Polyglot Programming and

Agile Development

Shashank Teotia Pramod Sadalage ThoughtWorks

Problem Statement

“To create multi-platform gaming hardware configuration software with crowd sourcing and backup abilities with an awesome GUI which looks the same on all supported platforms.”

- Client

“Adding a new platform / device should be trivial.”

“Of course, don’t forget that the software should have minimal CPU & memory footprint. !

Gamers hate bloatware!”

“And yes, I have a small team, distributed across 3 continents. They should be busy delivering features, not get caught up in the operational challenges.”

:)

OK, this is not a special situation!

How do you architect?

Lets look at the world for inspiration

Does the carpenter use just one tool?

credit: homespothq.com

Carpenter uses many tools to

get the job done

credit: homespothq.com

Some time back we could write a

system with COBOL

The world by nature is polyglot

Have done it earlier Bash/Shell

AWK Perl SED etc…

Neal Ford coined the term in 2006

bit.do/neal4d

Many new languages on the JVM started

the trend

Java, Jruby, Jython, Clojure, Scala, Groovy,

Rhino

Lets talk of our experience

Observation & Awareness

“Lets break down the domain!” - Biz people

“Divide & Integrate!” - informally dressed devs

Observation

Think Bounded Context - Eric Evans in Domain Driven Design

“To create multi-platform gaming hardware configuration software with crowd sourcing and backup abilities with an awesome GUI which looks the same on all supported platforms. And yes, adding a new platform or device should be trivial. Of course, don’t forget that the software should have minimal CPU and memory footprint.” !“And yes, I have a small team, distributed across 3 continents. They should be busy delivering features, not get caught up in the operational challenges.”

GUI

Core

Device Library

Cloudcrowd sourcing

backup

distributed

operational challenges.small team available

multi-region

PaaSreplication

Device Driver

cross-platform

multi-platform

hardware configuration

looks the sameawesomelightweight

trivial to add a new platform

lightweight

gaming

multi-threadedbuild easy

C interface

trivial to add a new device

generic HID USB interface

long running

short-lived

device communication

Awareness

In your search for the right language, you should underrate your current skills.

Repeat it.

Choosing the right language is a competitive edge!

Case Study

Cloudcrowd sourcing

backup

distributed

operational challenges.small team available

multi-region

PaaSreplication

GUIcross-platform

looks the sameawesomelightweight

gaming

short-lived

Coremulti-platform

hardware configurationtrivial to add a new platform

lightweightmulti-threaded

build easyC interface

long running

Device Librarytrivial to add a new device

generic HID USB interface Device Driverdevice communication

GUIcross-platform

looks the sameawesomelightweight

gaming

short-lived

Coremulti-platform

hardware configurationtrivial to add a new platform

lightweightmulti-threaded

build easyC interface

long running

Device Librarytrivial to add a new device

generic HID USB interface Device Driverdevice communication

Chef Infrastructure as a Service

(scaling is easy)

Sinatra modular RACK app

(API dev is blazing fast)

RIAK distributed, CAP tunable DB

(backups never fail)Cloud

Coremulti-platform

hardware configurationtrivial to add a new platform

lightweightmulti-threaded

build easyC interface

long running

Device Librarytrivial to add a new device

generic HID USB interface Device Driverdevice communication

Chef Infrastructure as a Service

(scaling is easy)

Sinatra modular RACK app

(API dev is blazing fast)

RIAK distributed, CAP tunable DB

(backups never fail)Cloud

node-webkit Native Apps in HTML5

(write once, run anywhere)Knockout

lightweight JS MVVM (complex UI modeling made easy)

GUI

Cocoa Mac UI Controls

Device Librarytrivial to add a new device

generic HID USB interface Device Driverdevice communication

Chef Infrastructure as a Service

(scaling is easy)

Sinatra modular RACK app

(API dev is blazing fast)

RIAK distributed, CAP tunable DB

(backups never fail)Cloud

node-webkit Native Apps in HTML5

(write once, run anywhere)Knockout

lightweight JS MVVM (complex UI modeling made easy)

GUI

Cocoa Mac UI Controls

Google GoCore

Interfaces & Build constraints (easy multi platform dev)

Simple and unambiguous (focus on the domain)

CGO (call C code)

built-in concurrency primitives (no multi-threading hell)

cross platform libraries (just specify the build env)

Device Driverdevice communication

Chef Infrastructure as a Service

(scaling is easy)

Sinatra modular RACK app

(API dev is blazing fast)

RIAK distributed, CAP tunable DB

(backups never fail)Cloud

node-webkit Native Apps in HTML5

(write once, run anywhere)Knockout

lightweight JS MVVM (complex UI modeling made easy)

GUI

Cocoa Mac UI Controls

Device LibraryLisp

data is code (add new device)

good old C

Google GoCore

Interfaces & Build constraints (easy multi platform dev)

Simple and unambiguous (focus on the domain)

CGO (call C code)

built-in concurrency primitives (no multi-threading hell)

cross platform libraries (just specify the build env)

Chef Infrastructure as a Service

(scaling is easy)

Sinatra modular RACK app

(API dev is blazing fast)

RIAK distributed, CAP tunable DB

(backups never fail)Cloud

node-webkit Native Apps in HTML5

(write once, run anywhere)Knockout

lightweight JS MVVM (complex UI modeling made easy)

GUI

Cocoa Mac UI Controls

Device LibraryLisp

data is code (add new device)

good old C Device Drivergood old C

Google GoCore

Interfaces & Build constraints (easy multi platform dev)

Simple and unambiguous (focus on the domain)

CGO (call C code)

built-in concurrency primitives (no multi-threading hell)

cross platform libraries (just specify the build env)

A 10 member team manages it all

The Secret Sauce

Feed the Build Pipeline

Build Pipeline

Core

Func Tests

tarball

report

FrontEndpackage.nwgit

git

git

Promote Build

DeviceLib Driverslib

Promoted Build artifacts

Installerpkg

Go exe tarball package.nwlib

Deploy package artifact

A good choice!

Working with an embedded Chromium browser helped!

A simple RESTful SOA

tested using Cukes!

Keeping a tight control

over test code quality helped!

#failfast

Speed & simplicity of building Go meant a tighter turn around!

Skype channel for communication

Challenges!

Paradigms are hard to master

Debugging can be tricky

Don’t succumb to the Highlander

Fallacybit.do/highlander_fallacy

"Always code as if the g u y w h o e n d s u p maintaining your code w i l l b e a v i o l e n t psychopath who knows where you live."

Ultimately what matters...

... is a happy Client

And remember superheroes!

bit.do/superpowers

Thank you!