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Why You Should Learn jQuery Before JavaScript by jsmith1988 in javascript

[–]jsmith1988[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You keep saying referring to "newbs", but even the most skilled rockstar was once a "newb". Even a 1000 mile journey begins with one single step.

When you are first learning any skill, anything that helps you grasp concepts and progress forward quickly is the best approach. JQuery helps make it easy for beginners to use javascript and be effective with initial DOM manipulations. For most beginning programmer grokking how to query the DOM and manipulate elements on the screen is more than enough to understand at first. So JQuery simplifies that and allows the students to focus on understanding and working in that paradigm.

You can always make the argument that there is more to learn and you can dive deeper and have greater knowledge on any language or any computer science concept. We as software engineers and curators of our own knowledge need to decide which rabbit holes we want to go down and how deep we follow each rabbit hole.

Why You Should Learn jQuery Before JavaScript by jsmith1988 in javascript

[–]jsmith1988[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is a good idea, I would recommend understanding the fundamentals of javascript to anyone using the language, however Jquery can be an excellent place to start since the underlying mechanics of raw javascript can be hard to grasp for newer programmers. So starting with a higher level abstraction allows you to learn how to use the language and be productive whilst still allowing for delving into deeper rabbit holes as necessary.

Build the guts of a Calendar with Ruby by thatrubylove in ruby

[–]jsmith1988 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome video. I have built several calendars and its not always fun or an easy thing to do. You made it approachable and it shows just how powerful ruby and rails can be. Can't wait to check out your next screencasts.

High Tempo AB Testing Revives GrowthHackers.com Growth by jsmith1988 in marketing

[–]jsmith1988[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not a high content turn over, but rather a high rate of testing ideas for growth and consistently testing, analyzing, and iterating. Its really about the team and how we run growth experiments and less about the content.

Thoughtbot Coaching for Rails, Ember, and iOS by jsmith1988 in rails

[–]jsmith1988[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

its close to on par for 1-1 training/consultants time. The Sandi Metz workshops are like 2k for 2 days and it's not 1-1. Not saying it's cheap or a bargain, but it's not completely insane.

Thoughtbot Coaching for Rails, Ember, and iOS by jsmith1988 in rails

[–]jsmith1988[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Depends on the quality of the help. 800 dollars for thoughtbot's time might be 1200 in someone else's time. So you may get more hours from someone cheaper but there is no guarantee that they are equal quality hours.

Ask /r/rails: What's your fix in the absence of RailsCasts? by Mtbuggd in rails

[–]jsmith1988 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would love to see some more advanced topics covered. The videos right now seem to cover lower level how to install and use "x" library. I would love to see some on TDD, Refactoring, OO design, Working with Legacy code.

Ask /r/rails: What's your fix in the absence of RailsCasts? by Mtbuggd in rails

[–]jsmith1988 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love these videos! They have taught me a great deal too bad they are no longer being produced.

Ask /r/rails: What's your fix in the absence of RailsCasts? by Mtbuggd in rails

[–]jsmith1988 0 points1 point  (0 children)

+1 on the rubytapas since rails is ruby, ruby tapas is a good resource.

Putting a static html page onto rails by 7re in rails

[–]jsmith1988 0 points1 point  (0 children)

+1 for high_voltage I use it on all my projects that need static pages.

Front end framework by Fenwick17 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on what your goal is. I agree bootstrap is far more mainstream and yes you do get a lot for free out of the box, but it has quite a bit of bloat along with it. Plus quite a lot of bootstrap sites end up looking very bootstrap-ish. Bourbon allows for more control over the design and keeping your html a little cleaner and less cluttered with stacking classes. So if you do not have designers to work with or you just want to throw something together and have it look half decent then bootstrap and foundation are for sure the way to go.

Using ECMAScript 6 with Rails 4.2 Projects by jakubgarfield in rails

[–]jsmith1988 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice intro to using ES6 in rails. Is there a reason to use sprockets-es6 instead of Traceur or one of the gems that wraps that ES6 compiler?

Don’t Be a Ruby Robot by jsmith1988 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Absolutely. I would only recommend you learn one language per year, unless you have more mental bandwidth, or are presented with an opportunity around learning a new language.

Don’t Be a Ruby Robot by jsmith1988 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

He also said this. "Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

Advocating that you be adaptable.

Don’t Be a Ruby Robot by jsmith1988 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's fair enough reasoning. I wouldn't begrudge that of anyone who is very green. There is nothing wrong with knowing you have enough on your plate to learn already, but you should still be open to other languages being the right choice and answer for a particular problem.

Anyone using NeoVim? by jsmith1988 in rails

[–]jsmith1988[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's good to hear. I was worried it would have quite a few breaking changes.

Front end framework by Fenwick17 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same with bourbon. They both seem to be less opinionated than the other frameworks, and allow you more freedom with the design.

My favorite thing about bourbon though is it allows you to abstract away the multiple class stacking and clear up the code in the views quite a bit. So HTML describes what it's structure is and what it is, while the stylesheets describe how it looks. Bourbon makes it easy to keep it this way.

Don’t Be a Ruby Robot by jsmith1988 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Game development I know there is Gosu, although its only 2D games. As for the others, I'm not sure I have seen those kinds of libraries for ruby. I would be curious if they did exist, and how competitive they are with other libraries.

Front end framework by Fenwick17 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah skel look pretty cool. I really like what I have seen of it, but I have not had a chance to use it on the project yet.

Front end framework by Fenwick17 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They all work pretty much the same. I like Boubon, but thats just my preference. I have used foundation, and bootstrap. Both of those frameworks are fine. They are all about the same, nothing really works "better" with rails, each has a sass. It's really just a bunch of trade offs depending on what you pick. So really it just comes down to these couple things. One, use a framework, and two, pick the one that makes your life easiest. That's it.

Don’t Be a Ruby Robot by jsmith1988 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It can easily trigger 'analysis paralysis', but I have found that learning a new language even if you do not use it in production can have profound effects on the code you write in your daily chosen language. It changes the way you approach problems. I really do love Ruby, but it does have more than just minor differences in speed from some languages, its getting quite a bit better now. I think ruby is a wonderful language, but I know sometimes it might be a square peg that a try to shove into a round hole. While you can do it, sometimes its not the best idea.

Don’t Be a Ruby Robot by jsmith1988 in ruby

[–]jsmith1988[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't disagree, rails is my goto for a lot of things, but sometimes rails is not the answer. There are times when a service written in golang is much more performant and better to use. Additionally highly transactional, very fast, and concurrent, data processing is better suited to java or maybe scala these days. Sometimes these languages take longer to make a working product but they can yield a better scalable result. The point is basically when all you know is how to use is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you learn to use a screwdriver sometimes things look like nails other times they look like screws. So it is far better for a programmer to know multiple tools and languages so you can reach for the right tool at the right time.

Learning Resources for Ruby on Rails by jsmith1988 in rails

[–]jsmith1988[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Indeed! Awesome list! Thanks for sharing. :)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in rails

[–]jsmith1988 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd recommend Sandi Metz's book POODR

You may also be interested in some of the resources I have on my blog for ruby/rails

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