0:00:17.060,0:00:18.180
ERNIE MILLER: Good afternoon everybody.

0:00:18.180,0:00:18.820
AUDIENCE: Good afternoon.

0:00:18.820,0:00:19.580
E.M.: How's it going?

0:00:19.580,0:00:21.360
AUDIENCE: It's going good! Hi Ernie!

0:00:21.360,0:00:23.420
E.M.: Hi. My name's Ernie Miller. I work for

0:00:23.430,0:00:26.250
a company called Appriss in Louisville, Kentucky.[br]Please ask

0:00:26.250,0:00:28.800
me about them later so that I can justify

0:00:28.800,0:00:30.289
expensing the trip.

0:00:30.289,0:00:31.750
AUDIENCE: Whoo!

0:00:31.750,0:00:32.479
[applause]

0:00:32.479,0:00:34.940
E.M.: If I could ask you all to do

0:00:34.940,0:00:38.370
me a favor, as it turns out, most of

0:00:38.370,0:00:41.370
my fellow co-workers that had come out to[br]RailsConf

0:00:41.370,0:00:44.170
have had to catch a flight to go back

0:00:44.170,0:00:45.739
home, and so they're missing my talk. And[br]so

0:00:45.739,0:00:47.809
what I'd like you to do is to Tweet

0:00:47.809,0:00:50.739
very enthusiastically about the talk, regardless[br]of if it's

0:00:50.739,0:00:52.430
very good, so that, you know, for at least

0:00:52.430,0:00:53.909
until it goes on video, they're gonna think[br]they

0:00:53.909,0:00:56.129
missed the talk of a lifetime.

0:00:56.129,0:00:59.729
So, RailsConf, huh? Have you guys had a good

0:00:59.729,0:01:00.229
times?

0:01:00.229,0:01:01.220
AUDIENCE: Whoo!

0:01:01.220,0:01:01.720
[applause]

0:01:01.720,0:01:03.210
E.M.: Yeah? Yeah.

0:01:03.210,0:01:07.689
I've had a ball, too. I've had a ball,

0:01:07.689,0:01:08.189
too.

0:01:08.189,0:01:08.680
So.

0:01:08.680,0:01:10.180
AUDIENCE: Ah, yeah!

0:01:10.180,0:01:11.360
E.M.: I am not.

0:01:11.360,0:01:12.530
AUDIENCE: [indecipherable - 00:01:10]

0:01:12.530,0:01:14.869
E.M.: Yes. Yes it was.

0:01:14.869,0:01:19.670
So, I am not a member of Ruby core.

0:01:19.670,0:01:25.259
I am not a member of Rails core. However,

0:01:25.259,0:01:27.850
last month, this game came out, and I'm an

0:01:27.850,0:01:31.710
avid gamer, and I'd like to happily report[br]that

0:01:31.710,0:01:34.590
I am very frequently a member of Damage core,

0:01:34.590,0:01:36.780
at this point.

0:01:36.780,0:01:40.710
Unfortunately, membership only lasts for about[br]fifteen seconds at

0:01:40.710,0:01:42.939
a time. Then I get booted again. So, so

0:01:42.939,0:01:46.460
there is that. But, you know, I'm thinking,[br]you

0:01:46.460,0:01:48.060
know, it's, it's moving up in the world. I'm

0:01:48.060,0:01:50.429
a member of something core.

0:01:50.429,0:01:54.829
So, so, it's come to my attention recently[br]that

0:01:54.829,0:01:57.299
I have been giving a fair number of talks

0:01:57.299,0:01:59.709
that usually involve me ranting about something,[br]and I

0:01:59.709,0:02:01.770
think I'm becoming a bit of a curmudgeon.

0:02:01.770,0:02:02.350
[applause]

0:02:02.350,0:02:06.990
So, you're not supposed to clap for that.

0:02:06.990,0:02:07.569
[laughter]

0:02:07.569,0:02:09.740
OK. So, one of the things that I want

0:02:09.740,0:02:11.569
to start off by doing is saying that I

0:02:11.569,0:02:13.880
recognize that most of us would not be in

0:02:13.880,0:02:17.000
this room if it weren't for Rails, and that

0:02:17.000,0:02:20.090
we really owe a lot of our opportunity to

0:02:20.090,0:02:22.250
get paid for doing Ruby, I know I do

0:02:22.250,0:02:26.580
anyway, to Rails's existence. So, first off,[br]I'd like

0:02:26.580,0:02:28.890
to get a hand for Rails and how awesome

0:02:28.890,0:02:30.239
it is and how it enables us to do

0:02:30.239,0:02:31.140
everything.

0:02:31.140,0:02:32.049
[applause]

0:02:32.049,0:02:36.450
OK. OK. Nope. Nope. That's enough. Nope. No[br]more.

0:02:36.450,0:02:36.989
We're done celebrating.

0:02:36.989,0:02:37.180
[laughter]

0:02:37.180,0:02:39.530
Just that much celebration. Nothing more.

0:02:39.530,0:02:40.280
[laughter]

0:02:40.280,0:02:43.459
OK. All right. Stop the part.

0:02:43.459,0:02:47.799
So. That. That gets me every time.

0:02:47.799,0:02:50.439
So, that being the case, I, I have to

0:02:50.439,0:02:54.400
say, a lot of us have been hitting brick

0:02:54.400,0:02:57.180
walls. How many of you have been building[br]something

0:02:57.180,0:02:59.659
relatively complex with Rails, and you sort[br]of feel

0:02:59.659,0:03:02.269
like you've, you've gone up against a brick[br]wall.

0:03:02.269,0:03:04.579
You can't make anymore forward progress and[br]you feel

0:03:04.579,0:03:07.090
like you've been kind of, you know, so- yeah,

0:03:07.090,0:03:08.970
OK. So some hands are going up right.

0:03:08.970,0:03:12.209
And, and, and so it seems to me, like,

0:03:12.209,0:03:14.930
if there is that much talk about it, you

0:03:14.930,0:03:16.930
know, it seems like we often get the response

0:03:16.930,0:03:18.769
that, you know, we just need to run with

0:03:18.769,0:03:22.989
more passion at the wall. Run faster. And,[br]and

0:03:22.989,0:03:26.540
if we just fully commit that we'll burst through

0:03:26.540,0:03:28.319
and we'll be in this sort of magical land

0:03:28.319,0:03:31.890
where everything works the way that it's supposed[br]to,

0:03:31.890,0:03:34.319
and just don't fight so much, right?

0:03:34.319,0:03:37.780
I have to think that if so many of

0:03:37.780,0:03:39.590
us have kind of run into these sort of

0:03:39.590,0:03:43.730
problems, that maybe there's something there.[br]Maybe there's, there's

0:03:43.730,0:03:44.939
some kind of an issue there, and I wanted

0:03:44.939,0:03:47.939
to give a few opinions about, you know, why

0:03:47.939,0:03:49.290
that might be.

0:03:49.290,0:03:54.900
So, Rails is a convention over configuration[br]advocate, right.

0:03:54.900,0:03:56.900
That's, that's the big thing that we always[br]talk

0:03:56.900,0:03:59.299
about, that we would prefer to have convention[br]over

0:03:59.299,0:04:04.400
configuration. Now, conventions are really[br]what, what opinions want

0:04:04.400,0:04:07.230
to be when they grow up, right. So, most

0:04:07.230,0:04:09.670
conventions have stemmed from an opinion.[br]We hopefully share

0:04:09.670,0:04:13.819
the opinion, but I want to be clear that,

0:04:13.819,0:04:16.279
when I talk about the opinions that Rails[br]has

0:04:16.279,0:04:19.410
today, I am not talking specifically about[br]any members

0:04:19.410,0:04:21.329
of the core team. I'm not talking about the

0:04:21.329,0:04:24.810
people, though the software may in fact reflect[br]opinions

0:04:24.810,0:04:26.640
of people, what I want to talk about is

0:04:26.640,0:04:28.780
what does the software tell us, right?

0:04:28.780,0:04:32.570
Because we know that Rails is opinionated[br]software. So,

0:04:32.570,0:04:35.220
with that out of the way, let's go with

0:04:35.220,0:04:38.130
the first opinion that Rails, Rails has, that[br]I

0:04:38.130,0:04:40.650
believe Rails has anyway, which is that code[br]should

0:04:40.650,0:04:45.350
read like English. And we see this pretty[br]frequently

0:04:45.350,0:04:49.870
in comparisons between straight-up Ruby versus[br]Rails kind of

0:04:49.870,0:04:50.840
code, right, so.

