skill is: I do > We do > You do. First you show how to do it, then you give the students a similar task and see if they can do it (helping as needed), and finally you give a similar task for the students to do alone (homework). Add a little of that strategy and this workshop will be fantastic.
Awesome training session, filled in a lot of gaps with my PHP Unit knowledge.
The only improvements I could suggest would be:
1. For the LSP organizers to send out the required files prior to the session, I personally didn't receive the email with the repo to clone, only the email requiring PHPUnit to be installed. Sending out the email 2 or more times could help ensure people receive it and install those files, this took up about 45 minutes of the class - sure some people would have done it in class and needed assistance, however several people had no issues installing it other than the throttled internet rate.
2. After giving us time to complete the code section, running through the solution too. This would help reinforce how the code works, plus help people that weren't able to get the solution in the allocated time. Walking around helping people was awesome for that 1-on-1 help too.
Good progression from the basic calculator examples into more useful real world use cases like API/DB mocking. As a complete beginner I was able to work my way through the examples with minimal frustration.
Although I have used PHPUnit before and use it as part of my toolset at work, I have struggled with mocks in unit testing. Why should I mock? What the heck am I mocking? Matt answered these questions and even gave us various exercises in basic unit testing and mocking API calls. It was these mocking of API calls that drove the mocking point home for me.
Matt has a great speaking voice, an easy-going presence, and a calm, intentional, manner of responding to questions and problems that arise.
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Excellent Talk, well structured. A little frustrating that files/instructions weren't available ahead of time to setup my environment, which threw off my attention.
This was fantastic. I liked the code work, and enjoyed the testing that we did.
The code preparation was very good. I like how you had examples that started simple and then scaled up. I like how you walked around to help as needed (although the room wasn't really set up to facilitate that very well). I particularly liked the part on mocking.
I think the instruction (not the code), however, needed a bit more scaffolding. For example, the jump from slide 17 to 18 is a huge jump for someone (like me) who has never used phpunit before. A little explanation on phpunit.xml, file structure, the organization of the test file, and finally how to actually run the test, would have made things a little less confusing for me.
Just a tip for general improvement: the typical instructional flow when teaching a skill is: I do > We do > You do. First you show how to do it, then you give the students a similar task and see if they can do it (helping as needed), and finally you give a similar task for the students to do alone (homework). Add a little of that strategy and this workshop will be fantastic.
Awesome training session, filled in a lot of gaps with my PHP Unit knowledge.
The only improvements I could suggest would be:
1. For the LSP organizers to send out the required files prior to the session, I personally didn't receive the email with the repo to clone, only the email requiring PHPUnit to be installed. Sending out the email 2 or more times could help ensure people receive it and install those files, this took up about 45 minutes of the class - sure some people would have done it in class and needed assistance, however several people had no issues installing it other than the throttled internet rate.
2. After giving us time to complete the code section, running through the solution too. This would help reinforce how the code works, plus help people that weren't able to get the solution in the allocated time. Walking around helping people was awesome for that 1-on-1 help too.
Thanks so much!
Good progression from the basic calculator examples into more useful real world use cases like API/DB mocking. As a complete beginner I was able to work my way through the examples with minimal frustration.
Although I have used PHPUnit before and use it as part of my toolset at work, I have struggled with mocks in unit testing. Why should I mock? What the heck am I mocking? Matt answered these questions and even gave us various exercises in basic unit testing and mocking API calls. It was these mocking of API calls that drove the mocking point home for me.
Matt has a great speaking voice, an easy-going presence, and a calm, intentional, manner of responding to questions and problems that arise.