Stuff to Learn in 2012
I’m making a list of stuff I really want to learn in 2012, language wise. Obviously my main focus will be to become a better Ruby programmer and to expand my knowledge of Rails (My day job is a Ruby gig, Mealcloud). Everyday I look at my Twitter feed I see dozens of cool new languages and frameworks that have been released and I never seem to make the time to check them out. So, heres my list:
Test Driven Development
As a Rubyist, I should probably be burned on the stake for not developing like this from the outset, but coming from a Java background at Uni, it’s something I’ve never been in the habit of it. Thanks to my friend @machuga telling me that is was “fucking awesome”, I decided to give it a go on a small project, and I think its fucking awesome too! I definitely will be building all projects in future with RSpec.
Javascript
I can’t believe I’ve not got round to digging into this properly. As I started to work more on the frontend of Mealcloud, I realised that I needed to learn JS. The whole interface is being designed for a touchscreen, so everything needs to be “instant feedback”. I also want to dig a bit more into AJAX. Another reason for learning JS is the amount of frameworks that are coming out based on it, not just for UI effects, but for building entire applications. Frameworks like Node.js and Backbone.js are high up on my to-learn list for next year.
iOS Development
At the moment the demand for iPhone and iPad apps is wild. I also have a few idea of my own I’d love to flesh out into actual, working applications. Also, an iPhone/iPad app would be a great addition to Mealcloud, allowing the whole application to become super-portable. Apps are definitely where its at the moment.
Is there any other cool, emerging frameworks I should know about? Hit me up!
