What a State of Affairs!

Again, you all played nicely with state machines today. They are a significantly different strategy for designing a system and take some getting used to. Thanks for sticking with the details and not getting too frustrated.

I really wish the book's example was more consistent because state machines can be a very disciplined way to specify the behavior of many kinds of systems. As with all techniques, when we build the machine inconsistently, the resulting code also has inconsistencies. If you're going to use them, just be consistent about what is an input, what is an action, and whether you're building a Mealy or a Moore machine.

I was also pleased with how quickly you saw two important concepts: the tight coupling in the book's solution and how our solution exactly matches the strategy pattern. You all are getting VERY good at this. I see some significant improvement in your ability to evaluate designs and make good generalizations and that makes me very happy!

Today was fun!

I really enjoyed working with all of you running through the GA today. Maybe we should have done all of that the first day that we talked about the project. Or maybe it was good that you thought about it a bit first (I'm an optimist - I believe you have all been thinking about the stuff that you're supposed to be working on! ).

Any way, thanks for playing with me. I hope that it cleared up some of the details for you.