GDG Milwaukee 2019 DevFest - We participated!

I attended the GDG Milwaukee 2019 DevFest last Saturday. This was my second hackathon. Around 6-9 teams participated. We coded for six hours, and I learned a lot about team dynamics. We formed a team of eight participants. We encountered a couple significant challenges.

§The stack matters

Initially we decided to use Python and the Django framework. This turned out to be a grave error, because picking up Django quickly while staying productive is challenging. This challenge is multiplied by unfamiliarity with MVC/MVP web frameworks.

A couple hours in we sat down and decided Django had to go. We realized two of us had prior experience with Flask. Combined with flaskapi this could be a wonderfully simple way to build a RESTful API backend.

For the frontend we used Create React App. I did not work with it much, but I found it easy to run, deploy, and tweak. I think it was a solid choice.

The hardest part of our stack was integrating our hand-rolled RESTful API into the React.js based frontend. In fact we weren’t able to complete this, but we got really close. It was a lot of work to get as far as we did as a team.

Most of the other groups also used Python. Multiple groups used Django, and one group even used Django Rest Framework. They appeared to be facing the same challenge we were having with getting Django to do anything productive in the allotted time. I know at my next hackathon I won’t be recommending Django to the uninitiated.

The winning team used Firebase. Every project I’ve seen done in Firebase was rapidly prototyped, indicating it is extremely suitable for hackathons. I have deep reservations about using a proprietary PaaS, but maybe I can put this concern aside for my next hackathon. :)

Java. At my university and most others in my area, Java is the first language we learn. In some cases it may be the only language one really learns well. In this light, a team member mentioned perhaps we could use Tomcat or some other Java web framework in future. This seems like a superb idea, I hope to explore this in an upcoming project with classmates.

§Debian surprised me (again)

A funny experience during the hackathon was discovering a rather surprising patch Debian’s virtualenv package ships. On CentOS 7, Gentoo, and possibly anything not Debian derived, running python3 -m virtualenv ./venv will create a Python3 virtual environment. This is not the case on Debian. Instead Debian will always default to installing python2 in the virtual environment. One must pass -p python3 to install python3. Sure seems wonky to me!

§Demos never work

We almost had a working demo, but the part that got us was deployment. I spun up a Vultr VPS, installed npm, node, caddy, virtualenv. I got the API backend running, and built the Create React App pages, and tied it all together with a Caddyfile, but it simply wouldn’t work. There was too many moving parts, and manual deployment was too tedious to get right within the time frame.

There is something to be said for working in containerized workflows; this would have been a non-issue. Drop in a docker-compose.yml into the project and just run docker-compose up. Next time :)

§Teamwork is essential

We had a team of eight members, and it was challenging to find tasks for everybody. Given we had two major components — frontend and backend — and we had quite a few members who needed instruction to get started, it was challenging to give both the coding and instructing enough attention. In future I strive to have more balanced teams so everybody can feel more involved. Perhaps a good rule of thumb is to pair at most one beginner to one intermediate, never more than one.

Something else I think that will help is ensure nobody gets pigeonholed into managing the project; rather, share the responsibility. Project managers are likely not effective in a half-day Hackathon.

Keep morale up. Don’t let negativity distract from the team tasks. Redirect negativity into going for a walk, playing video games, or simply taking a break. Make sure to smile.

§Conclusion

I had fun at GDG Milwaukee DevFest. Good food, good company. We found our initial choice of Django was not productive in true hackathon spirit. Flask was better for this. Maybe next time we’ll consider Firebase. If I had a nickle for every Debian patch that violated my own idea of least surprise, I’d have laundry money. Demos are hard, deployments should be automated or otherwise streamlined. Finally, teamwork is vital. Keep the team small, and make sure everybody has things to do.

See you next year GDG.