Request for new Envycast
Takaaki Kato
I'm new here. I'm learning Rails right now and have only basic skills.
The learning part in learning Rails I found difficult is testing.
There are many people who can't write test code. People are trying,
but it's hard. I was exchanging emails with guys at http://rubylearning.org/
about a possible new course plan on testing. Some feel the same way.
Especially those who don't have experience with Java and C#, it seems
quite difficult to understand. Most of the books on testing are using
Java and C#. This holds true with books on advanced topics such as
design patterns and refactoring (though we have one "Design Patterns"
book and an upcoming refactoring book).
Lack of resources is one reason. PeepCode episode on testing is rather
obsolete as I understand RSpec episodes are still applicable to
current Rails situations. The very first episode on testing is using a
very old version of Rails and some test methods are already depilated.
"The Rails Way 2nd edition" spares a lot of pages on testing both
(Test::Unit and RSpec). But it's not a step-by-step tutorial which
beginners can follow. Programming Ruby has a chapter on testing. But
it is like a reference.
Confusion among learners. The Rails definitions on unit and functional
are not strictly correct. What's the difference between TDD and BDD? A
good TDD is BDD? What's the difference between mocking and stubbing?
So is mocking in Rails actually stubbing? What's testing in Ruby
itself? How does Rails expend the idea? All the questions are puzzling
A possible screencast would be on "Testing with ActiveRecord" focusing
on unit testing. Also, RSpec courses are nice as well.
In any case, I hope to see something that fills a gap. Testing gives
us a lot of learning. I really wanna see something that gets people
started. All the videos on conferences convey importance of testing.
But people are still stranded.
Takaaki
Gregg Pollack
Thanks for the suggestion. Right now I have the following
EnvyCasts coming down the line:
1. Scaling Ruby
2. Scaling Rails
3. Podcasting
Once those are done, it'll be time to evaluate if producing these
screencast is enough to live off of. hehehe..
If they are, Testing is something that I totally agree with you,
should be addressed. Thanks for the suggestion.
-Gregg
Max Schubert
> Thanks for the suggestion. Right now I have the following
> EnvyCasts coming down the line:
>
> 1. Scaling Ruby
But but but ... you yourself keep on telling us ....
Is that going to be an episode about migrating to Erlang on Easements
or JRuby (because Java does scale, duh)
- Max
Gregg Pollack
Max Schubert
Multi-lingual as well (English and Spanish) .. Bravo!
FInally the question is laid to rest. In Bold.
My teammate and I interviewed a developer a while back for our team
lwho said they were intermediate level with Ruby, but when asked about
ruby, told us what Jason has known forever .. he also mentioned Ye
Olde Favorite Ruby Punchng Bag, twitter.com as the obvious evidence of
that 'fact.' When I asked if it was the language or the framework
Rails that he was referring to, I got a blank look.