Ruby Training for Programmers (5 days)

Ruby Training for Programmers Overview

Ruby is a dynamic, object-oriented, functional language. Ruby has become extremely popular thanks to its elegance, widespread deployment, and the Ruby on Rails framework.

Through a series of hands-on lab exercises, you will learn how to develop and test Ruby applications.Through a series of hands-on lab exercises, you will learn how to develop and test Ruby applications. This a Ruby language training course and does not focus on Rails development. The small Rails project at the end of the course is optional.

Ruby Training for Programmers Course Goals

• Learn to write and test Ruby programs
• Learn to program in both object and functional styles
• Learn to use Ruby's standard libraries
• Learn to take advantage of duck typing
• Learn to automate repetitive coding tasks with metaprogramming
• Learn to build a simple Rails application

Ruby Training for Programmers Course Prerequisites

Experience in the following areas is required:

• Understand object-oriented principles
• Create, test, and execute programs in an object-oriented language such as Java
• Create and edit text files using a text editor

Ruby Training for Programmers Course Outline

1. Exploring Ruby
   1. Running the Interactive Ruby Shell (IRB)
   2. Running Ruby scripts
   3. Finding documentation
   4. Reflecting on objects
2. Testing Ruby
   1. The Test::Unit library
   2. Verifying code with assertions
   3. Setting up tests
   4. Automating tests with rake
   5. Covering all paths with rcov
3. Standard Types
   1. Strings
   2. Regular Expressions
   3. Arrays
   4. Hashes
   5. Ranges
4. Objects and Classes
   1. Defining classes
   2. Instantiating objects
   3. Creating attributes
   4. Implementing initializers
5. Functional Ruby
   1. Invoking methods
   2. Invoking blocks
   3. Wrapping blocks as Procs
   4. Capturing a binding
6. IO
   1. Using stdin and stdout
   2. Reading and writing files
   3. Reading and writing sockets
   4. Accessing the web with Net::HTTP
   5. Screen scraping with WWW::Mechanize
7. Control Flow
   1. Expressive loops
   2. Flexible matching with case expressions
   3. Exception handling
   4. Non-local jumps with catch and throw
8. Classes revisited
   1. Using modules for namespaces
   2. Using modules as mixins
   3. Accessing an object's metaclass
   4. Flexible attributs with OpenStruct
9. Reflection and Duck Typing
   1. Reflecting on methods
   2. Querying the inheritance hierarchy
   3. Querying for specific methods
   4. Tracing program execution
10. Metaprogramming
    1. Dynamic method calls
    2. Traversing the ObjectSpace
    3. Creating code on the fly with definemethod, methodmissing, and eval
11. Design Patterns Are Library Calls
    1. Mixing in the Singleton module
    2. Making an object Observable
    3. Options for automating delegation
12. Serialization Formats
    1. Reading and writing XML
    2. Reading and writing YAML
    3. Reading and writing JSON
    4. Readind and writing CSV
13. Databases
    1. Connecting to databases
    2. Issuing queries and updates
    3. Mapping data to objects with ActiveRecord
14. Rake
    1. Comparing rake, ant, and make
    2. Creating basic tasks
    3. Tasks are just Ruby
    4. Using file tasks
    5. Common command-line options
    6. Grouping tasks with namespaces
15. Introduction to Ruby on Rails
    1. Building a Rails scaffold in 5 minutes
    2. Simplifying glue code with convention over configuration
    3. Keeping data agile with migrations
    4. Making changes to Models, Views, and Controllers

Ruby Training for Programmers Course Materials

In addition to a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all the programming examples, each student will receive a copy of Programming Ruby by Dave Thomas, Chad Fowler and Andy Hunt.

Each student will also receive a one-year subscription to Webucator's online reference library, which contains hundreds of the most current electronic technology books - a $149.95 per student value.

Ruby Training for Programmers Technical Requirements

1. Operating Systems Options
   • Operating System Options
     • Windows Vista
     • Windows XP with Service Pack 2
   • Macintosh
2. Ruby on Rails Framework
   • Instant Rails on Windows
     • Download
   • Ruby, Rails and MySQL on any non-Windows machine
3. Any Text, HTML, or Ruby Editor
4. Browser Options
   • Internet Explorer 6.0 or later
     • Download
   • Firefox
     • Download
   • Safari
     • Download

Class Files for Ruby Training for Programmers

The class files for this course are included on a DVD provided by the instructor.