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Customizing IRB, 2010 edition
TL;DR: Check out my new .irbrc-file! Customizing my work environment is a nerdish hobby of mine. I spend far to much time tweaking my terminal. While I'll save my terminal customizations for another...
View ArticleDomain Driven Design: Building Blocks in Ruby
A few weeks ago I talked about Domain Driven Design in Ruby at the local Ruby user group: Rotterdam.rb. It had a great turnup (even though the weather prevented some from coming) and there was a good...
View ArticleBuilding Blocks of DDD: Services
As promised, here is an example of how to use the idea of services from Domain Driven Design to help you design your code better. Let's start with some theoretical stuff, before we dive into some...
View ArticleGemfile vim syntax file
I've updated my Gemfile syntax file, adding a dash of color and making sure it supports all elements of the Bundler DSL. You can get it here. You'll also need to tell vim to automatically use it when...
View ArticleYour argument doesn't cut wood
About once a month I read an article on comparing Ruby to another programming language. Usually it makes the point that Ruby is dynamic and open and therefore it is less suited for reliable...
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RSpec Array Matcher
If you're testing arrays a lot, like ActiveRecord's (named) scopes, you should know the following RSpec matcher: =~. It doesn't care about sorting and it gives you all the output you need when the spec...
View ArticleEasier MetricFu with Metrical
TL;DR: I've just released metrical. It is a tiny wrapper around metric_fu. MetricFu is awesome. It helps me keep my code clean by identifying problem spots in my code. Unfortunately, it's difficult to...
View ArticleCucumber vs. Steak
Jeff Kreeftmeijer talked about Cucumber and Steak at the last Amsterdam Ruby Meetup. He hit upon an important theme in software development: reducing complexity; in this case the extra layers of...
View ArticleBackends in Rails 3.1
If you find yourself needing a backend interface, you can either get an admin plugin of the shelf, like RailsAdmin or ActiveAdmin, or build your own. The of-the-shelf options provide a lot of...
View ArticleGetting the Most out of Bundler Groups
Did you know you can create as many groups in Bundler as you like? You can and I think you should! Let me show you some ways I use groups to clean up my Gemfile. Why groups? Speed: Requiring gems can...
View ArticleTesting ActiveRecord in isolation
Testing ActiveRecord doesn't have to be slow. With some clever loading you can require only the parts that you need and it isn't even that difficult. Another reason might be that you're using...
View ArticleSass 3.2 blocks
A lot of websites have side bars. On normal desktop browsers, this fits nicely. But on smaller screens, it will create horizontal scrollbars. And those are a bad user experience. Luckily, CSS supports...
View Articlealias_method argument order
If you're anything like me, you can never remember the argument order for alias_method. I always think to myself "it's the other way around than I think it is", but then end up doing it wrong anyway....
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