Packed with a bunch of new features, Ruby on Rails 2.2 has been released to the masses.
Check out the additions here.
A few things you need to do first:
So happy Rail’ings!
How many programmers have you worked with in the past, or now, that fear the command line?
“I need my editor, my GUI editor, otherwise I am worthless”
How many times have you heard that from junoir level programmers, or worse yet, the seasoned professional, who has become lazy and bored on ones job. If you come from an unix world, you are very familiar with your command prompt or terminal, but the windows people, well, lets just say, they usually do not know of a console or command prompt but only a GUI interface to everything and anything.
Yes, the GUI editors to have their place. Yes, they do speed up processes at times. Yes, they are NEEDED. I am not saying they are the root of all evil in the programming world, just a cause of laziness and lack of understanding.
Many developers/engineers/programmers should become friends with their console window. Not just be a GUI jockey, but really understand the inner workings of their trade. The blinking cursor is your friend, not your enemy. How many programmers know how to compile a C# project from the command line? Worse yet, how many know how to show a directory listing?
One great think I love about the console is the ability to create small little task that you can run with a batch script, semi-automate repetative task or file creation for projects.
“The goal is to work smart, not just hard”
But, I did…
What did I do, well I sold all of my computers (Dell) in order to change over to Apple hardware. Why you might ask? Am I crazy, one for being an MS developer and selling my MS based computers? Naw, just crazy and just forward thinking. While MS technologies have been my bread and butter for several years now, I just needed a fresh environment and not Vista (been there did that).
Here are a few reason:
1. I like Apple OSX
2. VMware Fusion is absolutely amazing, and I can virtualize Windows XP or Vista flawlessly.
3. Open Source (Ruby, Python & others). I have always been interested in various open source technologies so why not.
4. Linux/Unix/MacOS connection. Yes I love the command prompt. I do not need a GUI to do everything for me. Click Click Click done. Typing is a must, must know what is “really” going on.
VMware Fusion
What an amazing application. VMware out did themselves with this product. Truely an amazing virtualization product for the MAC. I currently run Windows XP, with Visual Studio, SQL Server and the whole other bunch of tools that I require for MS ASP.NET development. I choose XP since the memory requirements are lower, but I am finding that I may soon have to change to Vista/Win2K8 in order to use a lot of the upcoming and new technologies that MS is releasing such as Azure Services.
Open Source
As a developer, I am constantly looking at new technologies and existing ones to new methods or ideas on how to solve a problem. One problem I find with MS is how narrow minded many of the developers are, they only know MS methods and processes and never have looked outside that realm. Most say, “MS is my paycheck, why other looking at other ways”. Basically a closed minded developer, somebody I would never hire.
Damn good looking computer
Yes, the MAC is just a great looking computer, with many great “working” accessories. Something Windows-based machines haven’t accomplished yet.
I think if Microsoft did the same exact thing that Apple, producing their own hardware, the number of issues with Vista would have been reduced 10 fold.
Over at Jim Nearth’s blog is a great quick blog post that every web developer should take a look at.
div#container
{
height: 1%;
}
div#container:after
{
content: ".";
display: block;
height: 0;
clear: both;
visibility: hidden;
}Very simple, huh… Just gotta love that little snippet of code.
Have you ever attended a Microsoft MSDN or TechNet event? Notice that the knowledge level is a step above dumb ass? Sure, I know its an introduction to the subject at hand, like LINQ or SQL Server 2008, but seriously, why treat us like we have never programmed in our life.
I am sure that most of the developers in the conferences are bored and use the event as an excuse to skip work or get out of the office. I think MS should at least offer some events that really dive into the available technologies, so that developers can get a more in depth look at how to use these technologies. Plus, stop showing the “drag and drop” development method. I don’t know a single developer who uses this method for development, its just lazy and create bad bad bad code!
Just a few thoughts on the events that they host, at least they are free. If I had to pay, I would demand some quality.
Have you use the JavaScript library JQuery? If not, you have been missing out on a powerful and simple to use JavaScript library. If you spend a few hours with this library you will become a pro, plus there are a ton of tutorials on the web that make this simple to use and quick to get up and running with the compact library.
Here is a few quick samples:
Access an ID element in the DOM
$(’#elementID’) same as document.getElementByID(’elementID’)
It is as simple as that. JQuery uses the ‘$’ like prototype.
Also, a great advantage of JQuery is the numerous libraries or ‘plug-ins’ that are available. Plug-ins such as Form Validation, Lightbox enablers, and Date Pickers. These plug-ins are easy to enable, include the required JS/CSS files and you are off and running.
I will blog more about JQuery as I learn more of the in’s and out’s of the library. Check out the documentation here.
So, not really sure how many people have heard about the new Beta framework from Microsoft from the ASP.NET team called ASP.NET MVC (Model View Controller). But, if you haven’t, check it out! The framework follows the convention of separation of concerns and is excellent for building web applications. I find it to be a huge improvement over ASP.NET WebForms.
At first glance a development might be a little scared of the project layout, but after working with it for a few hours, things just start to click. You start to see how the controller handles all of the request and passes the data off to either the DAL (Data Access Layer) or the View (HTML). This starts to become simple, and you may find yourself enjoying web development again. The View is simple and is only used to display the information. Some have stated that we are returning to the time of “spaghetti code”, but its the View, deal with it, and learn to write “helpers” (we’ll cover that later).
But truthfully, ASP.NET MVC is defiantly something to check out, and if you are a web developer you should install the beta give it a spin and see what it has to offer. Plus, if you are a purist and believe in standardized HTML, then make the move and start developing in MVC today. Your Views (HTML) will be cleaner, no View State or a messy post-back process to deal with.
Here are a few resources to get you started:
Rob Conery
He has an excellent series on creating an ecommerce project in the ASP.NET MVC complete with screen cast.
Phil works at Microsoft and is one of the engineers on the ASP.NET MVC team, he always has some future insight to what is coming up next for the framework.
Well that’s it for now, but hopefully this opens some developer’s eyes to the greatness of MVC and the community starts to grow.
I am finally starting up my Code For Web blog!!!
Why? Well there is some cool stuff going on in the web world and I figured I would share my thoughts…
I just got back from a few Microsoft MSDN events, discussing the future of .NET Technologies. I will be posting some of my thoughts about the event in the next few days.