Object Constellations
Last time, I talked about ways to use dynamic typing to manage objects and business logic in your code. Doing so involves leaning into the object system,...
How To Not Use Static Typing In Ruby
An extension of the rppreviou
What About Static Typing In Ruby?
I’ve tried writing this literally a half-dozen times. And it always feels like it slips out of control and gets too abstract to be useful. So, let’s start...
Better Know A Ruby Thing: On The Use of Private Methods
Last time around, we got to Better Know access control in Ruby, and I started to write my opinion on the use of private methods in Ruby, but my...
[Paid Subscribers Only]: Graceful Dev Video on Endless Ranges
Hi! Thanks for being a paid subscriber to The Dynamic Rubyist! I'm happy to have another subscriber-only video via Avdi Grimm and the Graceful Dev website....
Better Know A Ruby Thing -- Methods and Access Control (part 1)
I’ll be honest, I picked this topic out of the half-dozen or so Better Know A Ruby Things on my to-do list strictly because it’s maybe the only Ruby take...
[Paid Subscribers Only]: Graceful Dev Video on Hash Shortcuts
Hi! Thanks for being a paid subscriber to The Dynamic Rubyist. I'm very excited to be able to send the first paid-subscriber-only feature -- a brand-new...
Conway's Law
If your organization has coders continually getting in each other's way, or if you make a change to part of your code base and don’t know who needs to review...
Better Know A Ruby Thing #5: Block Arguments
Previously in what what I guess is now “The Argument Trilogy”, we talked about: Positional Arguments Keyword Arguments And now the trilogy now comes to its...
Better Know A Ruby Thing #4: Keyword Arguments
Last time on Better Know A Ruby Thing, we covered positional arguments, and now we’re going to move on to keyword arguments. I really did think this was...
Better Know A Ruby Thing #3: Positional Arguments
Ruby has three ways to pass information from a method call to a method definition: positional arguments, keyword arguments, and block arguments. Each of...
The Pickaxe is out and I am happy
I am extremely excited to say that Programming Ruby 3.3, also known as The Pickaxe Book, is now done done, finished, completely available as an ebook, and...
How To Manage Duplicate Test Setup, or Can I Interest You In Weird RSpec?
You have a series of test cases. They cover the same logic with different inputs. In order to get to that logic, there’s some overhead: objects have to be...
Better Know A Ruby Thing Bonus: Contestants and Nesting
Sorry for skipping a week or two -- I was approving copyedits on the book that is now called Programming Ruby 3.3, because we now want to be proactive about...
Better Know A Ruby Thing #2: Constants
A fun thing about learning Ruby is that sometimes concepts that have the same name as in other languages have different behavior and purpose in Ruby. Today:...
Better Know A Ruby Thing #1: method_missing
Welcome to "Better Know A Ruby Thing". In each one of these, we're going to look at some feature of Ruby language, library, ecosystem, or culture and explain...
Introducing The Dynamic Rubyist
Hi. If you have no idea why you are receiving this email, it's because at some time in the past you signed up for Noel Rappin's email newsletter. Surprise!...
Hi, All, It's a Pickaxe Q&A
I haven't sent out a newsletter in 2022 -- about 10% of people subscribed to this newsletter have never seen an actual newsletter in their mailbox. That...
Redundancy, Terseness, and Code
Most human communication, text or written, is wordier and more redundant than it needs to be, strictly speaking. That previous sentence, for example, would...
TypeScript and jsbundling and Rails 7
This is a quick bit of service journalism about one thing that seemed less than obvious about converting the code in Modern Front-End Development For Rails...
Bell Curves and Developer Teams
Jessica Kerr wrote a very interesting post on bell curves and engineering teams. Jessica’s point is that bell curves are for random distributions, and that...
Another Refactoring Story: ActiveRecord Lists
I’ve now tried to write this post like three times, and one thing that’s clear to me again is why you don’t see more write-ups of even moderately complicated...
A quick note about this newsletter
Just a quick note that will only be of interest to those of you that are paying for subscriptions. I'm removing the paid option for this newsletter, and...
More Ruby Magic
Hey, if you like this post, you might like my recent books: “Modern Front-End Development for Rails” (Ebook) (Amazon) and “Modern CSS With Tailwind” (Ebook)...
Rails 7 and JavaScript
Or: Rails and JavaScript, Part 5 A quick program note: If you like this newsletter, you might like my recent books: "Modern Front-End Development for Rails"...
