Adanacp

This is a blog post that will be updated over time.  It's intention is to collect the best IronRuby resources on the web, so feel free to leave a comment and let me know of additional resources you would like to see listed here.

• http://www.ironruby.net - in particular the Frequently asked questions section tells you how to obtain the code, build it, and contribute to the project, also has samples
• http://rubyforge.org/projects/ironruby - The IronRuby project on RubyForge
• http://www.iunknown.com - John Lam's Blog - admin of the IronRuby project
• http://blog.prokrams.com/ - Michael Letterle's Blog - contributor to the IronRuby project
• http://adanacp.spaces.live.com - This blog ;)
• http://www.codeplex.com/sdlsdk/ - Silverlight Dynamic Language SDK (to allow you to code IronRuby or IronPython in a Silverlight environment)

Specific IronRuby related links:

• Getting the source, building the project and running an IronRuby Program - Michael Letterle
• Tools required to use IronRuby with Silverlight (and some simple demo code) - this blog (make a path to chiron.exe and run "chiron /b" on the folder containing the demo code, this will launch IE with the demo in the browser)

I was tagged by Josh Holmes in his Inspired By blog post.  My reply to this tag is a long time coming.  This is due to the fact that there is just so many people in the developer community that truly inspire me.

I am inspired by people that give back to the developer community.  The people that openly share experiences and make it a point to improve the knowledge of fellow developers.  These people take time out to genuinely help people reach their goals in their career, they also help feed the curiosity for them to try new things in technology.  These people are (in no particular order):

• Bloggers - who openly share their development experiences with others, so that they may avoid similar pitfalls, solve problems and apply techniques/technologies that are successful in their problem-space.
• Screencasters - who show hands-on exactly how their technology of choice can be applied visually.  The benefits of this is that a single screencast can be created once and be reachable to any developer.
• Speakers/Presenters - who spend countless hours and sleepless nights perfecting the delivery of a session that will help developers understand and apply the topic at hand.
• Event Organizers - who also spend countless hours and sleepless nights crossing the T's and dotting the i's to ensure event attendees are provided a comfortable and functional learning environment.  They also organize the marketing, speakers and sponsorship so that the event is possible in the first place.
• Event Volunteers - usually the people "behind the curtain" ; they work feverishly throughout the event to ensure the event plans are executed without a hitch and help attendees wherever needed.
• Event Attendees - the most important piece of the developer community.  These are the people who show ambition and desire to learn and improve their trade.  They go back to their workplace and lead by example; taking the lessons they have learned and apply the technologies in successful ways (and most importantly share the information with others).  These are the people that make the developer community worthwhile.

I know it seems as if I'm dodging the question of who it is that inspires me, so I'll spill it.  The first person that had a profound impact on my interest in the developer community is Drew Robbins.  I met Drew at a Developer Days event in November 2001.  He was actively recruiting members for the Central Ohio .Net Developer's Group here in Columbus Ohio.  Let's just say that some day I would hope to match the passion that he has for the developer community.  He is the person who encouraged me to get more involved, to get over any fears and just get out there and make a difference.

The Ann Arbor Give Camp is a coding for charity event organized by Jennifer Marsman, Patrick Steele, John Hopkins, Todd Bohlen, Bill Wagner, and Kristina Jones.  Essentially it's an event that allows software developers and designers to join forces to develop software and websites for charitable organizations.  In all 15 charities were helped.

The weekend started for me on Friday afternoon.  I decided it would be beneficial to meet the charity the Columbus group was to support in person.  So I packed up (with my youngest child) and headed out to Ann Arbor, and arrived as the Introductions of the charities were taking place.  I was able to meet the charity, find out their passions, and learn what their expectations for a new website were.  I took this information back to Columbus (not arriving home until after 2am). 

Woke up early on Saturday morning and arrived to meet the other volunteers at the Microsoft Offices in Columbus at 8:30am.  We all worked well as a team and ultimately started project roles, design and coding very quickly.  The day ended Saturday at about 10:30pm.  I decided to head home and continue coding as bandwidth was an issue at the offices, and took advantage of the broadband at home until about 1:30am.  We all regrouped about 8:30am on Sunday morning and pushed forth until we wrapped things up around 6pm.

Lessons learned are, have fun, no matter what, collaborate as much as you can, listen and learn from others, and sleep really isn't necessary :) ... For future events, I think it would be beneficial to get the requirements at least a week ahead of time, and identify project roles before the marathon design/coding begins.

Pictures of the event

I have nothing but high praises for all the volunteers that came out to make the event a success.  Everyone worked extremely hard, and constant (we didn't use the break lounge once).  The room was very quiet at times due to the amount of code throughput.  Regardless, everyone was in good humor the entire weekend and we all had a blast!

The Columbus Mirror Give Camp Volunteers were:

• Myself (Developer, security)
• Jonas Phillips (Designer, Graphics Guru)
• Matt Nowack (Layout/Developer)
• Jeff Blankenburg (Master ASPX creator, Layout contributor)
• James Bender (Architect, Developer wrangler)
• Phil Presson (Developer)
• Steven Harman (Developer)
• Mark Deeter (Documentation)

This blog post is in response to Contribupendence Day as created by Jeff Blankenburg at Microsoft.  The idea behind Contribupendence day is to acknowledge 5 people you know that are respected, appreciated and talented and provide them with internet recommendations.  I chose LinkedIn as my social network conduit (only joining it last night).  The 5 people I chose are (in first name alpha order):

James Bender

"James is very exemplary in his knowledge of technology. I have seeked out his expertise (primarily surrounding WCF) when dealing with technical problems that I encounter in my work. James is always willing to contribute ideas and solutions, because of this he is very respected in the developer community"

Jennifer Marsman

"Jennifer has an infectious good energy surrounding technology. She is very motivated and always willing to go the extra mile. She is motivated by helping people and organizations to reach their goals. Jennifer is also an advocate for Women in Technology, and as such is an inspiration to us all. She is one of the smartest people I know, and a pleasure to work with."

Justin Kohnen

"Justin is a very driven individual. He is also responsible for helping organizing very successful technical events. He is known in the community to step up to the plate, and is a very good technical speaker (presenter)"

Matt Dinovo

"Matt is a born leader and teacher. When I had the opportunity to work with him, he opened my eyes to the inner workings of ASP.Net and the future direction of the .Net platform. He mentored me on many practical and important patterns and best practices which has benefitted me greatly in my career and in the developer community. Since working with him I have had a passion for all things .Net and much of this is due to some of his enthusiasm for technology rubbing off on me."

Michael Letterle

"I am lucky to have to opportunity to be in contact with Michael. We share similar interests in the IronRuby project on which he contributes. His passion for technology is contagious, and his knowledge is admirable. I also like the fact that he keeps me on my toes with regards to running the newest drops of the IronRuby project. Keep up the good work Michael, I look forward to your presentation at eRubyCon!"

You'll need to uninstall all Silverlight 2 Beta 1 tools, and install the Silverlight 2 Beta 2 Chainer (which includes tools for VS 2008, see www.silverlight.net)

Then update your Silverlight Dynamic SDK.

If you are doing Deep Zoom, get the new Deep Zoom Composer.

Here are updated Demos:

Demos 1 - 3

IronRuby Deep Zoom Sample