Today, I started a new ruby on rails website for a workshop. It’s a very basic site that just handles registrations and redirects people to the credit card processor that we use. This is the main type of website that I write in rails and it’s probably my tenth site that I’ve written for this purpose. Previously, I had always used scaffolding in rails and then deleted the stuff that I didn’t need. This time, I made a conscious choice to not use any scaffolding and instead generate my own controllers and models. I’m happy to say that I didn’t have any real problems. So I’m thinking that I’m no longer a complete beginner with rails. I might even go so far as to say I’m an intermediate rails programmer. Which means it’s time for me to start advancing some more. I found this website http://learn.thoughtbot.com and was thinking of signing up for the prime program. The intermediate ruby on rails workshop looks pretty interesting. Though, after reading the syllabus, I’m thinking that perhaps I was at intermediate level a while ago. In the listing of things that they plan to cover, I already know a few:

  • Starting an application
  • File uploads with Paperclip
  • Implementing search–I use the ransack gem
  • Adding paging

But the rest look good. I’d be really happy if they taught how to write tests, since that’s where I’m weakest now.

Anyway, I had a pretty good day today and am feeling good about how I’m progressing. I wouldn’t call myself a programmer, but I’m definitely getting better at using it as a tool. I feel like going back and looking at some of my notebooks from a couple of years ago to see how much I’ve improved since then.