Workshop Category Ideas

We wish to present registrants with a choice of types of workshop we might run. Here's the proposed list, please add to it:

Media Applications
System Administration
Encryption
Privacy
Version Control

Workshop Ideas

Example Entry

Proposed by: Exampley Mc Exampleface
Time: 3-4 years
Level: Some experience of using a wiki required
Resources: Laptop and 10 mice, USB hub (10 port)
Number: up to 10 people all huddled round a laptop and USB hub with 10 mice in it

You will learn how to make generic fictional entries into wiki pages, demostrating the format of the page expected, together with some humour. You will also use bullet points to:

show how bullet points are used in Mediawiki
add some much needed recursive self reference
make friends

You'll then finish off your description with how exciting workshop will be, or with an uncomfortable orphan sentence type paragraph.

This is the end of the example.

Coding

Keeping your code clean

Proposed by: adelayde
Time: 3-4 hours
Level: experience of programming at a intermediate to advanced level, or beginners who are keen to get into coding.
Resources: projector, sound, laptop (have one), this may be suitable for active workshop in the second part.
Number: up to 30 with people working in pairs or mobs for Part II

Part I (talk/discussion): No matter if you're new to coding, or a seasoned coder, applying the principals of Clean Code can help you maintain and understand your own code, especially when you come back to it six months later. Applying Clean Code principals to code makes modularisation and reusability easier, aids other programmers who may want to work on your code, aids with self-documentation, and sets the foundation for adopting test driven development. In the workshop we'll address how:

small is beautiful
simple is best
comments suck
reusability is king
code should be crafted not thrown at the screen
readability trumps cleverness and complexity

Part II (practical workshop): But what about that horrible code you're having to work on that somebody else, or even you, wrote? We'll also have a look at how to tackle nasty, unreadable, spaghetti, untestable legacy code; how we can gradually improve it in small, iterative steps; and ultimately how we can get it into shape, rather than just throwing our arms in the air and re-coding the whole lot. We'll cover:

identifying ways in to legacy code
performing minuscule iterative improvements
how we can use test driven development to make this process safer.

Programming language: undecided but will try to cover a number of different ones in the examples, and for the practical will look at something everyone can get up and running, hopefully in a web browser, but popular, such as Python, Ruby or JavaScript.

Media Applications

GIMP 2.10 prospective new features demo

Proposed by: Ben Green
Time: 0.5 to 1 hour depending on takers.
Level: No experience of gimp necessary.
Resources: Projector, fast laptop.
Number: any number of people

GIMP has come a long way since 2.8, but hardly anyone has seem the results. The hugely long development cycle leaves us punters mostly in the dark. This talk seeks to inspire GIMP users, and potential GIMP users about what's happened, why, and the implications artists, developers, and for the nature of the universe.

Scribus

Proposed by: Ben Green
Time: 2 hours
Level: No experience of Scribus needed.
Resources: Projector, fast laptop.
Number: Max 10 or so

Scribus is one of the best publishing packages available. I'll show you how to use it to get documents together quickly. We'll be using the latest 1.5 development release.

Each person will need a copy installed, I'll post details, it's an easy package to install as there are Windows builds and an AppImage for Linux.

Command Line Guru Conversion Course Parts 1 and 2

Proposed by: Ben Green
Time: .5 - 2 hours
Level: No experience needed
Resources: Some computer of some sort
Number: up to 20

Taking beginner and intermediate users through command line use of a linux computer. For those with windows, we'll take you through first connecting to a linux computer. Part 2 will be for those who's thirst for knowledge was not sated by Part 1.

BarnCamp 2017 workshop proposals

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