Robotlegs 2 and your brain

Robotlegs 2 and Your Brain
Stray (Lindsey Fallow)
@stray_and_ruby xxcoder.net

1

Stray (Lindsey Fallow)

@stray_and_ruby

xxcoder.net

Ruby Stray
2

Team Robotlegs Joel Hooks

Ro botlegs
Core

Robot legs or iginator Signals

Shaun Smith
Robert Penner
Till Schneidereit
Swiftsuspenders
and me, Stray (behind camera)
3

What we’ll cover

[robotlegs 2]
? ? ?

5

A robotlegs
pomodoro timer
(FOTB attendees
won these)

You’ll need a pen and paper for exercises
6

STOP

JARGON FREE ZONE
7

“Dependency Injection”
We’ll try not to
terms like this w use
ithout
explaining them.

8

What is Robotlegs?

“ActionScript 3
framework”

[robotlegs] Doesn’t really
tell us much.
9

What do we mean
by “framework”?

10

What do we mean
by “framework”?
A framework is a tool

11

What do we mean
by “framework”? Take 30 seconds to
A framework is a tool list as many things as
you can think of that
you could do with
this tool.

12

What do we mean
by “framework”?
A framework is a tool

Most people would say that this is
a better screwdriver, but how
many things on your list can’t be
done with this tool?

13

I used the correct
size of screwdriver
for this screw.

Using the wrong tool can be I used the wrong
frustrating, or - worse - it can size of screwdriver
result in the work becoming for this screw.
‘broken’ beyond repair.
14

Write down your
development toolset
15

You probably included some of these.
16

Your toolset
includes your
brain
17

Most developers know almost
nothing about the most
important part of their toolset.
18

:~ man brain
> No manual entry for ‘brain’

20

Your brain is a legacy system

21

Your brain is a legacy system

If you were designing a system
for writing software you wouldn’t
start with the human brain.

22

“The triune brain”

Problem solving brain
Mammal brain (neo-cortex)
Lizard brain (limbic system)
(brain stem)

Your lizard brain takes care
of basic ‘staying alive’
impulses such as breathing.

24

Your mammal brain (limbic-
system) allows you to form
attachments, cooperate and
live alongside your peers.

25

Your mammal brain evolved
before we had language, so its
influence on you is mostly
chemical - you ‘feel’ messages
from your limbic-system.

26

Your problem-
solving brain is a
minor addition
to the older
brain structure
that supports it.

We care about the brain because -
as with any tool - we need to know:

What is your brain good at?

What is your brain not good at?


Simple mental arithmetic


Estimating 30 seconds



Estimating 30 seconds
while doing

Start a stopwatch, then make a list of the
squares of prime numbers starting from 2,
and try to estimate 30 seconds passing.

Multi-tasking FTL!

Our lizard brain is fine at multi-
tasking, but our problem-solving
brain isn’t. When we try to multi-
task our performance in even
simple tasks dramatically reduces.

Architecture & Coding
are different tasks

Using Robotlegs should
allow you to focus more
cleanly on one or the other.
When you’re coding a class,
thoughts about architecture
shouldn’t be intruding.

Working memory
• The ‘RAM’ we use to hold things in mind in
order to solve a problem.
• Items stored in working memory are
regularly garbage collected - you won’t
remember them later.
• Programmers rely heavily on working
memory when carrying concepts within and
between classes.

Working memory test

Give yourself 30 seconds to
commit the following list of
words to memory, and then
move to the next slide.

Working memory test

refugee mill architect
quilt mermaid pimple
weather salary wallet
laundry tram verse
internet athletics thunder
eyebrow nurse space
chess seal egg
ﬂight stamp system

Working memory test

Now write down as many as
you can remember. Order is
not important. Give yourself
30 - 60 seconds.

Working memory test
Check your answers.
refugee mill architect
quilt mermaid pimple
weather salary wallet
laundry tram verse
internet athletics thunder
eyebrow nurse space
chess seal egg
ﬂight stamp system

Working memory test
Most people remember 6 - 9
words.

