I just taught my girlfriend - who has never coded before - how to code in
Ruby. Is that a testament to how easy Ruby is or what? I've only been
using it a few weeks myself.
I had to share this. That was all 
Cliff
this is awesome - i have the same desire what did you have her code -
perhaps we can start a thread on what you can get your gf to code... 
···
On 5/4/07, Cliff Rowley <cliffrowley@gmail.com> wrote:
I just taught my girlfriend - who has never coded before - how to code in
Ruby. Is that a testament to how easy Ruby is or what? I've only been
using it a few weeks myself.I had to share this. That was all
Cliff
I also started teaching an old flame how to program. She went through
the "rolling with Ruby on Rails" tutorial and is as delighted as a kid
in a candy store. If she tried .NET programming instead, I expect that
I would be ducking computer parts as she hurled the bits of what
remained of her computer at me. 
···
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
I tried to teach a girl C once.
Never did find out what happened to her.
···
On 5/3/07, Cliff Rowley <cliffrowley@gmail.com> wrote:
I just taught my girlfriend - who has never coded before - how to code in
Ruby. Is that a testament to how easy Ruby is or what? I've only been
using it a few weeks myself.I had to share this. That was all
Cliff
Mine has been working through Chris Pine's learn to program. She enjoys
it, says it is like a puzzle. (wean her off sudoku at least).
THough I think command line programs aren't actually challenging her
enough, but they are time consuming.
You should have seen her face when I fired up IRB and showed her how
to find out what methods a particular instance supports. I just had to
broaden her horizons a bit, so that she doesn't consider CLI to be all
there is to making apps.
It would be a waste with Ruby, where simple short scripts can have
enormous power (Camping, I am looking at you)
···
On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
this is awesome - i have the same desire what did you have her code -
perhaps we can start a thread on what you can get your gf to code...
We wrote a little game together, a guessing game where the computer thinks
of a number between 1 and 100 and you have to guess higher or lower until
you get it right. Very simple but effective =)
···
-----Original Message-----
From: Ivor Paul [mailto:ivorpaul@gmail.com]
Sent: 04 May 2007 11:10
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: Ruby love
this is awesome - i have the same desire what did you have her code -
perhaps we can start a thread on what you can get your gf to code...
On 5/4/07, Cliff Rowley <cliffrowley@gmail.com> wrote:
I just taught my girlfriend - who has never coded before - how to code
in Ruby. Is that a testament to how easy Ruby is or what? I've only
been using it a few weeks myself.I had to share this. That was all
Cliff
*blasphemes* I tried to teach mine Smalltalk. It didn't work out so hot
because the little program we put together managed to crash the Squeak
runtime.
···
On 5/4/07, Lloyd Linklater <lloyd@2live4.com> wrote:
I also started teaching an old flame how to program. She went through
the "rolling with Ruby on Rails" tutorial and is as delighted as a kid
in a candy store. If she tried .NET programming instead, I expect that
I would be ducking computer parts as she hurled the bits of what
remained of her computer at me.--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.
Disclosure: As part of a school project, I've been writing about partial order planning and implemented a simple partial order planner in Ruby. However, that project was due today and has been submitted already, so feel free to offer pointers if you can, as I am interested in improving it.
Also, I wasn't sure how to do this post, since I'm not in the habit of posting unsolicited links to my blog on mailing lists. However, the entire thing was really long (I felt too long for email), so I posted it to my blog so as to not write a book on the list =). Therefore, I decided to go with the [ANN] header to warn people, but also I wanted others to know I was asking for help as well. I'm not sure about the social norms regarding something like this, so please forgive me if I've broken them.
Anyway, the post is at http://www.codeodor.com/index.cfm/2007/5/4/Constructing-a-POP-Domain-Specific-Language-in-Ruby/1173 and it describes my attempt at creating a partial order planner in Ruby.
Specifically, I wanted to ask 3 questions/favors:
1) I'd love a critique on and comments about how to improve my use of Ruby. I've been using it for several months, but I'm sure there are ways I can improve it (my style and usage of the language).
2) For anyone who is interested or has knowledge on the subject, can you spot any weaknesses or identify areas of improvement in the program as implemented?
3) Is there any interest in the community in seeing this evolve into a real project?
Thanks for your help,
Sam
If you try to throw her some Camping, make sure she pretty decently
understands Ruby first. Camping breaks some "rules" and it does some
things really weird, which she might try to use/implement in other
apps, when it probably isn't a good idea. But do teach her Camping!
