ruby_gem's Blog

Installing Rails on Windows

@ruby_gem — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:40:08 +0000

It’s a frikkin nightmare. Here’s how I did it:

c:\> gem install rails

this failed with an error message which said “‘make ‘ is not recognized as an internal or external command” whilst trying to build the native extensions.

The native extensions are things that Ruby needs to compile on your native system. It does this using make, the original tool on which rake, nant, powershell and other build tools are based on.

So I went off and downloaded make

(don’t forget to add the make bin directory to your path)

Next issue, make had an error “libintl3.dll could not be found”. Balls. Turns out make has some dependencies you also need to download… It’s a little further down the list after binaries and source.

Next error:

"make: *** No rule to make target `/C/Ruby192/include/ruby-1.9.1/ruby.h'"

Balls. Balls. Balls.

Fix for this is to download the Ruby DevKit. Extract is and run the devkitvars.bat in the root of devkit, this adds loads of really useful stuff to your %PATH%.

Now try it again for the final time:

C:\RubyDevKit>gem install rails Building native extensions. This could take a while... Fetching: rdoc-3.12.gem (100%) Depending on your version of ruby, you may need to install ruby rdoc/ri data:

<= 1.8.6 : unsupported = 1.8.7 : gem install rdoc-data; rdoc-data --install = 1.9.1 : gem install rdoc-data; rdoc-data --install >= 1.9.2 : nothing to do! Yay! Fetching: railties-3.2.0.gem (100%) Fetching: rails-3.2.0.gem (100%) Successfully installed json-1.6.5 Successfully installed rdoc-3.12 Successfully installed railties-3.2.0 Successfully installed rails-3.2.0 4 gems installed Installing ri documentation for json-1.6.5... Installing ri documentation for rdoc-3.12... Installing ri documentation for railties-3.2.0... Installing ri documentation for rails-3.2.0... Installing RDoc documentation for json-1.6.5... Installing RDoc documentation for rdoc-3.12... Installing RDoc documentation for railties-3.2.0... Installing RDoc documentation for rails-3.2.0...
and there was much rejoicing. YAAAY!

Now try to build a rails app:
c:\> rails new project_bob

BALLS!!!!

C:/Ruby192/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/bundler-1.0.5/lib/bundler/ui.rb:56:in `': uninitialized constant Gem::SilentUI (NameError)

JUST FRIKKIN WORK DAMN YOU

after a bit of googling, turns out my bundler was out of date. So….

C:\>gem update bundler

Let’s try making that new Rails app again. Fingers, toes, knees, eyes… all crossed.

IT WORKED!

Now cd into the app you just created and try
c:\project_bob> rails c Loading development environment (Rails 3.2.0) irb(main):001:0>

GET IN. All done. Now time to do some work. Hope this helps some other unfortunate soul.

Preston Codejo 2

@ruby_gem — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:40:31 +0000

Last night was the second Coding Dojo in Preston at the Magma Digital offices, run by myself and @phpcodemonkey.

This month the focus was TDD using Ruby. We performed the Checkout Kata (I’ll blog this later) with a Randori format for the first half (rotating a pair at the front with code projected at the front and audience participation) then split off into pairs to start the kata again from scratch.

We had a good turnout, around 20 people, and I would say it was a definite success! Especially the pairing in the second half. Everyone was so engrossed in solving the problem that they were reluctant to head to the pub for the retro!

Speaking of which, here are some of the things that came out of the retro

Retro actions

Have a source control and CI environment (Jeremy to setup) to see benefit of having a test suite – possibly need a bigger code base)
Randori for first half and pairing for second half worked well
Show and tell at the end
No one is wrong (except Tim)
Use RSPEC next time
Disussions on techniques and styles are fine to happen, but driver (one at the keyboard) has final say
Introductions as you stand up at the radori
Carry on with Ruby
Repeat the checkout kata

Future focuses

TDD from hell
BDD
TDD as if you meant it
Refactoring
Refucktorting
Start with a skeleton and build up tests as you go

Homework

_why’s poignant guide to Ruby
Ruby Koans – Geeky Crossword
Hackety hack

Come and work at Late Rooms

@ruby_gem — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:20:02 +0000

I’ve been at Laterooms for a couple of months now and it’s certainly a challenge, and one I’m really enjoying. It’s a bigger team than any of my last jobs, which means I’m getting the opportunity to work in loads of different areas with a bunch of different people. My voice is heard, I’m involved in loads of initiatives (you’ll see one below) and the people here are awesome, both technically and socially.

