26 Days of Commitment: A Video Journal

Russ, that had me dying. I know, I know. More details.

Here you go (officially) Day One:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXOtZoPJSQM"]Learning Ruby on Rails in 26 Days: Day One - YouTube[/ame]


Edit: The challenge mentioned regarding PostgreSQL will be documented this evening (after dinner with the family).
 


Very nice. It looks like you're using a pretty decent environment. I'm not sure you need an IDE, idk I use Emacs for everything. I assume SublimeText can do everything you need.

I love Firefox, it's what I use for everything except development. You may want to give the Chrome Inspector a look when you start debugging sites.

Also, Sqlite3 fucking rocks. I use Postgres in production, but whatever challenges you're facing amount to yak shaving. It's all good, the more you immerse yourself in technical stuff, the better. I'm just saying that if your goal is to learn Ruby, don't waste your time fucking around with sys admin stuff.

This is looking good, man. Stick with it.
 
pinchyfingers said:
Very nice. It looks like you're using a pretty decent environment. I'm not sure you need an IDE, idk I use Emacs for everything. I assume SublimeText can do everything you need.

I love Firefox, it's what I use for everything except development. You may want to give the Chrome Inspector a look when you start debugging sites.

Also, Sqlite3 fucking rocks. I use Postgres in production, but whatever challenges you're facing amount to yak shaving. It's all good, the more you immerse yourself in technical stuff, the better. I'm just saying that if your goal is to learn Ruby, don't waste your time fucking around with sys admin stuff.

This is looking good, man. Stick with it.
Click to expand...

I think setting up your tools is an important part to preface the RoR learning curve with. That said, I'm not using an actual IDE, per se. I do have RubyMine, but I'm sticking with ST2 for now.

I'm basically heeding advice as it comes. "Use this, not that." It doesn't take much for me to buy into someone's advice because either way I'll come to my own conclusion eventually, but it's nice to start off on someone's shoulders.

With my uncle's project, the pressure is on though. Suddenly it's not about learning as much as it is getting shit done - which I think is a good thing, at least right now.
 
D3ZQ9.jpg
 
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD-W4rqTs24"]Learning Ruby on Rails in 26 Days: Day Five - YouTube[/ame]


Updating for the sake of updating

During this challenge, I had anticipated creating a video or blog post per day. Instead, I've spent more time understanding concepts, writing down blogging points to revisit in the near future, and moving forward. I would rather present quality updates versus updates by quota. Very soon, I expect the duration between updates to become shorter.

Day Five Takeaways

  • I've completed Chapter 6 of Michael Hartl's Rails Tutorial.
  • I've been focusing on writing tests, refactoring code, and learning the basic Ruby syntax.
  • You can follow the production of my Sample Application.
  • I invite peers learning Ruby on Rails to join me in creating an application together. I'll be uploading the newly-created repository on Github tomorrow with more information.
  • I have three questions for newcomers and vets alike:

  1. Is it considered “cheating” to use bootstrap templates and Ruby Gems to build a production-level application without adding anything unique?
  2. What are some common indicators that you’ll need to create a new controller?
  3. In order to accurately perform tests, do you have to create duplicates of things like helper modules and controllers in both the app and the spec directories?
As I mentioned, I've been keeping track of blogging points that I want to find a deeper understanding of and create something valuable for other students of Ruby on Rails. In the coming days, I'll explore:

  • This vs. That: The Ideal Rails Testing Environment
  • How to Build a Ruby on Rails Application: A Bird's Eye View
  • Understanding Models, Views, and Controllers
  • What is Bootstrapping?
  • Examples of Refactoring
Shoutouts

Thanks for keeping me motivated. Keep following, and feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or leave a comment.
 
boatBurner said:
Is it considered “cheating” to use bootstrap templates and Ruby Gems to build a production-level application without adding anything unique?
Click to expand...
No, it is not cheating. Your job is to get good code deployed quickly, not to reinvent the wheel.

Note: I am not a programmer.
 
Is it considered “cheating” to use bootstrap templates and Ruby Gems to build a production-level application without adding anything unique?
Click to expand...
Not cheating, but I wouldn't recommend it. Your example of Dreamweaver was perfect. If I was sourcing out a designer for a project, and someone came to me saying they're not great with raw HTML / CSS, but are excellent with Dreamweaver, they would immediately be shit-listed, and I'd ensure they never seen a project from me.

I'm assuming the same concept applies here (don't know about Ruby, Gems, etc... though). If you're taking a shortcut like that, it's eventually going to be noticeable, and is going to hurt you. Maybe upon launch people will view it as an amateur piece of work that's templated with defaults, or you'll run into issues when expanding, fixing bugs, whatever.

This is the type of reason Indians get $8/hour, and Westerners get $80/hour.
 
boatBurner said:
Is it considered “cheating” to use bootstrap templates and Ruby Gems to build a production-level application without adding anything unique?
Click to expand...

If you need to take care of business use something like bootstrap and gems to get your work done. Just because you use a gem today doesn't mean you can't learn the concepts and under pinnings of it at a later point.

boatBurner said:
What are some common indicators that you’ll need to create a new controller?
Click to expand...

I think it helps to articulate the action you are trying to accomplish, that may clue you into when you are talking about different controllers. Listen to the nouns and verbs: An X does Y. A category is listed. A quantity in a cart is updated. An order is shipped.

Some actions may fit into more than one controller, make a decision, you can change it later if you need to. Code isn't etched in stone.

boatBurner said:
In order to accurately perform tests, do you have to create duplicates of things like helper modules and controllers in both the app and the spec directories?
Click to expand...

Look into mocking frameworks and/or dependency injection (not sure if DI is a big RoR concept or not)
 
Sorry to hear you decided on ruby!

Just kidding, good luck bro.

Source: I'm a 9-5 python developer, har har.
 
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