Jason Swett @JasonSwett Twitter profile

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 day

In my hand I hold my new book. Soon, ladies and gentlemen, you can too!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

I once stared at a piece of code for 15 minutes trying to figure out what "par" meant. Eventually I realized it was "parent". Someone saved 50ms by not typing "ent". The savings was paid for by 15 mins of frustration. Don't abbreviate. Thinking is more expensive than typing.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

5 months

Have you considered going straight to hell?

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

The smartest thing you can do as a programmer is realize how stupid you are, and make accommodations.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

I've been waiting a while to publicly share this news... I got a new job!!! Monday is my first day as CTO at GitHub!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

I'm now running Rails 7 in production!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Today I finished reading Domain-Driven Design! I started it in 2013.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Scarcities that will throw the world into turmoil in the 21st century: - Water - Oil - Senior-level Rails developers

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Right now the demand for Rails developers seems really high. The supply seems really low. I don't see either of these things changing anytime soon. For people working on getting their first programming job, learning Rails might not be a bad bet.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Why use Ruby/Rails in 2022, given the options available in other language ecosystems? Because, as far as I can judge, nothing has yet surpassed Rails in terms of developer productivity and happiness.

Nick Taranov 🇨🇦 | Fractional CTO

@Red_Pill_Dev

2 years

@JasonSwett Can you provide compelling reasons why a person should study Ruby in 2022 with current state of Node, Python, PHP, Go and .NET? It literally has the worst from Node w/o the frontend benefits, without Python & PHP ecosystems and the speed of Go and .NET.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

10 months

A bit of personal news: I'm leaving my job to pursue consulting, teaching and event hosting full-time. The next chapter starts November 10th.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 months

Look what came in the mail today!!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

- Rails engines - Microservices - SPAs - Service objects One of the things I'm most looking forward to in writing Growing Large Rails Applications is explaining why each of these ways of attempting to manage complexity in Rails apps is neither necessary nor helpful.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

A good habit: Always run "git status" and then "git diff" before making a commit. You might be surprised how many mistakes you catch.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

Precision in naming matters. file = "input.txt" is wrong. That's not a file, it's a file name. Call it filename. It's not a nitpick. Little "lies" like this synergize with each other and create a whole that's much harder to understand than it needs to be.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Ever curious how Factory Bot syntax works? Me too, so I decided to code a clone of it myself.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

I'm working on a new book. It's about how to solve the problems that most Rails apps have: - Bloated junk-drawer models - Nasty controllers with a bunch of custom methods - Views with too much view-related logic that can't seem to find a good home - Etc. More on this soon!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Git tip: You can do "git checkout -" to switch to the last branch you had checked out.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

This is obviously just an opinion, but if you're programming and not using Vim as your editor, I think you're missing out on life.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

The Complete Guide to Rails testing is now available for purchase. Use discount code CGRTMAY2021 to get 25% off.

The Complete Guide to Rails Testing - Code with Jason

Learn how to write tests for your Rails applications. Written by Jason Swett, host of the Code with Jason podcast.

www.codewithjason.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Big announcement: Because Sin City Ruby went so swimmingly well, I've decided that I AM indeed going to put on another Ruby conference next year! But not in Vegas. Guess next year's city to win a prize!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Today I started working on my next mini-project: a Rails application template that will help you set up a Rails project "the Jason way": RSpec, Capybara, Devise, Sidekiq, Tailwind, and Docker.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Rails tip: The entities represented by your controllers don't have to have anything to do with your database tables. For example you can have a UserProfilesController even though you don't have a user_profiles db table. I use this tactic a LOT.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Want to follow more Rubyists on Twitter? Here's a list.

