Scottish Ruby User Group

Where and When?

Our Edinburgh meeting in September will be in CodeBase on Thursday the 14th, at 18:00. That’s in their shiny building on Castle Terrace.

You’ll know you’re in the right place as “CodeBase” is written across the glass doors.

When you arrive there will be someone in reception who can guide you to the right place. If you arrive late and no one is around contact us on Twitter: @scotrug, or send an email to the list. We’ll come and get you!

What?

Sunshine, calmer wind and fewer midges. With the exception of the slow fading of light, September is a glorious month in Scotland. With Edinburgh recovering from the summer fesivals, it’s a good time to be out and about. The last of the comfortable hillwalking for the year, sitting in the slow afternoon sunshine next to a fine island beach, or the gentle bubbling away of a solution to a problem whilst visiting a botanical garden. The possibilities!

Speaking of solutions to problems, Brian Swan is coming to talk to us about refactoring code this month. Refactoring is the process of restructuring existing code without changing its external behaviour. It’s frequently used to make it easier to alter a program when it isn’t immediately clear where you can change it. However, it can be hard to make the leap from understanding how to refactor a small class or function to understand how to refactor a larger system in a big codebase.

Brian has worked a number of companies with large codebases, including currently at FreeAgent. These Jumbo Refactors can be challenging, and are always educational, so we can look forward to some strong lessons this month.

We’ll supply some snacks to help get your hunger through to dinner, and CodeBase has water available from their kitchen. We’re a friendly bunch of humans and newcomers are most welcome!