0:04:50.840,0:04:52.630
Here's something that a lot of us actually[br]like.

0:04:52.630,0:04:53.680
Like, I know this is one of the things

0:04:53.680,0:04:55.569
that hooked me on Rails right off the bat,

0:04:55.569,0:04:57.280
was like, oh, I can say, like, five dot

0:04:57.280,0:05:00.699
days ago, or, you know, because I'm writing[br]something

0:05:00.699,0:05:03.430
in old English, I can say one dot fortnight.from_now.

0:05:03.430,0:05:09.139
That's very useful. Right.

0:05:09.139,0:05:11.550
So there's nothing particular, when we say[br]like, one

0:05:11.550,0:05:14.389
dot megabyte, right, there's, there's nothing[br]megabyte-y about the

0:05:14.389,0:05:17.740
number, right. It just does some multiplication.

0:05:17.740,0:05:23.030
Similarly, we have some, oh yeah. Fortnight.[br]Yeah. Similarly,

0:05:23.030,0:05:26.990
we have some differences where we have something[br]that

0:05:26.990,0:05:29.800
array already has, for instance, on it, like[br]the

0:05:29.800,0:05:31.449
sh- I just found out it's called the shovel

0:05:31.449,0:05:33.400
operator. I always just said less than less[br]than,

0:05:33.400,0:05:35.449
but whatever it is, right. So we have, like,

0:05:35.449,0:05:38.090
array less than less than object, right, and[br]we've,

0:05:38.090,0:05:40.080
we've got that alias to append, so that we

0:05:40.080,0:05:41.830
can say append.

0:05:41.830,0:05:44.120
We have object dot in, so we can ask

0:05:44.120,0:05:45.750
whether an object is in an array include of

0:05:45.750,0:05:47.770
ask an array whether it has an object. Things

0:05:47.770,0:05:49.550
like that.

0:05:49.550,0:05:53.789
We have string methods that have been, you[br]know,

0:05:53.789,0:05:56.910
kind of patched in for, for instance, the[br]string

0:05:56.910,0:05:58.389
inquirer. That's one of my, one of my favorite

0:05:58.389,0:06:00.520
ones. Right in the middle there, we have a

0:06:00.520,0:06:02.470
check on the left. In Ruby, you simply ask

0:06:02.470,0:06:06.120
if the environment string equals production.[br]But in Rails,

0:06:06.120,0:06:08.750
there's a thing called a string inquirer,[br]which simply

0:06:08.750,0:06:13.259
patches method_missing so that you can actually[br]say, OK.

0:06:13.259,0:06:16.240
Is the string actually containing the method[br]that you

0:06:16.240,0:06:18.919
just sent minus the question mark? And so,[br]that's

0:06:18.919,0:06:21.370
really all its doing - the thing on the

0:06:21.370,0:06:22.669
left.

0:06:22.669,0:06:26.960
Here's another one. So, in time, we can say

0:06:26.960,0:06:30.419
beginning_of_day, we can say midnight, we[br]can sat at_midnight,

0:06:30.419,0:06:33.930
we can say at_beginning_of_day. We can say[br]midday, noon,

0:06:33.930,0:06:37.259
at_midday, at_noon, at_middle_of_day, right.[br]They're all the same thing,

0:06:37.259,0:06:41.979
and yet there's this really clean API that's[br]exposed

0:06:41.979,0:06:44.690
this whole change thing, right. It's fairly[br]discoverable. Like,

0:06:44.690,0:06:46.889
I could make a reasonable guess that if I

0:06:46.889,0:06:49.569
said change_minute to something, or if I said[br]change

0:06:49.569,0:06:52.479
any piece of the time to something, it would

0:06:52.479,0:06:55.069
be able to do exactly what I ask it

0:06:55.069,0:06:57.370
to do just then. But instead we have these,

0:06:57.370,0:07:00.020
these aliases that allow us to write code[br]that's

0:07:00.020,0:07:00.860
like English.

0:07:00.860,0:07:03.669
Now, when I go into a coffee shop and

0:07:03.669,0:07:05.199
I want something that's got a high caffeine[br]content,

0:07:05.199,0:07:07.400
I may order one of these. You all know

0:07:07.400,0:07:10.220
what this is, right. This is coffee brewed[br]by

0:07:10.220,0:07:12.069
forcing a small amount of nearly boiling water[br]under

0:07:12.069,0:07:14.580
pressure through finely ground coffee beans.[br]And that's what

0:07:14.580,0:07:16.069
I go up to the counter and ask for,

0:07:16.069,0:07:16.430
right.

0:07:16.430,0:07:18.949
Nope. You know. They'd probably go, you mean[br]an

0:07:18.949,0:07:24.039
espresso, right? Because espresso is what[br]we call a

0:07:24.039,0:07:28.800
loan word. We borrowed that word from Italian[br]because

0:07:28.800,0:07:30.940
it was concise, it was a good way to

0:07:30.940,0:07:33.789
say what it was that, that we wanted to

0:07:33.789,0:07:36.069
say without all of those words, right.

0:07:36.069,0:07:40.129
Ruby is a language in-and-of-itself. It borrows[br]from English

0:07:40.129,0:07:42.919
where it makes sense. But it is my opinion,

0:07:42.919,0:07:44.690
anyway, that if there is a concise way to

0:07:44.690,0:07:47.190
say something in Ruby, we don't necessarily[br]need to

0:07:47.190,0:07:49.500
borrow a loan word in English. You know how

0:07:49.500,0:07:51.319
you sit across the table from that guy who

0:07:51.319,0:07:53.440
always like to use a foreign word for something

0:07:53.440,0:07:57.139
just to sound clever, right? Right. That's[br]what we're

0:07:57.139,0:08:00.470
doing, right. Like, it doesn't make a lot[br]of

0:08:00.470,0:08:00.789
sense.

0:08:00.789,0:08:03.759
Now, here's one you may initially disagree[br]with. I

0:08:03.759,0:08:06.479
believe that Rails believes that models descend[br]from ActiveRecord,

0:08:06.479,0:08:09.870
or at the very least an ORM. Now, if

0:08:09.870,0:08:12.300
you disagree with me, I have three words for

0:08:12.300,0:08:17.289
you. Rails generate model.

0:08:17.289,0:08:20.340
What do you get? You get an ActiveRecord subclass,

0:08:20.340,0:08:23.259
right. Now, you might say, well that's silly,[br]right.

0:08:23.259,0:08:26.319
But this is the first exposure that Rails[br]developers

0:08:26.319,0:08:28.610
are likely to have to what goes in a

0:08:28.610,0:08:31.199
model's directory, and I have talked to extremely[br]smart

0:08:31.199,0:08:34.030
developers who have told me that they went[br]a

0:08:34.030,0:08:36.679
number of years before they realized they[br]could stick

0:08:36.679,0:08:39.820
plain-old Ruby classes in app models, because[br]they just

0:08:39.820,0:08:42.679
thought that, that's not what models are.[br]Right?

0:08:42.679,0:08:45.280
And so, rightfully so then, Rails believes[br]that the

0:08:45.280,0:08:47.990
data is the domain, right. That's the ActiveRecord[br]pattern.

0:08:47.990,0:08:50.230
That's the whole point of it. And if you

0:08:50.230,0:08:52.450
don't believe me, I'll show you some README[br]information,

0:08:52.450,0:08:53.170
right.

0:08:53.170,0:08:55.990
The prime directive is that we're minimizing[br]the code

0:08:55.990,0:08:59.820
needed to build a real-world domain model.[br]Lots of

0:08:59.820,0:09:03.060
reflection and runtime extension is the understatement[br]of the

0:09:03.060,0:09:10.060
year. And magic is not inherently a bad word.

0:09:10.269,0:09:13.690
Now, what this really comes down to is, is

0:09:13.690,0:09:18.329
Rails was very much a reaction to very configuration-heavy

0:09:18.329,0:09:24.130
frameworks in Java, XML files and the like.[br]Big

0:09:24.130,0:09:26.779
reaction to that, right. So what we had determined

0:09:26.779,0:09:29.510
at that point was that configuration is the[br]devil,

0:09:29.510,0:09:33.640
right. And once you have, once you have determined

0:09:33.640,0:09:35.779
that there is a greater evil out there, then

0:09:35.779,0:09:38.010
a lot of lesser evils start to seem pretty

0:09:38.010,0:09:41.089
great by comparison, right. So you can rationalize[br]yourself

0:09:41.089,0:09:43.760
into a really tricky spot.