We’re currently recruiting at http://LateRooms.com, and put together this pretty cool video to show you what we do:

For me the other selling points are:

We have Kevin Rutherford in once a week, delivering coaching and training
We do loads of in house training in the form of workshops and katas at least once a week
I work with great people. They’re talented, passionate, driven and heavily involved in the local tech community.
Pub outings in the evening
Curry friday
Working closely with everyone involved in a feature. From idea to done.
Panoramic views of Manchester
Supportive, friendly atmosphere with proper northern banter
TDD, C#, Ruby, BDD and all that fun agile jazz!

So if you do fancy joining us, email me:

gemma dot cameron at laterooms dot com

BEHOLD!

@ruby_gem — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 22:04:35 +0000

Here I am at the work Cirque de Noel, being spun right round.

Laterooms Christmas Party – @ruby_gem from hashpointfive on Vimeo.

The first Preston Codejo

@ruby_gem — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 08:55:56 +0000

The first Codejo was a huge success! We had around 20 attendees, who all spent 5 minutes on the keyboard during the Randori.

There was a big range of skills from people who were completely new to both TDD and Ruby, to those who apply TDD in Ruby for their day job.

There was rigorous debate in the retro at Forum bar afterwards, with ideas on format for the next session.

So the next Codejo will be at the same venue (Magma Digital offices) on 9th January (the second Monday of the month). There’ll be a link up soon. The format for this will be one hour Randori, one hour paired up. So start brushing up on your Ruby!

Here’s what people are saying about the Codejo:

Global Code Retreat – Manchester Episode

@ruby_gem — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 08:30:38 +0000

What is it?

3rd December is the Global Day of Coderetreat, with events happening all over the world in almost every timezone!

The point of a coderetreat is to escape the confines of work and to hone the craft of software developers and engineers by trying to solve a problem together. Learning from each other and ourselves. The format is to solve Conway’s Game Of Life by rotating pairs, doing TDD, practicing good techniques but most importantly learning from each other (http://coderetreat.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-to-run-a-coderetreat).

When is it?

December 3rd, 2011. Doors open at 08:30 (yes, in the morning!). The coding begins at 9:00am and will run until abot 5:30pm.

What to expect

FUN! At 9am we pair up and begin coding Conway’s Game of Life. Every 90 mins or so we swap pairs and throw it away and start over. You will get an opportunity to pair with all these cool people!

Lunch will be provided. (Please get in touch if you would like to sponsor lunch or the bar!)

Do stay after 5:30 when the retreat ends for some drinking and socialising with your new friends.

What should I bring?

Please bring a laptop (the more the merrier!) ready to roll with your favourite development environment. Please also make sure you have git installed, so that you can make use of our starter projects on github.

Lunch will be provided, and there’s a bar where you can buy drinks all day.

Do I need to be a good programmer?

No. You’ll be able to find someone to pair with you in pretty much any programming language you choose. And we have ready-to-roll startup projects available in a huge variety of languages; see https://github.com/coreyhaines/coderetreat/tree/master/starting_points for details.

How can I find out more?

The home of Coderetrreat is http://coderetreat.com/
InfoQ has an article about the Global Day of Coderetreat
The Ning group has a list of all of the events happening on December 3rd worldwide
Keep up with Global Day new via the #gdcr11 hashtag on twitter
Join the XP-Manchester mailing list
Keep up with XP-Manchester news via the #xpman hashtag on twitter

Cost?

FREE

Sign Up:

http://coderetreatmanchester.eventbrite.co.uk/

Preston Codejo

@ruby_gem — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:15:03 +0000

On the 28th November we’ll be holding the very first Preston Codejo! We plan this to be a monthly meetup where the Magma Digital office on Winckley Square in Preston tranforms into a Coding Dojo. Developers will meet to hone their skills by performing coding katas.

Katas are taken from the Japanese martial art practice of detailed choreographed patterns of movements practised either solo or in pairs. These katas are exercised at Dojos (training places) with the idea that the skills learned in the katas become second nature during a fight situation.

In a similar way we plan to use these katas to enhance our programming skills in the real world.

For the first session we’ll focus our kata on TDD by using a Randori (not the previously mentioned Rotisserie) format, solving a simple problem with Ruby.

What all this means is that we’re going to solve a simple problem by practising your TDD skills. Everyone will get to spend 5 minutes on the keyboard so we can all work together and hone our TDD skills as a group.

We’ll do this for a couple of hours then head over to Forum for a retrospective on the kata. Remember, it’s about us all learning from each other and getting better at our craft.

No previous knowledge of Ruby required (surprisingly, I have practically none!), you’ll pick it up easily enough and we have a great bunch of good Rubyists along to help us out.

Get your tickets here

So, you want to keep ferrets?

@ruby_gem — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:12:27 +0000

I realise that I’m turning into a stereotype here by my last post on Lancashire Cheese and now ferrets, however, recently I’ve had a few people approach me as they’re thinking about keeping ferrets and want to know how to get started. I thought I could turn this into a nice blog post.

