October 20th: Intro to Ruby & Rails Workshop

If you have been curious about Ruby on Rails (but has never gotten around to trying it out), this workshop is for you.  Ruby is a fun language to learn and use.  It’s a clean language with a flexible, easy-to-learn syntax. Ruby is easy to read and write, especially if you come from Perl or C background.  During the first part of the workshop you will learn everything from the basics, such as syntax, classes, and objects.  You will be coding during this part of the workshop.

Rails is more than just framework for using Ruby to make cool web applications (think of Basecamp and Backpack here).  Rails is a programming toolbox, with pre-written code that implements the structure and many of the common functions of a database-driven site. Rails streamlines a lot of decisions for you because of its structure and programming toolbox,

Rails allows you to make applications that are clean, portable, and sharable. At the end of the day, you will build a simple rails application from the ground up and will cover topics such as how MVC applies to rails, Rails routing, and the process for building an application.

Programming Experience Needed?

We recommend that students taking this workshop have some general programming experience. You don’t need to have any prior experience with Ruby or Rails. A familiarity with the basic concepts of OOP is useful.  You will leave this workshop with a knowledge of how to create a basic Rails application and is ready to move on to more complicated rails applications.

How hands-on is it?

This workshop is very hands on. We focus on building an application “outside in” as a group. The workshop will be equal parts of lecturing (or learning) and producing code.

How many students are in this workshop?

We will be limiting the workshop to no more than 12 students.  We want to keep the class small, so you can get more out of it. Get your tickets soon, as it will sell out!

What you need to bring?

You provide a laptop and willingness to learn, buddy.  You may wish to bring a notepad and pen and perhaps a USB key (though you could also push to Github).

Registration….

Location….

Once again, we will be at the very cool, hip, and happening incubator at the ATT Foundry & Gravity Center in Plano Texas.  It is located near the highway with plenty of eateries to choose at lunch time.

The Gravity Center

2900 West Plano Parkway
Plano, Texas 75075
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/k1ja

Tentative Schedule

Schedule is subject to change, but here is what it looks like now:

• 9:00AM to 10:15AM – Learning the Ruby Language & Basic Syntax
• 10:15AM to 10:30AM – Break
• 10:30AM to 12:00PM – More Ruby and Rails overview
• 12:00PM to 1:30PM – Lunch
• 1:30PM to 3:00PM – Building More Robust Application with Rails (Part 1)
• 3:00PM to 3:15PM – Break
• 3:15PM to 4:30PM — Building More Robust Application with Rails (Part 2)

Your Instructors

Barrett Clark is a web developer with over a dozen years of experience.  He’s spent the past 4 years writing Ruby on and off Rails.  He is an active speaker in the local Dallas Ruby group.  Notable open source contributions include a project for jQuery governance.

Scott Johnson is a Ruby developer with over 10 years experience creating enterprise applications.  The last four yeas he has focused on using Ruby on Rails.  He is an officer in the Dallas Ruby Group and has contributed to several open source projects including Rails.