My Journey With Code - Speaker Deck

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My Journey With Code by Anna Makarudze DjangoCon US 2018 @amakarudze

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About me Fundraising Coordinator, Django Girls Foundation Django Software Foundation Board 2018

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Overview ➔ Share my coding journey. ➔ Answer “Why Python?” ➔ Share my thoughts on mentorship through a project.

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My background

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Childhood in the rural areas 1998

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Zimuto High School, Masvingo 1999

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Then I met a tech enthusiast...

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Making the decision for a career in tech…

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And my coding journey begins…

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1. Computer Studies, Computing High School Student

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1. Computer Studies, Computing High School Student 2. University Student, Intern

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1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician

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1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician

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1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician 5. NOC Technician, Billing Analyst

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1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician 5. NOC Technician, Billing Analyst 6. Senior BSS/OSS Consultant

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What role do I apply for?

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Met another old friend...

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Why Python?

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1. Computer Studies, Computing Student 2. University Student, Intern 3. Network Technician 4. Senior ICT Technician 5. NOC Technician, Billing Analyst 6. Senior BSS/OSS Consultant 7. Consultant, Python Developer

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Working with Python

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Full Disclosure/ Disclaimer This is not my best project and it’s still incomplete. Work in progress.

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Github repo https://github.com/amakarudze/sh erpany-task

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Question Build a single page app with a full viewport map on top and a list of addresses below based on Django 1.9.

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Major challenges ➔ We don’t use Google Maps that much. ➔ Had never heard of Google Fusion Tables in my life!

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Initial attempt ➔ AngularJS ➔ Django Rest Framework ➔ Django 1.9

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Initial feedback ➔ No testing. ➔ No validation. ➔ No documentation.

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Time for some personal development...

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Developing coding skills ➔ Learnt Angular online. ➔ Did a workshop tutorial on Django + Angular + DRF.

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Second attempt ➔ Google Map rendering issues with ngMap. ➔ POST requests were a huge struggle.

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Third attempt ➔ Angular, DRF and Django. ➔ Javascript to load map. ➔ Still struggled with Angular POST requests.

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Asking for help ➔ Twitter - for Angular POST. ➔ A friend responded and pointed me to a tutorial on CodeCraft.

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Asking for help ➔ Harry Percival- Testing & other stuff @ PyCon Namibia. ➔ Harry recommended books for coding interviews.

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Asking for help Marc Tamyln - Django dev and Validation

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Asking for help Daniele Procida- documentation @ DjangoCon EU

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Asking for help Emma Delescolle- Django Rest Framework @ DjangoCon EU

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Asking for help Ola & Ola, Markus, Norma – Django & AJAX

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Sourcing books Raphael Michel helped with the shopping pre-DjangoCon Europe.

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Project redesign ➔ Django ➔ Javascript ➔ AJAX ➔ Django Rest Framework Amazon

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Getting a mentor ➔ Asked Tom Christie for help with AJAX via Twitter since DRF also uses AJAX.

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Brute force solution ➔Load map and do reverse geocoding for clicked places with Javascript. ➔Save to database and Google Fusion Tables using AJAX.

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Architecture ➔JavaScript and AJAX for frontend. ➔Django backend. ➔Django Rest Framework to link the two.

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Working with AJAX ➔I was new to AJAX and jQuery. ➔Required many Twitter DMs between me and Tom Christie to get the project working.

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Testing ➔ Functional tests. ➔ Unit tests. O’Reilly Media

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Validation Custom validator to check for “Unnamed” and duplicates for Address Model.

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Documentation Tutorial How-to Guides Explanation Reference

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Documentation ➔ Small project so followed the format but in a README.md. ➔ Best documentation I have ever done for a project!

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More feedback ➔ Good documentation and tests, though incomplete tests. ➔ Reverse geocoding to be done in backend.

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More feedback ➔ Resetting with a GET request wrong. ➔ Recommended reading resources. ➔ Validation not enough.

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More feedback ➔Question: What’s my career plan? ➔Joining a small team would be ideal for me to learn and would one day become a great developer.

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My reaction to the feedback?

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My ultimate career plan?

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Site Reliability Engineering

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Key lessons to draw from my journey...

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➔Attending meetups, conferences, sprints helps meet potential mentors. ➔ASKING FOR HELP is crucial.

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➔DO NOT dismiss a beginner. ➔Encourage. ➔DO NOT tell them how poor their code is - they that know already.

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My thoughts on mentorship...

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I feel so blessed to have so many kind people who take their time to look at my code and help me improve it.

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Getting involved in Africa…

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➔Mentoring someone/ some people. ➔Speaking at conferences. ➔Help organise conferences. ➔Sponsor in some way.

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➔Join our mailing list and help organise Pan-African events in Africa. [email protected] https://africa.python.org/en/

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“The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance, and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.”

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Thanks! Contact: @amakarudze [email protected]