A big thank-you to Derek Sivers, President of CDBaby for sponsoring a RubyOnRails competition in which the top 20 contributors (from the start of the year) to the open source framework were awarded passes and lodging to RailsConf 2007.
I took on this challenge when it was announced and learned a lot about Rails and about the Ruby on Rails community.
I think the contest made me a better programmer, helped me better understand Ruby on Rails, and let me experience first hand the support of the Ruby on Rails community.
This contest reiforced several best practices that, regardless of language, I hope you are following.
Lessons Learned
Use Subversion (or other version control system code)
It is easy to start a project without using a version control system. As a project progresses, it is still easy for a programmer to continue without version control because they do not realize the benefits implemeting such a system would bring. I’ve done this. Our hapless programmer just make s some code changes and then tri
seems fine, they continue on. If not, they go back to their editor and try to “undo” the changes.
I believe all programmers should be using a version control system, regardless of the size of the team or code-base. There is no reason not to.
Read the Subversion manual for everything you ever wanted to know about svn.
Practice Test Driven Development
Keep it Simple
Seek Help
p.s. By the way, I ended up one of the top 20! See you at RailsConf 2007!
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