Remote Ruby

In this episode of Remote Ruby, Jason and Andrew cover a wide range of topics that start out with nothing to do with tech. First, they discuss energy drink flavors and then transition into a humorous exploration of disagreements with Chris, who happens to not be here today. They cover various topics including CMS options, front-end development, and Tailwind CSS customization. They also introduce a gem called “Counter” created by their colleague Jamie, aka “Dad” at Podia, which efficiently handles attribute tracking.  Jason and Andrew discuss the gem’s features and flexibility, highlighting its value in addressing complex counting challenges.  We end with a discussion on email delivery performance issues and ice cream preferences, culminating in a friendly bet about whether Chris will listen to the episode. Hit download now to hear more! 

[00:00:13] Jason and Andrew talk about juicing, and they consider discussing topics that Chris doesn’t agree with, such as Vimeo vs. Wistia, the way he says “query,” and his dislike for ViewComponent.  

[00:03:35] Jason talks about using Spina CMS for Rails, and Andrew mentions using Spinal CMS with Bridgetown. 

[00:06:15] Jason briefly discusses another page builder for Rails called “Maglev” that Bram Jetten works on. Andrew mentions working on their own site builder and they touch on front-end development and tools. 

[00:08:13] The conversation shifts towards Tailwind CSS and the Figma component library “Untitled UI.” Jason talks about Tailwind configuration and arbitrary values for spacing, and he’s customized Tailwind CSS for his projects, including adding display styles and base textiles. Andrew and Jason praise the IntelliSense feature. 

[00:10:34] Andrew mentions feeling out of touch lately due to working with React and he shares an interesting challenge he faced involving data migration and validation. 

[00:12:20] Jason discusses the use of maintenance tasks for data migrations at Podia and their benefits. They talk about default scopes in Rails and the problems they can cause. 

[00:15:30] Jason mentions a gem called “Counter” created by Jamie “Dad” at Podia, and he explains the purpose of the gem, which efficiently handles counting and tracking attributes, and how the gem uses polymorphism and provides flexibility in defining custom counters. Shout-out to “Dad” for creating the gem.

[00:21:14] Find out what happened at the last Rails Conf when Andrew shares the story of telling his boss while riding in an Uber, why he doesn’t wear a seatbelt. 

[00:22:13] Jason shares that he’s trying to improve email delivery performance and using email substitution for personalized links. He discusses his struggles with Action Mailer and email link generation, blaming it for issues. He talks about his efforts with Pre Mailer and Pre Mailer Rails and how he had to skip Pre Mailer to resolve the issue. 

[00:25:12] Andrew asks what Pre Mailer does and Jason explains Pre Mailer’s role in converting styles to inline styles and generating text parts for HTML emails. Andrew mentions “Roadie” was updated five days ago and is now in passive maintenance mode.  

[00:27:08] The conversation shifts to discussing favorite ice cream flavors, their preferences for mixing ice cream flavors, and they place a bet on whether Chris will listen to this episode and come up with a phrase for him to use if he does.

Panelists:

Jason Charnes

Andrew Mason

Sponsor:

Honeybadger

Links:

Jason Charnes Twitter

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

In this episode, Jason, Chris, and Andrew start us off with a conversation about burger toppings preferences, discussing whether certain ingredients should be included in “the works” and sharing tips to prevent burger slippage.  The discussion transitions to programming topics, exploring the challenges of working with multiline environment variables and the intricacies of Bash scripting. The guy’s dive into the benefits of building UI components using frameworks like Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js, emphasizing the importance of well-organized and specialized components for better code management. The conversation also touches on the desire for more pre-built component libraries in the Rails ecosystem and the complexities of using various frontend frameworks. Hit download now to satisfy your appetite for both burgers and development insights! 

[00:00:08] Find out what the guys prefer for their burger toppings and Andrew mentions eating burgers upside down to prevent slippage and eating burgers with chopsticks. 