0:09:43.760,0:09:46.930
And so, our goal is to be able to

0:09:46.930,0:09:50.600
write class Post inherits from ActiveRecord::Base[br]end and have

0:09:50.600,0:09:54.640
magic happen, right. Like, for instance, we[br]infer, and

0:09:54.640,0:09:56.190
I want to talk a little about, about one

0:09:56.190,0:09:58.630
thing that we do in that case, right. We

0:09:58.630,0:10:02.829
infer what the attributes should be on that,[br]on

0:10:02.829,0:10:05.170
that model without writing a single line of[br]code.

0:10:05.170,0:10:08.050
Now, there's a problem with that. Namely,[br]that in

0:10:08.050,0:10:10.149
order to infer the attribute names, you must[br]first

0:10:10.149,0:10:13.140
invent the universe. So I want to walk us

0:10:13.140,0:10:17.279
through what that looks like. We're gonna[br]do one

0:10:17.279,0:10:19.360
deep dive into some Rails internals, and then[br]I

0:10:19.360,0:10:21.399
promise we'll come back up for air and we'll,

0:10:21.399,0:10:24.630
we'll talk about happy things.

0:10:24.630,0:10:28.740
So, so you might imagine pretty, pretty early[br]on,

0:10:28.740,0:10:32.740
that we're gonna go ahead and initialize a[br]module,

0:10:32.740,0:10:34.680
and we're gonna actually have a module to[br]store

0:10:34.680,0:10:36.920
our attribute methods in. That's actually[br]something I kind

0:10:36.920,0:10:39.529
of like, right, because as a Rubyist, I expect

0:10:39.529,0:10:40.910
to be able to call super if I define

0:10:40.910,0:10:42.399
my own method on the class, so that makes

0:10:42.399,0:10:43.920
a lot of sense, right.

0:10:43.920,0:10:45.050
So if we look at what happens when we

0:10:45.050,0:10:47.649
generate the module, we have a new anonymous[br]module

0:10:47.649,0:10:50.040
that extends Mutex, cause we don't want to[br]be

0:10:50.040,0:10:53.070
modifying the module from two different threads.

0:10:53.070,0:10:56.440
And, then in method_missing, we have this[br]handy little

0:10:56.440,0:11:02.029
hook that defines the attribute methods, right.[br]And so,

0:11:02.029,0:11:06.480
in method_missing, we call this every single[br]time, right.

0:11:06.480,0:11:09.290
And the idea being that once we've defined[br]the

0:11:09.290,0:11:10.829
methods, they're, we're not gonna hit method_missing,[br]at least

0:11:10.829,0:11:13.660
for those methods anymore.

0:11:13.660,0:11:15.320
And so we bail out, if, in fact, we've

0:11:15.320,0:11:21.110
already generated them. And we call super[br]with column

0:11:21.110,0:11:23.980
names, right. Now, where do we get column[br]names

0:11:23.980,0:11:26.750
from? Well, it's not there. In fact, method_missing[br]was

0:11:26.750,0:11:29.740
the only thing that actually sits on, on the

0:11:29.740,0:11:31.529
instance level. The rest of the stuff that[br]we're

0:11:31.529,0:11:33.310
gonna be looking at sits on the singleton.[br]It

0:11:33.310,0:11:36.300
sits on the subclass of ActiveRecord itself[br]as a

0:11:36.300,0:11:37.430
class method.

0:11:37.430,0:11:41.149
So, when we call super, we're actually calling[br]super

0:11:41.149,0:11:45.269
into ActiveModels. Definition of defining[br]attributes, right. So we're

0:11:45.269,0:11:47.600
saying, define attributes methods from ActiveModel.[br]We're passing it

0:11:47.600,0:11:50.860
the column names. So here's column names.[br]Well, column

0:11:50.860,0:11:54.610
names is, again, a singleton method. It knows[br]that

0:11:54.610,0:11:57.649
it needs columns, right. And below here, we[br]have

0:11:57.649,0:11:58.459
columns.

0:11:58.459,0:12:01.889
Well, columns needs the connections, for starters,[br]to the

0:12:01.889,0:12:03.540
database to talk, to figure out, you know,[br]what

0:12:03.540,0:12:05.360
table it's gonna read from. And it also needs

0:12:05.360,0:12:08.160
to determine table name, right. So now we[br]need

0:12:08.160,0:12:11.470
to know the table name. So we don't have

0:12:11.470,0:12:13.620
the table name yet, so we call a reset

0:12:13.620,0:12:18.480
table name, and most of the time I'm gonna

0:12:18.480,0:12:20.529
skip past some of the, some of the more

0:12:20.529,0:12:22.760
convoluted things and just talk about the[br]compute table

0:12:22.760,0:12:24.300
name, right. So we have to compute the table

0:12:24.300,0:12:27.370
name. It makes sense, right?

0:12:27.370,0:12:29.480
So, this is kind of a big method. Hopefully

0:12:29.480,0:12:31.339
you all can see the, the part that matters,

0:12:31.339,0:12:35.600
which is we call undecorated table name with[br]the,

0:12:35.600,0:12:37.760
again, we're sitting on the class. So name[br]refers

0:12:37.760,0:12:39.839
to class dot name, right. The string name[br]of

0:12:39.839,0:12:43.279
the class. The full module name.

0:12:43.279,0:12:47.350
And, undecorated table name basically does[br]exactly what you

0:12:47.350,0:12:50.320
see here. Let's say we have a namespace model,

0:12:50.320,0:12:54.740
Conferences::RailsConf becomes RailsConf becomes[br]rails underscore conf becomes rails_confs,

0:12:54.740,0:12:59.130
OK. Which is great. And then, of course, if

0:12:59.130,0:13:01.320
we have Animals::Moose it becomes Moose it[br]becomes moose

0:13:01.320,0:13:05.360
it becomes mooses. Which makes lots of sense,[br]right?

0:13:05.360,0:13:12.130
Well, that means we need to handle irregular[br]pluralization.

0:13:12.130,0:13:14.170
So we check and we see whether or not

0:13:14.170,0:13:18.940
there's a default pluralization to find for[br]moose. There

0:13:18.940,0:13:21.209
is not. There, there, there are some interesting[br]ones,

0:13:21.209,0:13:23.589
I think. We've got, like, sheep. We do have

0:13:23.589,0:13:27.600
sheep, so we're at least in the ball park.

0:13:27.600,0:13:30.769
We have jeans. We have fish. But we don't

0:13:30.769,0:13:32.209
have moose.

0:13:32.209,0:13:36.110
So, we go into an initializer and we set

0:13:36.110,0:13:43.110
inflect.uncountable "moose" and then it works,[br]right. But. Configuration.

0:13:43.649,0:13:46.220
Or we can say self dot table_name equal 'moose'

0:13:46.220,0:13:50.070
and then bypass all of that altogether, right.[br]But,

0:13:50.070,0:13:51.880
again, configuration.

0:13:51.880,0:13:54.540
Now, if configuration is the devil and magic[br]is

0:13:54.540,0:13:58.529
the goal, then we have to think to ourselves,

0:13:58.529,0:14:00.790
what is, what is magic, really? And, and an

0:14:00.790,0:14:06.070
enjoyable magic trick is basically willful[br]suspension of disbelief,

0:14:06.070,0:14:09.459
right. So, that is, if this magician came[br]up

0:14:09.459,0:14:11.880
and said, I'm going to saw my assistant in

0:14:11.880,0:14:14.519
half, and you didn't think, there's a trick[br]here,

0:14:14.519,0:14:17.009
like, it's based in the rules of reality,[br]like,

0:14:17.009,0:14:19.149
there's something going on. It would be pretty[br]horrified,

0:14:19.149,0:14:21.880
right. We'd be like, I don't be- where have

0:14:21.880,0:14:24.480
I gone? Like, what is going on here, right?

0:14:24.480,0:14:27.269
And so there is this level where we would

0:14:27.269,0:14:29.970
do better to consider, how can we root this

0:14:29.970,0:14:32.630
kind of magic in some reality that the average

0:14:32.630,0:14:35.220
person is going to be able to understand?[br]And

0:14:35.220,0:14:37.509
then kind of build on that knowledge, sort[br]of

0:14:37.509,0:14:39.740
scaffold, if you will. And, otherwise, you[br]end up

0:14:39.740,0:14:41.720
with what I, what I referred to as douche

0:14:41.720,0:14:44.310
bag magic, which magic that bites you, magic[br]that

0:14:44.310,0:14:47.070
screws you over in all sorts of wonderful[br]ways.

