January 2022 Meeting

The January 2022 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 10th of January, from 6:20pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm). Still online.

Full registration details are given below, note that we will only be sending out the zoom meeting url to people who have registered, so please do make sure you do it.

Agenda #

This month, we have decided to offer something different: a pub quiz about Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and more.

LRUG Pub quiz #

Are you proud of your knowledge of Ruby and Ruby on Rails? Invite your friends, and win bragging rights. Or simply invite them and enjoy spending time with them.

The quiz will have 4 categories, and each category will have between 20 and 30 questions. The 4 categories are:

• Ruby
• Ruby on Rails
• General computing
• London

Afterwards #

It's been nearly 2 years of this and we still haven't worked out a good replacement for hanging out in the pub after the meeting. That said we leave the zoom call running for a little while after the talks for folk to chat. We encourage the speakers to hang around too if they can, so you can ask them questions you weren't able to during the meeting, or that you felt were too niche to share with the wider group. If you've got any ideas for something better, then please do let us know at organisers@lrug.org. Thanks!

Registration #

Prior to attending you must familiarise yourself with our README paying particular attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees, even though we float on screens like so many tiny programming postage stamps.

Secure your place #

Our Zoom meetings are artificially constrained by our miserly purses, so you need to register via eventbrite to secure a place. We only send the link to the zoom meeting to people who have registered. It goes out around about 6pm on the day of the meeting, so keep an eye out for it and check your spam just in case.

Give yourself a head-start by downloading the zoom client (lol, as if you don't already have it).

Posted by Alessandro Proserpio on Dec 24, 2021

December 2021 Meeting

The December 2021 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 13th of December, from 6:20pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).

Full registration details are given below, and please do note that the zoom meeting url is only sent to registered attendees, so please do make sure you do it.

Agenda #

Enough coverage to beat the band #

Kevin Murphy says:

The lights cut out. The crowd roars. It’s time. The band takes the stage. They’ve practiced the songs, particularly the covers. They’ve sound checked the coverage of the speakers. They know the lighting rig has the proper colored gels covering the lamps. They’re nervous, but they’ve got it all covered.

When ActiveRecord meets CTE!? #

Johnson Zhan says:

CTE (Common Table Expression) is one of the ways we handle complicated SQL queries. However, ActiveRecord does not support CTE directly so I used to write some raw SQL to implement CTE. Now, I found there is a useful gem called activerecord-cte which makes things different.

Finding, hiring and onboarding junior Ruby developers #

Alex Balhatchet says:

The Ruby community in London has a huge number of junior developers, largely thanks to bootcamps like Le Wagon and Makers Academy. This talk describes my experiences finding, hiring and onboarding junior devs. The aim is for the hiring managers in the room to feel more confident hiring junior devs for their teams, and for the junior devs in the room to feel more confident asking for support and learning opportunities.

Afterwards #

It's been nearly 2 years of this and we still haven't worked out a good replacement for hanging out in the pub after the meeting. That said we leave the zoom call running for a little while after the talks for folk to chat. We encourage the speakers to hang around too if they can, so you can ask them questions you weren't able to during the meeting, or that you felt were too niche to share with the wider group. If you've got any ideas for something better, then please do let us know at organisers@lrug.org. Thanks!

Registration #

Prior to attending you must familiarise yourself with our README paying particular attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees, even though we float on screens like so many tiny programming postage stamps.

Secure your place #

Our Zoom meetings are artificially constrained by our miserly purses, so you need to register via eventbrite to secure a place. We only send the link to the zoom meeting to people who have registered. It goes out around about 6pm on the day of the meeting, so keep an eye out for it and check your spam just in case.

Give yourself a head-start by downloading the zoom client (lol, as if you don't already have it).

Posted by Alessandro Proserpio on Nov 28, 2021

November 2021 Meeting

The November 2021 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 8th of November, from 6:20pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).

Full registration details are given below, and please do note that the zoom meeting url is only sent to registered attendees, so please do make sure you do it.

Agenda #

Failing better w/ Load Shedding & Deadline Propagation across services #

Christian Gregg says:

As services start to split off from your majestic monolith, cascading failures as a single service or endpoint slows down can become a recurring problem which very quickly can lead to service unavailability. Implementing load-shedding and deadline propagation across your services is a technique which can help you provide a more resilient service to your customers. This talk will introduce some of the concepts explored in CGA1123/loadshedding-experiment-ruby & CGA1123/shed.

