Why Attend a Craft Workshop?
Posted by Jeremy Voorhis Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:38:00 GMT
I am hosting a Ruby on Rails workshop titled Understanding Web Architecture Through Ruby on Rails here in Portland, Oregon on 9-10 November. If you are deciding whether or not to attend, but are unsure what it’s all about, allow me to explain.
Many developers encounter Ruby on Rails for the first time via the numerous screencasts and tutorials that are available. Without doubt, this media demonstrates the productivity of Ruby on Rails, but within a limited realm. Application design is not always trivial, and it is easy to paint yourself into a corner with a new technology. Understanding Web Architecture… jumpstarts your Rails development career by giving me an outlet to share knowledge I have accumulated the hard way.
Understanding Web Architecture… also goes beyond the basics to focus on RESTful application design, what benefits it brings, and how it can be implemented in your Ruby on Rails applications from the start. I will be discussing domain modeling techniques, and how domain modeling can be applied to the higher level of web resources. To demonstrate the power in this approach, we will build a simple time-tracking application with both a browser interface and extend it to expose a web services api.
Finally, what sets this workshop apart is not an emphasis on familiarity of the Rails api, but a deeper understanding of how it works, what ideas have shaped it and where it may be going.
See you there!
Great idea. I think the screencasts and demos do a big disservice to beginners by enticing them with simplicity, when in actuality programming will always be programming. Predefined functionality can be made to work well in a closed system, but it’s hard enough to master, say, blog templating—attempting to create whole web applications without a fundamental understanding of HTTP is asking for intractable problems.
Even worse, ActiveRecord makes it easy to drain system resources without any clue what you are doing. I really really appreciate Rails because I’m aware of the problems it addresses, but I don’t think it should be allowed for anyone who doesn’t understand SQL and basic principles of indexes/joins, etc. I come from a PHP background like DHH, which I believe is one of the reasons everything in Rails made immediate sense to me.
Thank you, Gabe. I think assets like demos, screencasts and even scaffolding do have their place – they help Rails get noticed, and they highlight how Rails helps developers surmount accidental difficulties (taking a cue from Joel and referencing Brooks).
Programming will always be programming, however, and as we acquire more powerful tools, we encounter different problems. I want to help my class identify and avoid some of those problems, and get the most out of Ruby on Rails.