Rails Conference 2006 - Day 2
Posted by Mike Blake Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:03:00 GMT
More Women than Dells
Today was mind expanding. Above all else, I got to know some fantastic people. Before the opening keynote I had breakfast with Gregg Pollack who heads up our local Orlando Ruby Users Group. Gregg and I then headed into the main room to watch Dave Thomas speak. At least 80% of the conference attendees were using Mac-books. White ones. The simplicity of Rails and the Mac must have something to do with this marriage. One thing is certain, there are more women here than there are Dells.
Dave kicked off his keynote talking about how much momentum Rails has been building. After showing us some Google Trends, we were led to an obvious conclusion. Rails is about to be utilized in the “Enterprise”. Then Pragmatic Dave did something bold. He threw down the gauntlet, and challenged early adapters to prepare the framework for the inevitable; Widespread use in corporations. I had the opportunity to thank Dave afterwards, not just for the talk, but for inspiring me to revive my programming career a few years back, after seeing him and Andy Hunt speak in Atlanta.
Mike began his talk with his famous intro. “Java free for 1 year 3 months and 6 days.” Mike gave us a tour of Capistrano which he called the best deployment tool in any language. While it’s awesome at deploying Rails apps, he even explained how it can be used to deploy non Rails or even non Ruby applications. Mike is an established leader in the field of Automation. I’m amazed when someone published and successful still keeps on top of the latest technology, but then again thats standard for the pragmatic crowd.
This speaker was fantastic. A real nuts and bolts, numbers guy. He’s pretty much been obsessed with with analyzing and improving performance of rails over the past year. Guys like Stefan save the rest of us so much work, and are the reason for the success of this framework.
During the lunch break I got up the nerve to introduce myself to Chad Fowler. At least I though I had gotten my nerve up, but when I stared talking, I sounded like a nervous school girl. Pretty embarrassing, but Chad was very gracious and signed my copy of his new book, Rails Recipes . As my brothers would say, I was geeking out. Sad really, but read on, it gets better.
Later I saw Amy give a great talk on starting projects off without using scaffolding. This was a beginner level talk, but I’ve found that when smart people explain basic things, I always learn something new, and this was no exception. The “Filters are Fun” part was a great reminder of the beauty and simplicity of Rails.
After 5 PM, we got into the meat of the bating order. Martin Fowler began with a bold confession: He hadn’t used Rails yet. He then went on to explain why it’s so great:
- Dispels the ‘quick and dirty’ myth. Rails is quick and clean.
- encourages agile development or conversational development. Which is working closely with users to deliver what they need.
- Rails is great because Ruby is great. So many components already exist out there. Ruby and Rails make an excellent glue.
Paul gave a great talk on why great ideas come from the margins. Many rails enthusiasts here have recommended his book “Great Hackers”. Paul is a bit of a rebel, or maybe even a revolutionary. He had a great anecdote about getting things done, and if their getting annoyed that your doing something, your on the right path.
Did I say mind expanding before. Good. Now how about mind altering. There are three kinds of people in this world. People who fit into a #{category} (pick one of your choice here), and people who don’t fall into that #{category}. Then there’s the third kind, Why The Lucky Stiff. I have no idea how he got this name, no one will lever know because it’s grammatically impossible to ask him. “Hey Why, Why Why The Lucky Stiff?” See, an incomprehensible sentence. Even if you’ve never programmed before or have no reason to, you should really learn Ruby just so you get a few more of the jokes when you have an opportunity to see Why The Lucky Stiff.
Epilogue
After Why’s mind altering presentation, I needed something. So I stopped at the hotel bar Maxines for a refreshing beverage. I had a great time meeting Geoffrey Grosenbach who has written quite a bit of code I use. Then at the bar I asked Dave Thomas if he’d ever seen Why perform. He started telling me about seeing him in small room in Oregon. we were interrupted when Dave had to go to the bar for his drink order. You know an amazing thing about the Ruby community? It doesn’t matter if you’re brand new to the technology, or the the father of Ruby in the US, there’s really not a ridiculous amount of attitude or ego around. So here’s what happened.
All right, right now, 10 feet from me, a young woman is interviewing David Heinemeier Hansson, the inventor of the Rails Framework. I’m listening in and don’t want to be obvious, so am just typing. Well without stealing content of this here interview, this guy is obviously incredibly bright and down to earth. And he fits in great with the whole Ruby community. So this really is about the people.
OK back to last night, Dave Thomas was off to get a beer. After he got it, he came back to me and said, “Sorry, priorities.” Then went on to finish his story about seeing Why perform. He told me the story with the passion and humor that you sense when you read “Programming Ruby” or “The Pragmatic Programmer”. Dave is probably the main reason Ruby caught on here in the US, so this all wouldn’t be happening quite like this without him. Yet here he was spending time with the atendees, and sincerely enjoying it.
Am I a programmer yet?
It’s unbelievable. I’m about done with this entry, but David is still being interviewed. But technically this is Day 3 right now, so I’ll let you know what what happens tomorrow.
