Added workshop section README

Author: timmanik

04-refactoring/IT/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+# AI-Assisted Code Refactoring Workshop: Server Monitoring System
+
+## Workshop Overview
+This workshop demonstrates how AI coding assistants can help improve error handling and code maintainability in IT systems. Using a server monitoring system as our example, we'll explore common code quality issues and learn how AI can assist in identifying and fixing them.
+
+## Learning Objectives
+- Understand how AI can assist in identifying code quality issues
+- Learn to translate theoretical best practices into practical improvements
+- Experience real-world error handling scenarios
+- Bridge the gap between development and IT operations
+
+## The Scenario
+We're working with a server monitoring system that represents a common situation in IT:
+- A robust third-party tool or API (`mock_ping.py`) that we can't modify
+- Our own integration code (`server_availability.py`) that needs improvement
+- Real-world challenges like unclear error messages, poor logging, and lost context
+
+### Understanding mock_ping.py
+In our workshop, `mock_ping.py` represents third-party APIs or tools that IT teams commonly work with, such as:
+- Cloud provider APIs (AWS, Azure, GCP)
+- Monitoring tool APIs (Nagios, Zabbix, SolarWinds)
+- Network infrastructure APIs (Cisco, F5, etc.)
+
+This file serves as our "API documentation" for the AI, similar to how you might provide AWS documentation when asking AI to help with AWS integrations.
+
+## Project Structure
+```
+IT
+├── server_availability_hints.py            # Initial version of the server availability checker with comments on potential improvements
+├── server_availability.py                  # Unrefactored implementation of the server availability checker
+├── server_availability_refactored.py       # Refactored version of the server availability checker with enhanced error handling and maintainability
+├── mock_ping.py                            # Mock implementation of a ping function which represents a third-party API/tool
+├── test-for-intial-code-notebook.ipynb     # Notebook testing the unrefactored server availability checker
+├── test-for-refactored-code-notebook.ipynb # Notebook validating the improvements in the refactored server availability checker
+└── README.md                               # This file
+```
+
+## Workshop Flow
+1. **Review Current State**
+   - Examine the current `server_availability.py`
+   - Identify common issues in error handling and logging
+   - Run test scenarios via `test-for-intial-code-notebook.ipynb` to see problematic outputs
+
+2. **Understanding the Context**
+   - Learn how `mock_ping.py` represents real-world APIs
+   - See how error information gets lost in our integration
+   - Identify where improvements are needed
+
+3. **AI-Assisted Refactoring**
+   - Use AI to help identify improvements
+   - Implement better error handling
+   - Add proper logging and resource management
+   - Maintain better error context
+
+4. **Validation**
+   - Run the same test scenarios via `test-for-refactored-code-notebook.ipynb`
+   - Compare output quality
+   - Understand the improvements
+
+
+
+## Workshop Materials
+- `mock_ping.py`: Simulates a third-party API with rich error types
+- `server_availability.py`: Starting point with common issues
+- `server-test-notebook.ipynb`: Test scenarios for before/after comparison
+
+## Expected Outcomes
+After this workshop, participants will:
+- Better understand how to work with third-party APIs
+- Know how to use AI to improve error handling
+- Be able to identify and fix common code quality issues
+- Understand how to maintain error context
+- Have practical experience with code refactoring

04-refactoring/IT/server_availability_hints.py

@@ -3,30 +3,23 @@
 from io import StringIO
 
 def check_server_availability(servers):
-    # No input validation or type hints
-
-    try:
-        output = StringIO()
-        
-        # Write header with timestamp
-        output.write(f"Time: {datetime.datetime.now()}\n")
-        
-        for s in servers:  # Poor variable naming
-            try:
-                # Ignores all the rich information from mock_ping
-                # and reduces it to just True/False
-                result = mock_ping(s)
-                if result == True:  # Non-pythonic comparison
-                    f.write(s + " is up\n")
-                else:
-                    # Ambiguous error messaging
-                    f.write(s + " is down\n")
-            except:  # Bare except clause
-                # Generic error message without context
-                f.write("Error checking server\n")
-        
-        f.close()  # Manual file closing
-    except:  # Another bare except
-        # Unhelpful error message
-        print("Error writing to log file")  # Inconsistent error reporting (print vs write)
-        return  # Silent return on error
+    output = StringIO()
+    
+    # Write header with timestamp
+    output.write(f"Time: {datetime.datetime.now()}\n")
+    
+    # Check each server
+    for server in servers: # Poor variable naming
+        try:
+            # Ignores all the rich information from mock_ping
+            # and reduces it to just True/False
+            result = mock_ping(server)
+            status = "UP" if result else "DOWN"
+            output.write(f"{server} is {status}\n")
+        except: # Bare except clause
+            output.write(f"Error checking server {server}\n")   # Generic error message without context
+    
+    # Print and return the complete output
+    result = output.getvalue()
+    print(result)
+    return