
The news is, I have left PayPal last week, and joined ThoughtWorks as an UI developer.

I have been associated with PayPal for almost 3 years (with 3 months break in between) and without a doubt, that experience had taught me some valuable lessons. But, lately, I have started focusing heavily on JavaScript and I decided to part ways with PayPal to get myself into a work that has scope for JavaScript development.

So, I picked ThoughtWorks (err, they picked me!).

ThoughtWorks is a well known software development company amongst the developer community here, known for their contribution to **Agile practice, Selenium & CruiseControl**. Having heard good feedback about ThoughtWorks from the community & my ex-colleagues at PayPal, I was really looking forward to join the company.

Now, it's been 2 days (just) and the kind of culture I see at ThoughtWorks is something that I have never seen at my previous work places. To start, there are no cubicles. Everyone sit around tables (including Managers, GMs) and one can move to any place as their project demands. There's no fixed location, as such. As someone who alyways had a _cubicle number_ given to him, the cubicle-less arrangement is a new experience to me.

![ThoughtWorks Chennai Office](http://i.imgur.com/45ZOa7f.jpg)

I think I'll cut out here, as it's been just 2 days since I started working at ThoughtWorks. I'll try to write more as the time goes by.

The last time when I wrote a similar post was when I [moved from Infosys to CSC](https://veerasundar.com/blog/moved-to-chennai-india/). In that post, I have added a photo of [IT Highway](http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x201/talktoveera/Tidel_Park_junction_panorama.jpg) (OMR, Chennai), even though my previous workplace was not near to that place pictured in that photo. But now, that photo makes more sense as the ThoughtWorks campus is located very near to that road. So, as an end note, here's that photo for you.

![IT Highway, OMR, Chennai](http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x201/talktoveera/Tidel_Park_junction_panorama.jpg)


Joined ThoughtWorks


Sometime back, when Arun [posted][1] a Python version of **Mars Rover problem**, I tried the same in Java. Btw, if you haven't heard about Mars Rover problem before, here's the text for you (Ctrl C & Ctrl V'ed from Arun's [post][1]).

[1]: http://www.arunrocks.com/blog/archives/2010/02/01/mars-rover-in-python-and-haskell/ "Mars Rover in Python and Haskell"

## Mars Rover problem:

A squad of robotic rovers are to be landed by NASA on a plateau on Mars.

This plateau, which is curiously rectangular, must be navigated by the rovers so that their on-board cameras can get a complete view of the surrounding terrain to send back to Earth.

A rover's position and location is represented by a combination of x and y co-ordinates and a letter representing one of the four cardinal compass points. The plateau is divided up into a grid to simplify navigation. An example position might be 0, 0, N, which means the rover is in the bottom left corner and facing North.

In order to control a rover , NASA sends a simple string of letters. The possible letters are 'L', 'R' and 'M'. 'L' and 'R' makes the rover spin 90 degrees left or right respectively, without moving from its current spot. 'M' means move forward one grid point, and maintain the same heading.

Assume that the square directly North from (x, y) is (x, y 1).

### INPUT:

The first line of input is the upper-right coordinates of the plateau, the lower-left coordinates are assumed to be 0,0.

The rest of the input is information pertaining to the rovers that have been deployed. Each rover has two lines of input. The first line gives the rover's position, and the second line is a series of instructions telling the rover how to explore the plateau.

The position is made up of two integers and a letter separated by spaces, corresponding to the x and y co-ordinates and the rover's orientation.

Each rover will be finished sequentially, which means that the second rover won't start to move until the first one has finished moving.

### OUTPUT:

The output for each rover should be its final co-ordinates and heading.

INPUT AND OUTPUT

Test Input:

5 5  
1 2 N  
LMLMLMLMM  
3 3 E  
MMRMMRMRRM

Expected Output:

1 3 N  
5 1 E

## Solution in Java:

```java

    package marsrover;
    public class Rover {
    	public static final Integer N = 1;
    	public static final Integer E = 2;
    	public static final Integer S = 3;
    	public static final Integer W = 4;
    	Integer x = 0;
    	Integer y = 0;
    	Integer facing = N;
    	public Rover() {
    	}
    	public void setPosition(Integer x, Integer y, Integer facing) {
    		this.x = x;
    		this.y = y;
    		this.facing = facing;
    	}
    	public void printPosition() {
    		char dir = 'N';
    		if (facing == 1) {
    			dir = 'N';
    		} else if (facing == 2) {
    			dir = 'E';
    		} else if (facing == 3) {
    			dir = 'S';
    		} else if (facing == 4) {
    			dir = 'W';
    		}
    		System.out.println(x   " "   y   " "   dir);
    	}
    	public void process(String commands) {
    		for (int idx = 0; idx < commands.length(); idx  ) {
    			process(commands.charAt(idx));
    		}
    	}
    	private void process(Character command) {
    		if (command.equals('L')) {
    			turnLeft();
    		} else if (command.equals('R')) {
    			turnRight();
    		} else if (command.equals('M')) {
    			move();
    		} else {
    			throw new IllegalArgumentException(
    					"Speak in Mars language, please!");
    		}
    	}
    	private void move() {
    		if (facing == N) {
    			this.y  ;
    		} else if (facing == E) {
    			this.x  ;
    		} else if (facing == S) {
    			this.y--;
    		} else if (facing == W) {
    			this.x--;
    		}
    	}
    	private void turnLeft() {
    		facing = (facing - 1) < N ? W : facing - 1;
    	}
    	private void turnRight() {
    		facing = (facing   1) > W ? N : facing   1;
    	}
    	public static void main(String args[]) {
    		Rover rover = new Rover();
    		rover.setPosition(1, 2, N);
    		rover.process("LMLMLMLMM");
    		rover.printPosition(); // prints 1 3 N
    		rover.setPosition(3, 3, E);
    		rover.process("MMRMMRMRRM");
    		rover.printPosition(); // prints 5 1 E
    	}
    }

```

After comparing my version with Arun's [version][2], all it came to my mind was, _Joe Armstrong's_ this quote:

[2]: http://www.arunrocks.com/blog/archives/2010/02/01/mars-rover-in-python-and-haskell/

> 'The problem with object-oriented languages is they've got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle.'


#thoughtworks (2)