0:14:47.070,0:14:51.540
So, let's imagine, for a moment, a world,[br]a

0:14:51.540,0:14:55.060
world where we do have magic that we can

0:14:55.060,0:15:01.250
understand. And, so let's just say we have[br]ImaginaryRecord::Record

0:15:01.250,0:15:04.600
that always asks us to configure a table name.

0:15:04.600,0:15:07.389
That always asks us to define the attributes[br]in

0:15:07.389,0:15:10.820
a very mapper style, data mapper style. Right?

0:15:10.820,0:15:12.980
Given an attribute name, tell it's how its[br]to

0:15:12.980,0:15:14.019
load the attributes. Tell it how to load the

0:15:14.019,0:15:15.449
attributes. Maybe some other stuff. We don't,[br]we're just,

0:15:15.449,0:15:18.529
we're imagining here, right. We're, we're[br]just in your

0:15:18.529,0:15:20.019
imagination.

0:15:20.019,0:15:22.630
And then let's say that we have a MagicRecord

0:15:22.630,0:15:26.480
that inherits from the ImaginaryRecord::Record,[br]and does all the

0:15:26.480,0:15:30.880
same stuff that we did before, except it calls

0:15:30.880,0:15:34.230
these methods on the class in order to set

0:15:34.230,0:15:36.339
the table name programmatically, in order[br]to set the

0:15:36.339,0:15:37.009
attributes programmatically, right.

0:15:37.009,0:15:41.279
Well, that would be pretty cool. We would[br]have

0:15:41.279,0:15:43.130
to make some trade offs, but we'd basically[br]get

0:15:43.130,0:15:45.509
to the point where we could do something like

0:15:45.509,0:15:48.449
inherit from MagicRecord and get the exact[br]same behavior

0:15:48.449,0:15:51.930
as we wanted. But as a freebie, now we

0:15:51.930,0:15:54.009
have the ability to drop down another layer,[br]if

0:15:54.009,0:15:57.000
we want. And to actually define this stuff[br]with

0:15:57.000,0:15:58.060
less magic.

0:15:58.060,0:16:01.800
And you say, well that's great. So that's[br]attributes.

0:16:01.800,0:16:04.620
We kind of understand that. That's pretty[br]simple, right.

0:16:04.620,0:16:08.069
Big whoop. ActiveRecord also does all these[br]other things,

0:16:08.069,0:16:11.170
I mean, you know, it's got like attribute[br]typecasting

0:16:11.170,0:16:13.779
and associations and serializations and secure[br]passwords and transactions

0:16:13.779,0:16:17.000
and macro reflection and nested attributes,[br]time stamps, lifecycle

0:16:17.000,0:16:20.839
callbacks, validations, dirty tracking, mass[br]assignment, sanitation, to name

0:16:20.839,0:16:23.880
some, and oh, by the way, we have querying

0:16:23.880,0:16:26.829
and persisting, right. That's kind of a important[br]thing

0:16:26.829,0:16:29.670
in a persistence library.

0:16:29.670,0:16:33.630
And so, I say yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's.[br]That's

0:16:33.630,0:16:36.019
an interesting problem that we have, right.[br]Because they're

0:16:36.019,0:16:38.329
all kind of living in one place, and how

0:16:38.329,0:16:43.149
do you expose this kind of interface, this[br]kind

0:16:43.149,0:16:47.060
of way of interacting with, with your library,[br]to

0:16:47.060,0:16:48.589
cover all of these things. And my answer would

0:16:48.589,0:16:51.350
be basically that you, you don't. You, you[br]allow

0:16:51.350,0:16:53.329
this to tell you maybe I've got a crazy

0:16:53.329,0:16:54.339
idea.

0:16:54.339,0:16:58.699
So, this is the ancestry chain of, of an

0:16:58.699,0:17:01.940
ActiveRecord::Base subclass. I just wanted[br]to show it to

0:17:01.940,0:17:08.040
you real quickly. Now, yeah. Yeah. Three cheers[br]for

0:17:08.040,0:17:11.959
the, for the ancestry chain of ActieRecord::Base.[br]So, somebody's

0:17:11.959,0:17:15.430
clapping. Oh no. Right.

0:17:15.430,0:17:18.329
SO, in Rails we call this clarity. You may

0:17:18.329,0:17:25.329
have heard that earlier. Because API surface[br]area is

0:17:25.690,0:17:29.420
irrelevant. We don't care about that. In other[br]words,

0:17:29.420,0:17:32.940
the Single Responsibility Principle is super[br]simple for sufficiently

0:17:32.940,0:17:38.170
large values of responsibility. Like, if you're[br]responsibility is

0:17:38.170,0:17:40.790
to do everything, then you just say, OK, gotta

0:17:40.790,0:17:43.630
do everything. It's gotta work, right. That's[br]my responsibility.

0:17:43.630,0:17:47.320
Well, it works. All right. Done.

0:17:47.320,0:17:50.360
And so awhile back, actually last weekend,[br]I Tweeted

0:17:50.360,0:17:55.020
some of these statistics about an observation[br]on an,

0:17:55.020,0:17:58.770
a brand new Rails 4.1 app, what a subclass

0:17:58.770,0:18:02.100
of ActiveRecord has, what the view has, and[br]what

0:18:02.100,0:18:06.190
the controller has in terms of ancestors,[br]public protected

0:18:06.190,0:18:08.830
class methods, public protected instance methods,[br]and same for

0:18:08.830,0:18:10.780
private methods, right.

0:18:10.780,0:18:13.940
Now, look. It may very well be that this

0:18:13.940,0:18:16.260
is exactly the API size that we need. I'm

0:18:16.260,0:18:17.750
not gonna argue that one way or the other

0:18:17.750,0:18:21.070
right now. But what I will say is that

0:18:21.070,0:18:23.560
there are other ways to get there. Just because

0:18:23.560,0:18:25.340
we want these methods does not mean they all

0:18:25.340,0:18:28.320
actually have to be implemented in modules[br]that are

0:18:28.320,0:18:31.960
included onto the class.

0:18:31.960,0:18:34.140
And so what I'm getting at is that, it's

0:18:34.140,0:18:37.220
very, very hard to keep track of just what

0:18:37.220,0:18:40.340
you're doing. I've been writing Rails for[br]over seven

0:18:40.340,0:18:42.160
years. I'm not exactly sure how long at this

0:18:42.160,0:18:45.590
point. But, I know that, since I've been doing

0:18:45.590,0:18:48.790
it, I still have to have documentation open[br]most

0:18:48.790,0:18:51.250
of the time when I'm doing anything serious.[br]Like,

0:18:51.250,0:18:53.640
maybe I'm just dumb. Possible. I don't know.[br]But

0:18:53.640,0:18:57.390
I need documentation. It's a really big namespace[br]to

0:18:57.390,0:18:58.900
try to keep in your head all at one

0:18:58.900,0:18:59.600
point.

0:18:59.600,0:19:04.720
So, this is on, online at GitHub, and you

0:19:04.720,0:19:07.150
are free to do science to verify my empirical

0:19:07.150,0:19:11.480
observations and see whether or not they are[br]accurate,

0:19:11.480,0:19:13.310
and I would love to see PRs to this

0:19:13.310,0:19:17.330
repo, actually, with, you know, different[br]versions of Rails

0:19:17.330,0:19:19.460
to see how things have changed, complexity-wise.

0:19:19.460,0:19:22.480
Now, it's not enough really for ActiveRecord[br]to just

0:19:22.480,0:19:25.940
do this on its own. It actually encourages[br]us

0:19:25.940,0:19:31.020
to do this, right. Rails has this whole helper

0:19:31.020,0:19:33.550
thing, right. And, let me give you an example

0:19:33.550,0:19:36.220
of something I actually encountered and, I'm[br]embarrassed to

0:19:36.220,0:19:38.290
say, spent like half a day trouble shooting[br]with

0:19:38.290,0:19:40.390
the, with helpers.

0:19:40.390,0:19:44.080
So, I decided I had a really great idea,

0:19:44.080,0:19:45.840
and I was gonna use something that I heard

0:19:45.840,0:19:48.840
that OO developers like to do, which is polymorphism,

0:19:48.840,0:19:50.370
and use it at the view layer, right. And

0:19:50.370,0:19:54.250
I'm like, I can have something that is summarizable,

0:19:54.250,0:19:56.020
and so I might have a helper for posts

0:19:56.020,0:19:57.940
that's summary, and I might have a helper[br]for

0:19:57.940,0:20:00.150
reviews that's summary.

