Norman Richards

I want my two dollars

Straight talk about rails - (Found July 8, 2008 )

I'm not ashamed to say that I'm not a fan of Ruby on Rails. I think it's a step backwards in web framework design, but the thing that's turned my off the most is the unapologetic fanboyism around it that seems to inhibit critical thinking skills in otherwise bright developers. However, I've always maintained that Rails might actually start being an interesting platform when the fanboy mentality breaks down and you start seeing public criticism of it from within the community. You still...
http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/ruby/Straight_talk_about.html

Teaching my kid Ruby - (Found July 8, 2008 )

My son is 8, and I've been wanting to get him started programming. I taught myself BASIC programming on a VIC-20 at 10, so I know it's quite possible for young kids to understand the basics of programming. With a simpler environment and some actual instruction, I certainly think it's possible to get started at his age. But, I never was quite sure how to go about it. Last week, I discovered a JRuby-powered turtle graphics environment that I thought would be fun. Last saturday, we spent...
http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/ruby/Teaching_my_kid_Ruby.html

site directories and programming languages - (Found July 8, 2008 )

Spending the weekend in Ruby-land has made me think a lot more about the possibility of developing applications in Ruby. One of the biggest problems, as I see it, is the role that site-ruby plays. If you aren't familiar with site concept, the idea is that there is one place on the system that third party libraries can be placed. Once placed there they can be accessed from any ruby application. The java equivalent would perhaps be libext, but anyone suggesting placing libraries there for a..
http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/ruby/site_java.html

RubyConf, here I come - (Found July 8, 2008 )

Ruby has been my toy language for the last few months. I've done a number of my side projects in ruby and have been doing some of my protyping at work in Ruby. I'm not a Ruby guru by any means, but I'm getting proficient. I'm definitely interested in learning more, so I was quite excited to see RubyConf is being held here in Austin. I really don't know what to expect, but these kinds of conferences are usually fun.
http://members.capmac.org/~orb/blog.cgi/tech/ruby/going_to_rubyconf_03.html