What Did You Learn In 2008?
I learned a lot of new things in 2008. Here are a few highlights I can think of:
- The REST concepts became crystal clear in early 2008. Later I wrote the REST 101 series which became one of our more popular series we’ve done on this blog, and then taught a workshop on it down in Austin, TX. (The next one is in Chicago, so sign up now to be notified when registration opens.)
- I hated, then learned, then loved Git.
- Learned how to write a book.
- I hated, then learned, then loved setting up my own VPS on Slicehost.
- Learned how to setup nginx with a Thin cluster to host Rails applications.
- Learned how to write my own DSLs in Ruby. Awesome. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. People will look back at 2008 and remember it as the Year of the DSL, when DSLs finally started to get the attention they deserve.
- Learned a bit about functional programming. I don’t completely get it yet, but I find it fascinating.
- Learned to play chess better. But I still suck at it. It insists on oscillating along the love-hate spectrum.
Already on my radar for 2009:
- Learn the ins and outs of using Apache + Passenger for Rails apps.
- Learn jQuery and how to use Javascript more effectively in Rails apps.
- Learn a new programming language. I have my sights set on Haskell, but perhaps Erlang.
- Learn how to not lose at chess quite so badly.
What did you learn this past year? What do you want to learn next?
in still in the shallow end of the jquery pool, but it just rocks. makes so many things so much easier. and isn’t hard to learn at all. very much recommended. so much so that I skipped prototype in learning rails and playing on a side project.
loved the REST series and is one of my fave posts/series from 2008. also recommended for anyone wanting to learn REST regardless of preferred dev language.
I am still on the hate end of git(hub).
For most of the work my team does, I can see no real advantages of using git and not svn. And for most of the open-sourced projects that have moved to github, it’s a complete disaster, as hardly any of them seem to be keen on releasing stable, tagged versions of the projects anymore. Let’s just fork + patch to fix our own problems, without any discipline and without letting the audience know which version is considered stable.
</rant>Great list, inspires me to write my own!! Briefly i learned (in 2008)
(1) Rails Basics. (2) Restful Approach. (3) Core Programming Concepts in Ruby. (4) *How NOT to sell myself short. (5) How to ask for help. (6) Basics of Git. (7) How to not worry about something that doesn’t work. Sit on it and it usually works out. (8) Basics of MVC.
What id like to learn in 2009:
(1) Deploying an app using Apache/Passenger. (2) SSH and commands. (3) *How to stay patient with women (i have all the patience on the screen, but none in this area hehe!) => no disrespect intended.. (4) How to build an cool App with Flex and Rails at the backend…
I’d like to learn CouchDB but I haven’t had any project to do so with.
Can’t recommend Haskell enough! Learning functional programming will make you a better programmer all around. I can dig up some old course notes and things if you’re interested (just shoot me an email).
To have faith in the people!