0:20:00.150,0:20:02.550
And I can share a partial that prints that

0:20:02.550,0:20:06.170
summary in an appropriate way for that particular[br]thing,

0:20:06.170,0:20:08.500
right. That seemed pretty cool. So this is[br]how

0:20:08.500,0:20:12.060
it would look in a partial. And in development

0:20:12.060,0:20:16.220
it worked wonderfully. It worked exactly the[br]way I

0:20:16.220,0:20:18.450
expected. And then I deployed to production.

0:20:18.450,0:20:23.530
Now, how many of you think it worked? Right.

0:20:23.530,0:20:25.840
How many of you think it didn't work. Well,

0:20:25.840,0:20:29.150
it's kind of a trick question, because honestly[br]you

0:20:29.150,0:20:30.920
can't really tell me, because you don't have[br]enough

0:20:30.920,0:20:34.810
information right now. Because there's this[br]thing, right.

0:20:34.810,0:20:38.620
OK, so, seven years ago, there was a commit

0:20:38.620,0:20:41.390
to Rails that said, we are going to make

0:20:41.390,0:20:43.210
it default assumption you want all helpers[br]all the

0:20:43.210,0:20:48.830
time. No comment.

0:20:48.830,0:20:51.950
And, for a long period of time, I'd like

0:20:51.950,0:20:53.460
to imagine it was some kind of a dark

0:20:53.460,0:20:55.530
age in Rails. There was really no way to

0:20:55.530,0:20:57.640
opt out of this, per se, until a patch

0:20:57.640,0:21:00.300
came in that added include all helpers as[br]a

0:21:00.300,0:21:03.580
configuration option. So I thought, this is[br]great. I

0:21:03.580,0:21:07.270
found this, now I found this after hours of

0:21:07.270,0:21:10.050
searching, like, because I just somehow missed[br]the memo

0:21:10.050,0:21:11.570
that we had done that. It was way back

0:21:11.570,0:21:13.290
in 2.3, like, this has been the way for

0:21:13.290,0:21:14.430
awhile, right.

0:21:14.430,0:21:17.070
But, like I just kind of assume, like, it's

0:21:17.070,0:21:21.730
named post_helper, it should help posts. Not,[br]like, other

0:21:21.730,0:21:24.420
things. But that's not how it works. So there's

0:21:24.420,0:21:28.110
this kind of big namespace, right. And so,[br]I

0:21:28.110,0:21:31.300
would recommend that nearly all of you consider[br]adding

0:21:31.300,0:21:35.470
this to to your application dot rb. You will

0:21:35.470,0:21:37.800
be much more sane for it. If you're going

0:21:37.800,0:21:40.290
to use helpers, at the very least, having[br]a

0:21:40.290,0:21:42.050
namespace that you can kind of control. If[br]you

0:21:42.050,0:21:44.460
want to be available to all controllers, then[br]throw

0:21:44.460,0:21:46.870
it in application_helper or have a module.[br]You can

0:21:46.870,0:21:48.840
still use modules, I hear. It works.

0:21:48.840,0:21:50.920
Now, we did all this in the name of

0:21:50.920,0:21:55.090
convenience, right. Convenience is, is going[br]to trump everything

0:21:55.090,0:21:58.120
else. We want convenient usage at expense[br]of anything

0:21:58.120,0:22:02.870
else. And, you know, so I own a house.

0:22:02.870,0:22:05.900
And I think to myself often that, you know,

0:22:05.900,0:22:09.520
when nature calls, I have, like, to get up

0:22:09.520,0:22:12.140
and like, go to a special room to go

0:22:12.140,0:22:14.760
do my business, right.

0:22:14.760,0:22:15.850
[laughter]

0:22:15.850,0:22:20.300
And I mean that's really inconvenient. So[br]like, why

0:22:20.300,0:22:23.000
don't I just install a toilet, like, in every

0:22:23.000,0:22:26.300
room in the house, right? Because then, like,[br]if

0:22:26.300,0:22:28.700
I'm watching the tube, it doesn't matter you[br]know.

0:22:28.700,0:22:31.240
Do my thing. It's all good. but the problem

0:22:31.240,0:22:34.150
with that is, right, that first off, you've[br]got,

0:22:34.150,0:22:37.340
like, plumbing now to help support this, this[br]aspiration

0:22:37.340,0:22:40.660
of having a toilet in every room. And plumbers

0:22:40.660,0:22:43.020
are expensive and, like, stuff breaks and[br]then it's

0:22:43.020,0:22:45.210
like, I've got a leak and I've got damage

0:22:45.210,0:22:48.120
and stuff, and then the other problem is,[br]like,

0:22:48.120,0:22:51.180
every room is a toilet, right.

0:22:51.180,0:22:56.330
So, I would encourage you to consider that[br]if

0:22:56.330,0:22:58.590
this is kind of what you're looking for, if

0:22:58.590,0:23:02.700
a giant namespace of, of, of methods and functions

0:23:02.700,0:23:04.850
is what you would really like to have, then

0:23:04.850,0:23:09.820
have I got the language for you.

0:23:09.820,0:23:16.120
It is super convenient, like, everything is[br]at arm's

0:23:16.120,0:23:17.520
length. What's that? You want to do something[br]with

0:23:17.520,0:23:20.610
a string and an array, yeah, doesn't matter.[br]MySQL,

0:23:20.610,0:23:24.720
sure. Absolutely. I mean, just a thought.

0:23:24.720,0:23:30.090
So now another, another Rails opinion is,[br]who needs

0:23:30.090,0:23:35.710
classes when we've got modules? And I say[br]this

0:23:35.710,0:23:40.330
primarily because of one interesting piece[br]of code, which

0:23:40.330,0:23:47.330
is ActiveSupport::Concern. So, ActiveSupport::Concern[br]you may think is mainly

0:23:47.540,0:23:50.420
for having a convention around having a class[br]methods

0:23:50.420,0:23:54.030
module inside your module. And instance methods[br]and so

0:23:54.030,0:23:56.520
forth. But it's not.

0:23:56.520,0:24:00.140
The problem the it's designed to solve is[br]that,

0:24:00.140,0:24:02.710
in this world, the Ruby world, the one that

0:24:02.710,0:24:06.890
we live in lots of times, we, we actually

0:24:06.890,0:24:09.150
would have to include. There's a lot of extension

0:24:09.150,0:24:11.420
onto a class, right, when you include a module

0:24:11.420,0:24:13.180
in the Rails world. Like, a lot of the

0:24:13.180,0:24:15.490
modules that Rails is built on go and do

0:24:15.490,0:24:18.110
metaprogramming and add methods to the singleton[br]or whatever

0:24:18.110,0:24:19.980
onto the class itself, right.

0:24:19.980,0:24:22.410
And if you're adding stuff to the singleton,[br]then

0:24:22.410,0:24:25.280
it's not sufficient for you to go ahead and,

0:24:25.280,0:24:27.870
and do that in a module that is itself

0:24:27.870,0:24:29.810
included, right. Because when it gets included[br]in the

0:24:29.810,0:24:32.230
module, it modifies the module singleton,[br]not the class

0:24:32.230,0:24:33.660
singleton. With me so far?

0:24:33.660,0:24:36.540
Right. This is a huge problem. So. So let's

0:24:36.540,0:24:39.610
solve it. Now, we have this ability to have

0:24:39.610,0:24:44.790
dependencies that get trapped by ActiveSupport::Concern,[br]so that each

0:24:44.790,0:24:47.770
singleton knows what, what its dependencies[br]are, and then

0:24:47.770,0:24:51.650
at the time that you include the, the dependency

0:24:51.650,0:24:53.750
that you're really looking for, it can also[br]go

0:24:53.750,0:24:55.580
back and include into your module all the[br]other

0:24:55.580,0:24:57.410
ones that it needed, and so then that way

0:24:57.410,0:24:59.660
they can do their metaprogramming magic on[br]your singleton

0:24:59.660,0:25:01.650
instead of their singleton.

0:25:01.650,0:25:04.890
It's great. And it's, you know, so what it

0:25:04.890,0:25:06.650
is is that there was this, this, this problem.

