Last year, I went to Dev8D and was extremely impressed by the enthusiasm shown by the three hundred developers who attended. This year, I'm happy to say that the Institute has been invited to present a workshop about sustainability, but there was a proviso: it has to be exciting. Now there's a challenge.

Developing sustainable software is mainly about good software engineering, and good software engineering is like regular exercise, or eating your five, daily portions of fruit and veg. It pays off in the long run, but it's not always edge-of-the-seat kind of stuff. Fortunately, Mike Jackson came to the rescue with an excellent idea: competitive coding.

The workshop will take place on Wednesday 15 February in room 3E at 10.00-12.00 - see the programme for details.

At the workshop, we're going to pair people up and get them to assess each other's software - with a focus on the things that make software sustainable. We'll start off with some of the simple stuff, like can you find the project's website armed only with the name of the software? And then we will build up to more complex questions about how the software is written: is it readable, installable, designed well? There will also be an open session at the start of the workshop, where we will discuss what makes good code good.

It's easy to listen to us talk about good software engineering, but it's quite a different experience to have a friend look at your code and tell you what they think. And it's not just about learning a few home truths, it's about a fresh insight which can lead to new and fruitful changes and improvements.