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• Learning Ruby - Day 1  Mark Slagell’s writing style is conversational and educational. I’ve gone through a number of software language tutorials. I found Slagell’s first chapter a comfortable mix of background info, simple examples, and experiments. On the outset, Slagell states Ruby is based on the: Principle of Least Surprise: “If you don’t know how to do something and you try
• gFeed Now More Valid If your news reader didn’t like the gFeed - I’m looking at you, NewsFire - then give it a second shot. I’ve tweaked the gFeed RSS feed and it should be more compatible with validation-hyper-sensitive readers - I’m looking at you, NewsFire. Also, if your reader supports it - NetNewsWire - the audio of the First Crack
• Learning Ruby - Day 10  Day 10 - Program organization, Part 2 of 3. As an experienced information architect, I’m familiar with the challenges of declaring an organizational structure. Whether its for books, furniture, clothing, or software, every structure has it’s biases - somethings are easier, others more difficult. With this in mind, the goal is always to net a more
• Learning Ruby - Day 11  Day 11 - Program organization, Part 3 of 3. Today, Slagell clarifies the difference between classes and modules. As I mentioned back in my review of The Object-Oriented Thought Process, a ‘class’ in object-oriented programming is a noun, a Thing. Like a chair, a sweater, or Slartibartfast. Modules are like adjectives. All the nouns I mentioned
• Learning Ruby - Day 12  Day 12 - When repeating yourself is the preferred method is repeating yourself. Today’s topic is recursion - iteratively calling a function numerous times with a single minor change. On face value, it sounds like something computer technology should help us avoid. In addition, it seems to directly conflict the Ruby on Rails mantra Don’t