RailsConf 2009: The RailsConfening

Noel Rappin, Friday, April 24, 2009 @ 1:44 pm

In just over a week, I'll be headed off to RailsConf for my second visit.

Here's an overview of some of the sessions I'm looking forward to.

First, of course, is my own: Below and Beneath TDD: Test-Last Development and Other Real-World Test Patterns. It's at 2:50 on Tuesday, May 5, in Ballroom B. I'll be talking about how Test-Driven Development can fail, how to recognize failure patterns, and how and why to move back to a successful process. No matter what your level of comfort is with testing, I think you'll get something out of this talk. It's going to be fun, and I'm excited about the chance to present.

I'm also going to be giving out free copies of Rails Test Prescriptions (well, it's an ebook, I'll be giving out free licenses). I haven't quite worked out the exact details yet, but it'll be similar to last year's plan, and will involve seeing me or attending my session. Follow the book on Twitter for information about giveaways. Follow me on Twitter for general updates about the conference.

And come up and say hi -- I'd love to meet people who read this blog or the Rails Prescriptions book.

Other talks and sessions that I'm particularly interested in include:

Monday:

Building Next Generation Web Apps With Rails and SproutCore. Very much hoping my flight on Monday gets me there in time to get to this tutorial. I'm interested SproutCore especially as a rich application alternative to Flash.

Tuesday, other than me:

The morning keynote is DHH. He's always interesting to hear speak.

iPhone on Rails with Mike Clark. We're increasingly doing projects that integrate mobile and web resources.

It's worth mentioning that Ballroom B is very nearly a testing track all day Tuesday. David Chelimsky on Mock Objects, Kevin Barnes on non-fixtured data, Larry Karnowski and Jason Rudolph on JavaScript testing, me, and Aslak Hellesøy on Cucumber.

That last slot on Tuesday is a very tough call between that Cucumber talk and Obie Fernandez on business practices.

Wednesday

Tough call in the 11:45 slot between Are You Taking Things Too Far, by Michael Koziarski and a Rails 3 talk by Matt Aimonetti.

I'm hoping to go to at least one of the legacy talks, probably Pat Maddox and BJ Clark's

The evening keynote is Robert Martin, called "What Killed Smalltalk Could Kill Ruby Too". Very interested in this one. (Last year, Kent Beck, this year Robert Martin. Maybe next year's "Smalltalker Keynote" could be Alan Kay? Pretty please?)

Thursday

Webrat, which I've been using via Cucumber. I'm interested to see what this talk says about Webrat on its own.

The Rack talk looks interesting.

The Rails Envy talk on the year in innovation is probably a good one to attend to pick up some cool thing I've overlooked.

Hope to see you there!

Related posts:

1. RailsConf ‘09: After the RailsConfening
2. Welcome To RailsConf
3. More Kudos for Rails Prescriptions
4. Announcing Rails Prescriptions
5. RailsConf 2008 and Free Book Giveaway

Comments (1)

Software Development

Comments: 1 so far

• Leave a comment
• Comment feed for this post
• TrackBack URL

1. 

   Looks like you have some good stuff selected. There is so much I’m looking forward to. See ya there!

   Comment by Derek Neighbors, Friday, April 24, 2009 @ 3:01 pm

Leave a comment