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10 Great New Ruby / Rails Screencasts from July 2007

By Peter Cooper / July 23, 2007

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Railscasts, maintained by Ryan Bates, continues to release one great free screencast after another, with 9 so far this month, although we're going to include one from June 29 for good measure. We first looked at Railscasts a few months ago, so if you haven't visited again since, it's worth it. Here are the latest screencasts:

  • Testing Without Fixtures - Fed up with using fixtures for your tests? Find a better way.
  • will_paginate - A look at the "new way" to do pagination in Rails using the will_paginate plugin.
  • Updating Through Checkboxes - How to perform actions on multiple items selected with checkboxes in a Rails view.
  • Handling Exceptions - Learn about exceptions and how to handle them in Rails apps.
  • The Logger - No, it's not about felling trees. Learn how to send messages to the log and how to customize it.
  • How to Make a Generator - A look at building your own generator, much like the ones that come with Rails.
  • Optimistic Locking - How to resolve situations when two people want to update the same record at the same time.

At the same time, Geoffrey Grosenbach, curator of PeepCode (and a new sponsor of Ruby Inside), has been storming ahead with his own set of screencasts, a few of which will be of direct interest to Rubyists / Rails developers:

  • rSpec Basics - A look at Behavior Driven Development. An ideal starting point if you haven't touched BDD yet but have been intrigued.
  • Rails From Scratch: Part I - A great up-to-date introductory "course" for getting into Rails. Even includes a free 20 page reference guide to Ruby and Rails, and an introduction to Ruby syntax. It's everything a new Rails developer needs.
  • Rails From Scratch: Part II - Another 80 minutes of great introductory material for new Rails developers.

While Railscasts' screencasts are totally free, Peepcode screencasts cost $9 each, but for the great packaging, length, and total depth of the material covered, they're still bargains!

Comments

  1. David Parker says:

    Ryan's screencasts are great little snippets. Geoffrey's are also worth every penny. You can buy them in a pack of 5 or 10 and save some cash... I've bought 7- 2 individually and a pack of 5... definitely worth it overall!

  2. Dejan Dimic says:

    Railscasts by Ryan Bates are one of the best, if not the BEST, informative screen casts about the Rails and development with it.

    I cherish all of them as a great learning material for my younger colleagues, in Rails development terms.

    Ryan surprise me every time with new ideas and themes and it seams that he has a great sensitivity about what we as Rails developers need and what arrays should be more clarified.

    I personally want to give a tribute to Ryan hopping that he will continue to make such great place for learning not just about Rails but about software developer attitude also.

    Ryan, we salute You!

  3. taco says:

    luv Ryan's casts. I bought one from PeepCode and no offense, but Geoffrey's voice drives me crazy. had to stop watching halfway thru.

  4. cbmeeks says:

    Those screen casts are great!

    http://eblarg.com

  5. Rafael says:

    Hi
    I also catch every episode, but from both of them. I really like the tipps and also the more indepth screencasts from geoffrey.
    peepcodes episodes could even be a little more advanced I think.
    But anyway, it gives a good start for beginners! ...And even for a post-beginner as I am, there are always some useful hints

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