1. LRUG November 2021 - Christian Gregg - Failing better with Load Shedding & Deadline Propagation across services
2. Failing better with Load Shedding & Deadline Propagation across services

Why Rails is still relevant for startups in 2021 #

Chris Parsons says:

With the rise of single page JavaScript apps, lo-code, and mobile-first, is Rails consigned to the legacy dustbin of frameworks last cool in 2008? The answer is emphatically “no” - Rails is as relevant as ever for startups in 2021. Chris will talk about how Rails has supercharged the early stage of his new startup, LollipopAI, and how Rails gave them quick experiments, good-enough domain modelling and tooling that just works.

1. LRUG November 2021 - Chris Parsons - Why Rails is still relevant for startups in 2021
2. Why Rails is still relevant for startups in 2021

Service Objects and Domain objects differences #

Patricia Cupueran says:

Understanding what a service and domain objects are. Distinguishing the difference between procedures and objects. Why using service objects is a bad idea. Advantages of using modules, concerns and PORO's instead of service objects.

1. LRUG November 2021 - Patricia Cupueran - Service Objects and Domain Objects differences

Afterwards #

It's been nearly 2 years of this and we still haven't worked out a good replacement for hanging out in the pub after the meeting. That said we leave the zoom call running for a little while after the talks for folk to chat. We encourage the speakers to hang around too if they can, so you can ask them questions you weren't able to during the meeting, or that you felt were too niche to share with the wider group. If you've got any ideas for something better, then please do let us know at organisers@lrug.org. Thanks!

Registration #

Prior to attending you must familiarise yourself with our README paying particular attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees, even though we float on screens like so many tiny programming postage stamps.

Secure your place #

Our Zoom meetings are artificially constrained by our miserly purses, so you need to register via eventbrite to secure a place. We only send the link to the zoom meeting to people who have registered. It goes out around about 6pm on the day of the meeting, so keep an eye out for it and check your spam just in case.

Give yourself a head-start by downloading the zoom client (lol, as if you don't already have it).

Posted by Murray Steele on Oct 28, 2021

October 2021 Meeting

The October 2021 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 11th of October, from 6:20pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).

Full registration details are given below, and please do note that the zoom meeting url is only sent to registered attendees, so please do make sure you do it.

Agenda #

Solargraph: A Ruby language server to make your editor smart #

Fritz Meissner has been working on the fledgling solargraph-rails plugin and wants to tell us all about it:

Language servers like Solargraph can give code editing superpowers to your favourite editor (Emacs, Vim, VSCode, etc.). I'll talk about the Language Server Protocol and its advantages over editor-specific plugins, as well as how Solargraph learns about your Ruby. I'll also talk about the challenges that Rails poses for such tooling and how solargraph-rails attempts to overcome them.

1. LRUG October 2021 - Fritz Meissner - Your editor, Language Server Protocol, and Solargraph
2. If The Shoe Fritz - Solargraph talk at LRUG October 2021
3. If The Shoe Fritz - A conversation between your editor and a language server
4. The solargraph-rails plugin
5. The solargraph project

How denormalizing our Postgres turned great #

Thierry Deo co-founder and lead dev at Pennylane is going to tell us all about optimising their postgresql db:

It's often considered best practice to normalize the database structure to avoid data redundancy and incoherence. In Pennylane's accounting platform we've found that this actually does not always help with data coherence, and even introduces additional complexity in managing data access. Our combination of denormalizing some of our data, enhancing some of ActiveRecord's methods, and introducing default behaviors in our application models has enabled us to greatly simplify access control management and given us confidence that our production data is in a consistent state.

1. LRUG October 2021 - Thierry Deo - How denormalizing our Postgres turned great

Memoization: My Favourite Antipattern #

Joel Biffin says:

As Rubyists we love to use built-in language features to set ourselves apart for the rest. It's part of what makes programming in Ruby so enjoyable! Memoization is no exception to this. But, what if we don't really need all of that memoization? Is memoization an anti-pattern in its own right?

1. LRUG October 2021 - Joel Biffin - Memoization: My Favourite Antipattern

Afterwards #

We do our best to keep the zoom call open for a while after the talks for those attendees that want to chat for a bit afterwards. It lacks the general cacophonous ambiance of a pub, and you'll have to bring your own drinks and chips, but it's better than nothing. The speakers may be available so you can ask them questions you weren't able to during the meeting, or that you felt were too niche to share with the wider group. If you've got any ideas for something better, then please do let us know at organisers@lrug.org. Thanks!

Registration #

Prior to attending you must familiarise yourself with our README paying particular attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees, even though we float on screens like so many tiny programming postage stamps.

