I spent last Saturday with Ekata, Ben, and Ramez at Code Retreat Orlando. Corey Haines told me I suck. But he said the same about everybody, himself included, so I guess it's ok. The point of the day is to work on the same problem with different people, starting over each time, and trying to follow Test-Driven Design and other good design practices. While listening to Corey make fun of you.
The most fun of the day was working with Michael Feathers on a procedural version using C++. I'm not entirely sure if it fit the Test-Driven mantra, but we did start with a couple tests and build from there.
I don't know if any particular hour was the "best" solution. I spent the first hour learning that I'm incompetent in Java, but dutifully typing what I was told anyway. That app actually had a working UI. The rest of the day was in some variation of C (++, #, etc). I certainly could get my ideas into words and code a little better, but I'm not sure I had a "lightbulb" moment. Maybe I've read enough about pair programming and TDD that there's not much left that'll come as a complete surprise, but I also feel like I didn't come up with a lot of new ideas about the problem either.
I'd really like to hear from anyone who worked with me. Whether to tell me I'm being overly critical or that I really do need to start engaging my brain. If I ever ran one of these, it probably would be single-language, or the rule would be "use a language you code in professionally". Trying to refresh myself on a language I haven't used since college or learn a new UI library makes the pair lag.