NEW Ruby on Rails training course

We’re working with leading Ruby expert Peter Cooper to offer this great new course for developers -  Ruby and Rails I : Foundations .  Peter has been programming for as long as he can remember, starting out as a youngster with the BBC Micro. After working with C, Pascal and Perl, he came across Ruby, and Rails in 2004 and was ’smitten’. He now specialises in Ruby,  and Ruby on Rails, sharing his knowledge through training, writing, and blogging. His blog, Ruby Inside, is the most popular blog in the Ruby and Rails space.

We asked Peter to share some of this inside knowledge with us. First of all, we asked him why Ruby on Rails is so popular, and who’s using it?

Peter:

“Rails (what Ruby on Rails is more commonly called nowadays) was first released in 2004 as an extraction of the technology behind the popular Basecamp web application built by 37signals. As with any new project,it grew slowly at first but had a “boom” between about 2007-2009. We’re now in a more stable time but the amount of significant Rails projects and interest in the market has remained high and is growing at a slower but steadier pace now with good developers in solid demand. Major sites like Hulu, Scribd, Twitter, and Justin.tv are using Rails with success”.

We noticed that Ruby on Rails is described as ‘an open source web framework that’s optimised for programmer happiness and sustainable productivity’. That’s quite a claim - can it be justified?

Peter:

“It’s a difficult thing to measure since these claims are predominantly anecdotal. It’s like saying that a Ferrari “feels better” to drive. As when driving a Ferrari, however, some practical, measurable outcomes are apparent. Both Ruby and Rails have been designed and shaped over the years to make the things they’re suited for easier to code. Common patterns are absorbed and made easier to reproduce. It’s also incredibly easy to get started with building a Rails application and, for an experience developer, significantly quicker to build an
equivalent, full-featured, and well-tested stable web application using Rails than most other frameworks or languages. A common pattern I’ve seen is for employers desperate for Rails staff is to hire existing developers and quickly “train them up” to using Rails - this works and has been very successful for some.”

We’re now taking bookings for this course, which is scheduled for the first time 25th - 27th July 2011. Contact us to book your place or to find out more. We’re always happy to discuss any queries you may have, or how we can tailor our courses for your own business requirements.

Leave a Reply