Ruby On Rails Interest Group
The Ruby on Rails Special Interest Group helps members and others to learn full-stack development of apps using hot, high-paying technologies: Ruby (language), Rails (Backend/Database), React (Web Pages), and React Native (App Stores).
I believe that the purpose of life is, at least in part, to be happy. Based on this belief, Ruby is designed to make programming not only easy but also fun. It allows you to concentrate on the creative side of programming, with less stress.
- —Yukihiro Matsumoto, Chief Designer, Ruby
Contents
Goals
- Help new programmers get better quickly.
- Help existing programmers get better at programming.
- Provide a "lurch" forward in your progress.
- Show you the way to becoming a Top 1% programmer.
- Have you be demonstrably better - from a practical perspective.
- Give back to the Ruby community by authoring Codewars.com kata.
- Give back to Dallas Makerspace by developing and maintaining applications that support its mission.
We are living in the Golden Age of Learning. Ruby on Rails SIG will not replace existing educational or code practice resources. It will provide structure, goals, and community/mentorship to leverage those readily available resources.
I hope to see Ruby help every programmer in the world to be productive, and to enjoy programming, and to be happy. That is the primary purpose of Ruby language.
- —Yukihiro Matsumoto, Chief Designer, Ruby
SIG Action Items
List of Open and Closed Action Items
Initial Prerequisites
Set up accounts
- lynda.com Free access with a public library card. If your city doesn't offer access, Grand Prairie & Garland's library systems do not have residency requirements.
- codeacademy.com Free access. Optional Pro-level fee offers a full-stack learning plan.
- codewars.com
- Under Account Settings, in Clan field, type in DallasMakerspace (all one word, no spaces).
- Free access. Optional Red-level fee gives you access to statistics.
- github.com Free access.
- lucidchart.com Free access, paid account not required.
- Amazon Web services
Online Classes
- Programming Foundations: Fundamentals - Or equivalent experience, if not a beginner. Approximately 5 hrs.
- Programming Foundations: Object-Oriented Design - Or equivalent experience, if not a beginner. Approximately 3 hrs.
- Learning Relational Databases - Or equivalent experience, if not a beginner. Approximately 3 hrs.
- CodeAcademy Ruby - Hands on instruction. Approximately 12 hrs.
Workshops
- CodeWars-based Hands-on Workshops.
- 8-kyu QuickStart. To get the most out of Ruby, you have to memorize the short-cut methods.
- Object-Oriented Programming
- Homework:
- Complete 100 8- or 7- kyu problems (kata). Ruby on Rails SIG has built custom collections of problems grouped by subject and ordered by difficulty/rarity. Search under the Collections tab for "DMSRuby".
- Build a training "hit" list of 80 of these problems; drill until you can complete them in an hour.
- Rails Workshops
- Laptop Configuration: Do not attempt on your own. We have a workshop for this process. Windows set up is particularly tricky.
- RubyMine Ruby on Rails IDE
- MySQL Workbench
- Prerequisite: Ruby on Rails 5 Essential Training (40 hours)
- Homework:
- Laptop Configuration: Do not attempt on your own. We have a workshop for this process. Windows set up is particularly tricky.
- React Workshops
- Prerequisites:
- Introduction to Javascript Hands-on online class.
- Learn ReactJS: Part I Hands-on online class.
- Learn ReactJS: Part II Hands-on online class.
- Homework: TBA
- Prerequisites:
- React Native Workshops
- Object-Oriented Design Patterns
Study Groups
- Evening Study Group, Tuesdays & Fridays, 7p - 10p. Meets in Common Room.
Participants
- Dallas Makerspace Members
- Kirk Keeter (Instructor)
- Stephenie Webb (Student: working through "Ruby on Rails 5 Essential Training")
- Paul Traue (Student: Working through "Understanding ECMAScript 6" book)
- Chrissy H (Student/CodeWars Addict: Working through "Ruby on Rails 5 Essential Training" and starting Personal Project)
- john a. gorman (student)
- Non-DMS Members (Classes are open to the public.)
- John D. (Making Model Relationships for Personal Project)
- Aaron Kelton (status: generating seed data and Rails templates)
- Alp Deveci (status: finished Rails and React prerequisites; working on personal project data model)
- Elven Banzon (Student: Working on frontend of "Ruby on Rails 5 Essential Training" project)
- Julie Goode (finishing pre-reqs for Spring session)
How To Join
You want to enjoy life, don't you? If you get your job done quickly and your job is fun, that's good isn't it? That's the purpose of life, partly. Your life is better.
- —Yukihiro Matsumoto, Chief Designer, Ruby
- Wiki: Help Kirk track your progress. If you are an instructor, current student, or alumni - and a DMS Member - add your name to the "Participants" section of this wiki page. Not a DMS Member? Ask any DMS Member to add your name or update your status. If you are concerned about privacy, feel free to use first name-&-last initial.
- Classes: Complete the initial prerequisites. Register for the next Ruby track of workshops on the DMS Events Calendar.
Communication
- TALK We have our own "Ruby On Rails" category under "Interest Groups".
- DMS_Rails_React Slack channel
- Dallas Maker Space -- Rails / React / React Native Under utilized. Will be going away.
Additional Resources
- Alternative Learning for Beginners
- Learn Ruby the Hard Way Free online book.
- Rails Tutorial Free online book.
- Rails for Zombies
- Understanding ECMAScript 6 Free online copy.
- The Ruby Way Reference book with killer index.
- Code Academy Workspace In-browser IDE for Ruby.
- Stack Overflow
- collabedit.com Used in workshops for real-time sharing of code.
- Ruby Gems Ruby community's gem hosting service
- Master Regex
- Kaggle Like Code Academy, but for data science & machine learning.
- Advanced resources
- railscasts.com Produced by Ryan Bates, a legend in the Rails community. Older videos still hold up, but are not sequential.
- gorails.com Sequential learning videos breaking down complex rails programming.
- learnetto.com
- reacttraining.com Professional workshops
- tylermcginnis.com Subscription online tutorials
- fiverr.com Freelance services, for when you just don't have the time or skills but have some money.