Secure your place #

Our Zoom meetings are artificially constrained by our miserly purses, so you need to register via eventbrite to secure a place. We only send the link to the zoom meeting to people who have registered. It goes out around about 6pm on the day of the meeting, so keep an eye out for it and check your spam just in case.

Give yourself a head-start by downloading the zoom client (lol, as if you don't already have it).

Posted by Murray Steele on Sep 20, 2021

September 2021 Meeting

The September 2021 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 13th of September, from 6:20pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).

Full registration details are given below, and please do note that the zoom meeting url is only sent to registered attendees, so please do make sure you do it.

Agenda #

How to use flamegraphs to find performance problems #

Jade Dickinson will be running an interactive workshop:

Slow Ruby code can be a puzzle, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In this talk you will see how fun it can be to use flamegraphs to find performance problems. You’ll enjoy this talk if you know you have slow areas in your Ruby application*, and would like to learn how to find the code responsible.

You can find out more about what you need to prepare for the workshop via Jade's mailing list post about it.

Afterwards #

The zoom call will stay open after the workshop is finished for a little bit if attendees want to chat for a while. It's not as good as shouting across a table at the Singer Tavern, but we make do with what we can. The speakers may hang out so you can ask them questions you weren't able to during the meeting. If you've got any ideas for something better, then please do let us know at organisers@lrug.org. Thanks!

Registration #

Prior to attending you must familiarise yourself with our README paying particular attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees, even though we float on screens like so many tiny programming postage stamps.

Secure your place #

Thanks to capitalism we can only host a limited number of people in our Zoom meetings, so you need to register via eventbrite. The link to the zoom meeting will only be sent to registered attendees on the day of the meeting, around about 6pm. Keep an eye out for the email and check your spam just in case.

Give yourself a head-start by downloading the zoom client (lol, as if you don't already have it).

Posted by Chris Lowis on Aug 24, 2021

August 2021 Meeting

The August 2021 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 9th of August, from 6:20pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).

Full registration details are given below, and please do note that the zoom meeting url is only sent to registered attendees, so please do make sure you do it.

Agenda #

10 years on - building startups with Ruby on Rails #

Tom Blomfield from Generation Home:

Tom was the founder of GoCardless (built in Ruby) and Monzo. He recently joined the board of Generation Home (also Ruby) - a London-based mortgage provider. He's come back to talk about the evolution of the London startup community and how successful fintechs are still building on Ruby on Rails

1. LRUG August 2021 - Tom Blomfield - 10 years on - building startups with Ruby on Rails

Do regex dream of Turing Completeness? #

Daniel Magliola says:

We're used to using Regular Expressions every day for pattern matching and text replacement, but… What can Regexes actually do? How far can we push them? Can we implement actual logic with them?

What if I told you… You can actually implement Conway's Game of Life with just a Regex? What if I told you… You can actually implement ANYTHING with just a Regex?

Join me on a wild ride exploring amazing Game of Life patterns, unusual Regex techniques, Turing Completeness, programatically generating complex Regexes with Ruby, and what all this means for ou understanding of what a Regex can do.

1. LRUG August 2021 - Daniel Magliola - Do regex dream of Turing Completeness?

Afterwards #

The zoom call will stay open after the talks are finished for a little bit if attendees want to chat for a while. It's not as good as shouting across a table at the Singer Tavern, but we make do with what we can. The speakers may hang out so you can ask them questions you weren't able to during the meeting. If you've got any ideas for something better, then please do let us know at organisers@lrug.org. Thanks!

Registration #

Prior to attending you must familiarise yourself with our README paying particular attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees, even though we are only tiny flat moving images like prisoners in the Phantom Zone.

Secure your place #

Thanks to capitalism we can only host a limited number of people in our Zoom meetings, so you need to register via eventbrite. The link to the zoom meeting will only be sent to registered attendees on the day of the meeting, around about 6pm. Keep an eye out for the email and check your spam just in case.

Give yourself a head-start by downloading the zoom client (lol, as if you don't already have it).

Posted by James Adam on Jul 21, 2021

July 2021 Meeting

The July 2021 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 12th of July, from 6:20pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).

Full registration details are given below, note that the zoom meeting url is only sent to registered attendees, so please do make sure you do it.

Agenda #

Breaking Up Monoliths With CRC cards #

Hemal Varambhia from Simply Business says:

Rapid iteration and feedback is key to enhancing agility. This is an experience report on how we appealed to a modelling technique from the 1980s, CRC cards, to figure out how we might break away part of a monolith at the architectural level and guide refactorings at the softer design level.