[00:04:13] The discussion moves to other sandwich places like Firehouse Subs, Jersey Mikes, Subway, and Lenny’s, and Chris brings up the Meat Church BBQ guy who made a smoked cream cheese with hot pepper jelly. 

[00:06:31] Andrew wants BBQ now and tells us about a greatest BBQ place in Arizona, and Chris tells us about an Egyptian guy that moved to Texas that does Texas style but with Egyptian fusion BBQ that is unbelievable. 

[00:07:55] Jason and Chris tease Andrew about booking his flight to Rails World and his ticket to Rails World.  

[00:09:40] Jason expresses his excitement about going to Amsterdam. 

[00:10:33] Chris talks about not having fun adding support for multi-line environment variables in a programming project. Andrew clarifies the concept of multiline environment variables. 

[00:12:53] Chris describes the limitations of RVM vars, which truncates multiline values, and he discusses the process of rewriting and fixing the RVM vars behavior to support multiline values. 

[00:15:43] Andrew and Chris share their recent experiences with writing Bash scripts, discussing the challenges and nuances of Bash scripting, as well as the difficulties of learning and remembering the intricacies of Bash scripting between projects. 

[00:21:07] Andrew talks about his enjoyment of combining different command-line tools to create interactive scripts and functions. He highlights the benefits of creating personalized tools and shortcuts to simplify daily tasks.

[00:23:17] Jason mentions to Andrew that they are recording a podcast at Rails World, and he arranged two recording sessions, one with Adam Wathan, and the other is an open session during the Friday happy hour. 

[00:26:22] The discussion shifts to discussing building UI components using Tailwind CSS and Alpine.js. Jason talks about the concerns and considerations while building and organizing View Components, Chris asks about handling forms and buttons components within Rails, and Andrew emphasizes the importance of well-defined and specialized components for better code organization and discoverability. 

[00:32:09] Jason mentions how he’s using component variants, sizes, and colors within his app, and he wishes for more pre-built component libraries in the Rails ecosystem, like what’s available for React. 

[00:36:00] Jason mentions the use of Alpine.js data directives for reusable functionality and components, Chris and Jason discuss Alpine.js’s ease of use for handling simple UI interactions, and they mention recent version releases of Alpine.js and Laravel Livewire. 

Panelists:

Jason Charnes

Chris Oliver

Andrew Mason

Sponsor:

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

In this episode, Chris, Jason, and Andrew engage in a discussion revolving around the functionality and nuances of generated columns, callbacks, and coding practices in database and Rails applications. They explore the benefits and challenges of these features, and they dive into the complexities of coding tests.  They also discuss the HTML Pipeline library, GitHub’s markdown processing, and the Rails function for rendering rich text associations. Jason, Chris, and Andrew share their personal experiences, they explore the deeper layers of the Rails ecosystem, and they touch on Rails upgrades and the importance of maintaining minimal dependencies. Join us for a blend of tech insights, nostalgia, and humor! 

[00:00:51] Chris jumps right in and asks the guys if they’ve ever used any virtual generated columns, and Jason shares a story about a diesel spill in the water supply near Memphis. 

[00:02:31] In other news this week, Chris talks about the technical aspect of searching for users in the databases and the introduction of generated columns, he mentions Jamie’s involvement in PRs related to the feature, the bugs he encountered while trying to feature in SQLite, and how generated columns work in Active Record and their current limitations.   

[00:09:19] Chris asks Andrew and Jason if they’ve ever used generated or virtual columns in the database. Jason discusses his views on callbacks and the Name of Person gem. Chris mentions Jorge’s post about callbacks. 

[00:12:56] Jason discusses the pros and cons of using callbacks. He finds them convenient but also problematic at times. Chris provides an example where callbacks come in handy. 

[00:15:17] Jason states he has some high-level rules about callbacks, and Chris and Jason discuss when it’s appropriate to use callbacks, like when making HTTP requests or sending emails. 