Why Ferrets?

They’re cute. They are absolutely hilarious. They take up very little room as they’re so small. They sleep up to 20 hours a day (when you’re at work and when you sleep) so they can be left for prolonged periods of time. They’re highly intelligent and love company. Because they sleep so much they are extremely energetic and playful when they are awake. Think a cross between kittens and puppies who never grow up. Older ferrets are still as energetic, they just sleep more. They can also be taken for “walks”, which can be a problem if you don’t like attention or want exercise. It’s more like herding cats than walking a dog. In addition ferrets are also hypo-allergenic. So if you want a furry pet but thought you were allergic, go for it!

Why not to get Ferrets?

They smell and they bite. This is the common mosconception of ferrets. And yes, both are true. Any animal that lives outside will smell more. Keep them inside and they will smell less. Muck them out, clean their bedding and bath them regularly and you can keep on top of it. In my opinion they smell less than dogs and it’s a more pleasant smell; honey musk. With the biting, yes they do nip. But again the more they’re used to being handled the less they will bite. Ferrets do have personalities and you’ll get to know their biting tendencies (it’s more about communication). For example Perl will nip faces and the inside arm. Ruby likes to bite toes, especially those she finds under blankets!

Finding Ferrets

Knowing where to go to get ferrets is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Personally I went to my local butcher to ask where he got his. Turns out there is an animal dealer in Walmer Bridge called Len. Armed with a name I used the power of google and found him! Two ferret kits for a fiver each. Done! These were from working ferret stock, rather than pets. However this really doesn’t matter. I’d recommend looking online for your nearest ferret rescue. There are loads of them littered about the UK and they’ll always have lovely fuzzbutts needing a new home.

Kits or Grown Ups

I went for two kits, mainly because I didn’t know any better and also because tiny baby ferrets are incredibly cute. But, be warned. With baby ferrets comes much training. Luckily I was able to work from home when I got Ruby and Perl. I have invested a *lot* of time in training them. This involves both toilet training AND how they interact with humans. I have had huge success in the former, and mixed in the latter. I’ll go into training later. Getting an adult ferret, especially from a rescue, you’ll find is already trained and happy to be handled by humans. So unless you do have hours and hours every day to spend with your ferret, get an adult.

How many ferrets?

Never, ever, ever get just one ferret is my advice. They’re very sociable animals, even curling up to sleep together into one big, never ending ferrety pile. They love to play. I find that if one of mine decides they want to play with me and I’m busy (this usually involves a quick nip or a ball of fur launching itself at you) I can generally point them at the other ferret and a fight ensues. It’s also the best form of entertainment known to man. Nothing else is sure to brighten your day than watching the intricate battles between ferrets. There’s wrestling, ambushes, hiding, leaping, weasel wardancing, dooking, falling off beds and sofas mid-battle… They love it as much as the spectators. So basically with ferrets, the more the merrier, but beware! They’re not guaranteed to get on and ferrets can be very territorial. So make sure you get a pair (or more) who do get on before you bring them into your home. I’ve found Perl is very laid back and is quite happy for any ferret to come to his home, as long as he can sniff and possibly play. Ruby on the other hand gets very viscous, attacking the new ferret and actually drawing blood!

Housing

You need to ask yourself whether you’re going to keep your ferrets indoors or out. Living in a small flat in the city centre I didn’t have much choice there. If you’re going for outdoors I’d recommend a very large rabbit hutch inside a shed (or outbuilding) which you can provide heating in the very cold winter and cooling in the summer (ferrets are very susceptible to heat) . If you go for indoors I’d start off with a cage. A large cage suitable for rats or ferrets is good. If you do plan to leave the ferrets on their own for more than a day then make sure you give them plenty of room to play! Once litter trained it’s perfectly feasible to leave your fuzzbutts roaming free around the house like cats. I even know of a lady who has a few acres of land and allows her ferrets to roam free outside. They always come back to their warm beds, water and food. However I wouldn’t recommend this. In my experience ferrets have the homing instincts of a newt.

Ferret proofing

I’ve written a blog post on this before, but it’s the single most important part of ferret ownership. Before bringing a ferret into your home look around for any nooks, crannies, holes or escape routes your little Houdini could find. Get down on your hands and knees if you have to. Open cupboard doors, push and pull at kickboards… Seriously, these tiny monsters are clever. They will figure out a way to get to something they want; they climb, they leap, they’re pretty fearless and have a great sense of adventure. Plants will be executed. The soil will be seen as a lovely dig box especially for fuzzles and your plants will become casualties. Cut flowers will be eaten. Glasses of liquid (water, wine, beer juice, they aren’t fussy) will be investigated, knocked over and drunk. Ornaments will be knocked not only over, but then pushed off windowsills. On the upside ferrets do not chew! SO all your wires are safe. ( : Remember they love small, dark and warm hidey holes. They will go to sleep there and you will not be able to rouse them.

