On the third (and final) class in my series of teaching Shoes and Ruby to 4th/5th graders, I decided to teach them to create a game. I met with my two fifth grade helpers the afternoon before the day of the class. I taught them how to create text and buttons and add [...]
Report from the field on my ongoing adventure teaching Ruby and Shoes to a 4th/5th grade class of 28 students. Here’s a summary of last week’s class:
I started with a demonstration of red, green, blue color: 3 flashlights with colored gels over the front, mixing red + green to get yellow , then add [...]
Last week I wanted to teach the kids how to create a randomly colored shape, which (in Shoes) would use a fill color like this:
fill rgb(0..255.rand, 0..255.rand, 0..255.rand)
I figured they could easily grasp the random number syntax, but creating colors as a mix of red, green, and blue? They are used to primary colors of [...]
RSpec for View Helpers
To test a view helper, you need to test the plugin in the context of a rails app
To verify that you can put the following code into your spec_helper.rb (or just use rspec-plugin-generator by Pat Maddox which will generate this code for you)
begin
require File.dirname(__FILE__) + ‘/../../../../spec/spec_helper’
rescue LoadError
puts [...]
I enjoyed Ward Cunnigham’s video tour of his office “wiki space,” which is reconfigurable by the people who work there with all desks on rollers. At the end he describes wiki as a phillosophy rather than the technology it is today… maybe wikis need to transform into something that will enable a community to develop [...]
Last week I taught a 4th/5th grade class an introduction to computer programming. It was chaotic, as such classes sometimes are, but fun. I hear the kids enjoyed it and am planning classs #2 for Friday. I decided to use Shoes which uses the Ruby language and includes some nice graphics and UI primitives (some [...]
Sometimes it takes quite an effort to be a “lazy programmer” (as in Larry Wall’s virtues of a programmer). I’ve been trying to optimize my workflow as I run into things that make for repetitive typing. I find when I can type less, I have more cycles to think. One of my [...]
Using git (and witnessing other people’s use of it through github’s social coding) has led me to have a different perspective on forking. I overheard someone say at GoGaRuCo that “fork is the new friend.” When you fork someone’s code you are saying that you admire what that have done, that you like it enough [...]
Barack Obama’s speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was entertaining and included some poignant notes on the challenges to journalism today.
Highlights on what he plans to accomplish in the next hundred days:
“During the second hundred days, we will design, build and open a library dedicated to my first hundred days”
“In the next hundred days, [...]
Stupeflix is perhaps aptly named, but nonetheless a cool tool for putting together a quick video. I could see using this for a graduation slide show or other celebratory event that yearns for a retrospective, but when I’m not up for losing myself in AfterEffects for several days to make it happen.
The [...]