Tips for Ruby Sprint

[Edgardo Hames]

Hi guys,

In a couple of weeks I'll be leading a course on Ruby in my company.
On the last two sessions (about four hours), I'd like to conduct a
brief coding sprint so the students can practice what they learned
writing a useful tool. Do you have any experience on this kind of
activity? Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Ed

 

[James Gray]

In a couple of weeks I'll be leading a course on Ruby in my company.
On the last two sessions (about four hours), I'd like to conduct a
brief coding sprint so the students can practice what they learned
writing a useful tool. Do you have any experience on this kind of
activity? Do you have any suggestions?

I don't have a lot of experience, but I've been involved with a couple
of similar projects. I'll give you the one biggest tip I've learned
about such tasks.

Pick a very easy project. I usually want to do the hardest thing that
could possibly be squeezed into the available time. I've come to
realize that's a mistake for a lot of reasons:

* What I assume can be accomplished in X time is not what the team can
actually accomplish given X time
* Being faced with an overwhelming task is demoralizing
* It's easy to show off and try exciting new things when working on
easier tasks
* Success is addictive and you want to lead them to that

Given that, I recommend picking something surprisingly easy. I mean
it, if you are thinking, "This is just too easy and we will surely
finish it in half the time we have," it's the perfect idea. That goes
against a lot of my instincts, so it's always a hard choice for me to
make. I promise it's worth it though.

Good luck with your training!

James Edward Gray II

 

[Roman Rapido]

[Note: parts of this message were removed to make it a legal post.]

im new to ruby and i don't know what to do and where to post questions,
can ruby be used to create desktop and database applications? what database
can ruby access just in case.
Thank you very much! your reply will be highly appreciated.

 

[Robert Dober]

On Nov 7, 2008, at 7:38 AM, Edgardo Hames wrote:

Given that, I recommend picking something surprisingly easy. I mean it, = if
you are thinking, "This is just too easy and we will surely finish it in
half the time we have," it's the perfect idea. That goes against a lot o= f
my instincts, so it's always a hard choice for me to make. I promise it'= s
worth it though.

Hmm I was about to post a pointer to Ruby Quiz, but you made me think
twice. Do you mean so easy that no Ruby Quiz problem would fit, or do
you think some of the easier RQs would qualify?

Cheers
Robert
--=20
C'est v=E9ritablement utile puisque c'est joli.

Antoine de Saint Exup=E9ry