Programming on Kind of Idea

Ruby and Education: A Match Made in Heaven (translation)

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

It's important not to generalize about Ruby as if it could solve all your problems. It is a general-purpose language, but, like all other languages, it will be suitable in some contexts and not in others. The purpose of this post by Kate Cunningham, which I translated, is to show that Ruby's characteristics are very much in harmony with the characteristics needed in an effective learning environment. This doesn't mean that students should stop at Ruby. Ruby will make the path into programming easier for them, but it is only a first step. They should learn other languages too, since that's the only way to grow as a professional in such a dynamic field. You can find the original here. And now, the translation:

The Ruby language has received a lot of attention over the past decade, especially since the advent of Ruby on Rails in 2005. While the blogosphere has been using Ruby for a long time, let’s ask how, exactly, Ruby is suited to an educational environment.

Functional Programming and Loops (translation)

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

People who come from languages like C, Java, Delphi, and C#, and use Ruby for the first time, tend to program in Ruby the same way they programmed in the language they already know well. As you read the post below, you'll see that languages with functional features, such as Ruby, offer their own ways of organizing code (the Ruby way). More specifically, in this article by Jon Dahl, you'll see more efficient ways to iterate (loop) in Ruby. You can find the original here. And now, the translation:

If you’re a programmer, you’ve probably worked through one or more books that taught you the syntax of a new language. I’ve had that experience with half a dozen languages, such as C, JavaScript, and Perl.

Introduction to the Assembly Language

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

For people who are not in computing, and even for programmers who have always worked with high-level languages, this article is very enlightening. It helps us become aware of and appreciate the effort made by the first programmers and designers to get us to where we are today. Read the original article at this link. Here is the translation:

This is a brief introduction to Assembly language. Assembly is the most basic programming language available for any processor. With Assembly language, a programmer works only with operations performed directly on the physical CPU. Assembly lacks high-level conveniences such as variables and functions, and it is not portable across different processor families. However, Assembly is the most powerful programming language available on a computer, and it gives programmers the insight they need to write efficient code in high-level languages. Learning Assembly is a way to appreciate the time and effort of all serious programmers.

fupload - A Visual FoxPro Script for Uploading Files

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

fupload is a script written in Visual FoxPro. I created fupload to make it easier to upload large numbers of PDF and ZIP files at work. It was built on the principle of “scratching your own itch.”

Since I wanted to learn how to use git and github, I decided to organize the code better and make it available as open source. This script was made for the Windows platform. Visual FoxPro must be installed on the machine. To complement the script, I use a .bat file to send the files to the server.

Nerd Talk: A Conversation About Programming Languages

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s Nerd Talk, I’ll broaden the format a little. In addition to the nerd attacks I started with in the first article, I’ll also include something like those bar conversations where, after a few drinks, everyone tries to out-philosophize everyone else :) . More specifically, in this post I’ll share conversations about the general day-to-day of a web developer, held over instant messaging.

This virtual nerd conversation was about programming languages, and more specifically Python and Ruby. I was chatting with my friend Macelo. Here’s the conversation:

Accessing Twitter via the Interactive Ruby Shell (irb)

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I was looking for a simple Ruby solution for updating messages through irb. I found these Ruby class options:

Twitter by John Nunemaker — this is the most complete one.
Twittery, a very simple class that uploads photos through the TwitPic API. The project is maintained by Chris Ledet.

I used the class from the Twittery project as a learning starting point because I wanted a quick and simple solution, even though it doesn’t have the security of the OAuth authentication protocol already included in John Nunemaker’s project.

Ruby + irb + utility-belt + gedit = :)

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In September 2008, Akita wrote an interesting post about utility-belt, a gem that adds several features to irb (it’s a bit like giving irb a Red Bull). Some of its features include:

Launching Vi or TextMate from irb, letting you quickly write or paste some code, save it, close the editor, and test it in irb without creating a file and saving it in a directory.
Viewing a command history by typing “h”.
Opening the history in TextMate or Vi using hvi or hmate.
Watch Akita’s screencast to see how it works.

So far, so good. But the big problem is that I use Ubuntu with gedit to write Ruby code, and utility-belt doesn’t have specific methods for launching gedit. The utility-belt help offers edit_interactively(:gedit), but of course I couldn’t settle for that method; I wanted it to work the same way as it does with Vi or TextMate.