bgror

What can we do right now? »

Created at: 04.06.2009 02:12, source: Robby on Rails, tagged: ruby programming Projects agile gtd team book programming inspiration motivation kindle

Last month I picked up a new kindle from Amazon and have been reading a handful of books. One book that I’ve been really impressed with is Chad Fowler’s new book, The Passionate Programmer.

I plan to post some more thoughts in upcoming articles, but wanted to share this gem.

“If you treat your projects like a race, you’ll get to the end a lot faster than if you treat them like a prison cell. Create movement. Be the one who pushes. Don’t get comfortable. Always be the one to ask, “But what can we do right now?”” - Chad Fowler, The Passionate Programmer

Sometimes we feel stuck, but that doesn’t stop us from stepping to the side and assessing the situation. There is always something useful that we could be doing right now.

Simply Rails 2 now available »

Created at: 22.05.2008 13:21, source: poocs.net - Home, tagged: Personal rails book rails sitepoint

I’ve been hard at work getting my Rails beginner’s book Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications updated to reflect the changes and additions in Rails 2. Part of this process was making everything work even simpler than it has been in the first edition, hence the title change to Simply Rails 2.

All of the chapters have been reworked to incorporate the partially massive simplifications that have shipped in Rails 2 and I’ve also changed the database used in the installation to be SQLite, aptly changed from the MySQL default in both the first edition of the book and in Rails 1.2.

Shovell, the sample application developed over the course of the book, is also developed fully RESTful now, one of the complaints the first edition received.

The chapter on debugging incorporates the content from the former stand-alone article Debugging Your Rails App with ruby-debug introducing you to the newly gained debugging powers from Kent Sibilev’s great debugging tool.

The book finally came back from the printer last week and is now available for purchase from SitePoint in both PDF and hard copy form. They also sell a bundle of both as a special value pack. Of course the hard copy is also available for purchase from the usual suspects.

SitePoint also published an excerpt of the book as an article titled Rails For Beginners: All You Need To Know! and made a PDF of chapters 1 through 4 available as a free download.

Have at it!