Tips for Ruby Sprint

Ruby
1

Hi guys,

In a couple of weeks I’ll be leading a course on Ruby in my company.
On the last two sessions (about four hours), I’d like to conduct a
brief coding sprint so the students can practice what they learned
writing a useful tool. Do you have any experience on this kind of
activity? Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ed

2

On Nov 7, 2008, at 7:38 AM, Edgardo H. wrote:

In a couple of weeks I’ll be leading a course on Ruby in my company.
On the last two sessions (about four hours), I’d like to conduct a
brief coding sprint so the students can practice what they learned
writing a useful tool. Do you have any experience on this kind of
activity? Do you have any suggestions?

I don’t have a lot of experience, but I’ve been involved with a couple
of similar projects. I’ll give you the one biggest tip I’ve learned
about such tasks.

Pick a very easy project. I usually want to do the hardest thing that
could possibly be squeezed into the available time. I’ve come to
realize that’s a mistake for a lot of reasons:

  • What I assume can be accomplished in X time is not what the team can
    actually accomplish given X time
  • Being faced with an overwhelming task is demoralizing
  • It’s easy to show off and try exciting new things when working on
    easier tasks
  • Success is addictive and you want to lead them to that

Given that, I recommend picking something surprisingly easy. I mean
it, if you are thinking, “This is just too easy and we will surely
finish it in half the time we have,” it’s the perfect idea. That goes
against a lot of my instincts, so it’s always a hard choice for me to
make. I promise it’s worth it though.

Good luck with your training!

James Edward G. II

3

im new to ruby and i don’t know what to do and where to post questions,
can ruby be used to create desktop and database applications? what
database
can ruby access just in case.
Thank you very much! your reply will be highly appreciated.

4

On Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 3:19 PM, James G. [email protected]
wrote:

On Nov 7, 2008, at 7:38 AM, Edgardo H. wrote:

Given that, I recommend picking something surprisingly easy. I mean it, if
you are thinking, “This is just too easy and we will surely finish it in
half the time we have,” it’s the perfect idea. That goes against a lot of
my instincts, so it’s always a hard choice for me to make. I promise it’s
worth it though.
Hmm I was about to post a pointer to Ruby Q., but you made me think
twice. Do you mean so easy that no Ruby Q. problem would fit, or do
you think some of the easier RQs would qualify?

Cheers
Robert

C’est véritablement utile puisque c’est joli.

Antoine de Saint Exupéry