Things I have discovered while working through Agile Web Development with Rails:
- Two years ago I was not wrong to try to learn Ruby before attempting to learn Rails. Learning Ruby (I still have a copy of Mark Slagell’s Learn Ruby in 21 Days at home) was a dismal failure when I tried it back then – it seemed too far removed from the exciting world of Rails. I wanted to implement the Idea RIGHT NOW. I’m now wishing I tried a bit harder with Ruby. While someone with existing expertise in programming other languages might be able to pick up what they need while going straight to Rails, as a non-programmer I am finding lots of stuff that seems incomprehensible without the Ruby (and programming) knowledge I don’t have.
- My obsession with diagramming continues. Now I’m using Inkscape for my ERD diagrams – and as Inkscape outputs SVG (an XML flavour) I can put my diagrams into Subversion. This is cool, if quite a bit over the top. I think I’m avoiding the hard work.
- The hard work (i) at the moment is thinking about how my app is going to work. And what I can cut out of the first iteration. Diagramming helps draw this out, as does thinking about page flows for the various actions that need to be available. Talking with Becky (a potential user) is helpful too.
- The hard work (ii) – what really daunts me: the complexity. It’s bigger and more complex than the Depot app already, and the jump between the two is widening. And this is before I’ve made anything that actually works. I don’t know enough to know if it can work yet. Which is also a worry. Weirdly though, my Idea – the same one I’ve had for over two years – remains just as simple to describe as it always was.
I just need to keep chipping away.