Railsconf Recap

On this episode of Remote Ruby, the guys discuss various topics relating to hosting options, web frameworks, open source projects, and give us a recap on RailsConf 2023. They dive into the pros and cons of serverless architectures like Lambda, Jason’s experience with Roda, their interests in front-end technologies and JavaScript integration in Rails, and Andrew tells us about regex for playground. We’ll hear their thoughts on RailsConf, their favorite talks, Chris’s workshop, things that could have been better, and the importance of community contributions, transparency, and the need for clearer communication. Also, if you missed this RailsConf, they mention some other conferences coming up, so hit download to hear more! [00:00:10] Chris brings up the blog post on Amazon’s AWS blog which sparks a discussion about the effectiveness of serverless architectures like Lambda. [00:02:02] The conversation shifts to Jason telling us his experience with building a microservice using Roda. Then he tells us the benefits of Roda and compared it to Sinatra, and now Andrew wants to upgrade his Sinatra app to Roda since Jason had such a positive experience. [00:05:48] Cloudflare Workers, Puppeteer, Rust and JavaScript are discussed. [00:09:06] Chris shares his thoughts on RailsConf, mentioning attendance was smaller than expected. The guys also bring up that there was no hallway track and the spread out nature of the event, which made it less conducive to casual networking and impromptu conversations. Chris enjoyed the keynotes and attending a talk by Jordan Burke on hosting with Hatchbox, Fly , and Render. [00:12:10] There’s a conversation on the need for more direction and talks on front-end technologies and JavaScript integration in Rails, and where to go if you want to learn more about these topics and contribute to the community. [00:14:26] Chris shares his takeaway from RailsConf, mentioning his interest in reading Rails commits daily to stay up to date with the community’s progress. He also talks about his favorite part of the conference was an encounter with a Lightning Talk presenter who worked on the same project he did 13 years ago. [00:17:16] Jumpstart Pro has been updated to Rails 7.1 and we hear the changes, and the conversation shifts to regex and a tool Andrew finds useful called “iHateRegex” and “regex for playground” that helps visualize regular expressions. [00:21:19] At RailsConf, Chris gave his first ever workshop with Colin Loretz. The talk focused on Webhooks and their handling in Rails and Chris made a screencast of the workshop and integrated the code into Jumpstart Pro. [00:26:06] Chris and Andrew talk about needing more scholars and promotions for the guide program at RailsConf. Also, they liked how there was a huge emphasis on Junior developers this year. [00:29:03] Ruby Central is talked about and how more clarity regarding how community contributions are used, and they mention the change in leadership within Ruby Central and the impact it has had on the community. [00:38:24] The guys talk about all the upcoming conferences, including RailsConf and RubyConf. and Andrew shares his experience with social anxiety during the conference. [00:43:25] Chris mentions a hearing a rumor about Rails 7.1 shipping very soon, and Andrew tells us Jason dunked on him at RailsConf in front of everybody. [00:46:49] We end with the guys expressing their gratitude to the organizers and sponsors of RailsConf and encourage juniors to attend conferences to find job opportunities. Panelists: Jason Charnes Chris Oliver Andrew Mason Sponsor: Hon Chris Oliver X/Twitter Andrew Mason X/Twitter Jason Charnes X/Twitter