Skip to main content

Ruby, RSpec, Linux and Relational Algebra (or "What I'm doing this Christmas")

Last week was challenging- I'm beginning to appreciate the need for a programming buddy.  So far, I haven't found a Ruby IDE that helps with missing brackets or illegal syntax. This means hours spent looking for errors which more experience (or an IDE) would have solved in an instant. I've spent a lot of time on Stack Exchange looking for solutions to problems that many have already had- so far I haven't had to post a single new question (though it's evident that many people post duplicate questions, not having looked for a solution first).

I spent longer on the Ruby project than anticipated, BUT I really enjoyed learning about Behaviour Driven Development. Thinking of tests in RSpec and then watching my Ruby script pass (eventually) was like passing an exam (though  one I had written myself).
This week I'll be starting Rails-after I complete the CodeSchool Rails courses I'll go on to their RSpec course.

Partly for the geek cred, partly out of curiosity I setup Ubuntu on my laptop a few days ago. There have been Wireless issues which appear to be common with v14.04 and my card. Having tried all the fixes suggested with no improvement, I just moved myself closer to the router (all problems have a solution.) I had been using the command line previously for things like Git and IRB but this is really forcing me to become a Command Line padawan. 

My goal this week is to complete Web Development 101 and get stuck into Ruby programming (the 3rd of 7 courses).  At the moment I'm doing basic SQL through the Stanford Introduction to Databases course-so far, so straightforward. 

Other courses are really being set aside at the moment-the Odin Project curriculum is wide ranging and engaging as well as time consuming. I'm trusting it to give me a solid foundation that I can then expand on. For example, algorithms will be covered in a later course-I may hold off on working through the entire algorithms course until I finish the Odin Project.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Einstein's Logic Puzzle (SPOILER ALERT!)

On Monday I began working through a Discrete Math textbook in preparation for some courses I'll be taking in January. There was a beautiful logic problem in Chapter 1, apparently created by Einstein. This is one version of it: Five men with  different nationalities and with different jobs live in  con secutive houses on a street. These houses are painted  dif ferent colors. The men have different pets and have   dif ferent favorite drinks.  Determine who owns a zebra and  whose favorite drink is mineral water (which is one of the  favorite drinks) given these clues:  The Englishman lives  in the red house.  The Spaniard owns a dog.  The Japanese  man is a painter.  The Italian drinks tea.  The Norwegian  lives in the first house on the left.  The green house is  immediately to the right of the white one. The photogra pher  breeds snails.  The diplomat lives in the yellow house. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Job as Entry Level Developer

After 4 months of work, sometimes focused, sometimes not, I accepted a job as an Entry Level Ruby on Rails Developer yesterday. This is after starting with zero knowledge on November 1, last year. Beyond knowing a little about coding (but getting the definitions of  REST and AJAX wrong), what were the reasons for the job offer?  I think it was the meetup group I started in January that made me stand out from the rest. The motivation for the meetup group was to help me become a better coder and to indulge my teacher instincts. After some initial meetings at the library and my home, an IT hub in town offered to host us. This meant extra advertising and prestige for the group. After announcing the meetup group at an Agile meetup group for developers, I got some volunteers to give talks. The first volunteer offered a talk on Ruby. As I was comfortable with Ruby I prepared a coding tutorial .  After the tutorial, which was attended by some beginners and some a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Algorithm Analysis - 1

Currently, I'm learning to perform algorithm analysis using Big-O notation. In one resource I found the following problem: You just dropped a box of glass toys and  n  toys in the box broke in half. You'd like to match the halves of the toys so that you could glue them together, but the only way to tell whether two halves belonged to one toy is to physically pick up the two pieces and try to fit them together. Express how long this matching process will take in terms of  n . The answer given is n^2 (n squared) with the following explanation:  You have to compare every piece with every other piece. If you have 1 toy and it breaks in half, you have 1 comparison to make. If you have 2 toys and they both break in half there are 4 pieces and you have to do 6 comparisons. If you have 3 toys, there are 6 pieces and you have to do 15 comparisons. If you have  N/2  toys, you have  N  pieces and you have to do N-1 + N-2 + N-3 + ... + 1 =(N)(N-1)/2...
Post a Comment
Read more