A talk I really enjoyed at Rails Conf 2007 was Clean Code by Robert Martin. An important idea from that talk was “Always check in your code a little bit cleaner than when you checked it out”. I never looked at refactoring as being that simple, but it is. Prior to this talk, I looked at refactoring as this big undertaking. I mean the whole application can use some improvement, right? I also tended to take on big refactoring endeavors by deleting the current code and starting over. Robert Martin urges against this, since you might break the current application with the rework code, and that’s much worse than ugly code. At least the ugly code is working. Tackling the smaller refactors, by improving the code a little bit at a time, the refactoring process becomes manageable.
RailsConf 2007
If you are attending RailsConf (or Portland in general) and you love BEER, be sure to check out PLANET ARGON Portland Revealed article.
I am looking forward to meeting others in the Rails Community, please hit me up if you are interested in meeting up. I am sure I will be at several of the after conference get togethers.
Boxcar coming soon
In the coming weeks, PLANET ARGON will be introducing a new hosting service called Boxcar. Be sure to sign up on the email list or watch the official PLANET ARGON Blog for more updates.
So, what is Boxcar? [from the official PLANET ARGON blog]:
”...a new hosting service, which aims to provide you with even more privacy, more guaranteed resources, and better options for scaling your Rails application as your business grows.”
Gustav Braustache
It was nice to visit with friends in Seattle this past week. I forgot how many talented friends I have. Check out Gustav Braustache a film shot and directed by my friend Rob Cunningham and staring my other good friend Ken Jarvey, who is also a member of The Can’t See
UPDATE: The braustache.com link is no more, but you can view updates here
