The Rails Way... with 3rdRail
Posted by lori, Mon Apr 07 21:25:00 UTC 2008
I got my copy of Obie Fernandez' The Rails Way a couple of weeks ago, but I've been so busy with work (we're down a sysadmin, a web designer, a tester, and now a developer... sigh), that I just dropped it on a shelf and almost forgot about it. Today our new sysadmin started, so I had a little breathing space (ha!). Another coworker/developer, Hal, reminded me about the book by pointing out that we'd met one of the contributors at RailsConf 2007 last year. Hi Jodi! Thanks for helping me debug our production Rails app during one of the sessions!
Anyway, I turned off the TV tonight, and pulled out The Rails Way. Since I've been using Rails for over two years in a quasi-enterprise application, I'm not expecting a tonne of grand revelations, but I'm certain that there will be a lot of tips and tricks that will improve my Rails usage, and my understanding of Rails internals.
As I started reading the introduction and chapter 1, it occurred to me that there was something else quite useful I could get out of this book. I've been nagged (in the nicest possible way) on and off for months about blogging about CodeGear's 3rdRail, which I use every day in my Rails development. Turns out, as I was reading, I kept thinking stuff like... "oh, yes, but in 3rdRail it's even easier to do..."
So, that's what I'm going to do. Chapter by chapter, as I go through the book, I'll be posting about the ways in which 3rdRail makes my life easier, as an enterprise Rails developer. Expect the first installment before the end of this week. I look forward to hearing what you think, so gimme some comments as I go!