[00:16:16] Chris brings up an old tutorial on Stripe where the save method also involved verifying data before sending a request to Stripe. 

[00:17:20] Andrew introduces the idea of a “smell test” for potential pitfalls in code. He shares his experience of having to work around callbacks when they caused unexpected changes in records. 

[00:18:08] Jason shares his thoughts on testing, especially when callbacks create tightly coupled associations. 

[00:18:50] The guys share various stories about tests failing due to timing and other unexpected conditions. They also joke about different “solutions” to these issues.

[00:22:24] Jason introduces the HTML-Pipeline library, which he recently used. He praises GitHub for its tech center and variable support, emphasizing its capability in content replacement. Chris recalls using GitHub for its auto-link feature which identifies HTTP and HTTPS links. 

[00:24:46] Chris reminisces about the early days of GitHub, its hiring spree, and the cool open source tools they released. 

[00:25:21] Jason describes building an action-text style structure for content, which allows for rich content editing and rendering, Chris appreciates the simplicity of this system, and they discuss the Rails function and how it renders text associations. 

[00:27:24] Jason highlights a limitation with the ‘render in’ method, where it doesn’t accept certain arguments and he talks about the structure of his board concept and the challenges faced with variable integration. 

[00:28:53] Chris shares his experience working on component stuff for Jumpstart Pro, emphasizing the simplicity and efficiency of their solution. Also, he emphasizes the benefits of keeping dependencies minimal for maintainability. 

[00:33:17] Chris was super excited to see that Rails 7.0.7 was released and speculates about Rails 7.1.0. 

Panelists:

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

Welcome to today’s episode of Remote Ruby, where we dive into another successful year of Rails Hackathon, celebrating the talent and creativity showcased with 37 outstanding submissions from 216 participants across 111 teams, and Chris unveils his Signalman project, a tool that simplifies Rails development. We also venture into discussions about the potential and intricacies of hybrid applications, with Chris advocating for the power of Hotwire Turbo Native and eagerly awaiting the release of Rails 7.1 and Strata.  The upcoming Rail World conference becomes a topic of excitement, from intriguing speaking engagements to unique dining experiences.  Lastly, we explore the latest developer-friendly features from Stripe, including the innovative Workbench beta, which promises to transform the debugging experience. Join us on this thrilling ride through the world of Rails, hackathons, and future tech trends. Hit download now! 

[00:00:13] Rails Hackathon took place, and Chris fills us in on the details and the winners. The Judges’ Favo(u)rite went to ‘Gem.sh’ project by Awesome Docs. The Best Solo project was ‘Rails Duels’ by the Lazy Lambda team, and the Community Favorite award went to the ‘Locale Ninja’ project.  Other notable submissions included ‘Ahoy Captain’, ‘Ruby on Plain,’ ‘First Ruby Quest,’ and ‘AI Quiziverse.’

[00:07:31] Chris worked on a project called Signalman during the Hackathon. It’s like Laravel Telescope for Rails, allowing users to build generators and scaffolds through a friendly UI rather than needing to use the command line.  

[00:09:50] The Rails Hackathon had 216 participants across 111 teams, with 37 teams submitting an entry.  A fun aspect of the event was randomly assigning people to teams, allowing participants to meet new people and make friends. 

[00:12:21] Andrew mentions looking at Gem.sh and how cool it looks, he compares it to the Ruby toolbox, which hasn’t been updated much in recent years. He also praised Active Mermaid, an application that generates UML diagrams for active record tasks. 

[00:14:01] Chris requested suggestions for the theme of the next hackathon. Andrew discusses potential themes, including one based around new features released at Rails World, or web-based themes. He also suggested a hackathon where anything, but Rails could be used to build a web app with Ruby. 

[00:16:15] Jason brings up their speaking engagements at the upcoming Rails World event.  Chris brings up a Tweet that he posted from a Tom Scott video and the guy is talking about trains and says America doesn’t appreciate rails like they used to. 