I’m now going to challenge you to
remember more than twice as
many, from a different list of 25.

Again, give yourself 30 seconds to
memorise them, and then move
to the next slide.

Working memory test
25 words - 30 seconds

War and peace Nobody does it better
Over the rainbow Love and war
Cats and dogs I’ll be back
Night before Christmas ctrl, alt, delete

Working memory test

Now write down as many as
you can remember. Order is
not important. Give yourself
30 - 60 seconds.

Working memory test
Check your answers - count
every word that you got correct.
War and peace Nobody does it better
Over the rainbow Love and war
Cats and dogs I’ll be back
Night before Christmas ctrl, alt, delete

Chunking FTW!

Your working me
7±2 of 7 ‘plus or min
mory consists
us 2’ chunks

Chunking is like ‘zip’ for your working memory

up and Mickey
down Mouse
nurse 747
7 7,8,9

A chunk can be a single A chunk can be a
word or number sequence, set or pattern
that you have met before

Chunking uses neural networks
Peace
Pipes

War Repeated simultaneous firing
of individual neurons creates
connections between them.

Triangle
Euclid
Love

“What fires together, wires together!”
Peace
Pipes

War

Triangle
Euclid
Love

If you wrote crap code today,
you hard wired your brain to
...

49

If you wrote crap code today,
you hard wired your brain to
find it easier to write crap
code tomorrow.

50

Chunking and Robotlegs

We want Robotlegs to occupy as few chunks as
possible, leaving most of your working memory
free to tackle your specific problem.

Are you bored yet?

If you are, this presentation isn’t causing
you to create enough dopamine. 52

Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter. Like engine oil for
your brain. It helps you to stay on task and also
makes you more effective at problem solving.
53

Dopamine

Distracted Focussed
54

Dopamine
Vicious Circle - not enough
dopamine => distracted,
unproductive, prone to
mistakes, slow progress => Virtuous Circle - plenty
lower dopamine. dopamine => focussed,
productive, insightful, fast
progress => more dopamine.
Distracted Focussed
55

Dopamine is key to
pattern recognition

Helps you find ‘the zone’ and stay there
56

You noticed that some of these
shapes were different, without
deciding to look for differences.
We call this ‘pre-attentive’ processing.

Helps you find ‘the zone’ and stay there
57

Give yourself 6 seconds to
estimate the number of
triangles in the next picture

58

how many triangles?

60

how many triangles?
Answer = Zero

(to see why, flick back and forth between the next 2 slides)

61

Our brain craves patterns

To the extent that we’ll find
them even when they’re not
really there.

64

Cognitive dissonance

The feeling that
“Something doesn’t fit”.
That ‘feeling’ is a drop
in dopamine.
65

Dopamine

Cognitive
dissonance
Time
66

Cognitive dissonance can
be meaningful and directing

Fighter pilots rely on it for rapidly detecting problems.
It can also tell you that something is wrong with your code.
67

Cognitive dissonance can be
meaningless and distracting

Event.ADDED
Event.COMPLETE
To me, it feels like there’s something
wrong when I mix cases in event types.
68

Meaningful, directing

vs

Meaningless, distracting
69

Meaningful, directing
In order to tune in to
this, we need to limit the
amount of cognitive
vs dissonance the Robotlegs
framework triggers.

Meaningless, distracting
70

Dopamine
variation FTW &
FTL!

Have you ever
written code that
was like this?

Great solution,
wrong problem.

Great solution,
wrong problem.

It’s a really lovely yoda suit for a
dog, but who needs one of those?

‘Right execution of the wrong thing’
happens when one half of our brain
dominates decision making.

Left brain Right brain
(right hand) (left hand)

75

A brain of two halves

• Specific • Context

• Details • Big picture

• Calculation • Estimation
76

Programming is whole-brain
problem solving

“How to do it right” “The right thing to do”

Emerges as specific Emerges as somatic
thoughts (body) feelings
77

Metaphors trigger
whole brain activity

+

(Which is why we talked about
Yoda-suits for dogs)
78

Metaphors trigger
whole brain activity

+

(And why Robotlegs 2 will try to
give things descriptive names)
79

Brain Summary
• Avoid multi-tasking
• Take advantage of chunking
• Dopamine is key to staying in flow
• Make cognitive dissonance meaningful
• Programming is a ‘whole brain’ activity
• Metaphor activates the ‘whole brain’
80

What is Robotlegs?