1. LRUG July 2021 - Hemal Varambhia - Breaking up monoliths with CRC cards

Ruby on Rails for Fun and Social Good #

Alex Rudall from Beam says:

Beam is the world's first crowdfunding platform for homelessness. Alex will talk about what Beam does and how Beam uses Ruby on Rails, Airtable, Vue.js and Tailwind to help them change the lives of homeless people.

1. LRUG July 2021 - Alex Rudall - Ruby on Rails for Fun and Social Good
2. A new way to tackle homelessness | TEDx Brighton

Improving Rails scalability using modularity with enforced boundaries #

Rob Faldo says:

One of the aspects of Ruby & Rails that gives it the reputation for not scaling well is that unlike some languages/frameworks it has no way to enforce modularity. Over time and with many developers this usually leads to 'spaghetti code'. This talk will introduce a solution to this problem called packwerk (a ruby gem by Shopify), as well as touch on some alternatives.

1. LRUG July 2021 - Rob Faldo - Improving Rails scalability using modularity with enforced boundaries
2. Improving Rails scalability using modularity with enforced boundaries
3. Blog post on "Improving Rails scalability using modularity with enforced boundaries"

Afterwards #

The zoom call will stay open after the talks are finished for a little bit if attendees want to chat for a while. The speakers may hang out so you can ask them questions you weren't able to during the meeting. If you've got any ideas for something better let us know at organisers@lrug.org.

Registration #

Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees, even though we are all in our own little bubbles.

Secure your place #

Even in a virtual world there are limited places for attending the meeting so you need to register via eventbrite. The link to the zoom meeting will only be sent to registered attendees on the day of the meeting, around about 6pm. Keep an eye out for the email and check your spam just in case.

Do prepare yourself in advance by downloading the zoom client.

Posted by Murray Steele on Jun 22, 2021

June 2021 Meeting

The June 2021 meeting of LRUG will be on Wednesday the 9th of June, from… wait, what? Wednesday?!

Yes, that's right. This month, we’re doing something a little different and joining up with many of the other European Ruby user groups (including our good friends in NWRug, Shrug, SW Ruby and ScotRuby) to have a sort-of mini Rails-Conf.

The details are now available at the EMEA on Rails site and we will keep you updated as we find out more about how to join in on the day. You can also follow the event on Twitter. The event will run through the afternoon and early evening (the schedule showing GMT + 1 is the same as BST, our current timezone), and you'll be free to dip in and out as your own schedule allows.

This is all a bit of an experiment, but hopefully it will be a fun opportunity to interact with some other user groups, and take a little bit more advantage of the remote-ness of our circumstances at the moment. In July, we'll be back to our regular second-Monday meetups.

Hopefully see you then!

Posted by James Adam on May 20, 2021

May 2021 Meeting

The May 2021 meeting of LRUG will be on Monday the 10th of May, from 6:20pm to 8:00pm (meeting starts at 6:30pm).

Full registration details are given below, note that the zoom meeting url is only sent to registered attendees, so please do make sure you do it.

Agenda #

So far there's one talk on the agenda, but we're always looking for me so please email talks@lrug.org if your interested in sharing a talk with us.

Your fortified cookie jar: Demystifying cookie security in Rails #

Ayush Newatia says:

You may have heard that cookie security is hard with the need to worry special flags and encryption. Actually, Ruby on Rails makes it super simple to securely store data in cookies. In this talk I'll explain the different types of cookies supported by Rails and what Rails does under the hood to secure the data they contain.

1. LRUG May 2021 - Ayush Newatia - Your Fortified Cookie Jar

Is this feature a waste of time? #

Tom Lord says:

Sometimes a new feature may be objectively worthwhile; but often one might be left wondering “Does this actually make our product better?”, or “Is this making the business more money?”.

In this talk, I will explore the virtues of defining North Star metrics, AB testing product variations to statistical significance, and using funnel analysis to quantify a feature's value.

1. LRUG May 2021 - Tom Lord - Is This Feature a Waste of Time?

Afterwards #

We leave the zoom call running after the talks are over for as long as our collective rumbling stomachs can handle. Why not stick around and chat with the handful of attendees who also don't have zoom fatigue yet. If you've got any ideas for something better let us know at organisers@lrug.org.

Registration #

Prior to attending you should familiarise yourself with our README paying close attention to the code of conduct which applies to all attendees, even though we are all in our own little bubbles.

Secure your place #

Even in a virtual world there are limited places for attending the meeting so you need to register via eventbrite. The link to the zoom meeting will only be sent to registered attendees on the day of the meeting, around about 6pm. Keep an eye out for the email and check your spam just in case.

Do prepare yourself in advance by downloading the zoom client.

Posted by Murray Steele on Apr 25, 2021