0:25:06.650,0:25:11.720
There was this problem that we had. And, you

0:25:11.720,0:25:14.660
know, we decided to bundle a, a, a free

0:25:14.660,0:25:18.850
razor with every yak. And, I mean, I guess

0:25:18.850,0:25:22.530
that's one solution, sure. And so, so I've[br]been

0:25:22.530,0:25:25.430
thinking a lot about this lately.

0:25:25.430,0:25:27.290
And one of the things that sort of bothers

0:25:27.290,0:25:29.620
me is that, you know, we're regularly told[br]not

0:25:29.620,0:25:34.490
to, not to fight the framework, right. But[br]our

0:25:34.490,0:25:39.120
framework pretty actively fights the language.[br]There are things

0:25:39.120,0:25:41.800
that the language is saying, hey, this might[br]be

0:25:41.800,0:25:43.160
crazy. Maybe you don't want to do this. And

0:25:43.160,0:25:46.980
we're like, I won't do what you tell me.

0:25:46.980,0:25:50.630
I will do exactly what I want to do.

0:25:50.630,0:25:54.590
And it encourages this, this kind of module-centric[br]design.

0:25:54.590,0:25:56.750
Limits the entry points that we can have.[br]So,

0:25:56.750,0:25:58.830
you know, Yehuda made a really great point,[br]actually,

0:25:58.830,0:26:00.960
when he talked about that we're kind of on

0:26:00.960,0:26:03.990
the 400th story, right. And, and I agree.[br]We

0:26:03.990,0:26:06.600
are, we are like way up here in terms

0:26:06.600,0:26:08.120
of abstraction.

0:26:08.120,0:26:12.180
But, like, I've heard rumors that, like, maybe,[br]on

0:26:12.180,0:26:14.730
most buildings, like, those other floors like[br]have people

0:26:14.730,0:26:18.280
in them, and like, they do things. And like

0:26:18.280,0:26:21.170
maybe you can not just be trapped on the

0:26:21.170,0:26:23.100
400th floor forever, but maybe you want to[br]like

0:26:23.100,0:26:25.780
go down, cause like, I heard, like, on floor

0:26:25.780,0:26:29.330
350 there's like an ice cream store, and like,

0:26:29.330,0:26:31.710
I like ice cream. Right. So maybe I want

0:26:31.710,0:26:33.020
to go down and have some ice cream.

0:26:33.020,0:26:36.520
But, like, I can't. Because I could only do

0:26:36.520,0:26:39.720
things with things that are instantiatable,[br]right. And if

0:26:39.720,0:26:42.110
everything is a module, I'm not instantiating[br]that. I

0:26:42.110,0:26:44.530
guess I could write my own class and include

0:26:44.530,0:26:47.050
half of what's going on, but that seems like

0:26:47.050,0:26:49.190
I'm just perpetuating the problem.

0:26:49.190,0:26:54.470
So, here's another, here's another Rails opinion.[br]Rails believes

0:26:54.470,0:26:59.390
that your conventions suck. First example[br]is, now, I

0:26:59.390,0:27:01.250
know it's gonna be hard for you to believe,

0:27:01.250,0:27:05.730
but there were conventions for building applications[br]before Rails

0:27:05.730,0:27:08.710
came out. Like, people were actually building[br]- I

0:27:08.710,0:27:12.820
know, it's a little weird. They were building[br]web

0:27:12.820,0:27:14.220
applications, and, and one of the things that[br]they

0:27:14.220,0:27:16.100
used was JavaScript, right.

0:27:16.100,0:27:19.870
Now, love or hate JavaScript, it, it, it's[br]here

0:27:19.870,0:27:21.620
to stay at this point. We, we, we're gonna

0:27:21.620,0:27:25.290
be writing it. And so, Rails, once upon a

0:27:25.290,0:27:28.330
time - you guys remember this? You remember[br]this?

0:27:28.330,0:27:32.500
Like, let's, so. If this was before your time

0:27:32.500,0:27:35.110
with Rails, we had, we had this great idea,

0:27:35.110,0:27:39.580
right, which is, JavaScript's a pain to write.[br]And

0:27:39.580,0:27:44.220
let's write Ruby that writes JavaScript instead.[br]And so

0:27:44.220,0:27:46.820
we called that RJS, and you could write these,

0:27:46.820,0:27:48.420
there were these methods that if you said[br]page

0:27:48.420,0:27:50.650
dot whatever, it would generate some JavaScript.[br]And you

0:27:50.650,0:27:52.720
could go look at the JavaScript and it was,

0:27:52.720,0:27:55.000
you know, about what you would expect generated[br]JavaScript

0:27:55.000,0:27:57.260
to be.

0:27:57.260,0:27:59.880
And then we decided, you know, OK, maybe that

0:27:59.880,0:28:01.970
was crazy. But we're still not happy with[br]the

0:28:01.970,0:28:06.600
whole state that we have to write JavaScript.[br]So

0:28:06.600,0:28:09.860
we decided to use JavaScript that looks like[br]Ruby,

0:28:09.860,0:28:14.680
right. OK. Great. All right. Fine. I can see

0:28:14.680,0:28:17.400
that.

0:28:17.400,0:28:21.130
And then, at that point, now, we were at

0:28:21.130,0:28:24.360
a point where there's this other convention,[br]where like,

0:28:24.360,0:28:26.810
if you're using jQuery, and many of us are,

0:28:26.810,0:28:31.010
like, let's say, let's say that I want to

0:28:31.010,0:28:33.530
render, I have decided I'm gonna be on the

0:28:33.530,0:28:35.760
straight and narrow, I am going to render[br]my,

0:28:35.760,0:28:40.220
my, my views in Ruby. I want to render

0:28:40.220,0:28:41.890
static html that I spit out. But I need

0:28:41.890,0:28:45.870
some dynamic parts, and so I'm gonna render[br]some,

0:28:45.870,0:28:48.580
some JavaScript as well that's gonna do some[br]things,

0:28:48.580,0:28:49.960
right. Use jQuery.

0:28:49.960,0:28:51.510
This is a pretty standard convention, right.[br]I mean,

0:28:51.510,0:28:53.470
how many of you have this exact code in

0:28:53.470,0:28:56.220
your code base somewhere, right. If you're[br]not raising

0:28:56.220,0:29:00.530
your hand, I'm very shocked. So, we thought,[br]you

0:29:00.530,0:29:02.470
know, that's, that's great. It's really cool[br]to be

0:29:02.470,0:29:04.660
able to hook into $(document).ready and do[br]some stuff.

0:29:04.660,0:29:08.750
And so, so Rails said, that's a horrible idea.

0:29:08.750,0:29:12.580
You should use Turbolinks. And so now, look,[br]you

0:29:12.580,0:29:16.340
can yank Turbolinks out of your gemfile and[br]that's

0:29:16.340,0:29:18.630
true. You can do that, right. But it's my

0:29:18.630,0:29:22.900
opinion that convention should probably not[br]completely break someone's

0:29:22.900,0:29:25.430
expectations if they're doing server-side[br]rendering, and this is

0:29:25.430,0:29:27.410
something that you, you are going to run into

0:29:27.410,0:29:28.990
if you're just starting out with Rails. You'll[br]be

0:29:28.990,0:29:30.330
like, well, why isn't this doing? Well, we[br]don't

0:29:30.330,0:29:31.840
fire. We don't fire the doc.

0:29:31.840,0:29:34.780
No, there are, there are other gems that will

0:29:34.780,0:29:37.140
make this seem like that is not the case.

0:29:37.140,0:29:39.050
But the fact of the matter is, it's gonna

0:29:39.050,0:29:42.180
bite you. So, so Rails said, you know, we

0:29:42.180,0:29:45.840
have opinions about how you should write JavaScript.

0:29:45.840,0:29:47.600
Rails has opinions about how you should maintain[br]data

0:29:47.600,0:29:54.600
integrity as well. And so in the Rails world,

0:29:54.970,0:29:57.320
this is a typical, typical way to handle some,

0:29:57.320,0:30:00.040
some validation of data integrity, right.[br]Maybe you make

0:30:00.040,0:30:02.800
sure that you have a customer, and you need

0:30:02.800,0:30:07.150
a unique reference number, and you have a[br]typo

0:30:07.150,0:30:08.020
there.