I think that’ll do for the basics and preliminaries of anticipated ferret ownership. I’ll follow this up with tips and tricks for ferret training. Please leave comments here of any other subjects you’d like me to cover.

Lancashire Cheese Scone Recipe

@ruby_gem — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 17:00:07 +0000

Ingredients:
6oz Self Raising Flour
large pinch of freshly ground sea salt and black pepper
1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
1oz margarine (room temperature)
3oz Crumbly Lancashire Cheese (crumbled)
1 medium egg
2 tablespoons milk

Method:
Heat oven to 180-200C
Grease baking tray or silicone sheet
Mix flour and seasoning
Rub margarine into flour (cold, dry finger tips to created fine breadcumbs)
Stir in cheese
Slowly add the egg and milk, mixing to a soft, but dry dough. Reserve some for glazing.
Divide into 6 balls onto greased trays, flatten slightly with hands
Glaze with egg and milk
Bake for 10-15 mins until golden brown.

Serve warm, cut in half and spread with butter. NOM

Barcamp Blackpool

@ruby_gem — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:43:02 +0000

On 15th October we held the third barcamp in Blackpool at the Pleasure Beach. It. Was. Epic!!!!

I say we this year, as for the first time I had help! @biglesp was the man behind the scenes this year. He basically sorted the whole thing out. Sponsors, swag, equipment, promotion… Everything. This year I was just the loud voice on t’internet and at the venue. So massive thanks Les, you made it possible, even whilst I was on holiday/relocating/starting a new job all the two weeks before the event!!!

We had a fab turnout, around 140 attendees! The content was eclectic, with everything from “The History of Error Messages”, to “8 Bit Hama Bead Nintendo characters” to IT in education.

I love Barcamp Blackpool for many reasons:

The venue is gorgeous. The staff are friendly, helpful and can’t do enough to help. They make great food, the dividers turn a huge space into three soundproof rooms, the booths at the back make a great chillout spot. The theme in the Paradise Room is pink with pretty blue lights and it transforms in the evening into something quite special (integrated bar AND stage).

The people are very special to me. #bcblackpool has a very firm following. It’s Lancashire’s only barcamp, and us Lancastrians are very proud of it. People make a barcamp. The talks, the conversation, the afterparty, the connections, the ideas and knowledge share… So thank you for loving #bcblackpool as much as I do and for coming back year on year with more and more of your friends. Word of mouth is the best way for this event to continue to grow and become even more awesome.

The location is quite unique. There is no where quite like Blackpool. Being able to stay in a B&B for pocket money (£15 pppn inc. breakfast in some places!), go out on the friday night for cheap drinks in mind blowing pubs and clubs, saturday of barcamp at the world famous Pleasure Beach (you can see the Big One out of the window!) and Sunday to spend in Blackpool however you feel. Some people go on the rides (with a hangover!), others go for a photo walk or bike ride along the Golden Mile (Blackpool have spent a lot of money doing up the promenade and it really shows!) or just wander around the fabulously quirky, tacky and sometimes even god-awful shops and attractions along the pier.

I can enjoy myself! As the organiser you’d expect me to be running around like a headless chicken, those who know me know how much of a flapper I can be! But at Blackpool I can relax. I know the venue staff will make everything perfect, all the attendees are regulars and eager to help in any way they can, so all I have to do is enjoy myself! Everyone pulls together from creating the boards, to setting up the projectors, to repositioning the rooms and sorting out the evening entertainment. So I get to go along to talks that interest me, enjoy the evening party, socialise, catch up with old friends and enjoy the day as much as everyone else.

So thank you once again to the sponsors:

Testled for your continued support in both the way of money, the world famous barcamp blackpool rock, being there and fabulous!
The H for being another main sponsor and sending the lovely Chris along. People, you need to use this place for reading the latest Open Source and Hacker news!
Indigo for the gorgeous t-shirts
Microsoft Openeness for being awesome.
Magma Digital for their continued support. Every year they help us out with projectors, the website and hosting, and this year we were given not only money for lunch, but also the awesome swag (the screen/spectacle cleaners were inspired!
FTP Concepts, Sugru, Magic Missile, JMC Website Design, Tweetdig, Neterix, MediaBurst, Our Learning, FYCreatives and the Brooklyn Enterprise Fair.
Click ‘n’ Mix for their last minute monies behind the bar!!!! Go buy sweeties now.