Workshops/Ruby

Quick planning page for Ruby workshop since I keep not quite getting round to it.

Aim

To get people familiar with Ruby, gems, and the other aspects of a Ruby-based workflow, and to introduce an example application for web development to produce a simple webapp (Sinatra).

Preferably some knowledge of HTML and CSS.

People should be able to walk away from the talk and go make their own webapps with only a little bit of looking things up.

Topics

• Ruby as a language
  • Basic concepts - object orientation, methods, attributes
• Ruby as a platform
  • Quick look at the VM, explanation of GC, GIL, etc, flexibility and DSLs
• Diving in
  • Example of a simple Ruby program, looking at syntax, method definitions, flow
• The web and Ruby
  • History of webapps and Ruby - Rails, Sinatra, Merb
• Demo: Writing a webapp with Sinatra, Haml and Ruby
• Going forward
  • Documentation, resources

Audience

People with exposure to programming concepts and other languages, but no Ruby or script/interpreted language experience.