Refactoring, Part Two: In Defense of Magic
A quick program note: If you like this newsletter, you might like my recent books: "Modern Front-End Development for Rails" (Ebook) (Amazon) and "Modern CSS...
An Object-Oriented Example
If you've been reading this newsletter for a while, you've may have noticed there are two patterns I talk about all the time: We're doing something because...
Databases and Validation and Uncertainty
A long time ago, I studied research on what makes successful engineering teams. (Not programmers, other engineering fields). I don’t remember a lot of it,...
Testing Strategies
Previously on Locally Sourced: I wrote about building a small feature in Hotwire. Also, I have two, count 'em, two, books for sale. Modern Front End...
Simple Things Should Be Simple
Previously on Locally Sourced: The Tailwind book is out. Buy it in ebook or at Amazon. Modern Front-End Development For Rails is in final layout and headed...
Entropy Essays 8: Why Entropy?
Previously on Locally Sourced: About a year ago, I started this newsletter with a bunch of posts that I originally called XP 2020 and later called Entropy...
# Take Home Interview Code
After writing about one kind of contrived sample code, I want to write about a different kind: the kind that is part of an interview process. A disclaimer...
Hotwire And React And Ecosystems
Previously on Locally Sourced: I said this one would be about interview code, which it isn't. Next time. Meantime, the live home of this newsletter is...
Code Examples and the Book
Previously on Locally Sourced: The newsletter moved. Tell all your friends that the place to sign up for this newsletter is now...
Newsletter Update
If you are reading this, then I did at least one thing right. I've moved this newsletter to new provider called Buttondown. Ideally, this will not affect you...
It Was Something Like 20 Years Ago Today
Previously on Locally Sourced: It's been quite a while. I've been very focused on finishing the big update to the draft of the book. Which I have done,...
Okay, This One Is About Stimulus
Previously On Locally Sourced: I wrote about Hotwire and Turbo, the Rails client side New Magic. Then I wrote about them again. I think you are all caught...
What I Like About Hotwire
Previously On Locally Sourced: I wrote about how to use Hotwire and Turbo. (My Mac keeps wanting to autocorrect that to "Hot-wire" for some unknown...
A Brief Hello to Hotwire and Turbo
This week, after some mysterious announcements about "New Magic", Basecamp released Hotwire, their support tools for client-side development using HTML over...
The Road To Legacy Code
It occurred to me recently that two of the conference talks that I consider the best I've ever written never really got a very wide audience, even by the...
Improve Your Technical Writing, A Little
Previously on Locally Sourced: Sorry, it’s been a while. I’ve been working on trying to get a new mini-book out on TailwindCSS before the release of all the...
Empirically, I Have No Idea
# Empirical Previously on Locally Sourced. Who can even remember? Sorry, it's been a while. I've been stuck writing two-thirds of posts and not quite wanting...
These <Prime Number> Tools Will Make You a <Superlative> Developer
Previously on Locally Sourced: Who can even remember? Sorry, it’s been a while. I'm a little stuck on the next Entropy Essay, which is about estimates. It's...
Entropy Essays 7: Process and Trust
Previously on Locally Sourced: I’ve been writing about XP and Agile. Most recently, pair programming. And how I think about technical decisions. I started to...
How I Make Technical Decisions
Previously on Locally Sourced: does anybody read this part? Hi, it’s Noel, how are you? Last time, I wrote about pair programming, and there were a couple of...
Entropy Essays 6: Pair Programming
Previously on Locally Sourced: I’ve been doing a lot of these oddly titled posts about XP and Agile practices. Like testing. Or OO. I wrote about inclusion...
Entropy Essays 5: Team Metrics
Previously on Locally Sourced: I’ve been writing these Entropy Essays about Agile and XP practices. Here’s the most recent one. You can see the rest here....
Rails and JavaScript, Part 4: The Future?
Previously on Locally Sourced: Well, we’ve been talking about the history of Rails and JavaScript: part 1, part 2, and part 3, and we’ve finally caught up to...
Rails and JavaScript: Part Three
Previously on Locally Sourced: Rails came out and let people do Ajax, when Ajax was a thing. Then Ajax was less of a thing and Rails let people write...
Rails and JavaScript Part 2
Previously on Locally Sourced: I wrote about the early years of Rails and JavaScript. Which made it to Ruby Weekly. Also, my Rails and JavaScript book is...