Rubyists to follow on Twitter - Code with Jason

If you’d like to keep your finger on the pulse in the Ruby world, here’s a list of Rubyists you can follow. The list is in alphabetical order by last name. The list Bozhidar Batsov Author of RuboCop....

www.codewithjason.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Today I made a cover for my new book.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

5 months

Never in 20+ years of professional programming have I encountered the "brilliant asshole" archetype of coder you hear so much about. I've only encountered a few genuine assholes. Every single one of them has been a complete fucking idiot.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

Much software is built based on a dev’s misunderstanding of what a manager asked for, which is based on a misunderstanding of what the customer asked for, which is based on a misunderstanding of what the customer actually needs.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

My friend @andatki is working on a new book. It's called High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails. This will be a very useful topic for many, and knowing Andy, I'm sure the content will be excellent. Follow the link to get early access to the book.

High Performance PostgreSQL for Rails

pgrailsbook.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Ruby tip: Only add memoization if a) you're sure it's needed and b) you have a plan to measure the before/after performance. Otherwise you're not optimizing, you're just randomly doing stuff.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

A new edition of The Complete Guide to Rails Testing, which will include 8 new chapters on Ruby DSLs, is coming out February 7th.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

I don't think writing new code is a particularly impressive skill. Maintaining existing systems, while not exponentially increasing the cost of maintenance as time goes on, is the hard part.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Good way for Rails devs to improve coding skills: Build a non-trivial cmd-line project using just Ruby, no Rails (e.g. restaurant ordering system). Use tests. Try hard to use OOP, not procedural. I've done this and it has caused me to look at Rails code a lot differently.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Programming tip: When it feels like you're about 90% done, that usually means you're about 30% done.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

It came!!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

A big part of writing understandable code is simply a matter of picking good names. And a big part of picking good names is simply calling things what they are.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Git tip: Always run these before every commit $ git status $ git diff About 10% of the time I catch something that I didn't intend to commit.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

Today I signed a book deal with Manning. The book I'm writing teaches programmers how to use AI to do more work with less effort. My deadline is January 8th. Expecting release not long after.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Question for devs who don't natively speak English: Is it basically true that you have to learn English in order to be a programmer?

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

RailsConf 2024 is happening in Detroit, about 2.5 hours from my house in the wilderness. Crazy idea: after the conf we load up a handful of folks in a van. Then it’s off to my house for fire + food + beers + camping.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Do you like Ruby? Do you like Las Vegas? Do you like fun? I can promise at least TWO of those things at my new conference, Sin City Ruby!

Sin City Ruby - Las Vegas Ruby Conference

Two fun and educational days of Ruby in Las Vegas.

www.sincityruby.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Programming tip: Never underestimate your ability to fuck stuff up.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

The latest Code with Jason episode is out! In this one I talk with David Heinemeier Hansson ( @dhh ) about car racing, productivity, COVID-19, cryptocurrency, and the Canadian trucker protests. Enjoy!

139 - David Heinemeier Hansson - The Code with Jason Podcast

In this episode I talk with David Heinemeier Hansson about car racing, employee/environment fit and its effect on happiness and productivity, COVID-19, cryptocurrency, the Canadian trucker protests,...

www.codewithjason.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

5 months

@sylarruby For 99% of humanity, it does.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

6 months

Yippee!!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

5 months

Don't be envious of people who post pics of themselves working on a laptop outside in full sun. There is literally nothing worse.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

11 months

I met an Evil Martian!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

I bought a Moonlander! I also switched to Dvorak. I now type at around 6 WPM.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

I'm nearly done making my "Understanding Ruby Procs" video. I put WAY more work into this video than any of my previous ones. I decided 2022 will be the year of me making a shit-ton of coding videos.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

And we're off of Webpacker as of this morning!

Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

I'm now running Rails 7 in production!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Now that I've used Turbo Frames a bit I can see what all the hype is about. It's so much better than the old way.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Rails tip: Try to keep all your background jobs to one-liners. Background jobs are a mechanical device, not a code organization device.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

The bigger a Rails app gets, the more I think it makes sense to not be afraid to move from "the Rails way that generally works" to "the custom way that works better for us".

