Announce: Conventionally Scoped Names Gem

I've posted a conventionally_scoped_names gem to github.

More info:

• Named Scopes in Views (Part 1)


• Named Scopes in Views (Part 2)

Why?

My main motivation for releasing the code in gem format was for the experience (never having done it before). And who knows? It might prove useful to someone.

Two things I learned:

1. it was not quite as easy as I had expected


2. artificial constraints really slow things down

Point #1 is an important one. I had expected obstacles, just not some of the obstacles that I met. Honestly, that's not 100% accurate. I expected obstacles, but envisioned being able to blow through them with ease. I made it through, but not with the ease I would have liked.

As for point #2, I can sum it up like this: sometimes I'm obstinate to the point of dumb-assitude.

I normally use RSpec for testing and follow TATFT. For this gem, I decided that I needed to follow the Rails testing convention more closely. At the same time (and this is where the obstinate bit comes in) I refuse to use Shoulda, Context, and Mocha, because, really, what do they give you that RSpec does not?

Thus, my artificial constraints were that I wanted to write tests for a controller/model plugin without being able to mock easily. That meant fixtures, which are not my bag, baby.

My biggest problems were with the fixture datetimes. For whatever reason, I could not get date comparisons to work properly with the in-memory sqlite3 DB. Eventually, I opted to use string dates instead of datetimes (it did not affect what was being tested one way or the other), but I spent a lot of time trying to get it working.

I could draw the lesson from this experience that if I do not impose artificial constraints, I will get done much faster. But you know what? There are always constraints—artificial or otherwise. To be a better coder, to improve at my craft, I need to get better at meeting and overcoming constraints.

So what I choose to take from this experience is that I need to keep up the reps.