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comp.lang.ruby

Ruby love

Cliff Rowley

5/4/2007 2:18:00 AM

I just taught my girlfriend - who has never coded before - how to code in
Ruby. Is that a testament to how easy Ruby is or what? I've only been
using it a few weeks myself.

I had to share this. That was all ;-)

Cliff
14 Answers

Richard Conroy

5/4/2007 11:53:00 AM

0

On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
> this is awesome - i have the same desire what did you have her code -
> perhaps we can start a thread on what you can get your gf to code... :)

Mine has been working through Chris Pine's learn to program. She enjoys
it, says it is like a puzzle. (wean her off sudoku at least).

THough I think command line programs aren't actually challenging her
enough, but they are time consuming.

You should have seen her face when I fired up IRB and showed her how
to find out what methods a particular instance supports. I just had to
broaden her horizons a bit, so that she doesn't consider CLI to be all
there is to making apps.

It would be a waste with Ruby, where simple short scripts can have
enormous power (Camping, I am looking at you)

Chris Carter

5/4/2007 11:59:00 AM

0

On 5/4/07, Richard Conroy <richard.conroy@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
> > this is awesome - i have the same desire what did you have her code -
> > perhaps we can start a thread on what you can get your gf to code... :)
>
> Mine has been working through Chris Pine's learn to program. She enjoys
> it, says it is like a puzzle. (wean her off sudoku at least).
>
> THough I think command line programs aren't actually challenging her
> enough, but they are time consuming.
>
> You should have seen her face when I fired up IRB and showed her how
> to find out what methods a particular instance supports. I just had to
> broaden her horizons a bit, so that she doesn't consider CLI to be all
> there is to making apps.
>
> It would be a waste with Ruby, where simple short scripts can have
> enormous power (Camping, I am looking at you)
>
>

If you try to throw her some Camping, make sure she pretty decently
understands Ruby first. Camping breaks some "rules" and it does some
things really weird, which she might try to use/implement in other
apps, when it probably isn't a good idea. But do teach her Camping!

I am going to start teaching a friend with no programming experiance
Ruby using _why's TryRuby (and HH when an os x port gets out). If you
are on Windows though, get your gf's Hackety Hack, it's great!

--
Chris Carter
concentrationstudios.com
brynmawrcs.com

Lloyd Linklater

5/4/2007 1:19:00 PM

0

I also started teaching an old flame how to program. She went through
the "rolling with Ruby on Rails" tutorial and is as delighted as a kid
in a candy store. If she tried .NET programming instead, I expect that
I would be ducking computer parts as she hurled the bits of what
remained of her computer at me. :)

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

Sammy Larbi

5/4/2007 2:09:00 PM

0

Disclosure: As part of a school project, I've been writing about
partial order planning and implemented a simple partial order planner in
Ruby. However, that project was due today and has been submitted
already, so feel free to offer pointers if you can, as I am interested
in improving it.

Also, I wasn't sure how to do this post, since I'm not in the habit of
posting unsolicited links to my blog on mailing lists. However, the
entire thing was really long (I felt too long for email), so I posted it
to my blog so as to not write a book on the list =). Therefore, I
decided to go with the [ANN] header to warn people, but also I wanted
others to know I was asking for help as well. I'm not sure about the
social norms regarding something like this, so please forgive me if I've
broken them.

Anyway, the post is at
http://www.codeodor.com/index.cfm/2007/5/4/Constructing-a-POP-Domain-Specific-Language-in...
and it describes my attempt at creating a partial order planner in Ruby.

Specifically, I wanted to ask 3 questions/favors:

1) I'd love a critique on and comments about how to improve my use of
Ruby. I've been using it for several months, but I'm sure there are
ways I can improve it (my style and usage of the language).
2) For anyone who is interested or has knowledge on the subject, can you
spot any weaknesses or identify areas of improvement in the program as
implemented?
3) Is there any interest in the community in seeing this evolve into a
real project?

Thanks for your help,
Sam

Philip Hallstrom

5/4/2007 3:34:00 PM

0

Gregory Brown

5/4/2007 7:10:00 PM

0

On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
> Great, thanks guys.
>
> I think I will start by trying the guessing game and maybe make it more
> complicated from there on.
>
> So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits? :p

You know, this is a little bit more of a sensitive topic than it might
seem. It is a great to teach people close to you to program, but I
don't know that it's for you to reap 'benefits'.

I wonder if there are good ways that we can get more women involved in
programming. Me teaching one of my ex-girlfriend's Perl was actually
a pretty bad experience because I found myself treating her like a
hacker automatically and it caused a lot of social stress...

Of the females on this list, how did you get into programming? How
can we be better at being supportive of getting women involved in
programming?

These questions I think are important for us to think about... If
you've been to any users groups or conferences (and I know this isn't
just a Ruby problem), the gender imbalance is startling...

Philip Hallstrom

5/4/2007 7:16:00 PM

0

Gregory Brown

5/4/2007 11:16:00 PM

0

On 5/4/07, Francis Cianfrocca <garbagecat10@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/4/07, Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@gmail.com> wrote:

> This is most definitely a sensitive topic. I'm going to ask you a question
> that will seem flip but is actually serious. You say "these questions are
> important for us to think about." My question to you is: "why?" In other
> words, what exactly is undesirable about the fact that there is a gender
> imbalance in software development and computer tech in general? Are you
> concerned with getting more bodies into the profession? Don't worry, they're
> growing programmers like crazy in India and China. Are you concerned with
> getting more women into well-paying jobs? Well, that's another question
> entirely.

It is not at all a matter of profession to me. It's a matter of the
simple fact that if you have a room with 197 males and 3 females, that
can be a difficult atmosphere just by composition. So I just want to
express that even though I am the stereotype: white male between
18-45, I am willing to consider the impact that a homogeneous makeup
might be having on our community.

I care about the diversity of our community and the barriers to entry.
I should like to help lower them wherever I can, especially when they
are social problems rather than technical ones.

dblack

5/5/2007 12:44:00 PM

0

Gregory Brown

5/5/2007 1:48:00 PM

0

On 5/5/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
> My apologies.
>
> The notion of my comment "Have you guys reaped any benefits? :p" being
> seriously interpreted as a power-hungry "could I maybe unlock some hidden
> power here" type phrase had not even occurred to me. I made a comment which
> amongst my friends would have been interpreted as a cute retorical foray
> into "stereotypical geek role-playing".

Ivor, I didn't really interpret it that way, but closer to what you
intended (i think). I wasn't really just offended, I just thought it
was a good place to point out the risks of interpretations of comments
like that.

So if I made it seem like I was singling you out, I didn't intend to.
I was trying to make a general point and get some serious discussion
from it. Next time I should be less lazy and start a new thread.