Austin On Rails

Come on out this month to Datran Media at 7th and Brazos (just inside the doors, there is a bank of elevators; head to the 8th floor) to catch a tutorial on state machines and pick up some new Ruby ORM skills. As we tend to do, we will be meeting on the fourth Tuesday of the month to discuss Ruby and Rails for a couple of hours. Afterwards we will adjourn to the local pub to continue the conversations. Make sure you arrive a bit early to get a good spot!

Crossing State Lines on Rails

Donald Wilde got into programming from a desire to control his trains as a kid. He never has gotten around to doing that (though he's helped his Dad do so), but he's programmed just about everything else from wire handling machinery to voice-operated VCR controllers. Since 1997, he's been involved with web programming and FOSS as a contributor and a consumer.

State Machines have been a cornerstone of systems design for a lot longer than transistors and the Gang of Four. After a rapid tour of the basics to get you thinking, we'll get into the meat of the presentation: an examination of two different Ruby implementations with practical demonstrations in a Rails environment. Don will leave you inspired to consciously add state machine design to your Controller toolbox and point you to starting points for learning more.

DataMapper: Tomorrow's ORM Today

The boys from Bryan are back and this time their talking about DataMapper, an ORM modeled after that other pattern by Martin Fowler. DataMapper is an alternative to ActiveRecord with some lofty goals of its own. Fast, thread-safe, and feature rich, DataMapper would be downright enterprisy, if it weren't for all the innovation they're cooking up. DataMapper is a primo example of an ORM that has evolved beyond the typical relational database setup.

Brian & Ben are partners in software consultancy specializing in Django, Rails, and Merb development. The team has closely followed the progress of both Merb and DataMapper since their respective 0.9 rewrites, contributing to the projects whenever possible. They use Merb + DataMapper as their primary web stack on all new projects.

Come on out and join us!

Please come out and mingle with all the Ruby and Rails enthusiasts visiting town for the SXSW Interactive Festival. We are taking over The Lodge at Buffalo Billiards at 6th and Brazos. This years party is going to be bigger than last year and all the food and drink is on the house, courtesy of FiveRuns. Please let us know if you are coming by registering at upcoming.org so we'll have an idea of the headcount.

SPECIAL NOTE: If you do not have a badge, you must also email me at [scales] [at] [pobox.com] to RSVP for entrance to the party.