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

6 months

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Programming tip: Run a "git status" and a "git diff" before each commit. It reduces the risk of committing something you didn't mean to commit.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

I don't understand why HAML is no longer en vogue. To me it seems clearly better than regular HTML.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

5 months

Rails conventions can only get you so far. Once an app grows to a non-trivial size, the team needs to impose its own architecture on the codebase in order for the app not to be an unstructured mess.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

6 months

We have been welcomed!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

Next time you're debugging, try this ChatGPT prompt: "I want you to help me diagnose a problem. I'll explain the problem and paste error messages. You should ask me to paste relevant files from my codebase that will help you." I've tried this. It blew my mind.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

6 months

The King of Ruby

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Finally tried out ViewComponent. Verdict: awesome. I put VC in my production app and I can already see a lot of opportunities for tidying up messy templates and converting slow system specs to fast component specs.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

I have a few more episodes in the queue, but after that I plan to take an indefinite hiatus from the Code with Jason Podcast in order to focus on other things. A huge thanks to everyone who has listened and guested over the years!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

7 months

I've decided to start offering free mentorship for Ruby developers.

Free Mentorship - Code with Jason

Looking to improve your programming skills? I offer free mentorship to programmers of all experience levels. I’ve been programming since 1996 in a variety of languages, and I’ve taught programming...

www.codewithjason.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

The other day @palkan_tula gave me the tip that you can speed up your test suite by disabling logging in the test env. That small change alone took my test suite from ~16m to ~13m. Nice tip!! We also recorded a whole podcast episode about test performance...coming soon.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

My office now doubles as a music studio!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

My new Dockerized Rails application template, Instant Rails, is now available for free. Run one command and get a Rails app with Devise and RSpec installed + a PostgreSQL instance. Works even if you don't have Ruby, Rails or PostgreSQL installed.

Instant Rails - Dockerized Rails Application Template

Instant Rails is a tool that allows you to generate a fully-set-up Rails project with just a single command.

www.codewithjason.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

11 months

Romania

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

6 months

Most engineering teams don't need a code review. They need---among other things---a domain model review. If the domain model is sound, it's not too hard to fix the code to match. If the domain model isn't sound, any code "improvement" superficial and almost pointless.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Seeing this makes me very proud. Not QUITE as proud as if they had used a fresh uncreased piece of printer paper, but still proud.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Programming tip: Avoid using boolean flags to change behavior. Such code asks too much hard thinking of the reader. Instead of trying to get one thing to behave in two ways, just make two separate things.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Ruby tip: Blocks, procs, lambdas, etc., despite what you may have read, are not simple and not easy. You can't "master" those concepts from a single blog post. If you don't get it, you're not dumb. There's just actually a lot to learn and it takes time and effort.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Here's how I organize my Rails apps. Covers models, controllers, namespaces, the lib folder, concerns, bg jobs, JS, tests and service objects.

How I organize my Rails apps - Code with Jason

Overview Influenced by the experiences I’ve had last over many years of building and maintaining Rails applications, combined with my experiences using other technologies, I’ve developed some ways of...

www.codewithjason.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Productivity tip: Before you end the workday, make a note of a task (preferably a small and easy one) that you can immediately start working on when you sit down tomorrow. Doing this makes the next morning easier, more enjoyable and more efficient.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

6 months

Programming tip: Do a git status and git diff before every commit. It helps keep you from committing things you didn't intend to.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

For anyone wanting to get started with web dev, I think it's still true that Rails is the best web framework there is. I also think it's still true that @mhartl 's tutorial is the best way to learn Rails.

chloe chia

@chloewchia

3 years

done with finals ~~ and can finally get back into fun startup stuff 😋 1st goal: learning how to code web apps would be GREAT to hear anyone's tips for learning!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

A programmer who tries to save time by skipping tests will experience the same thing as a cook who tries to save time by skipping mise en place. The job will be more hectic, more stressful, take longer, and the end product will probably be worse.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

A long time ago I stopped writing tests for validations. So far nothing bad has happened. Probably won't ever write one again.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

PR reviews go better when the reviewer approaches it not as an authority figure scanning for transgressions, but as a fellow team member helping to figure out the best solution.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

Programming tip: Avoid premature generalization. It's good to consider the possible needs of the future, but usually, it's good to write code only for the needs of today.

