1. Top 10+ Things
Every .NET Developer
Should Know About Ruby
Jeff Cohen
@jeffcohen
jeff@purpleworkshops.com

2. Windy City Rails
Sept. 12, 2009
Essential Javascript
Oct. 17, 2009
Rails for Everyone
Oct. 24, 2009

3. Top 10+ Things
Every .NET Developer
Should Know About Ruby

4. 1. History & Philosophy
SmallTalk C++ Ruby Java VB6 C#
1983 Perl 1993 1995 1996 2000
1989

5. 1. History & Philosophy
Yukihiro Matsumoto
"Matz"

6. 1. History & Philosophy
2003 Interview with Matz:
http://www.artima.com/intv/ruby.html
Minimal Interface vs. Humane Interface
What You Feel > What You Can Do
Sapir-Whorff Hypothesis

7. 2. irb
"Immediate Mode"
for Ruby developers

8. 3. Conventions
MyClass
methods_are_in_lowercase
methods_can_be_questions?
some_methods_have_consequences!
methods_can_set_a_value=
@instance_variable
MY_CONSTANT or MyConstant or MyClass

9. 4. Objects
Everything is an object
A class is an object
No "primitives."
You can pass classes around like objects
Easy reflection/introspection

10. 5. Messages
Think in Messages, not Methods
"hello".length
"hello".send(:length)
All message handlers (ok, fine: "methods")
return a value to the calling code

11. 6. Blocks
Extremely Common Ruby Idiom
Most Seen in Iterators
Anoymous Methods
Can Be Saved For Later Use (lambda)

12. 7. It's Just a Script
No compilation
A class "declaration" is code that's executing!

13. 8. Dynamic Typing
The type of an object is deduced at runtime
Open Classes
Object-Specific Type (enables Singleton Methods)
Strongly Typed even though not Statically Typed
IntelliSense is hard to do

14. In Case You Rant At Me
About The Lack of Intellisense
It rots your mind:
http://www.charlespetzold.com/etc/
DoesVisualStudioRotTheMind.html
It forces bottom-up design
It forces linear programming, not free-form
experimentation
It discourages Test-Driven Development
It's a sign that your API is TOO FREAKING BIG

15. 9. OOP
Use Modules to Mix-In Behavior
Don't Worry About Interfaces
Duck Typing
No Abstract Classes

16. 10. Metaprogramming
method_missing
Add methods and attributes at run time
Can do prototype-style programming
Rails gained fame by intelligent usage of
metaprogramming techniques

17. 11. Even More...
Ruby Class Methods vs. .NET Static Methods
begin/rescue/ensure vs. try/catch/finally
String interpolation
Other new things: symbols, lambdas, closures
No method overloading

18. C'mon in - the water's fine!
Rails for Everyone
Oct. 24, 2009
$395.00
purpleworkshops.com