20 Minute Presentation on Rails - Need to Impress

Rails
1

I have a 20 minute presentation coming up Tuesday for which I am giving
an overview of Rails to an audience of other developers.

What topics should I cover (or maybe I should do a demo?) to best show
off the features of Rails? What features should I cover?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

2

Jim J. wrote:

I have a 20 minute presentation coming up Tuesday for which I am giving
an overview of Rails to an audience of other developers.

Spool up a couple of the published screen-casts that show throwing
together a record editor in 6.75 seconds.

–
Phlip
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand ← NOT a blog!!

3

yeah build a record editor, due testing, then show them the working
site and then say. “OK we have 15 minutes for questions.”

I know thats kind of arrogant or is it confident?

but most of all you giving an overview. don’t get into a lot of detail
I’d just show the speed and beauty of rails.

if they want details set up another presentation or give links to rails
sites.

my 2 cents.
john

4

On Feb 9, 6:28 am, Jim J. [email protected] wrote:

I have a 20 minute presentation coming up Tuesday for which I am giving
an overview of Rails to an audience of other developers.

What topics should I cover (or maybe I should do a demo?) to best show
off the features of Rails? What features should I cover?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

–
Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

The presentation that really impressed me was the first - building a
simple blog in 15 minutes.

Personally, I would use something like that highlighting:

  • the dynamic database capabilities
  • Highlight MVC
  • scaffolding to get it up and running quickly (good for first
    impressions)
  • quick overridding of a scaffold page with a custom one
  • Throw in some RJS to show how simple it is (if you have time)
  • Mention easy testing, plugins, routing and REST

If you could get all that going in 20 minutes you will blow their
socks off, but you will need to be very comfortable coding live
(unless you have some pre-canned code to cut and paste).

5

askegg wrote:

Personally, I would use something like that highlighting:

  • the dynamic database capabilities

I have known teams that tried to solve the Persistence Layer Problem
up-front, by over-engineering some monstrosity of a database wrapper,
typically in a static-typed language, typically irreversibly locked to
one database vendor.

Know your audience. If they have experience with the bad solutions to
that problem, show them how few lines can go in a Model. (Cheat with
DrySql [?] if you like.)

However, if they instead have experience with flakey JavaScript, show
them the RJS wrappers.

–
Phlip
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand ← NOT a blog!!

6

Know your audience. If they have experience with the bad solutions to
that problem, show them how few lines can go in a Model. (Cheat with
DrySql [?] if you like.)

Then toggle between MySQL, SQLite3, and some Iron Hog, on the fly,
from the command line. :wink:

–
Phlip
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ZeekLand ← NOT a blog!!

7

Biggest wow factor is the generators. Create a model, create a
has_many/belongs to relationship to demonstrate the the associations.
Then walk on over to adding a simple plugin into the mix, specifically
the ajax-scaffolding and you got yourself lots of impressed people in
a very short time span :slight_smile:

Don’t rush it. But if you have time afterwards… show them a very
simple text list of the plugins available that can be included just as
simple as the ajax scaffolding you just tied in.

My recommendation is not to do it live. Record it into short movies
for each step, and play them as you discuss and present.

Just remember how green they really are and don’t try and throw the
whole farm at them.

Nathaniel.

On 2/8/07, Jim J. [email protected] wrote:

Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

–
Nathaniel Steven Henry Brown

Toll Free: 1-877-446-4647
Vancouver: 604-724-6624

8

Nathaniel B. wrote:

Biggest wow factor is the generators. Create a model, create a
has_many/belongs to relationship to demonstrate the the associations.
Then walk on over to adding a simple plugin into the mix, specifically
the ajax-scaffolding and you got yourself lots of impressed people in
a very short time span :slight_smile:

I’m not sure that I agree… the wow factor works for some people… and
for others… it can feel like too much magic. :wink:

It also gives a false impression that Rails is going to be 10x faster to
develop, which managers might latch onto and get pissed off several
months after your team has adopted it and stuff doesn’t seem to get done
as fast at they thought it would.

“can’t we build a myspace clone in 3 weeks?”

…or shopify for a few thousand dollars? :wink:

Our team has agreed to never introduce scaffolding into the applications
that we work on.

./script/generate rspec_model on the other hand… :smiley:

Don’t rush it. But if you have time afterwards… show them a very
simple text list of the plugins available that can be included just as
simple as the ajax scaffolding you just tied in.

My recommendation is not to do it live. Record it into short movies
for each step, and play them as you discuss and present.

videos are fun but they take a lot of time to prepare and get right.
Nathaniel is right… don’t do live demos (I learned to never do that
again… ). Code samples in a slideshow are effective enough and given
your tight deadline… I’d think it’d be less stressful for you.

Rails is much more than a bunch of generators, so focus on the
conventions, the community, the adoption rate, and how fun it is to work
with Ruby and Rails. If you want to impress the other developers… get
emotional and show your true passion for the framework. The audience
wants to see you succeed and if they see how passionate you are… it
might spark more interest in them to check it out… because at the end
of the day, we wall want to be insanely passionate about what we work
with… especially each and every day. :slight_smile:

my 2 cents.

Robby

–
Robby R.
http://www.robbyonrails.com/

9

I have a 20 minute presentation coming up Tuesday for which I am giving
an overview of Rails to an audience of other developers.

What topics should I cover (or maybe I should do a demo?) to best show
off the features of Rails? What features should I cover?

You know, how about showing the Flickr Search demo (as shown on the
rubyonrails.com site) and explain the steps. Record the process of
writing the source code in advance, then comment on the process. That
or show how scaffolding, MVC and generators can speed up the whole
process.

The presentations must be done Steve Jobs style; with passion and
confidence. Believe in your presentation and “your product”. No one
wants to listen to something half-bottomed presentation.

10

I’m with Robby on this one. For me, the most surprising and awesome part
of
Rails is discovering how flexible and extensible the framework is.
Getting
away from the rigid constructs of generator-generated code and pushing
some limits with your own and learning that Rails doesn’t _de_rail when
you
bend the tracks a little to get something done. The conventions are
great
but let’s not forget what our brothers in Perl preach, “There’s More
Than
One Way to Do It”. Though the “Rails Way” and the “Ruby Way” are usually
best for a reason. :wink:

RSL

On 2/8/07, Robby R. [email protected] wrote:

Rails is much more than a bunch of generators, so focus on the