In the quest for simplicity and maintainability, sometimes we need to add components. It seems counter intuitive, perhaps, but sometimes it’s true. As an example, I once came across a project which had multiple queries, each of which contained over 40 lines of SQL code. I don’t know about you, but 40 lines of code …
Category Archive: Computers
Aug 26
Why my code is broken….. (break my code redux)
Yesterday, I posted an article entitled Break my code, please, wherein I posted a very fragile piece of code, with the challenge to find ways in which to break it. What follows is a discussion of the code and why it is bad/fragile/easily broken…..
Aug 25
Rails Project Setup Script
I got tired of typing the same commands all the time and/or looking up urls for plugins. Hence this script…. Yes, I know it’s been done before, but this does what I want (for now; I’m sure I’ll edit it). It does the following: Creates rails instance (optionally setting the database, etc.) Installs rspec & …
Aug 25
Break my code, please
There’s a number of things we can should take into account when writing code — boundary cases, etc., that can make or break a programme. Yes, testing is important, but I think that developing good defensive programming practices is even more important. That said; I present the following, fragile, code. Just about every line has …
Aug 22
Ruby’s ObjectSpace: Subclasses
One of the (imho) lesser used pieces of the Ruby language is ObjectSpace. In this article I’ll show one of the things you can do with it — get all the subclasses of a class.
Aug 20
Oooh Shiny! Magpies don’t know what’s just enough!
I’ve done it. I’ve been guilty of ooh shiny development. You know, those projects where you use the latest and greatest library, tool, or infrastructure not because it’s the best thing to do but because it’s the cool thing to do.
Aug 19
rspec, restful_authentication, and login_required
This is partly for myself, and partly for anyone after me….. I have a controller generated via rspec_scaffold — yes, I know, it might not be what all the cool kids are doing, but it works. I also have restful_authentication set up to use rspec. So, when I go to add before_filter :login_required, autotest frowns …
Aug 19
autotest reminder (or why did it go boom?)
autotest / zentest are really useful tools. However, it’s important to remember to run migrations for the test database — otherwise your tests will fail (miserably!) I’ve found the following to be helpful for using autotest: Getting started with Autotest – Continuous Testing Autotest RSpec Notifications for Ubuntu « My Pragmatig life
Aug 19
Computer Books which have made me who I am….
We all have our favorite books, the ones which we won’t let them pry away from our fingers until they’re cold. Those books which have shaped us, molded us, made us. The ones for which we’ve bought the first, second, third, and fourth editions. And not just because you’ve “gotta catch them all”, but because …
Aug 18
7 Ruby tools which are gems and why I like them
Rubygems, those magickal behind-the-sceneslibraries we all use without thinking too much about them deserve some love. I’m singing the praises of 7 rubygems out of those installed on my laptop (this isn’t to say that I love them more than others). What are some of y’all’s favorite gems?
