Jose Pepe wrote:
Here is my question: how do you design your RoR web application?
The best way to design is concurrent with delivering features. We start by asking our customers (in our specific case the marketing department) what the most important features are. We implement these quickly, using unit tests to avoid debugging.
That's a big step towards a good design, because making code testable invariably decouples it and improves its design.
- Do you use an OOAD approach? data model/ class diagram, use cases?
No, because we can go from simple to complex incrementally, in between delivering features.
- Do you desing your web pages first?
No, because if we start with business user stories, we must implement a little of a web page, implement a little code, and deploy, in small cycles. So the web pages grow features incrementally.
- Do you start coding without desinging first?
Abso-freakin-lutely.
- Do you use other tools such as Dreamweaver to create your pages, and from there convert them in rhtml code?
Our graphics department does that. The important part, for programmers, is the interactive features, and there are only so many of those.
- Do you use any quality assurance and quality control process?
We use the unit tests to gate every commit, and we commit every 10 or 15 minutes or so to Subversion. If the tests don't pass, we don't commit.
- Which other practical tips would you share that facilitate working with RoR?
We also use pair programming, including dual keyboards and such. We are "allowed" to solo, but the more important the feature, the more likely we are to pair.
The less important the feature, the less likely we are to do it!
