From: "E. Saynatkari" <none@...>
Date: 2006-03-02T13:07:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Teaching Ruby to COBOL programmers

Wilson Bilkovich wrote:
> This isn't a troll, I promise.  I'm actually going to be doing this 
> tomorrow.
> 
> My normal Ruby spiel is geared more toward the differences between
> dynamic and static langugages, and the power of blocks. In other
> words, "Hey, look at what you can't do in Java."
> 
> This is a whole different scenario, because these people are coming on
> board to be web application developers, and their previous programming
> experience is 100% mainframe-based.  They aren't going to know HTML,
> XML, Java, C++, etc.

Against common conception, only about 40% of mainframe programmers
are kept shackled to their terminals never to see the light of day
(an additional 23% is just psychologically incapable of comprehending
there is something outside the Great Barrier--which has, incidentally,
given a lift to a very particular strata of philosophy).

:)

> What are some key points I should make sure to cover for procedural 
> programmers?
> Things on my list so far:
> 1. Variables don't hold values, they are just labels.
> 2. Objects are nouns, methods are verbs.
> 3. Structure keeps you sane.
> 4. Duck typing makes testing easier.
> 5. Rake as an example of something procedural in an object-oriented 
> language.
> 
> That being said, I've been immersed in OOP for so long, I don't
> remember what the hurdles are.
> Thoughts? This is going to be a three hour session, wherein I need to
> cover Ruby and at least the bare beginnings of Rails.  Obviously an
> in-depth treatment of either of those things is impossible in that
> timeframe, but I do want people to leave feeling like it's not a
> magical tongue spoken by elves and wild spirits.

Your biggest hurdle may be to get the programmers to *trust* Ruby.
A lot of the things they will see may appear magical--in this
respect, the idea about ruby.h is not entirely out of place
(although three hours is probably a bit short for that).

I would try the get-them-engaged happy-fun lookit-how-productive-I-am
type of presentation and gather up as many quick and useful resources
for independent learning as possible (three hours really is not too
long).

> Thanks,
> --Wilson.


E

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