railsconf2011: JavaScript the newest first class citizen

This is actually from a combined set of sessions. One of the larger problems in Rails has always been how to deal with JavaScript in a proper way. There are the .js.erb files but they are not really a proper solution to the problem.

In many ways Rails has always treated JavaScript as a second class citizen. As it wasn’t a real programming language… This while in the current state of the web standards is embracing JavaScript more and more. Rails is not running far behind actually. From Rails 3.1 CoffeeScript and Sass are both introduced as first class citizens to the Rails community with the introduction of the asset pipeline. But is it really becoming that first class citizen?

railsconf2011: Fat model aren’t enough

Jeff Casimir talked about skinny controllers, fat models and beyond. His first statement was that it was a best practices talk but he did not like that title. Best is not a good word. It should be ‘a practice’ as there are others that are just as valid. Going from there the basic idea of skinny controllers and fat models was explained. That is just for the back-end of the app, what about the front-end? That is an issue, while we should make it look like a bento box we mostly shove all the crap over there. Stating that views should actually just be HTML with some data.

Jeff had several ideas on how to make views more beautiful!

railsconf2011: building bulletproof views

In rails we have the idea skinny controller as fat models. On the other side we have the wild west views… not always a good thing. This is why I wanted to attend the “building bulletproof views” during the afternoon at railsconf.

Speakers:

• John Athayde
• Bruce Williams

railsconf2011: tutorial day HTML5 beyind the buzzword

Although I have worked with html5 before this. But picking between rails for zombies (done), legacy updating (done) and a free form FOSS work… I choose the HTML5 tut just for the fun of it.

projectlodge meeting January 2011

The 29th of January there was a half-yearly meeting for the projectlodge (formally known as openfoundry). This was the second projectlodge meeting. The first meeting had kickoff as theme, this one had founding as theme. We worked for half a year on projects and brought ideas together about the organisation that supports those projects. During the meeting proposals were pitched, current state was presented  and decisions were made.

Talk: Software Craftsmanship

Today I held my second OGD Developer Night talk in Utrecht. Sitting a bunch of developers together and talking geek about software development. Today I talked about the software craftsmanship movement. I was inspired by Corey Haines and his talk at Ruby and Rails 2010 in Amsterdam but I also did some digging of my own. At the end of the talk I invited all the attendees to join in for a small code randori.

Presentation was done in prezi and can be found on the prezi presentation page. Please note that it is my first so not really the best use of this new tech yet… Practice makes perfect!

ruby and rails 2010 report

The 21st and 22nd of October the Ruby and Rails 2010 conference took place in Amsterdam. About 250+ tech geeks, 15 speakers, 14o liters of coffee and a bunch of weird stuff that ended in a dance… All together a fun conference about the Ruby language and the Rails framework. Personally I had a great time in following the sessions. Listening to peoples ideas and crazy discoveries. And of course the networking with all the folks that came to the conference.

I would like to write a bit of a recap on the event. Write down some of the ideas I took from the sessions and the people I talked to and maybe go a little bit further with these ideas. First of all I would like to thank the organizers of the event. Great job!

workshop: HTML5

Today I gave a workshop about HTML5 as a continuation of the talk about HTML5 & CCS 3.0 I gave in April at the year conference of OGD.

Today’s format was a workshop. The goal is to inform attendees about HTML5 technology and get them started with actually creating things in HTML5. The format allowed me to give a small talk and after that I gave the attendees an assignment they could work on.

The workshop was held on the 21st of July from 20:00 at OGD Utrecht. (this post is automatically posted just after the workshop started so the attendees could find the presentation).

.openFoundry kickoff

This weekend the kickoff of the .openFoundry took place at the revelation space in the Hague. The .openFoundry was initiated by Bert Meerman to create a new foundation. The foundation would act as an open-source platform for projects. The projects can be anything that has to do with technology any the broadest sense of the word. Project run from a web-store for Linux packages all the way to a frame-less laser harp.

The idea is to work together on new ideas and technologies.

talk: HTML 5.0 & CSS 3.0

Friday April 2nd I gave a short talk about HTML 5.0 and CSS 3.0 during the yearly conference of OGD. In this talk I gave a short introduction into the new standards of HTML 5.0 and CSS 3.0. This talk was given for the developers at OGD.

I gave a short look into the history of the two standards, what there core principles are and how they could be used. The talk was intended to spark the interest of the attending developers and initiate them to learn more about the new standard.