by Asim Jalis
For both physical and mental work turning it into play definitely
requires some creative thinking. Feel free to share any ideas you
have.
I am planning to take crayons to work for the iteration meeting,
so we write down tasks in crayons instead of markers. I suspect
it will be a different experience.
Here are some ideas to make programming fun:
1. Pair with a bear. Let's call this bear-programming. Here's how
it works. Get a teddy bear or some other cute stuffed animal.
Prop him up next to the monitor. Call him Jerome. And then
explain everything you do to Jerome. He is your pair. Don't
forget to share the credit for the code with Jerome.
2. Write a program that pops open Tetris or some other game every
15-20 minutes, and then tells you that it is time for a break.
3. Find a crayon font and write your program in the crayon font.
Hah. This should be fun.
4. Program in Klingon. Use Klingon for all the variable names.
5. Use some other language: French. Write your program in French.
6. Write the program in fake French. Write it in English but with
a fake French accent :-) Or use a fake German accent, or a fake
Spanish accent.
7. Write a program in Pig Latin. The "main" function would be
"ainmay", and so on.
8. Put funky sound effects in your program. There might be a
market for a program that plays a small explosion sound each time
you delete a file. Each time you create a new file you hear the
cry of a new born baby. Compiling a program produces an
earthquake sound. There are a lot of possibilities here. Run with
them. Go ahead. Create this market and capture it.
