has_many :through

Chris Wanstrath makes a good point about an ugly way to initialize a variable, but I don't agree that an explicit return is the best style to use.The original ugly:def logger unless @logger @logger = Logger.new(STDOUT) @logger.level = Logger::WARN end @logger endChris' improvement:def logger return...
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Last night it was my great pleasure to host the Lightning Talks session at RubyConf 2009. We had an amazing series of 20 talks that took just over 2 hours. The tech gremlins seemed to be off drinking somewhere and none of the presentations failed.Here's a list of all the speakers and...
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The RubyConf 2009 schedule was just posted. As a public service, I have fixed it to be readable and to use, you know, hyperlinks and stuff. Enjoy.http://hasmanythrough.com/rubyconf2009/schedule.html(Apparently my planning for GoGaRuCo 2010 has me thinking it's 2010 already. Fixed the year. Sorry about that. Sigh.)
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My hat's off to Obie Fernandez for his recent article 10 Reasons Pair Programming Is Not For the Masses. I don't actually agree that only the elite are cut out for pair programming, but I do think he's on target with his list of obstacles to effective pairing.There's another axis to consider for fit,...
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I was chatting with a friend over dinner this weekend about the impact of work environment on one's ability to excel as a software developer. We've both worked for companies where we've had to work far more than 40 hours each week for extended periods of time. We both agreed that's a...
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We're finally getting all our after-conference activities completed. The most exciting thing is that we just got our conference media online. We have video and audio recordings of the Golden Gate Ruby Conference technical sessions! Pivotal Labs sponsored the recordings, and is hosting them at pivotallabs.com/gogaruco - you can watch them there...
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This is not the post I wanted to write. The post that I wanted to write, that I in fact have mostly written and would have posted days ago if not for this distraction, was about what a great success Golden Gate Ruby Conference was and how proud we are of putting on...
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Here we are, the week of Golden Gate Ruby Conference 2009. Everything is in good shape, and we're looking forward to having an awesome time. So here is some last-minute information about the conference.We've got a great program. Really, this is the conference I've always wanted to attend. Check out...
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Rails used to be about simplicity. I just started a new project in Rails 2.3. Here's all the choices I'm now faced with:Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL Testing: Test/Unit, RSpec, Shoulda, Context/Matchy, minitest Mocking: Mocha, FlexMock, RR Templates: HTML/ERb, Markaby, HAML, Erector Authentication: restful_authentication, Clearance Web Server: Apache, Nginx App Server: Mongrel, Thin, PassengerIt's been about a year since I rolled...
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