0:30:08.020,0:30:10.950
validates_associates. Validates :associates[br]and :line_items, right. And you won't

0:30:10.950,0:30:15.520
save an order unless its :line_items are valid.[br]And

0:30:15.520,0:30:20.020
that's really interesting to me, because objects,[br]unfortunately, you

0:30:20.020,0:30:22.820
know, they don't really understand their relations[br]to other

0:30:22.820,0:30:25.570
things very well, because those live somewhere[br]else. They're

0:30:25.570,0:30:28.840
in the data store separate, right. And, you[br]know,

0:30:28.840,0:30:30.790
I, I really think that it would be great,

0:30:30.790,0:30:33.620
like, if there was some sort of a system

0:30:33.620,0:30:36.150
that we could use. So, like, I don't know,

0:30:36.150,0:30:41.270
it would be like a system for managing, I

0:30:41.270,0:30:48.220
don't know, relational data, maybe? I don't[br]know.

0:30:48.220,0:30:50.890
It would be great if we had one of

0:30:50.890,0:30:55.470
those. And it turns out that, like, we do.

0:30:55.470,0:30:59.000
And they are, like, super good at understanding[br]relationships

0:30:59.000,0:31:02.920
between data. And they are super good at,[br]at

0:31:02.920,0:31:05.230
validating the data that goes in and out and

0:31:05.230,0:31:09.900
ensuring that things are atomic, right, and[br]that, that

0:31:09.900,0:31:12.370
our updates are not gonna run into race conditions

0:31:12.370,0:31:14.400
and the like, right?

0:31:14.400,0:31:16.400
I mean, and I'm talking about, even the, let's

0:31:16.400,0:31:21.590
say, less than civilized versions of databases,[br]those are,

0:31:21.590,0:31:24.070
those are also able, able to do pretty well

0:31:24.070,0:31:27.720
at this. Because, Ruby, the Ruby land has[br]to

0:31:27.720,0:31:29.550
cross a process boundary to know any of this

0:31:29.550,0:31:33.110
stuff, and that's pretty lossy, really.

0:31:33.110,0:31:35.150
So, I don't think it would be fair, you

0:31:35.150,0:31:36.960
know, I've griped a lot at this point about

0:31:36.960,0:31:38.290
a few of the opinions that I think Rails

0:31:38.290,0:31:41.310
has, and I feel like you came here hoping

0:31:41.310,0:31:43.110
that I would offer you some solutions, right.[br]I

0:31:43.110,0:31:47.630
want to show you some solutions that I've[br]found.

0:31:47.630,0:31:53.530
These are my solutions. They look pretty nice,[br]I

0:31:53.530,0:31:54.300
think.

0:31:54.300,0:31:55.080
Science.

0:31:55.080,0:32:00.330
No. So, I've been doing this thing lately,[br]and

0:32:00.330,0:32:04.540
I'm calling it IDD. And that stands for Ignorance-Driven

0:32:04.540,0:32:10.970
Development. It's really blissful. And it's[br]this, this crazy

0:32:10.970,0:32:15.970
idea that, like, maybe starting with Rails[br]g model,

0:32:15.970,0:32:19.400
like starting out thinking about your persistence,[br]is maybe

0:32:19.400,0:32:21.300
not the way to go.

0:32:21.300,0:32:23.470
If you're thinking about your persistence[br]for - I

0:32:23.470,0:32:26.470
mean, I can tell you, all right. Raise your

0:32:26.470,0:32:30.050
hand if you have stopped to consider what[br]your

0:32:30.050,0:32:32.130
database scheme, schema is gonna look like[br]after you've

0:32:32.130,0:32:33.920
typed Rails g model, and you're just kind[br]of

0:32:33.920,0:32:37.300
frozen there, like, crap. Analysis paralysis[br]sets in, right.

0:32:37.300,0:32:40.660
Because, like, migrations are a pain and databases[br]are,

0:32:40.660,0:32:43.300
ew, yuck. We want to do everything in Ruby,

0:32:43.300,0:32:44.010
right?

0:32:44.010,0:32:45.990
And, and so that's a problem, right, because[br]I

0:32:45.990,0:32:47.840
don't necessarily know what the best way to[br]store

0:32:47.840,0:32:49.630
my data is off the top of my head,

0:32:49.630,0:32:52.710
right? I may find that out as I go.

0:32:52.710,0:32:54.990
So here's a crazy idea.

0:32:54.990,0:32:57.700
Start with Ruby and ignore persistence, off[br]the bat.

0:32:57.700,0:33:00.950
Like, probably that is not your domain. Your[br]domain

0:33:00.950,0:33:03.070
is not to be a CRUD app. Most of

0:33:03.070,0:33:04.840
us here, anyway, our domain is not to just

0:33:04.840,0:33:06.600
be a CRUD app, right. We have some business

0:33:06.600,0:33:08.240
logic.

0:33:08.240,0:33:11.490
And after you start with Ruby, then you start

0:33:11.490,0:33:14.340
to identify the scary things, right. And this[br]is

0:33:14.340,0:33:16.240
like the part of our domain that we're really

0:33:16.240,0:33:19.070
scared we're not gonna be able to implement.[br]Like,

0:33:19.070,0:33:21.020
what is the thing that's gonna be super hairy,

0:33:21.020,0:33:22.960
that we're just kind of like, afraid to tackle,

0:33:22.960,0:33:25.900
right. And removing the, like, the analysis[br]paralysis that

0:33:25.900,0:33:28.160
can set in when you're trying to figure out

0:33:28.160,0:33:29.700
where your, what your data's gonna look like,[br]while

0:33:29.700,0:33:31.750
you're just kind of playing around with, with[br]an

0:33:31.750,0:33:33.870
algorithm, is great, because it gives you[br]this sort

0:33:33.870,0:33:35.670
of power to attack the scary things. You can

0:33:35.670,0:33:39.950
do, I know it's crazy to say, some TDD

0:33:39.950,0:33:41.860
and attack these scary things.

0:33:41.860,0:33:44.010
And it's, the cost of experimentation is a[br]lot

0:33:44.010,0:33:46.100
lower when you're not messing around running[br]migrations. You're

0:33:46.100,0:33:49.720
just running super fast tests. Everything[br]is really nice.

0:33:49.720,0:33:51.420
And you validate that the business logic that[br]you're

0:33:51.420,0:33:54.080
trying to write is going to be sane before

0:33:54.080,0:33:56.220
you go any further.

0:33:56.220,0:33:58.540
And so, so what that might look like, for

0:33:58.540,0:34:00.880
instance, is let's say I have a monster class,

0:34:00.880,0:34:03.740
right. I simply give it some teeth and some

0:34:03.740,0:34:06.080
claws, right, and it can bite and it can

0:34:06.080,0:34:07.580
scratch, and I write my test. And let's just

0:34:07.580,0:34:09.770
assume that biting and scratching is a very,[br]very

0:34:09.770,0:34:12.668
difficult thing for a monster to do, right.

0:34:12.668,0:34:15.329
And, and so it starts out that way. And

0:34:15.329,0:34:17.829
you gradually iterate on the things that you[br]want

0:34:17.829,0:34:20.960
your monster to do, right. And then what you

0:34:20.960,0:34:25.080
find out is that, eventually, after having[br]iterated through

0:34:25.080,0:34:27.750
maybe, maybe many, many iterations on what[br]this class

0:34:27.750,0:34:30.600
looks like, what its collaborators might look[br]like, you

0:34:30.600,0:34:32.820
get to a point where you're like, OK. I

0:34:32.820,0:34:34.510
know how to make this monster now. I know

0:34:34.510,0:34:36.710
how to, how to tackle it, right.

0:34:36.710,0:34:39.489
And now is a time for you to admit

0:34:39.489,0:34:42.600
persistence. Right, now you start to think,[br]OK, well,

0:34:42.600,0:34:45.040
I've gotta persist this stuff somewhere. I[br]have some,

0:34:45.040,0:34:46.690
some things about this business logic that[br]are gonna

0:34:46.690,0:34:49.580
require me to save some data to the database.

0:34:49.580,0:34:51.940
And so you decide, well, what database am[br]I

0:34:51.940,0:34:54.199
gonna use? Or is it gonna be NoSQL or

0:34:54.199,0:34:55.489
is it gonna be SQL or is it gonna

0:34:55.489,0:34:59.430
be, I don't know, something in memory? Right.

0:34:59.430,0:35:03.030
And then from that point, let's just say you

0:35:03.030,0:35:06.540
decide, well, now I'm gonna do some ActiveRecord.[br]And

0:35:06.540,0:35:09.330
so you say, all I do is now inherit

0:35:09.330,0:35:11.270
from ActiveRecord::Base. The teeth and claws[br]are no longer

0:35:11.270,0:35:15.790
supplied via injection. But instead they come[br]from relationships

0:35:15.790,0:35:19.140
in some way, and we maybe have determined[br]that

0:35:19.140,0:35:23.530
we require that we have teeth and claws.

