One of my long time goals has been to get back to occasionally writing code. I started programming when I was in 7th grade, but when XOR started to grow I gave it up to run the business. I LOVED writing code. There's nothing like it for me in terms of combining analytical thinking with creative expression. Also, as I transitioned from being a CEO to a CTO I always felt weird about not writing code. Not that I should write code for a living, but leading a technical team is hard when you can't show off occasionally :-)
Over the last month I've been building a website for Domino Theory. Trent Hein, my good friend, co-found at XOR, and now co-founder of Applied Trust Engineering suggested I develop it in Ruby on Rails. That was a great suggestion, and I've had a ton of fun learning the language. It's been frustrating at times, but more often than not it's been very rewarding. I would highly recommend Ruby on Rails for anyone trying to quickly build a heavy database driven web app. I'm not ready to say yet that it should be used to build large scale applications. I have concerns ranging from: maintenance, a limited talent pool to draw from, Rails super cool often confusing abstractions, performance, security. Since learning Ruby and Rails is just a hobby at this point, I'm no expert and just voicing some concerns. I know there are lots of experts out there that would tell me my concerns aren't sound.
Anyway...
Much of my initial learning was guided by a good book called "RailsSpaces."
Greg Greenstreet and Collective Intellect (a big ruby shop) suggested that I also check out: Programming Ruby, The Ruby Way, and Agile Web Development with Rails.
He also turned me on Boulder Ruby Users Group. Their next meeting is Jan. 16. I plan to attend.
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