I am going to start teaching a friend with no programming experiance
Ruby using _why's TryRuby (and HH when an os x port gets out). If you
are on Windows though, get your gf's Hackety Hack, it's great!
···
On 5/4/07, Richard Conroy <richard.conroy@gmail.com> wrote:
On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
> this is awesome - i have the same desire what did you have her code -
> perhaps we can start a thread on what you can get your gf to code...Mine has been working through Chris Pine's learn to program. She enjoys
it, says it is like a puzzle. (wean her off sudoku at least).THough I think command line programs aren't actually challenging her
enough, but they are time consuming.You should have seen her face when I fired up IRB and showed her how
to find out what methods a particular instance supports. I just had to
broaden her horizons a bit, so that she doesn't consider CLI to be all
there is to making apps.It would be a waste with Ruby, where simple short scripts can have
enormous power (Camping, I am looking at you)
--
Chris Carter
concentrationstudios.com
brynmawrcs.com
Great, thanks guys.
I think I will start by trying the guessing game and maybe make it more
complicated from there on.
So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits? 
Ivor
···
On 5/4/07, Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@gmail.com> wrote:
On 5/4/07, Lloyd Linklater <lloyd@2live4.com> wrote:
>
> I also started teaching an old flame how to program. She went through
> the "rolling with Ruby on Rails" tutorial and is as delighted as a kid
> in a candy store. If she tried .NET programming instead, I expect that
> I would be ducking computer parts as she hurled the bits of what
> remained of her computer at me.
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.
>*blasphemes* I tried to teach mine Smalltalk. It didn't work out so hot
because the little program we put together managed to crash the Squeak
runtime.
Great, thanks guys.
I think I will start by trying the guessing game and maybe make it more
complicated from there on.So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits?
Well, it wasn't Ruby, it was C, but we've been married just under 10 years now...
Although come to think of it I'm not sure if she really wanted to learn C in the first place or was just humoring me
-philip
You know, this is a little bit more of a sensitive topic than it might
seem. It is a great to teach people close to you to program, but I
don't know that it's for you to reap 'benefits'.
I wonder if there are good ways that we can get more women involved in
programming. Me teaching one of my ex-girlfriend's Perl was actually
a pretty bad experience because I found myself treating her like a
hacker automatically and it caused a lot of social stress...
Of the females on this list, how did you get into programming? How
can we be better at being supportive of getting women involved in
programming?
These questions I think are important for us to think about... If
you've been to any users groups or conferences (and I know this isn't
just a Ruby problem), the gender imbalance is startling...
···
On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
Great, thanks guys.
I think I will start by trying the guessing game and maybe make it more
complicated from there on.So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits?
lol
yeah, i want my gf to learn to code becuase I want her to see how "simple"
it is - to demistify it. I dont really expect that she will take to it and
become a programmer, but I think it will give me coding instead of watching
a chick-flick somewhat more credable
···
On 5/4/07, Philip Hallstrom <ruby@philip.pjkh.com> wrote:
> Great, thanks guys.
>
> I think I will start by trying the guessing game and maybe make it more
> complicated from there on.
>
> So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits?Well, it wasn't Ruby, it was C, but we've been married just under 10 years
now...Although come to think of it I'm not sure if she really wanted to learn C
in the first place or was just humoring me-philip
So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits?
You know, this is a little bit more of a sensitive topic than it might
seem. It is a great to teach people close to you to program, but I
don't know that it's for you to reap 'benefits'.I wonder if there are good ways that we can get more women involved in
programming. Me teaching one of my ex-girlfriend's Perl was actually
a pretty bad experience because I found myself treating her like a
hacker automatically and it caused a lot of social stress...Of the females on this list, how did you get into programming? How
can we be better at being supportive of getting women involved in
programming?
I'm not female, but one thing I learned about my wife while teaching her C (and anything for that matter) is that our styles are very very different.
I'm breadth first and want to learn a lot about the "why" of things and get a decent grasp on everything (ie, when learning loops, i want to read about for, while, do all at once before trying any of them).
My wife is just the opposite. Depth first. Show me the for loop. Show me some examples. Let me use those examples to build something on my own. Now show me the while loop.
We're like that with everything... doesn't matter what it is, and invariable she says "just show me how play a movie" while I'm in the middle of pointing out how cool is that the DVD player can show you different views, and angles, and mark spots for easy playback, and...