“ActionScript 3
framework”

[robotlegs]
82

What is Robotlegs?

“ActionScript 3
communication,
cooperation,
and configuration
framework”
[robotlegs]
83

Writing code is easy
Very clever class
that gets and A menu
A really
sends data to accepting user
tasty view
and from a input
server

A clever class that
checks whether Another really
A quite simple tasty view
class that does input is valid
stuff with XML

84

Joining code together is hard
Very clever class
that gets and A menu
A really
sends data to accepting user
tasty view
and from a input
server

A clever class that
checks whether Another really
A quite simple tasty view
class that does input is valid
stuff with XML

85

A “dependency” is just a need to
use an instance of another object
for communication,
cooperation,
or configuration

86


var kittenPath:String = “http://kittens978.com/feed.xml”;

var kittenRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest(kittenPath);

_kittenLoader = new URLLoader(kittenRequest);

87


var kittenPath:String = “http://kittens978.com/feed.xml”;

var kittenRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest(kittenPath);

_kittenLoader = new URLLoader(kittenRequest);

88

DI can lead to a lot of
“pass the parcel code”
Animation
timing
View class that has nothing to do with
timing, or feeds, but creates and contains
the animation and the menu
Feed
details

Animation class Menu class that
that times the displays feeds to
fading of images the user

89

Static Singletons

One approach to solving
the ‘pass the parcel’
dependency chain problem.

90

Static Singletons
Suck
• ImposeSingleton class
on the
extra responsibilities

• Impose extra knowledge on
the using class
• Very difficult to vary and test
corner cases
91

The Robotlegs dream:
Dependency Inception

Feed
details

92

The Robotlegs dream:
Dependency Inception
A an object inside
an object inside
an object inside
an object... and
Feed
details nobody knows
how it got there
- it just
appeared.

93

To declare a dependency

[Inject]

public var importantCollaborator:ICollaboratorClass;

94

Injections recipe

Class with Injected
[Inject] object
requirements

The
Robotlegs
Injector is
just a factory
95

Injection opens up possibilities

• Communication via a shared eventDispatcher instance
• “Mediators” - connecting (dumb) views to your application
• The Command Pattern

96

Shared eventDispatcher -
broadcast events to your app

Some Some other Some Some
service service model other model

97

Mediators for individual views

View Mediator

98

Commands are snack-size
controllers, triggered by events
Feed Loader
Service

FeedSelectorEvent.
Mediator FEED_SELECTED Command with
[Inject] requirements

99

Again: Injection is not magic
• The Injector is just a factory
• It needswithbe pre-advised about how
to deal
to
injection requests

100

How to tell the injector
what to do

injector.mapSingletonOf(IFeedService, XMLFeedService);

injector.mapValue(IFeedConfig, new DefaultFeedConfig());

101

Robotlegs 1 - Feature recap

• [Inject] dependencies
• Shared eventDispatcher
• Mediators automatically created & destroyed for views
• Commands mapped to events
102

Robotlegs
questions?
[robotlegs]

103

+

[robotlegs 2]
104

Robotlegs uses ‘Semantic
versioning’

• Point releases must be backward compatible - eg 1.3 can be dropped
in to an application previously using 1.2, without breakages.

• Major releases (eg 2.0 vs 1.0) can rewrite the API.

• This gives us great freedom in terms of Robotlegs 2.0

• but...

105

Neural networks
do not adhere
to semantic versioning

106

So, everything you already
understand about Robotlegs
will remain the same.

107

We looked on
the robotlegs
forums for the
things that made
you feel like
this...