[00:17:25] There’s a lot of good technical talks lined up at Rails World, and there’s speculation about the release of Rails 7.1 and Strata at Rails World.

[00:21:51] Chris explained the benefits of hybrid applications, specifically how they can shift between web views and native settings depending on the user interaction.

[00:24:12] Andrew points out the importance of a well-built hybrid application, suggesting a poorly built one can negatively impact the user experience. Chris explains the nice part about the Hotwire Turbo Native things and discusses the issues with PWAs. Chris thinks more people should start using Turbo Native to contribute to its development, and Strata could potentially make this process faster and easier.  

[00:27:44] Andrew started learning SwiftUI to build mobile apps, and Chris points out the integration of all the authentication stuff in Turbo Native, making the mobile app development process much quicker. 

[00:30:00] The Rails World agenda is packed with a bunch of awesome talks and there are two tracks. Andrew is going to miss out on this event, and Jason booked a dinner place they’re going to that’s an old fort Island converted into a restaurant. 

<

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

Welcome to another interesting and lively episode of Remote Ruby, where Jason, Chris, and Andrew dive deep into their personal adventures and tech talks, including a detailed discussion on Single Table Inheritance (STI) in Ruby on Rails, sharing different perspectives, use-cases, and alternatives.  Andrew teases about a big project reveal coming up next week, and Jason, now Podia’s ‘Emotional Support Developer’, shares his expertise in managing projects. The conversation takes humorous turns as the group jokes about Andrew’s propensity to speak before thinking, Jason’s new job title, and their collective appreciation of internet memes.  In the mix, we also touch on the decline of Reddit, affordable tech solutions, Andrew’s late adoption of technologies like NFC and 4k monitors, and the art of creating compelling YouTube thumbnails. Tune in and download now to hear more! 

[00:00:39] Andrew talks about his recent time away he had and went hiking and backpacking in the Grand Canyon with Drew Bragg. 

[00:02:00] Jason reveals he’s been managing projects for the last month, and the term “STI” comes up. Andrew teases about a big project they’ve been working on for an entire year, which is to be released soon. 

[00:03:41] Andrew admits that he often speaks without thinking, which leads to him regretting what he says. 

[00:04:06] Andrew asks Chris why there’s no Go Rails video on STI (Single Table Inheritance), leading to a discussion on what STI is and when it’s useful. Jason explains how he uses at Podia to handle different types of events and to avoid having to create separate tables for each type. 

[00:08:54] Chris asks when it’s not suitable to use STI, and Jason provides an example form Podia where different products use STI, but their site builder’s page sections use a different approach. Jason brings up the concept of JSONB an proposes trying a different approach with subclasses in order to avoid adding an unnecessary column. 

[00:13:12] There’s a discussion on the benefits of utilizing a STI and delegated types in Rials to reduce database complexity, with Jason giving specific examples from Job Boardly. 

[00:18:23] They also discuss the concept of overriding methods in subclasses to control the behavior of specific types of users. 

[00:21:07] Jason further discusses how he leverages Rails’ associations to simplify code related to his location example, allowing Rails to implicitly set the type based on the association. 

[00:23:52] Andrew and Jason discuss sharing British memes with each other and Jason reveals his new title at Podia as an ‘Emotional Support Developer.’

[00:24:54] Chris and Andrew talk about the decline of Reddit and Andrew’s shift away from the platform, and Andrew tells us about Tor Browser and NFC (Near-field communication) tags, leading to a discussion about their usage and benefits. 

[00:28:04] Andrew announces he’s recently switched to 4k monitors and that he has several monitors. Jason jokingly labels him a “boomer boy” because of his late adoption of technologies. 

[00:30:01] Chris talks about his Govee LED strip light and the challenges of setting up such lighting systems. Andrew and Jason recall watching a YouTube video with a thumbnail they found intriguing. 

[00:33:33] Chris shares a story about programming on a TI-83, 84 calculator and downloading an app that would let you rotate it sideways instead of vertical. 

