Posted by Curt Hibbs Wed, 13 Jul 2005 07:04:00 GMT
Dave Thomas just announced that the first Rails book, Agile Web Development with Rails, has been finalized and sent to the printer! You can download the PDF now, and get the hard copy in a couple weeks.
Just like Programming Ruby, this excellent book is destined to be a classic that will always be within arms reach.
Posted by Curt Hibbs Wed, 13 Jul 2005 07:02:00 GMT
I think Lucas Carlton got it right. Bottom line: “the proof is in the pudding” (translation for those not familiar with English idioms: the proof is in the results).
Posted by Curt Hibbs Sun, 10 Jul 2005 07:00:00 GMT
There’s no denying it… programming has become more complex than it should be. I’ve done my share of rationalizing this situation by telling myself that it is just the nature of the programming beast – so, just deal with it!
But some years ago, extensive work with JavaScript reminded me of the productivity I had enjoyed when I worked in Smalltalk and my search for “something better” lead me to Ruby. My sense of productivity returned with a vengeance only to be solidified when Ruby on Rails entered the picture (Rails is a wildly successful expression of the concept of less code).
Now, Ryan Tomayko has recognized that there is a trend afoot – a real movement – and has decided to open the doors on a site dedicated to this emerging trend:
lesscode.org is a place to advocate, discuss, and practice the art of using less code to get more done. We shun complexity and challenge the status-quo when it impedes our ability to simplify our development tools and processes. We appreciate Python, Ruby, LAMP, REST, KISS, worse is better, and talk like a pirate day.
Please check out lesscode.org, support it and its goals. You’ll be glad you did!
Posted by Curt Hibbs Wed, 06 Jul 2005 07:00:00 GMT
National Academies Press says that they have been taking each new book they publish and simultaneously releasing it for sale and making a scanned copy freely available online. The pleasant surprise is that this actually increased sales of the books. I think there is a lesson to be learned in this.
You can read more about it here.
Posted by Curt Hibbs Fri, 24 Jun 2005 07:00:00 GMT
Thomas Fuchs recently released an extension to the Prototype JavaScript library (the library used to implement Ajax support in Rails) that enables drag’n’drop capabilities on your web pages. What is particularly significant is how the design of this extension makes adding drag’n’drop to your web app so easy. Backpack, which is a Rails web app, has already implemented this.
What surprises me are the detractors who insist that this is no big deal, with dismissals like:
These nay sayers are completely missing the point. There are two mutually reinforcing trends in web applications that will eventually change the face of the web, and this is part of one of them.
Web applications, as popular as they are, have been saddled with two significant problems:
Ruby on Rails is the vanguard of a new style of developing web applications that pushes productivity to heights that we used to think were impossible. I have no doubt that many more high-productivity web app frameworks will follow. But, for now, Rails no only stands alone with a substantial lead, but also sets a very high bar against which competitors will be measured.
The Prototype library is enabling user interface features that were the sole province of desktop applications. Sure, this could always have been done with JavaScript and DHTML, but the development costs were prohibitive for most projects. Prototype has reduced the cost of these features to the point where they can be considered for any web application, and this is very significant!
The fact that Rails includes and leverages the Prototype library to full advantage, makes Rails a potent tool (no… a potent weapon) in your development arsenal.
I’m not interested in the whining about what’s new and what’s old. I don’t care about off-the-wall claims of non-robustness, can’t scale, and just-a-toy, when a myriad of highly functional, heavily used, developed-in-record-time, production web applications already exist to say otherwise.
I sincerely welcome the addition of more tools and frameworks to further push the envelope of sustainable productivity. In the meantime, I’ll use Ruby on Rails wherever possible.
Posted by Curt Hibbs Fri, 17 Jun 2005 07:00:00 GMT
It seems like I’ve been a Murphy’s-Law-magnet lately.