Luckily, we have a system.. who's gonna teach, and in what style
Not sure if all women are this way (probably not), but mine is.
-philip
This is most definitely a sensitive topic. I'm going to ask you a question
that will seem flip but is actually serious. You say "these questions are
important for us to think about." My question to you is: "why?" In other
words, what exactly is undesirable about the fact that there is a gender
imbalance in software development and computer tech in general? Are you
concerned with getting more bodies into the profession? Don't worry, they're
growing programmers like crazy in India and China. Are you concerned with
getting more women into well-paying jobs? Well, that's another question
entirely.
I deal primarily with very large companies in my work, and I find that while
the lower IT ranks (programmers, sysadmins and other techs) are still
overwhelmingly male, women are nearly at a level with men in the
higher-value-added (and better-paid) echelons. That would include CIOs,
senior business analysts, program managers, and account representatives. In
other words, we guys are interacting mostly with machines (and seem entirely
content to), while the women are interacting with PEOPLE, and making
decisions with real financial and business impact.
How's this for a gender imbalance: look at the male-vs-female ranks in the
medical schools today. In twenty years when today's med students are at the
top of their careers, we'll be asking how the medical profession came to be
so female-dominated and what (if anything) to do about it. In the law
schools, men and women are now about even. (Since the MBA has come to be
such a throwaway degree, I'm now convinced that the JD is a more attractive
degree for people who aspire to senior management.)
···
On 5/4/07, Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@gmail.com> wrote:
Of the females on this list, how did you get into programming? How
can we be better at being supportive of getting women involved in
programming?These questions I think are important for us to think about... If
you've been to any users groups or conferences (and I know this isn't
just a Ruby problem), the gender imbalance is startling...
"but I don't know that it's for you to reap 'benefits'."
You're kidding, right? Note the satirical smiley...
Ivor
···
On 5/4/07, Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@gmail.com> wrote:
On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
> Great, thanks guys.
>
> I think I will start by trying the guessing game and maybe make it more
> complicated from there on.
>
> So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits?You know, this is a little bit more of a sensitive topic than it might
seem. It is a great to teach people close to you to program, but I
don't know that it's for you to reap 'benefits'.I wonder if there are good ways that we can get more women involved in
programming. Me teaching one of my ex-girlfriend's Perl was actually
a pretty bad experience because I found myself treating her like a
hacker automatically and it caused a lot of social stress...Of the females on this list, how did you get into programming? How
can we be better at being supportive of getting women involved in
programming?These questions I think are important for us to think about... If
you've been to any users groups or conferences (and I know this isn't
just a Ruby problem), the gender imbalance is startling...
Hi --
Great, thanks guys.
I think I will start by trying the guessing game and maybe make it more
complicated from there on.So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits?
You know, this is a little bit more of a sensitive topic than it might
seem. It is a great to teach people close to you to program, but I
don't know that it's for you to reap 'benefits'.
The fact that discussions of women in computing, among men, always
seem to take a locker-room turn sooner rather than later may be part
of the problem. I'm certainly not a prude, but I'm pretty tired of
this particular strain of prurience.
I wonder if there are good ways that we can get more women involved in
programming. Me teaching one of my ex-girlfriend's Perl was actually
a pretty bad experience because I found myself treating her like a
hacker automatically and it caused a lot of social stress...Of the females on this list, how did you get into programming? How
can we be better at being supportive of getting women involved in
programming?These questions I think are important for us to think about... If
you've been to any users groups or conferences (and I know this isn't
just a Ruby problem), the gender imbalance is startling...
A number of years ago, I had this perhaps quixotic notion that perhaps
Ruby could be the one to break the mold and approach a balance. With
this in mind, I contacted the then president of the Association for
Women in Computing, and asked whether she thought there were steps we
might take, with regard to publicizing conferences and so forth, that
might take us in this direction.
I got a somewhat puzzling answer. I think she may have thought that I
was talking about the Ruby hardware description language; she said
something about Ruby being concerned with a traditionally
male-dominated domain (which is an odd comment to make about a
general-purpose programming language). She also brought up what
seemed to me to be biologically deterministic arguments -- precisely
what I least expected. Anyway, it didn't go anywhere.
It may be time to try again, in one way or another.
