So I’ve spent the better part of today installing and playing with Ruby on Rails on my Mac. For those who don’t know, RoR is a server-side Web application framework that facilitates the production of dynamic Web sites and Web applications. At the moment, I’m hip-deep in all this stuff and don’t have much time for blogging tonight. So instead of an in depth post, here are a few links to Ruby on Rails sites that have helped me get up and running.
- Hivelogic - Installing rails on OS X.
- A great “Hello World” tutorial from the RubyonRails.org documentation.
- Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby - I haven’t finished it yet, but this is an extremely fun guide to the Ruby programming language.
- Start to put it all together and fill in the gaps with this piece by Amy Hoy
- Beginner’s guide to using AJAX on Rails - This is actually what I’ve been working on today with this book
to guide me. But this piece on the O’Reilly Web site is a good introduction to the process.
RoR is such a popular framework these days, and the amount of information about it on the Web is pretty daunting. But hopefully I’ve done some of the grunt work for you, and these links will get you going. As I get further along in my own Rails education, I’ll post more about my experiences.
By the way, I resisted the urge to call this piece “Rob on Rails” out of some misguided attempt at professionalism. We’ll see how I feel about that in the morning.
No real post tonight. I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve finally launched RobLindsey.com.
Please, everyone check it out and let me know if you find any bugs or if the design breaks on any of your machines. The only known issue I’ve found is some misalignment of the navigation bar in Opera. So, any other observations would be very helpful. Thanks!
As readers of onethingnew.com know, I’m busy working on relaunching roblindsey.com, my personal Web site. And to say I’ve been having a hard time of it is an understatement. A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece outlining some beginner Web design strategies. The intention of that post was to help designers who are working on outside projects overcome some common stumbling blocks. Tonight, I’m going to write an addendum to that post outlining the problems I’ve been having with my personal project and some things I’ve learned to combat them.
1. PROBLEM: Inability to decide on a design.
I’ve been designing and laying out pages for quite a while now, and I rarely suffer from designers block. In my case, the opposite is true. In thinking about relaunching my site, I made mock ups of five or six designs that would have been totally workable. Each had different color schemes, navigation formats, and layouts. I liked them all, and my problem was picking one.
SOLUTION: Pick the best, save the rest.
It got to the point that I just had to make a decision. Thinking about the project instead of working on it was driving me nuts. So, I picked my favorite. I don’t know if it was the best one, but I liked it the best. I decided if I didn’t like it, I could always change it in a few months to one of my other designs.
And if I decide not to use any of my other designs, I’ve got five, fully fleshed out mock ups ready to go for outside projects.
2. PROBLEM: Lack of motivation.
As a professional Web developer, I find it hard to muster motivation to work on my personal projects because I’m not getting paid by anyone for them. That might seem petty, but it’s true.
SOLUTION: Change your whole attitude.
I had to remind myself that my personal Web site is an online representation of me. If it is designed with the same attention to detail and quality that I put into my freelance jobs, it will speak volumes about my work ethic. It’s true that no one is paying me directly for working on my personal site, but if roblindsey.com looks great, it will help get me more work. Shouldn’t that be motivation enough?
3. PROBLEM: Finishing the job’s menial tasks.
This is the phase I’m in now. The design is chosen and finished, and all that’s left is the grunt work: formatting text and editing images (a LOT of images!), then checking and fixing my stylesheet for cross-browser compliance. I can design fairly quickly, and my first two problems were resolved in a couple of days. Knocking out the grunt work is going to take several days in itself. And it’s not as fun.
SOLUTION: JUST DO IT!
“All that’s left is the grunt work.” That’s all that’s left! I need to get that idea in my head, and just tear through it in a couple of afternoons. Just get started, and you’re already half-way done. That’s the mindset I need to have.
I’m not sure if anyone else has these problems, but I thought I would share with my readers what it’s like for me to work on my personal Web site. I hope you’ll check out the site when I relaunch sometime this week (believe me, you’ll know when it’s up). I think it looks really nice, and I would love some feedback when it’s done.