108

Using mediators as view
controllers

109

Unclear mapping syntax

injector.mapClass(IFeedConfig, FeedConfig);

110

Lack of symmetry
addViewListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handleSubmit);

removeViewListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handleSubmit);

111

Lack of symmetry
addViewListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handleSubmit);

removeViewListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, handleSubmit);

This function doesn’t exist

112

Annoying to mix utilities

public class MyContext

extends RelaxedSignalModuleStatefulContext

113

Modular feels hard

114

In unfamiliar territory, we can
lose our ‘right brain’ context.
We feel lost.

New and upgrading users want
a quick push in the right
direction.
115

4 new Robotlegs 2 ‘flavours’
Performance

Fast Flexible

Clean
116

Choose one to start your project
Performance

Fast Flexible

Clean
117

DISCLAIMER

this.api.is(UNDER_CONSTRUCTION);

118

Fluent context builder

contextBuilder.installUtility(CommandMap)
.installUtility(ConfigLoader)
.installUtility(ViewManager)
.installUtility(SignalCommandMap)
.withConfiguration(XMLMappings)
.build();

119

Fluent mappings

injector.asSingleton.map(IFeedService).to(XMLFeedService);

viewManager.handle(FeedMenu)
.mediateWith(FeedMenuMediator);

120

Chunking in Robotlegs 2?

“Guards and Hooks”
2 Simple ideas add
a lot of functionality

121

Guards prevent/allow action

Feed Loader
Service

FeedSelectorEvent. Command with
Mediator FEED_SELECTED [Inject] requirements

122

Guards prevent/allow action

Feed Loader
Service
Sufficient Command with
FeedSelectorEvent. Network [Inject] requirements
Mediator FEED_SELECTED Capacity
Guard
Feed
Status Fallback Command

123

Hooks support collaboration

View Mediator Menu Skinner
Hook

View and a skinning factory
are injected into the hook.
124

Hooks support collaboration

View Mediator View Logic
Wiring Hook

View and a logic factory
are injected into the hook.
125

Many-mediators-per-view

Enemy
Spaceship Enemy
Spaceship Mediator Mediator
View

126

Descriptive type matching
ISpaceship IPlayer Spaceship
✓ ✗ Mediator

IEnemy IBoss Enemy
✓ ✗ Mediator

127

var enemyMatcher:TypeMatcher =
matcherFor(ISpaceship)
.and(IEnemy)
.not(IBoss)
.andNot(IEnemyGhost);

128

View manager:
have your cake and eat it
Awesome
Utility
Mediator Map View
Map Map

Stage Never more than one
listener for a stage event
129

Wow, I thought we were
somewhere totally different

130

Imagine
every
stop is a
state of
your app.
Confused?

131

Grouping
control
flow can
help you
Command Flows follow
state
changes
more
easily.

132

Rule sets
Injections recipe Injections recipe

Rules applied and removed
in response to events.
133

Less cognitive dissonance,
more flow

We often create big
classes with multiple
responsibilities in order
to create a sense of flow.

134

Less cognitive dissonance,
more flow
Robotlegs can help you stay
in flow even when working
with larger numbers of
smaller classes.

And speaking of separating
responsibilities...

135

Modular just works
“everything is a module”

136

“Soft” mappings
Excuse me, if
Injections recipe
nobody else has already
created a mapping for this,
then I’ll oblige.
Allows you to use this
module stand-alone or in
combination with other
Robotlegs modules.
Without recompiling!
137

The InspectorGadget

Your code
de
138

The InspectorGadget

“This injection point looks broken”

139

The InspectorGadget

“This Command never executed”

140

The InspectorGadget

“This is the order in which
objects were instantiated”

141

Robotlegs 2: Feature overview

• Build your context - have it your way • Rule sets

• Fluency / mxml • Multiple mediators

• 4 Robotlegs ‘flavours’ • Type matchers

• Command flows • The InspectorGadget

• Mix view management strategies • Modular just works

142

Release process

• Alpha releases: API still in flux
• Beta releases: API locked, future proof
• One feature at a time
• Match v1 Feature set
• As fast as we can!
143

[robotlegs 2]
www.robotlegs.org
144

Robotlegs 2
questions?
[robotlegs 2]

145

Robotlegs 2 and your brain

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