giant robots smashing into other giant robots
Written by thoughtbot
yiloveit
We’re feeling particularly proud of our training alumni this evening.
Jeff Mehlhoff recently completed our Beginning Rails training class. On his way home to Florida, he wrote yiloveit.com. It was the first time he had used Test-Driven Development to write a Rails app.
Although it only has one model and one controller, it’s an impressive app.
From Jeff:
100% test coverage using suspenders (shoulda and factory_girl) and then some paperclip action.
Great job!
Our office, your office
We’ve trained 78 developers in Ruby on Rails in the past five months. The design of the classes have evolved such that Rails & agile are now highly coupled.
Working software delivered frequently
During last week’s two-day class, we ran 25 short workshops during which students wrote a blog, the web app developer’s rite of passage.
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication
Each workshop was completed by pair programming. It was amazing to witness the buzz that filled our office as students talked through solutions with each together.
We also organized our office so the lectures were delivered to the group, seated in a circle, facing away from the pairing stations.
No checking email or other distractions. Lots of questions & discussions as we progressed.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
In Beginning Rails, we teach Ruby and Rails through Test-Driven Development. When students write their blog, every line of code is written test-first.
In Advanced Rails, we teach refactoring to Rails best practices patterns. We pick up where we left off in the Beginning Rails class. We test-drive new features to the blog, integrating version control with git and continuous integration into the development cycle.
For both classes, we send students on their way with the full source code to Umbrella Today? for reference.
Our office: March, April, May, & June
We have arrived at the logical conclusion that we teach best at our office. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce classes once at month at our Boston office:
- March 16-17, Beginning Rails
- March 18, Advanced Rails
- April 22-23, Beginning Rails
- April 24, Advanced Rails
- May 25-26, Beginning Rails
- May 27, Advanced Rails
- June 15-16, Beginning Rails
- June 17, Advanced Rails
Your office
If you can’t make it to our Boston office, we’ll go to your office. We just ask that you set up a similar pair programming environment.
Ruby on Rails training in Boston
We’re pleased to continue offering Ruby on Rails training in Boston. The next two classes have been scheduled:
Umbrella Today? is used as a case study for all courses, for which attendees get access to the full source.
Beginning Ruby on Rails
January 29th-30th, 2009
This course is meant for programmers with a background in PHP, Java, or .NET. The course includes a section on “enough Ruby programming to understand Rails”. We’re opinionated about Test Driven Development as a critical part of Rails development, and are integrating TDD lessons into the course.
Advanced Ruby on Rails
February 13th, 2009
This course is meant for intermediate Rails developers who have done testing with Ruby or the xUnit family (JUnit, NUnit). It is focused on Rails best practices and applying refactoring and other skills.
Testimonials
“After the training session my code style is so fresh, Vogue wants to publish my tests.” – Greg Sterndale
“If you’re a freelance developer you owe it to your clients to come and learn Rails development & delivery from the team at Thoughtbot.” – Mike Breen
“Now it feels like I’m looking at the world through test-tinted glasses!” – Josh Nichols
