jQuery and Rails, Sitting in a Tree

jQuery and Rails, Sitting in a Tree 3.12 http://spkr8.com/t/3027

Adam McCrea 3.43

EdgeCase
2 talks

Description:

Maybe you've played with jQuery a little bit but still don't feel comfortable with it, or maybe you've only heard about it. Either way, it doesn't take long to learn enough to be dangerous. While jQuery can be intimidating at first, it's based on some very simple principles. Once you grasp those principles, your JavaScript life will never be the same.

This talk will focus mostly on jQuery itself, but I'll also hit the basics on how to make the most of jQuery in your Rails apps. I'll cover the relevant changes in Rails 3, and why you don't need Rails 3 to take advantage of those changes. By the end of this talk, you'll be easily navigating and manipulating the DOM, writing your own plugins, and of course, amazing your friends with the power and elegance of jQuery.

Comments on this Talk

Kevin W. Gisi, 17 Apr 05:14 PM

Talk assumed little jQuery knowledge, and so was redundant for about 80% of the room. Also, code examples cannot be on black. In a pinch, when you realize things aren't visible, on the Mac, hit Cmd+Alt+Ctrl+8 to invert the colors. Very difficult to follow along.

mandev, 18 Apr 03:26 AM

Was a good starter discussion on jQuery. He took the time to discuss the conventions behind the shortcuts. As soon as we asked him to change the background colors on his editor, he took care of it, and we could all see. (room lights were too bright -- many of the presentations had the same problem)

The live demo changing DOM elements in Firebug with jQuery calls was good.

John Nunemaker, 19 Apr 04:49 PM

It is really tough to give a talk like this as the levels in the audience are so different. I have heard it said that if you talk below people you have to apologize to them that it wasn't more advanced, whereas if you talk over people's heads they'll apologize to you for not understanding. My suggestions for next time would be to go more advanced with the talk.

As far as delivery, Adam was confident and comfortable, which is great. The dark slides made the code difficult to read. This is one thing I've picked up on at several conferences. The projectors are always washed out so your best bet is to use a light background.

mikelikesbikes, 21 Apr 02:46 AM

I'll echo John's thoughts here... catering a talk to both a beginner and an advanced audience is always going to be difficult. I'd definitely err on the side of more advanced subject matter, it's more likely to keep the experts in the group happy, and the beginners thirsty to catch up.

I've seen Adam talk at a number of events, and his comfort and knowledge really show through. Good work Adam.

ideaoforder, 21 Apr 02:39 PM

As with a number of talks at the conference, this one really could have used some context up front. Why would I want to use JQuery instead of Scriptaculous? (I mean, most of us know why, but, even if he was aiming for someone new to Rails, this talk would have been unsuccessful, because new users wouldn't be motivated to try it.)

That being said, this talk truly made JQuery seem more complicated than it really is. What was the question, problem, or need? What was the solution this talk was proposing?