Resources

Our Resources section is here to provide developers with the tools they need to do their job better. In this section you'll find various articles and guides for various topics.

Presentations

Web Development with CoffeeScript and Sass

Twin Cities Code Camp 11 talk.

Building A Gem From Scratch

If you've ever looked into how to create Gems, you've probably seen a bunch of ways to do that. Project generators like Hoe, Jeweler, and the like offer some nice ways to get started, but they may often be overkill for many projects. If you're just starting out, why not learn to do it from scratch? In this talk, we'll create our own gem from scratch, using only things that are provided by Ruby, its standard library, and RubyGems to craft a simple gem. You'll learn how to set up a project, how to write and run tests, how to use Rake to quickly build the gem, and even how to create a gem that installs an executable command-line program.

Intro To Advanced Ruby

Intro talks never let you learn about the things that make a language truly cool. In this talk we'll discover how advanced features of Ruby help us write cleaner more modular code.

Turning Passion Into Words

HTML5 and CSS3 Today

See where HTML5 and CSS3 are today and how you can use them in your projects.

Web Development With Ruby - From Simple To Complex

Beyond the massive hype of Ruby on Rails, there's an amazing world of frameworks, DSLs, and libraries that make the Ruby language a compelling choice when working on the web. In this talk, you'll get a chance to see how to use Ruby to quickly build a static web site, create complex stylesheets with ease, build a simple web service, crete a simple Websocket server, and test your existing applications. Finally, you'll see a few of the ways Rails really can make developing complex applications easier, from advanced database querying to rendering views in multiple formats.

Stop Reinventing The Wheel - The Ruby Standard Library

My talk from Ruby Hoedown MMX. We talked about the Ruby standard library and how sometimes we reinvent things when we have perfectly good tools waiting for us to use them.

Testing Your Sites In English with Cucumber

Chippewa Valley Code Camp slides on my Cucumber talk

Intro to Ruby

Chippew Valley Code Camp 2009 talk. Very similar to the slides from Twin Cities Code Camp 7.

Intro to Ruby - Twin Cities Code Camp 7

Slides from my "Introduction to Ruby" talk at Twin Cities Code Camp 7 on 10/24/2009

Make GUI Apps with Shoes

Presentation for the October 1 ECRuby Open House. A shorter version of the Twin Cities Code Camp IV slideshow with updated content.

The Why Of Ruby

Simple introduction to Ruby and what it can do for you, not just technically, but professionally. Promotional presentation for our user group.

Story-driven Testing

Using Cucumber to improve the application testing process

Learning To Walk In Shoes

Presentation slides and notes from my April 4th talk on Shoes, the cross-platform GUI framework written in Ruby.

Rails and Legacy Databases - RailsConf 2009

Slides from my RailsConf 2009 talk showing some methods for using legacy database schemas with the Ruby on Rails framework.

Books

HTML5 and CSS3

HTML5 and CSS3 are the future of web development, but you don’t have to wait to start using them. Even though the specification is still in development, many modern browsers and mobile devices already support HTML5 and CSS3. This book gets you up to speed on the new HTML5 elements and CSS3 features you can use right now, and backwards compatible solutions ensure that you don’t leave users of older browsers behind.

Web Design For Developers

Web Design for Developers will show you how to make your web-based application look professionally designed. We’ll help you learn how to pick the right colors and fonts, avoid costly interface and accessibility mistakes—your application will really come alive. We’ll also walk you through some common Photoshop and CSS techniques and work through a web site redesign, taking a new design from concept all the way to implementation.

Deploying Rails Applications

Until now, the information you needed to deploy a Ruby on Rails application in a production environment has been fragmented and contradictory. This book changes all of that by providing consistent, levelheaded advice you can trust. You’ll get the inside angle from those that have built, deployed, and maintained some of the largest Rails apps in production, anywhere.

Rails On Windows

It's no secret that the entire Ruby on Rails core team uses OS X as their preferred development environment. Because of this, it is very easy to find authoritative information on the web about using Rails on OS X. But the truth is that Windows developers using Rails probably outnumber those using other platforms. A Windows development environment can be just as productive as any other platform.