Stacks

A note is associated with one or more learning stacks, not tags.

Tags can get out of hand. The more tags there are, the more each tags' meaning gets diluted. The search feature will take care of all that extraneous tagging for you. Our approach is different. It is grounded in 16 educationally designed learning stacks. These contexts will trigger you to think about what you are learning, couched in a long term view. As such, your notes will remain relevant to you, and to the Ruby on Rails community at large, regardless of your level of seasoning or expertise.

Rails Errors

Rails error pages are FANTASTIC…when you understand what the heck that gibberish is all about.
This stack is for interpreting Rails error pages. We learn from our mistakes. This will likely ...

Command Line

The command line opens the door to a whole new world. I just hope I don’t screw up my computer.
This stack is for interacting with this new interface called the command line. How do you naviga...

Shortcuts

Don’t. Touch. That. Mouse. Wait, what?
Great developers can type at the speed of thought. As you learn the craft, you’ll want to begin ...

Databases

Isn’t a database just a spreadsheet? No?! Oh man!
A database makes a website a web application…don’t take this power lightly. How do I interact wi...

Online Resources

You found the needle in the haystack?! Don’t drop it… D’op!
There are 1.1 billion websites on the Internet. As you progress through your journey of becoming...

Tricks

You deleted 15 lines of my code, added two words and an exclamation point, and now it works…Dang it! How did you do that?!
Enough said. You will encounter many of these moments when working with other developers. You’l...

Rails General

This is why you’re here, ain’t it? Then don’t forget this, that and the other thing.
You’ve probably been told that Ruby is a language and Rails is a framework, but truly appreciatin...

Testing / TDD

Don’t we have some people for that? I’m “the people”?? Dang it!
Testing is where the rubber meets the road. If your app works today, but not tomorrow, what’s th...

Workflows

Workflows? Why you gettin’ all “corporate” on me?
Google defines it as “the sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through whic...

Cheat Sheets

Does this thing contain all the answers?
No! But a good cheat sheet can be extremely helpful at the right time. This stack is dedicated ...

Troubleshooting

When something breaks, can I just raise my hand? Please?
Troubleshooting is a skill unto itself. The ways to troubleshoot problems are not blatantly obvi...

Git

What’s get? Oh…GIT. I don’t git it. Who’s on first?
As you will find, Git is no joke. Version control is paramount when professionally writing code,...

Ruby General

Not learning Ruby is a bit like knowing how to fly a plane…on the ground.
Without Ruby, there is no Rails. Ruby is the backbone. It would be wise to have a reasonably so...

Gems

They already solved it AND wrote it? Well how much is that going to cost me? It’s free!?! Well heck yeah, sign me up!
There are times to use gems, and there times not to use gems. In either case, you will want to b...

Other Languages

POL-Y-GLOT. I-AM-NOT.
Yes you are. You are learning Ruby, Rails, testing…you’re already multilingual. In this profes...

Needs Answering

Why is my list of questions longer than your…
The one guarantee about learning anything, especially coding, is that you will have lots of quest...