RubyForge was down on one of the two nights I had to prepare the video for my Rails presentation to the St. Louis Java Users Group. Then, during the presentation the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the building for about a half an hour, so when we resumed, I had to try to compress the remainder of an already time-tight presentation.
On the same day (actually, at the same hour) of this Rails presentation, O’Reilly published my Ajax on Rails article on their ONLamp.com site. The article contained links to my blog as live examples of using Ajax functionality. Unfortunately, my ISP co-location center suffered a major power failure that took 4,000 servers offline and my blog was caught in the crossfire just as people were try to use it!
Perhaps I’ve used up my quota of Murphy’s Law and can look forward to a peaceful summer. But I suspect that Murphy would beg to differ!
Posted by Curt Hibbs Wed, 15 Jun 2005 07:00:00 GMT
We’ve all written bad code, it’s just that some of us are better at it than others. Take a look at this 4,700+ character SQL statement and other coding wonders at The Daily WTF (Curious Perversions in Information Technology).
Posted by Curt Hibbs Tue, 07 Jun 2005 07:00:00 GMT
Last Friday/Saturday was Rails Day. Rails Day was a competition that gave teams of developers 24 hours to build the best web app that they can using Ruby on Rails. It had many sponsors and prizes, and the judging is supposed to be completed by this coming Friday.
I just finished reading through the list of the 55 qualifying entries that will be judged, and I have to say that it is damn impressive!
This is going to turn into an annual event… I can just feel it!
Posted by Curt Hibbs Sun, 05 Jun 2005 07:00:00 GMT
This coming Thursday (June 9th) I’m giving a presentation on Rails to the St. Louis Java Users Group, but I’m still not completely satisfied with my existing presentation (particularly the videos of developing a Rails app). And being habitually overworked, I knew that I had some time tonight and Tuesday night to update the presentation. A little tight, but doable.
I wanted my video to start from the beginning, so I uninstalled Ruby to start from scratch. I then reinstalled Ruby and tried to do a:
gem install rails
No luck, I just got some kind of EOF error. After about an hour of futzing around (because I assumed I had a problem with my internet connection or proxy server), I found out the RubyForge is down and won’t be back up until 11:00pm.
Now I can’t even do anything because I don’t have no longer have Rails installed. I’m stuck… Arrrrrrrrg! :-(
Now I’m going to have to give up some sleep to get this done, which I didn’t want to do because I think my body is on the edge of getting sick and I wanted to get extra sleep.
This is a classic Murphy’s Law situation!
Posted by Curt Hibbs Tue, 31 May 2005 07:00:00 GMT
Two things happened recently that got me thinking more about formal training for Ruby and for Rails. First, I got the following email from William Poulsen:
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for the rails tutorials you posted on the O’Reilly site! I just graduated from Arizona State University where my entire final semester was spent using J2EE to write a simple web application that did exactly the same thing as your two tutorials. I wasted an entire semester tinkering for hours on end with xml deployment files, EJBs, JSPs, and the like and I got the same result in about 45 minutes with your tutorials using rails. On top of it your examples were so much more logical and only about 1/100th of the code! You definitely should have taken that offer to write a Rails book… I don’t think anybody can make it as clear, concise, and practical as you did! I guess I will get the next best thing; Agile Web Development with Rails… Thanks again, Will Poulsen
P.S. I’m going to write to my instructors and the head of the CIS department at ASU and tell them to get a Ruby/Rails course on the lineup. They are in the process of revamping the program and since I am now a full fledged Ruby convert it only makes sense! :)
Second, I recently found out that my former employer, Object Computing Inc. (who offers both training and consulting) is going to test the waters later this year with a class on Ruby and another class on Rails. Based on the raging success of the Building of Basecamp workshops, I think the time may be right for this. I really want to encourage them for follow through on this, and I was hoping that you could help me do a little impromptu market research.
If there were multi-day, seminar-style classes available to teach programming in Ruby and web application development with Ruby on Rails:
Please take a moment to post a comment to this blog entry to answer these questions and make any other related comments.
Thanks!