[00:35:39] The episode ends with a sharp turn and a conversation about Andrew’s meal delivery service.

Panelists:

Jason Charnes

Chris Oliver

Andrew Mason

Sponsor:

Honeybadger

<

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

Even though we’re missing Andrew today, Chris and Jason keep things lively, kicking off with a fun chat about candies, and unusual dislikes. Then, they dive into the professional world where Jason shares insights from his Job Boardly project and talks about the challenges and tools he found useful, such as Imperavi’s, Article. Chris and Jason have a discussion on various text editors, focusing on Basecamp’s Trix, we hear the difference between Redactor X and Article, and the Revolvapp, which is Imperavi’s email templates editor.  Chris and Jason go deeper into the world of JavaScript development, and they discuss their struggles with customizing elements using CSS and Tailwind.  They also share their thoughts reminding developers to view themselves as Ruby developers, recognizing the broader capabilities of Ruby beyond what Rails offers. Stay tuned for a fun episode and hit download now to hear more! 

[00:00:31] Chris and Jason discuss the absence of Andrew and have a conversation  about specific candies and personal preferences. 

[00:02:22] The conversation shifts to Jason’s project, Job Boardly, where he’s been actively working on giving users more control over their job board’s appearance, and he shares all the secrets and talks about Imperavi, a website editor, and Article. 

[00:07:03] Jason acknowledges the potential pitfalls of storing HTML but praises the user experience offered by the editor, enabling users to directly see the impact of their edits. 

[00:07:56] Chris and Jason debate the complexity of using Trix, and comment on the lack of progress seen in public updates.

[00:09:50] What’s the difference between Redactor X and Article? Jason explains Redactor X is a pure WYSIWIG editor, while Article incorporates both text editing and content layout functionalities. 

[00:11:35] Jason talks about the Revolvapp, discussing its advantages, including having all the functionality from a single source and it’s not a subscription.  

[00:13:00] Chris discusses using the EL transition library for Tailwind CSS stimulus components, noting the library’s simplicity but highlighting some complications when animations overlap due to quick mouse movement.

[00:18:21] Chris talks about simplifying his codebase and moving away from certain older features.  He discussed his decision to discard bundle and compile using the esbuild for modern imports and CommonJS, and he mentions Adam Wathan’s keynote at Tailwind Connect with Sam Selikoff showing off some amazing stuff.

[00:25:55] Jason and Chris converse about their struggles with customizing the look and feel of elements using CSS and Tailwind.  They talk about the benefits and challenges of using Tailwind with Rails, particularly as it relates to component-based projects. 

[00:30:42] Chris discusses the implementation of getters and setters in a single method. He points out that if additional functionality such as sidecar or JavaScript isn’t necessary, and a lot can be accomplished using pure Ruby. 

[00:36:04] Chris and Jason discuss the possibility of using pure forms or creating custom tools instead of relying solely on Rails provided tools.  

[00:40:05] They remind developers to view themselves as more than just Rails developers, highlighting the importance of understanding and utilizing the broader capabilities of Ruby beyond just what Rails offers. 

[00:41:05] Jason brings up his experience with earlier versions of Laravel that had a form builder which later got phased out. He praises Laravel’s way of handling inline errors. Chris expresses his views about the tendency of developers to over-engineer forms. 

[00:44:54] Chris adds his thoughts on “conceptual compression,” discussing he balance between abstracting processes and

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

On today’s episode, Chris and Andrew have an early start and catch up on their lives. Then, they dive deep into the latest developments in the Rails community, including the release of Rails 7.0.6, bug fixes, and changes to Active Record.  They share their experiences with GitHub deployments, documentation issues, and how they navigate through its challenges. They discuss the benefits of MySQL and Postgres, as well as the ongoing advancements in Postgres, specifically Crunchy Data’s contributions.  Chris and Andrew share their views on working in different company sizes, the joys of learning new things, dealing with burnout, and the slower pace of feature shipping in larger companies. There’s a discussion on Reddit’s recent actions, its impact on subreddit moderations, and the discontinuation of the Reddit API. We’ll also hear about Chris’s cooking adventures, experimenting with different flavors, and making some Texas Twinkies. Hit download to hear more! 