Premature generalization - Code with Jason

Most programmers are familiar with the concept of premature optimization and the reasons why it’s bad. As a reminder, the main reason premature optimization is bad is because it’s an effort to solve...

www.codewithjason.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

9 months

I thought about it a million times but suppressed the urge. Then I started working on it, and stopped myself. Now I'm starting again. I'm building a CI product to compete with CircleCI, GitHub Actions, etc. And I'm building it all live and recording it on video!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Everyone is desperate to hire devs right now but nobody has a UNIQUE reason to work for them. I have one: we actually have clean code and we give you the empowerment + permission + education to keep it that way. If that appeals to you, I'm hiring.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

8 months

The view from just outside my office.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Don't be afraid to give things long names. I just created a class called DownloadedForClearingHouseChargeBatchesController. Long and clear beats short and mysterious. Typing is cheaper than thinking.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

The new edition of The Complete Guide to Rails Testing, which will contain 8 new chapters on Ruby DSLs, will be available February 7th.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

4 months

I've started keeping a list of people I know in the Ruby community who are either a) looking for work or b) looking to hire someone If you fall into either category, let me know, and share any relevant details, and I'll add you to my list.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

7 months

Rails tip: If a scope is only used in one place, don't make it a scope. Just put it inline in the place that it's used.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

PSA: after_commit is NOT equivalent to after_save + after_destroy. after_save/after_destroy run inside the db transaction. after_commit runs after the transaction has been committed. Ignorance of this distinction can result in some surprising and pernicious bugs!

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

Programming tip: It's better to be all the way done with half your tasks than to be halfway done with all your tasks.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

6 months

⁦ @adrianthedev ⁩ kicking off Sin City Ruby

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

6 months

Ideally, code tells a high-level story about what's happening, and hides the machinery that gets in the way of the storytelling. It shows the essential and hides the incidental. I feel like this code does roughly the opposite.

Peter Solnica

@solnic_dev

6 months

As a Rails dev, when you see code like this - what are your thoughts? 🤔

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Programming tip: Conditionals read more easily and naturally (IMO) when you put the "normal" case first and the less common case second. "Normally we do this, otherwise we do this."

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

Someone suggested to me to have some jr devs on the Rails with Jason podcast, to talk about the kinds of challenges people run into early on. Great idea. If you're a jr dev and interested, email jason @codewithjason .com. RTs appreciated.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

1 year

ChatGPT prompt to try: "I need to build [your project here]. Help me plan this project. You should ask me questions about my project, and each time I respond, you should ask me more questions if appropriate." You might be astonished by what you see. I was.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

4 months

Most Rails apps - and I suspect most apps in general - are SO much more bloated than they need to be.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

RubyConf has been a treat so far from a linguistic perspective. I've been spoken to in English, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, Russian and Hindi. At one point I even spoke a little Lisp.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

The more I use ViewComponents, the more I'm sure I'll never go back to the old way. Otherwise the logic that belongs to the view doesn't have a good home, and has to lodge with friends, permanently. It was an awkward arrangement.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

How I organize my Rails apps

How I organize my Rails apps - Code with Jason

Overview Influenced by the experiences I’ve had last over many years of building and maintaining Rails applications, combined with my experiences using other technologies, I’ve developed some ways of...

www.codewithjason.com

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

I've spent the last ~3 months doing nothing but fixing flaky tests. I'm working on a blog post this week that will help you understand why flaky tests happen, how to fix them, and how not to write them in the first place.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

5 months

People who advocate the idea of hurriedly and sloppily building an MVP and then cleaning it up after product-market fit are forgetting that cleaning up a sloppy codebase is usually so staggeringly expensive that doing so isn't a remotely realistic option.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

3 years

I know I'm super late to the party, but: I just tried out Turbo Frames for the first time. Pretty great.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

5 months

@walkingriver It’s not built in, it has to be added by an “activist”.

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Jason Swett

@JasonSwett

2 years

One of the biggest benefits of TDD is one that I rarely hear anyone talk about: Writing a test lets you empty your mind of *what* you want to do so that you can then focus 100% on *how* you want to accomplish it.

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