0:35:23.530,0:35:25.100
And then, you guys are gonna think. You notice

0:35:25.100,0:35:28.780
there's no methods here, right. Right. No[br]methods. It's

0:35:28.780,0:35:31.660
not doing anything yet, except the ActiveRecord[br]stuff. You're

0:35:31.660,0:35:33.900
gonna think I'm trolling you. But here's what[br]I've

0:35:33.900,0:35:35.610
started to do.

0:35:35.610,0:35:41.050
I use modules. Now, the way I see it,

0:35:41.050,0:35:42.650
you know, in firefighting there's this thing[br]called a

0:35:42.650,0:35:46.510
back fire, where it's like, OK, so, when they

0:35:46.510,0:35:48.660
say, like, fight fire with fire, that's actually[br]a

0:35:48.660,0:35:51.040
thing. And like, I'm like, you know what,[br]Rails,

0:35:51.040,0:35:52.760
if you really wanna burn the whole place down,

0:35:52.760,0:35:54.380
that's OK. I got my own little fire going

0:35:54.380,0:35:56.910
over here. And it's gonna, it's gonna allow[br]me

0:35:56.910,0:35:59.290
to have some semblance of order. And let me

0:35:59.290,0:36:01.560
show you what that looks like. And before[br]you

0:36:01.560,0:36:03.090
think that it won't work, I can only just

0:36:03.090,0:36:05.840
say that it has worked for me. Give it

0:36:05.840,0:36:08.620
a try. Strangely, I'm not going to prescribe[br]that

0:36:08.620,0:36:10.320
it's gonna be the solution for everyone. I[br]know

0:36:10.320,0:36:11.410
that's kind of the hip thing to do is

0:36:11.410,0:36:14.720
to say, like, my solution will work for you.

0:36:14.720,0:36:17.350
But it worked for me.

0:36:17.350,0:36:19.560
And what it would look like is this. So

0:36:19.560,0:36:23.860
I now have behaviors that I expose in modules,

0:36:23.860,0:36:30.460
right. These behaviors are specifically intended[br]to provide one

0:36:30.460,0:36:35.170
isolated thing, one isolated capability to[br]the persisted record,

0:36:35.170,0:36:37.390
right. And so in this case, like, here is

0:36:37.390,0:36:41.740
the biting module, for instance, right. And[br]it knows

0:36:41.740,0:36:43.270
how to bite. And let's say this is after

0:36:43.270,0:36:45.040
we have developed all of our, all of our

0:36:45.040,0:36:47.210
stuff in plain Ruby, right, this is what we

0:36:47.210,0:36:49.510
landed on for what bite need to, need to

0:36:49.510,0:36:52.340
perform, right.

0:36:52.340,0:36:57.800
And so once we've done that, we can write

0:36:57.800,0:37:00.510
a class, you know, we can actually just test

0:37:00.510,0:37:03.240
against the class that limits the API service[br]that

0:37:03.240,0:37:06.110
our behavior interacts with. This was the[br]goal. Like,

0:37:06.110,0:37:10.130
this is why I do this at all, is

0:37:10.130,0:37:13.170
because thinking about how I'm gonna interact[br]with this,

0:37:13.170,0:37:16.180
like, essentially infinite API that, that[br]a lot of,

0:37:16.180,0:37:19.080
a lot of Rails provides, particularly ActiveRecord[br]provides in

0:37:19.080,0:37:22.150
this case, is, is too hard for me. Cause

0:37:22.150,0:37:24.580
I'm dumb, OK. So, what I need is some

0:37:24.580,0:37:26.400
help to help me just be able to see

0:37:26.400,0:37:28.180
into the test. This is the part of the

0:37:28.180,0:37:29.550
API I care about.

0:37:29.550,0:37:31.840
And you may be concerned about this. You may

0:37:31.840,0:37:35.250
say, this looks a lot like ActiveSupport::Concern.[br]I can

0:37:35.250,0:37:36.600
understand why you would say that. Let me[br]show

0:37:36.600,0:37:39.250
you why that's not the case. So, earlier we

0:37:39.250,0:37:44.930
talked about how ActiveSupport::Concern's[br]primary goal is to solve

0:37:44.930,0:37:48.210
the problem of modules that depend on other[br]modules

0:37:48.210,0:37:51.370
that modify their base class, right.

0:37:51.370,0:37:53.770
The intention in this, and that might look[br]like

0:37:53.770,0:37:55.380
this. Like, let's say now there's like a whole

0:37:55.380,0:37:58.290
fighting behavior that might bite and might[br]scratch, we

0:37:58.290,0:38:00.500
don't know yet. There may be some probability[br]associated

0:38:00.500,0:38:02.870
with it, that against a particular target[br]or maybe

0:38:02.870,0:38:05.250
more than one target or whatever, and so it

0:38:05.250,0:38:08.830
sort of has this dependency, not just on the

0:38:08.830,0:38:11.190
API that the class that it's being included[br]into

0:38:11.190,0:38:14.070
has, but also the stuff that's getting included[br]into

0:38:14.070,0:38:16.760
that class already. So it expects bite and[br]scratch,

0:38:16.760,0:38:19.830
which are provided by other two behaviors.[br]So, that

0:38:19.830,0:38:23.730
kind of thing becomes actually painful. That[br]actually becomes

0:38:23.730,0:38:27.350
painful when you're not using ActiveSupport::Concern.

0:38:27.350,0:38:29.970
And so, what you actually have here is a

0:38:29.970,0:38:32.130
canary in the coal mine, a sentinel animal,[br]right.

0:38:32.130,0:38:35.210
It's, it's something that's telling you, there's[br]this thing

0:38:35.210,0:38:38.240
that's doing more than one kind of thing that's

0:38:38.240,0:38:43.100
more complex, right. And it really isn't fully[br]encapsulated

0:38:43.100,0:38:46.210
in the stuff that I've got so far. And

0:38:46.210,0:38:48.720
it leads you to understand that maybe there's[br]another

0:38:48.720,0:38:51.280
thing. Like maybe there's an encounter, right,[br]and it

0:38:51.280,0:38:53.770
might include one or more combatants that[br]select targets

0:38:53.770,0:38:56.290
and do one of their actions, right. Either[br]bite

0:38:56.290,0:38:59.330
or scratch. All right.

0:38:59.330,0:39:02.010
So, to kind of start to sum things up,

0:39:02.010,0:39:04.360
it, we, we, a lot of us work in

0:39:04.360,0:39:07.660
the startup world, right. And it's really[br]frustrating and

0:39:07.660,0:39:09.980
surprising to me that we embrace this idea[br]of

0:39:09.980,0:39:13.460
a minimal, minimum viable product in the startup[br]world,

0:39:13.460,0:39:15.520
right. Build the smallest thing that could[br]possibly work

0:39:15.520,0:39:17.270
and then go from there.

0:39:17.270,0:39:21.900
I, I kind of feel like in software, the

0:39:21.900,0:39:25.550
whole goal, really, is to make as few decisions

0:39:25.550,0:39:28.540
as you possibly can in order to make, get

0:39:28.540,0:39:31.420
the desired result, right. Every decision[br]you defer till

0:39:31.420,0:39:34.460
later is going to give you some capability[br]to

0:39:34.460,0:39:37.500
be able to react to change, right. So I

0:39:37.500,0:39:39.690
would like to see us, both in Rails and

0:39:39.690,0:39:41.420
in the software that we write, start off with

0:39:41.420,0:39:46.380
fewer opinions. Start off with fewer assumptions.[br]Make sure

0:39:46.380,0:39:48.450
that the floors that we build have a purpose.

0:39:48.450,0:39:49.650
One great way to do that is to make

0:39:49.650,0:39:51.370
sure that you can instantiate a lot of the

0:39:51.370,0:39:52.260
things, right.

0:39:52.260,0:39:54.080
If you can instantiate a lot of the things

0:39:54.080,0:39:55.530
then they must have a purpose that we can

0:39:55.530,0:39:58.210
reason about. We can think about. As opposed[br]to,

0:39:58.210,0:40:01.580
well, they might modify five hundred methods[br]on another

0:40:01.580,0:40:06.570
class. And in general, just be a considerate[br]software

0:40:06.570,0:40:07.040
writer.

0:40:07.040,0:40:09.260
Thanks for your time.