A Beginner's Tutorial Starring DHH
Posted by labrat
Whoa! Don't how this guy scored a one-on-one tutoring session with the one and only DHH but I'm sure glad I found this.
There's really nothing new here that you wouldn't find in the original screencasts other than DHH fumbling with the scaffold and looking up the rails API!!! I'm not trying to make fun or put down DHH but seeing that is such a sigh of relief for people like me doing much more fumbling. It's okay.
For all the hype and some of the negative press he gets you can't deny the fact that DHH is very generous for doing this and an all around nice guy. It's also true for some serious rails hackers like Rick. These people are constantly giving people like me the gift of their time by providing their talents to open source projects. That's definitely one of the things I love about the rails community.
(labrat: thanks for the link!)
I simply emailed David once with the following email:
— “Hi David,
Congratulations on all the success of Rails. Magazines, interviews, etc.
I’d like to know if I could have about 20 minutes of your time for a podcast interview…with a bit of a twist. I’m starting up a new Ruby on Rails club and to get some traction early I was hoping to have a high profile guest from the Rails community. I figure there’s not too many people higher than you so I’m asking you first!
The twist is the podcast is actually a vidcast where my guest “teacher” would connect to my computer through Skype and VNC. The audio/video is recorded on my end so the result is a high quality session between a teacher and a student. For my first episode I’m starting simple: an experienced rails programmer works through a first time rails application with a new wannabe rails programmer.
I know you’re busy. I really don’t have anything you’d probably want or need so I don’t know if this is worth your time. All I can do is ask. If you’re able to help I’d be very grateful.
Please let me know if you’re interested or would like to know more details (I’ve been working on the technical and logistical details for weeks and I think I’m ready to go - I just need a guest :)
Thanks,
Miles K. Forrest” —
I was genuinely shocked to receive a response a couple of days later from David:
“Sounds like fun, Miles. I’m available today if that’s a good fit.”
The people in the Rails community are among the friendliest folks on the Internet. If you’re struggling like me to learn how to develop web applications, I encourage you to read all you can and try your best. When you get stuck, ask someone for help (notice I didn’t say _IF_ you get stuck!) DHH and others on the mailing list and IRC chat room are very approachable.
Miles,
Good luck on your journey and kudos for the initiative!
I’m going throug coder’s block right now. I think my problem is I read too many rails blogs and rails books instead of working things out for myself. Gotta work on that app!