RubyConf 2007: Maximizing Productivity (or How to Hack Well)

Most of Eric Hodel's six years of Ruby experience is mostly in open source, covering about forty projects. He is a member of the Seattle Ruby Brigade.

Two key elements to what Eric does:

• Have fun.
• Cartman: Whateva! I do what I want!

Coding and Testing

Be selfish; fix your problems first. KISS (keep it simple stupid) & YAGNI (ya' ain't gonna need it). YAGNITAGAFI (... they ain't gonna ask for it). Test. Autotest. Keep everything in sight (code, test, autotest, and terminal all in one screen, with chat window in the gutter). Heckle. Automate everything you do (automatic setup, migrations, common tasks). Know your editor intimately. Pair Programming.

I'm seeing repetition from the Seattle Ruby Brigade member's presentations.

Releasing

Documentation (README and rdoc). Bug Tracker (no anonymous reporting because there is no possibility of feedback). Review (get constructive criticism from someone else). Pre-Hoe was not fun. Hoe (packaging, uploads, emails, and blogs are automated). Release early and often.

Relax

Balance out your life.

Maintenance

Bug Tracking. Gardening (iterative with simple goals and small changes,; keeping it well organized). Some people refuse to use a bug tacker. Grep through ruby-talk and sphincter? Search technorati. Be responsible (file good bug reports and be responsive to the developer). Versions (don't care, but be consistent). Know when to break up your code into seperate packages.

Inspiration

I write software for me. I don't owe you support (this second). Criticism (My software sucks. That's ok. People complain. That's ok. Maybe they'll be motivated to fix it.) Hacking Night is helpful. Pain-killers (automate something you do by hand).