CSS and Ruby

I have just come across this Ruby gem which could be very useful for you all.
http://lesscss.org/
Less is Leaner css. Less extends css by adding: variables, mixins, operations and nested rules.
If you use css then this could be useful.

Web 2 communities in action

Mythbuster Adam Savage fights $11,000 AT&T bill with Twitter army Have a look at the following commentry on Computerworld blog: http://blogs.computerworld.com/mythbuster_adam_savage_fights_11_000_at_t_bill_with_twitter_army?source=CTWNLE_nlt_dailyam_2009-06-29

Some very helpful Ruby tomes

I have just going through Workshop 6 and the Topic reading: (Hartl)

This made mention of David Hannermeir Hansens 15 minute blog development presentation. http://media.rubyonrails.org/video/rails_take2_with_sound.mov in the introduction. I watched this (i suspect that Craig had recommended this earlier) and wish that I had seen this earlier in the subject.

Having watched the demonstration, I read (Collingbourne)

I now feel that I have a much better grasp of ROR, because of these references. I have gotten back into the first few chapters of (Hartl) and really wish that this had been recommended prior to Workshop 1. It goes through a nice seemingly simple step by step process for setting up rails, and actually specifies requirements. There is a distinct chance that maybe hindsight is playing a part in my thinking, remembering back to the number of lost hours trying to get a working setup.

However, what really got me to put this missive together was a single line in (Hartl, s2.2.1)

In case you ever need to undo the work done by generate, you can use ruby script/destroy controller . That's certainly a lot easier than deleting a bunch of files by hand.

which clarified in my mind where I had been going wrong in my attempts at building the OTBS. i may well have seen this before, but I don't remember seeing this in the same section as talking about generating the controller. But then again, this may well be hindsight in action.

References
Collingbourne, H (2008)"The Little Book of Ruby"
Hartl, M & Prochazka, A, (2008). RailsSpace: Building a Social Networking Website with Ruby on Rails, Pearson Education

Ruby Use on the rise

Just came across this article on the net that you might be interested in:
http://blog.internetnews.com/skerner/2009/06/report-ruby-use-on-the-rise.html

Workshop 8: Ruby on Rails Workshops Report and Evaluation

1. List what you consider to be the three strengths of Ruby on Rails workshop series
1. Ruby is probably a language that once you "get it" it all falls in to place. The MVC and convention over configuration means that you dont have to go looking in obscure places to find the answers to error situations. It means that application maintenance should be made simpler.
2. Exposure to the Ruby way of doing things.
3. ?? Due to the frustration experienced with development and the lack of overall workshop focus I find it very difficult to find anything that would qualify as a strength. Although it is feasible that I could use my experiences in the workshops as a reason not to use Rails as an application development environment
2. List what you consider to be the three weaknesses of Ruby on Rails workshop series:
1. There was a distinct lack of focus throughout the workshop series. It seemed to be heading in a certain direction for the first 4 workshops, but then at workshop 5 a complete change in tack occurred. The first 4 workshops should be removed. If you start with workshop 5 and go through the RailsSpace book and develop the OTBS application in conjunction.
2. The development of the OTBS did not seem to have any real relevance to the rest of the subject matter. The Workshops should be redefined so that the development of the application corresponds to the learning outcomes being investigated in the topics.
3. Their was little scope for collaboration with other students within the workshops. As I mentioned in an earlier blog their is scope to include a project manager from a project management subject to cross pollinate the learning outcomes for students, and to improve the collaboration aspect.
3. List what aspects of Ruby on Rails workshop series that you found to be most difficult.

Getting Ruby installed and operational. I found it hard to find any useful installation information initially. I am sure that there is lots of documentation in existence, but asking the right question proved to be difficult. Also the fact that i was trying to install in a windows environment proved frustrating. I resorted to creating a Windows XP VM to host my APTANA development environment. Once the software infrastructure was in place everything was OK.