David
···
On Sat, 5 May 2007, Gregory Brown wrote:
On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
--
Q. What is THE Ruby book for Rails developers?
A. RUBY FOR RAILS by David A. Black (http://www.manning.com/black\)
(See what readers are saying! http://www.rubypal.com/r4rrevs.pdf\)
Q. Where can I get Ruby/Rails on-site training, consulting, coaching?
A. Ruby Power and Light, LLC (http://www.rubypal.com)
It is not at all a matter of profession to me. It's a matter of the
simple fact that if you have a room with 197 males and 3 females, that
can be a difficult atmosphere just by composition. So I just want to
express that even though I am the stereotype: white male between
18-45, I am willing to consider the impact that a homogeneous makeup
might be having on our community.
I care about the diversity of our community and the barriers to entry.
I should like to help lower them wherever I can, especially when they
are social problems rather than technical ones.
···
On 5/4/07, Francis Cianfrocca <garbagecat10@gmail.com> wrote:
On 5/4/07, Gregory Brown <gregory.t.brown@gmail.com> wrote:
This is most definitely a sensitive topic. I'm going to ask you a question
that will seem flip but is actually serious. You say "these questions are
important for us to think about." My question to you is: "why?" In other
words, what exactly is undesirable about the fact that there is a gender
imbalance in software development and computer tech in general? Are you
concerned with getting more bodies into the profession? Don't worry, they're
growing programmers like crazy in India and China. Are you concerned with
getting more women into well-paying jobs? Well, that's another question
entirely.
My apologies.
The notion of my comment "Have you guys reaped any benefits? :p" being
seriously interpreted as a power-hungry "could I maybe unlock some hidden
power here" type phrase had not even occurred to me. I made a comment which
amongst my friends would have been interpreted as a cute retorical foray
into "stereotypical geek role-playing".
I recognise that the comment should have stayed within my close group of
friends where the potential damage could be contained and handled.
Regards
Ivor
···
On 5/5/07, dblack@wobblini.net <dblack@wobblini.net> wrote:
Hi --
On Sat, 5 May 2007, Gregory Brown wrote:
> On 5/4/07, Ivor Paul <ivorpaul@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Great, thanks guys.
>>
>> I think I will start by trying the guessing game and maybe make it more
>> complicated from there on.
>>
>> So...has this payed of for anyone? Have you guys reaped any benefits?
>
> You know, this is a little bit more of a sensitive topic than it might
> seem. It is a great to teach people close to you to program, but I
> don't know that it's for you to reap 'benefits'.The fact that discussions of women in computing, among men, always
seem to take a locker-room turn sooner rather than later may be part
of the problem. I'm certainly not a prude, but I'm pretty tired of
this particular strain of prurience.> I wonder if there are good ways that we can get more women involved in
> programming. Me teaching one of my ex-girlfriend's Perl was actually
> a pretty bad experience because I found myself treating her like a
> hacker automatically and it caused a lot of social stress...
>
> Of the females on this list, how did you get into programming? How
> can we be better at being supportive of getting women involved in
> programming?
>
> These questions I think are important for us to think about... If
> you've been to any users groups or conferences (and I know this isn't
> just a Ruby problem), the gender imbalance is startling...A number of years ago, I had this perhaps quixotic notion that perhaps
Ruby could be the one to break the mold and approach a balance. With
this in mind, I contacted the then president of the Association for
Women in Computing, and asked whether she thought there were steps we
might take, with regard to publicizing conferences and so forth, that
might take us in this direction.I got a somewhat puzzling answer. I think she may have thought that I
was talking about the Ruby hardware description language; she said
something about Ruby being concerned with a traditionally
male-dominated domain (which is an odd comment to make about a
general-purpose programming language). She also brought up what
seemed to me to be biologically deterministic arguments -- precisely
what I least expected. Anyway, it didn't go anywhere.It may be time to try again, in one way or another.
David
--
Q. What is THE Ruby book for Rails developers?
A. RUBY FOR RAILS by David A. Black (http://www.manning.com/black\)
(See what readers are saying! http://www.rubypal.com/r4rrevs.pdf\)
Q. Where can I get Ruby/Rails on-site training, consulting, coaching?
A. Ruby Power and Light, LLC (http://www.rubypal.com)
To attempt to make this constructive rather than critical... How can we do this?
This question has been tumbling around in my local users groups, among
developers on projects I'm involved with, and in the hallway track at
conferences I've been to.
How can we kill the stigma? I think that's our biggest
responsibility, as it's something that requires our participation. I
only fear that it starts way before the open source community in terms
of social and intellectual development...
···
On 5/5/07, dblack@wobblini.net <dblack@wobblini.net> wrote:
It may be time to try again, in one way or another.