[00:02:00] Chris and Andrew talk about the release of Rails v7.0.6 with bug fixes and changes in libraries like Action Cable and Active Record, including subqueries and associations with polymorphic relationships.

[00:06:10] Andrew is curious about the GitHub deployment stuff and expresses his desire to create GitHub deploys from Heroku. They talk about the complexities of setting up GitHub deployments and the lack of clear information from GitHub, and how the documentation with Checks API can be confusing to set up. 

[00:09:49] Chris discusses the challenges of figuring out GitHub’s deployment process and the lack of documentation. He expresses frustration with the lack of clarity and support for smaller accounts. 

[00:14:41] PlanetScale is brought up and its association with MySQL, and they discuss the benefits of MySQL and Postgres, and the new features and advancements in Postgres, including Crunchy Data’s contributions and the potential use of Postgres in web environments. 

[00:17:43] Chris shares a fun story about working on implementing jump server support in the new Hatchbox.  They encountered unexpected complexities with the net-ssh gem to address the problem. 

[00:29:51] Chris emphasizes the importance of being mindful of memory usage and performance trade-offs and how it becomes more critical when building large-scale products. 

[00:31:59] Andrew mentions that releasing features can be challenging and Podia is currently facing that challenge with releasing a feature while also building onto it. He emphasizes the importance of coordination, communication, and learning from code to recognize and solve problems faster. 

[00:33:46] Chris reflects on his experience working at a consulting agency and how it allowed him to learn quickly by facing different projects and finds joy learning new things as a programmer. 

[00:34:43] We hear Andrew talk about feeling stuck in a job, comparing small companies which offer more challenges, to big companies where employees get stuck doing the same tasks, and Chris tells us he’s happiest when learning new things and how it accelerates burnout.

[00:35:57] Chris discusses the challenges faced by big companies when it comes to feature shipping due to the need to ensure existing users are not negatively impacted, and Andrew highlights the varying levels of impact when breaking code and emphasizes the importance of being able to find and fix bugs quickly. 

[00:39:00] We hear about Chris’s mad cooking skills with pulled pork and experimenting with smoked cream cheese which he hopes to use in some Texas Twinkies. 

[00:43:53] The conversation shifts to Reddit and its recent actions regarding subreddit moderation and the discontinuation of the Reddit API, and they express frustration with Reddit’s handling of the situation and t

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

In today’s episode, Jason, Chris, and Andrew kick it off with a discussion about their work environments, seating options, and Andrew’s hilarious story about going to IKEA, pencil behind his ear, tape measure, and his Mustang, to buy a new couch. We shift gears (see what we just did there) to the recent buzz surrounding the Rails World event and some speculations about Rails 7.1 features, and Chris tells us about Rails Hackathon that’s coming up in July.  From there, we move into a more personal space as Jason shares his experience of shifting from coding to manager and the associated challenges, the productivity debate, and how we handle our time allocation between coding and managerial tasks.  We wrap up with reflections on career progression, with Jason’s return to coding from management acting as an inspiration for others. Hit download now for an episode filled with humor, technical talk, and personal journeys in the world of coding. 

[00:00:58] Chris reveals he has acquired a new chair that belonged to his wife, leading to a discussion about comfortable seating options available on Amazon. Then the conversation turns towards their cars, as Andrew shares a funny story about his Mustang, which turns into a debate about the Mustang Mach-E.

[00:04:42] There’s a conversation about the recent excitement surrounding the Rails World event which sold out very quickly. If you missed out getting tickets, you can sign up for RubyConf in San Diego.  

