Roadmap for Learning Rails

July 24th, 2010 50 Comments

If you have no prior development experience, one of the worst things you can do when learning Rails is to just dive in. Some of the concepts build on each other, so jumping in would be like signing up for a calculus class before you’ve learned algebra. Sure, you could muddle through it, but most of your time would be spent trying to figure out why things aren’t working.

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Rack::Plastic Helps You Write Rack Middleware

July 18th, 2010 No Comments

Back in November I participated in the CodeRack Rack middleware contest. Besides submitting entries that were stupid and downright dangerous I actually managed to create some middleware of value.

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The Two-Envelope Paradox

June 13th, 2010 38 Comments

You just finished some yard work for your eccentric neighbor, Mr. Grimes. He prepares some lemonade for you while you rest at his kitchen table.

“Thank you for your help today,” he says as he places two envelopes on the table in front of you. “Both envelopes contain money. Pick one and you can keep the money inside.” As you reach for one of the envelopes he adds, “One envelope has exactly twice the amount of money as the other.”

You pick one of the envelopes and open it. Inside you find a $20 bill. You are about to pocket the money when Mr. Grimes interjects, “I’ll give you a chance to switch envelopes if you’d like.”

Should you switch envelopes?

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Using Capybara in Rails 3

April 23rd, 2010 15 Comments

Capybara makes it easier to write integration tests. Its syntax is very similar to Webrat’s. The main difference between Capybara and Webrat is that Capybara has more architectural flexibility. It works with a variety of JavaScript-enabled browser simulators and–because it’s based on Rack–it works with any Rack-compatible web application or framework. Another advantage is that Capybara is compatible with Rails 3, but Webrat isn’t. Because Capybara is basically a more flexible Webrat, Capybara and Webrat are likely to merge.

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Rails 3 Online Conference Word Cloud

February 18th, 2010 No Comments

I used Wordle to create a word cloud from the chat transcript of the Exploring Rails 3 online conference.

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Installing Rails 3 Beta with RVM and Ruby 1.8.7

February 7th, 2010 7 Comments

Jeremy McAnally posted some great instructions on installing Rails 3 beta. When I tried to install Rails 3 it complained that my Ruby version needed to be at least 1.8.7. Fair enough, I only had 1.8.6, and it was about time I upgraded.

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Streamlining Your Workflow with AppleScript

December 13th, 2009 1 Comment

When developing web applications, I frequently switch between iTerm, TextMate, my browser, and my mail client. So I used AppleScript to streamline my task-switching. I’ll show you how I did this in case you’re inspired to streamline your workflow, too.

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Getting Mugged by Nokogiri

December 8th, 2009 2 Comments

Once you’ve gotten started with Nokogiri, you’ll expect everything to be as easy as the beginning, and then–BAM!–you’ll get sucker-punched.

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Getting Started with Nokogiri

December 8th, 2009 1 Comment

Nokogiri is a Ruby document parser that was released in October 2008. It’s great for reading, searching, editing, and otherwise mucking around with HTML (and XML).

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New Release of Alphabet Clock

November 29th, 2009 No Comments

I’ve made some improvements to Alphabet Clock, most notably the inclusion of dates and developer libraries.  Read the full story on Alphabet Clock’s blog.

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