4. List what improvements could be made to the Ruby on Rails workshop series:

The workshop series should be redesigned so that:

• A VM should be developed so that all students start off on the same foot.
• The references to other frameworks could be removed.
• All the students have a programming background(?), and as such do we really need to compare looping structures or suyntax of different languages?
• It has a defined goal with some KPIs that need to be met as students progress.
• The workshop content should involve aspects of the topic being examined to more closely tie in with the subject objectives.
• their should be more of a project managed feel about the workshops so that we dont miss our targets
Free response and reflective questions:

5. Reflect on your experiences with the other Web framework used in this subject: Was it effective? How can it be improved? Should other Web frameworks be used as well or instead of Ruby on Rails?

My immediate response to this question is what other frameworks? Did we actually use another framework. And if we did when? If this is referring to the few questions that were used in php, then I think it is simply irrelevant.

The experince could definitely be improved if a virtual machine was provided that had the framework already set up. I dont think that anything of real value is learnt by all students being in the dark and having to install and test various servers and hope that everything works. Everyones machine is different, and so they all have to spend a large block of time getting up and running. A VM would solve this problem by everyone starting off on the front foot.

6. Did the Developer’s or IT managers Team that you joined after workshop 4 have a preference towards using other tools to facilitate collaboration? Comment on the differences between these use of the sub-forum or Interact wiki tools from your experiences in this subject.

There was little if any collaboration. This is primarily due to the time constraints imposed by the topic Q&A and the workshops. There is simply not enough time to get through the volume of work expected, and collaborate as well.

The forums were the best spot for eliciting information from other students if required.

7. Further comments to add?

It may not necessarily seem that I enjoyed the Workshop series. This is not actually the case. I did find that developing in Ruby was enjoyable to a point. However this was generally overbalanced by the frustration felt when things didnt work out correctly. Learning a new language and development paradigm is an experience to be savoured. But it is very easy to be turned off and things to sour when brick walls seemingly appear. The DRY principle is espoused by the Rails community, but that is probably what I failed at the most. I think that my final tally for creating the Online Taxi Booking System was probably somewhere upward of 20. That is I started from scratch in excess of 20 times.

Workshop 7: End of the Line: production site migration and maintenance

To Do: Developers conclude their work with the OTBS and look at the options for deployment of the site. Examine the various platforms/software tools used for deployment such as UNIX environment suggested in the Discussion Notes, Mongrel or Mongrel cluster, Nginx, Subversion or Capistrano (during development stage), JRuby in the Java environment. Which way? The choice is up to you as this workshop present just one option and you may like to use another, such as deploying the OTBS in a .NET or J2EE environment Can you get the OTBS Running in production mode as a minimal production server? Share your success by posting progress comments and links etc to the Developers sub-forum site that has been set up for the Red team.

Workshop 6: Enjoying the Ride: Web framework alternatives, scalability and flexibility

Upon the completion of this workshop, developers or managers should be able to:

• Discuss and analyse the latest Web framework technologies based upon experiences so far with Ruby on Rails
• Identify and evaluate challenges and opportunities concerning the use of the latest Web 2.0 technologies and to ‘benchmark’ (compare) other alternatives
• Discuss and evaluate current Ruby on Rails framework and the alternative emerging technologies.
• Evaluate and devise scalability, flexibility, capacity planning and performance testing strategies for conducting e-commerce.
• Deploy Web 2.0 or later technology in their business environments such as the ideas and methods of the ‘RailsSpace’ approach to the OTBS
• Think critically and analytically when exposed to new technologies.
• Share your findings with your peers and examine what the other team is doing.

Developers may continue to build upon work with the OTBS using the topic reading to help with user registration and advanced login features from Hartl et al (2008).

• generate a controller and an action by adding a method(s) to a controller
• create a view template for each action and to link to actions from views
• use AJAX to improve the user experience

Share your success by posting progress comments and links etc to the Developers sub-forum site that has been set up for the Red team.