[00:07:15] Andrew wonders why it sold out so fast, and Chris and Jason believe it’s the first official Ruby on Rails event, the size of the event, and the involvement of the creator of Rails as contributing factors to the excitement. They also speculate about the release of Rails 7.1 and other upcoming features in the Rails ecosystem. 

[00:11:00] Andrew shares a trick he stole from Ben that invalidates the bundle cache and re-downloads every gem on the system from scratch whenever Bundler is run. Chris brings up a Tweet that humorously tells Linux users to remove the French language pack, which is a trick to delete all files on the system. 

[00:11:56] Chris brings up another Tweet at GoRails about Homebrew issues related to using backups from an Intel Mac on an Apple silicon Mac. 

[00:12:54] Chris tells us they launched their new updated version of the Rails Hackathon site which will be going on July 28-30, 2023.

[00:16:56] Jason shares that he’s been more focused on project management than coding recently. Chris expresses that he still measures his productivity by how much code he wrote even though he does more management tasks now, and Andrew confesses to having backfilled his GitHub commit history. 

[00:21:01] Jason shares his experience of shifting from being a coder to a manager, and Chris questions Jason about the division of his time between coding and managing.

[00:22:52] Chis shares how his productivity is also affected by various distractions and struggles of getting back into the zone after being interrupted. 

[00:24:04] Jason explains that Podia was very supportive of his transition to management and understood that his output would be different. He found it challenging to adjust and decided that he wasn’t interested in management at that point in his career and prefers problem-solving with code. Andrew shares his greatest output comes from working with other people.

[00:27:04] Jason shares how he thought the only way to advance in his career was to move to management, but after reading the book, Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell, he realized this was not necessarily true. 

[00:31:32] Andrew expresses how Jason’s transition back to coding from management inspired him. 

[00:32:20] Jason appreci

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

On this episode of Remote Ruby, Jason, Chris, and Andrew reunite after a hiatus, starting their conversation with a playful idea of starting a band and Andrew possibly recording a new podcast intro. A trip down memory lane brings forth their childhood musical preferences before they shift to an in-depth conversation about programming. 

Andrew and Chris talk about their recent experiences refactoring code and the complexities they encountered, highlighting how such processes can improve performance and efficiency.  The discussion touches on topics ranging from Rails features and documentation, the usefulness of Ruby Infinity, the elegance of removing conditionals in programming, and using programming languages like Haskell and Elixir, their unique features, and how they handle conditionals differently. Also, Jason announces he’s planning a Southeast Ruby conference for early 2024 in Memphis and how he wants to focus on the community aspect. Hit download to hear much more! 

[00:00:24] Jason, Chris, and Andrew reminisce about their musical preferences during their childhood, and they acknowledge it’s been a while since their last meeting, partially dues to Jason and Andrew contacting COVID. 

[00:04:53] The conversation shifts to programming, where Andrew and Chris share that they’ve been writing a lot of code but struggle to remember specifics. Chris talks about his recent work on refactoring the Acts As Tenant gem to depend on Rails Current Attributes instead of the RequestStore gem. 

[00:08:24] Chris tells us he’s not sure whether he’ll merge his refactor, as he’s concerned about potentially creating more problems for himself while maintaining the gem.

[00:09:30] Andrew discusses his recent experience of refactoring code, which involved rewriting a method multiple times, working with polymorphism across models, dealing with scopes, and solving problems related to pagination. He found the process challenging but ultimately successful.

[00:12:57] We also hear something that happened where Andrew improved loading efficiency and performance by deferring the loading objects until a button is clicked rather than loading all at once during page load.

[00:13:49] Jason shares an instance where he used Ruby Infinity in his code for unlimited job posts in an application he built a few months ago. 

[00:14:56] Chris finds it intriguing that infinity is located under the float class in Ruby. Jason repeats the benefits of using Ruby Infinity, including how it simplifies arithmetic operations in the code and avoids errors. 

