~ryanlowe/blog: Metablogging

Metablogging

Here's something obvious: I haven't been blogging much. Why not? I like to blog when I feel like it ... and to be honest, I just haven't felt like it lately.

If I feel I'm pressured to blog -- explicitly or implictly from myself or others -- I know the quality will decrease. Given that one of my goals from blogging is to be a better writer, getting better instead of worse is always in the back of my mind. And as I get pickier about my writing, it takes more time and edits to make a blog post.

Another reason is that I just don't have interesting things to talk about publicly. The Ruby on Rails projects I'm working on to make money are -- for now -- under wraps.

I'm narrowing my focus intentionally: I'm a full-time Ruby on Rails consultant and that's all I feel like working on. Eclipse/Java is still appealing -- and I'll continue to do work for RadRails -- but Ruby on Rails is even more appealing than the Java universe right now.

I'm not so sure Java can recover from this, since a lot of the magic of Rails is done by features of the Ruby language that Java just can't pull off. I have a feeling that Java, while not dead, is as much of a dead end as C++ was 10 years ago.

That said, Java will continue to be used extensively for many years... just like C++ and COBOL and FORTRAN live on endlessly (for humourous agreement see this via James Robertson). Looking at my career timeline (20+ years to go) and my goals as a software engineer, I'm thinking Java won't survive that long for the kinds of things I want to do. I needed a new horse to hitch my wagon to and a dynamically-typed language like Ruby seems like the future to me.

Well hey, it looks like I just found a topic to blog about sometime this month! I just have to unmothball my flame-retardant gear. :)

I'm still trying to work on fanconcert every once in a while -- but it's really all about motivation because fanconcert time is off the clock. I have a lot of big ideas for it but I'm out of "free" time to implement them. I also have a few other Rails projects of my own that I might release soon as well.

What else is going on? Well, lots I don't talk about on this blog. :) I was in Las Vegas last weekend with 20 others for a bachelor party. The football and hockey seasons are in full swing and thankfully, the baseball season is over. I am also increasingly getting interested in Canadian national politics -- is it a coincedence that I disagree with almost all of the policies of the party in minority power? I'm thinking it's not.

What about you -- how are you doing?

Posted at October 28, 2006 at 05:18 PM EST
Last updated October 28, 2006 at 05:18 PM EST

Comments

With all the talk about rails, I decided to give it a try, since my hosting service supports it. I have to say, I'm not impressed. Having to make 3 files to make a web page does not strike me as facilitating RAD. I thought ASP.Net was approching the limit, Where each web page consists of the page, and the code behind page. But now we have 3. I admit that I didn't give it much of a chance, But I too am also low on "free" time, I think it's the free beer time that i'm lacking in. Anyway, I think it mostly has to do with the fact that I really want to get stuff done, and learning a new language and method of programming is not the best way to go about it.

» Posted by: Kibbee at October 28, 2006 10:49 PM

I agree, it's tough to take free time to learn something new. That goes for any technology. Personally, I was struck immediately by Rails' features (and Ruby's) and how they could improve my style of work.

To go back further, my tipping point was the pragmatic and agile philosophies that the Rails framework is based on and the fact that it was endorsed early by Dave Thomas, who has a great reputation in the pragmatic and Ruby communities. Those factors for me led me to invest some time to learn more about Rails and I'm glad I did.

These philosophies aren't for every developer and certainly aren't for every type of software project. If you don't buy into the philosophies then maybe Rails just won't suit your style of work ... and that's certainly OK. There are other frameworks in the sea that will fit better.

» Posted by: Ryan at October 29, 2006 02:46 PM

I found the Rails Recipes book to have the biggest impact on my favourable impression of Ruby on Rails. I understood the premise of Rails prior to reading hte book, and I am probably one of the biggest fans of testing (of anyone that I know). And, seeing in how the rails framework nicely encapsulated a know problem with an elegant and simple solution, was simply awesome!

» Posted by: andrew at October 31, 2006 10:35 AM