The Gathering

A few weeks back I was discussing an idea around the weekly Code and Coffee table. The idea was a spin on something I saw Nathan Barry discussing over here. I still consider myself a newbie to Ruby, but I wanted to do my own personal hack-a-thon.  

Well that idea morphed, or is the cool thing to say, pivoted, to a project that me and two other new to Ruby programmers would work on. All three of us discussed the idea of creating something new.  Something no one else has done before.  A blog written in Ruby on Rails.

Hopefully now you are not looking at your screen with coffee sprayed all over it due to your laughing.  I know, there have been many, many Blog type projects.  So why is this one different?  I'm not sure it really is.  What I can say is that project is giving us an opportunity to work together and learn from each other. Not to say anything bad about you seniors out there, but there are times I feel that the best way to illustrate that I've learned something that you have passed  on, is to share that knowledge with others around my level.

So yes, we are making a dynamic blog written in Rails.  If you are interested in checking it out, you can find it here. Please keep in mind that we are still in active development.  I will update the README file once we are at a point where we think the application is solid.

There are a lot of 'firsts' for me in regards to this project.  This is the first web application I'm working on with more than two people actively working at the same time.  I'm learning how to create and manage pull requests.  I'm attempting to help lead the project and keep all of us updated on the progress.  

All three of us have been working with Ruby and Rails for a little bit - perhaps a year or year and half.  But there are some other 'new to us' components that we have choosen to try out.  We decided to bypass Devise and Twitter Bootstrap - both things that were comfortable to us.  Instead, we are using several great tools  that Thoughtbot has shared with the community including:  Bourbon, Neat, Bitters, Refills, Clearance, FactoryGirl and HoundCI.

I welcome any feedback on our project, Flex Blogger.  Just shoot me a tweet on Twitter, or email me.  I'm excited to see the final product and have this cool experience.

I still want to test my skills by doing a personal hack-a-thon, but I need to convince some of the gurus I know to be my guest drop ins.  :)

Learn Something New Every Day

Last Edited by: John on November 11, 2015