[00:17:19] Chris shares a story about developing a generic pagination method for APIs in Jumpstart Pro. He mentions the process took several iterations to design a system flexible enough to handle various API structures. 

[00:22:03] Chris brings up programming learning experiences and highlights how people often think in terms of “IF statements” while trying to solve problems, which results in their code having many “IF statements.”

[00:24:12] Jason shares a story from a CS class he took, and the first day of class the teacher asked, “How do you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?”

[00:25:16] Andrew shares his experience teaching his younger brother who’s studying computer science and how you have to learn how to break down problems, and Chris tells us some instances and emphasizes how these little insights can change one’s perspective on coding. 

[00:28:21] Jason ponders about the potential impact of learning programming using a functional language as the first language. 

[00:28:52] Chris talks about his experience learning Haskell and its ability to define the same method name with different arguments. He also discusses the utility of removing conditionals in programming, specifically

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter

In this episode, Chris and Andrew have a candid discussion about their programming experiences, the demanding nature of their jobs, and the joy and complexity of coding.  They have a conversation on challenges with dependencies, the new branch settings on GitHub, TypeScript, JavaScript, and the functionality and benefits of using JSDoc. They also dive into the importance of flexibility in code, the evolution of coding practices, their preference for smart editors that provide real time updates, and the topic on the use of AI tools in programming is discussed and whether AI assists or inhibits the developer’s thought process. Also, Andrew tells us about Prefab, a cool Rails tool he recently discovered and found very useful. Hit download to hear more! 

[00:00:35] Andrew tells us he has an app to monitor his activity and sometimes finds himself working for 11 hours straight, and Chris reminisces about the early days of learning to code and the excitement of late night programming. 

[00:04:58] Chris was struggling with dependencies in his work and considers writing his own basic glob functionality. 

[00:11:38] The guys discuss the utility of new branch settings on GitHub, and Andrew tells us he made his own commitlit config and updated his prettier config on his GitHub. 

[00:12:52] They move onto the topic of JavaScript and TypeScript, bringing up JSDoc, and Andrew explains the functionality and benefits of using JSDoc. He shares his discovery that JSDoc can be used to add TypeScript functionality without writing TypeScript, primarily using type comments. 

[00:16:47] Chris notes that this approach allows for middle ground between JavaScript and TypeScript, enhancing editor hints without the complexity of a fully typed language. 

[00:22:50] Chris tells us his journey began in college where he learned multiple languages such as Ruby, Python, C, and Visual Basic. He emphasizes the importance of flexibility in code, allowing it to evolve over time. 

[00:25:18] Andrew shares his dislike for Sorbet and talks about his preference for Solargraph in VS Code, a language server that uses YARD docs for typing.  He’s found this useful in his work, particularly when refactoring. 

[00:27:55] We hear about the greatest code Andrew’s ever written, and Chris and Andrew discuss the use of dynamic languages and how it’s crucial not to lose the essence of languages like Ruby by over-imposing typing. 

[00:33:49] Chris discusses the use of AI tools in programming, such as GitHub’s Copilot, and notes that while they’re useful in generating codes, but they may limit the developer’s thought process since they tend to rely on AI’s suggestion without thinking through the problem. 

[00:37:26] Andrew explains why he showed Chris some documentation he generated from ChatGPT 4, and they both agree that AI-powered tools can make documentation more efficient. 

[00:46:53] Andrew talks about his experience with Product Hunt, and a very useful Rails tool he recently discovered called prefab.cloud, which allows developers to target their Rails logs for specific user issues.

[00:53:12] Chris and Andrew discuss the difficulty of dealing with Twitter API and Reddit API pricing, lamenting the high costs for developers. They also talk about their frustrations with companies that acquire and shut down successful third-party apps instead of supporting them.

Panelists:

Chris Oliver

Andrew Mason

Sponsor:

Honeybadger

Links:

Jason Charnes Twitter

• Chris Oliver X/Twitter
• Andrew Mason X/Twitter
• Jason Charnes X/Twitter