RubyGorge

Tonight was the the inaugural meeting of the Gorge Ruby User’s Group and I don’t think it’s just the Scottish Ale talking when I say that this first meeting was a grand success!

Discussion topics included:

• The trials and tribulations (well, the hilarity) of what happens when someone new to Ruby accidentally builds a fully functional web application (Rails makes it so easy that it actually happened!). That lead to…
• The upcoming merge of Merb into Rails 3.0, including what that means for the Object Relational Mapping in the exciting new Rails version. That lead to…
• Databases and the technology behind non-relational database frameworks like CouchDB and Hadoop, concepts like Map-Reduce, and the integration possibilities of relational and non-relational databases. Followed by the normal segways into things like…
• How people have learned Ruby and what steps some of us have taken to do so.
• What are some specific language constructs that are interesting and/or different from other languages (Seth and yours truly learned a ton about the beauty of Ruby Blocks!)
• A discussion on JRuby and Ruby’s ability to run under a Java JVM, including discussion on Cold Fusion, Clojure, Scala, and similar alternatives to plain old Java.

We also had some discussion following the normal tangents and rabbit holes, including…

When and where to hold meetings!

Having determined that Thursday is a good day, and that we can at least hold the momentum of every two weeks for another week (at least, right?), the next RubyGorge meeting is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, February 11th at 6 pm. We’re still working out a good location that will allow some good computer work and will announce that as soon as we find a location.

Thanks so much to the Ruby enthusiasts who energized this, both those who made it and those who couldn’t make it but who look forward to making the next ones!

The date is set! On Thursday, January 28, the inaugural gathering of the Columbia Gorge Ruby Users Group will be held at Horse Feathers Brew Pub in Hood River!

Come have a pint and hang out with other Ruby programmers for a couple hours.

One the agenda: Figuring out our meeting schedule and other logistical stuff necessary for a rockin’ great Users Group.

They say that the most fundamentalist people are the recent converts. Well, I’ve been programming for 10+ years in Python, and have been programming in Ruby for about 2 weeks, so I say I’m more fundamentalist than any of you people! Let’s make Ruby the official programming language of Star Monkeys!!

Alright, it’s time. There are a growing number of Ruby programmers in The Gorge (Growing, because I just started programming in Ruby , so it’s time to start having regular meetings of the RubyGorge. I propose that the first meeting be about “learning Ruby” and be a discussion about steps to take when learning Ruby, since I’m talking with the Hood River Community Education Department about teaching an “Introduction to programming” course. I used to teach it in Python, but I’m considering teaching Ruby. Let’s talk about the best ways to accomplish that!

I propose HorseFeathers, because they have both beer AND wifi. Whadda ya say, what’s a good day?