Here is a little ZSH function I have been using for quickly setting up new XCode apps I call tire kickers, little play and learn apps. Being able to track your learning as you go with git.

if [[ -x `which git` ]]; then
  
	function ginit_xcode () {
	  git init
	  echo "\n\n# XCode\nbuild\n*.mode1v3\n*.mode2v3\n*.nib\n*.swp\n\
*.pbxuser\n*.perspective\n*.perspectivev3\n\n# OSX\n.DS_Store\n\n\
# TextMate\n*.tm_build_errors\n\n\n" >> .gitignore
	  git add .gitignore
	  git commit -m "Ignore Xcode stuff."
	  git add .
	  git commit -m "Initial Xcode project."
	}
  
fi

The echo lines puts out a .gitignore file that will look something like this.

# XCode
build
*.mode1v3
*.mode2v3
*.nib
*.swp
*.pbxuser
*.perspective
*.perspectivev3

# OSX
.DS_Store

# TextMate
*.tm_build_errors

Want a list of the users and the number of commits they made? Git makes it really really easy, while I could not find such an easy method on Subversion. Here they are.

Git

git log | git shortlog -n -s

Ruby 1.9.1, the stable release, is just around the corner and if your like me, maybe you want to start playing around with it and perhaps test a few projects using 1.9 with edge rails 2.3. If so, and your on a Mac, then perhaps this installation method might appeal to you. I'll break this article up in two parts, the first will be on installing multiple versions of ruby and how to switch between them while the other will be some things I noticed when testing ruby 1.9 with edge rails on my favorite pet project HomeMarks.

Based on my previous article Using Autotest For Rails Plugin Development, Brennan Dunn wrote a ZSH function that helps him with his eager rails plugin work. Testing plugins is simply the most fun you will ever have. It's nice to test in isolation and easy to make a plugin test multiple rails versions, etc. Typically plugin testing is very fast to because you are not burdened with excessive tests in a big app that might use it. Just the ones needed to test the plugin. Enjoy this ZSH function.

function autotestify () {
  git clone git://github.com/metaskills/autotest_railsplugin.git
  rm -rf ./autotest_railsplugin/.git
  mv ./autotest_railsplugin ./autotest
}

I love autotest. I have event posted before how to extend the idea of autotest sounds to a red/green playlist but now that I am taking more time to extract some of my work to plugins, I really wanted autotest to come with me. The problem is that the default autotest mappings do not play with rails conventions, the biggest being that test files for a lib match the name of the lib with _test.rb at the END of the...

It has been about 6 months now since I started using the Shoulda testing plugin as my BDD/TDD tool of choice. Unlike a lot of other people, I did not flock to the RSpec bandwaggon. Personally I think RSpec is horribly bloated a sledgehammer for a simple issue, the need to have test code organized with nested setups and context blocks.

After attending Rails Edge in Reston, Virginia I decided to move some common tasks from my ~/.irbrc file and put them into Rake. I thought I would share a task that reads and writes the ActiveRecord schema table. Sometimes in migrations this is either good to know or manually change. Simply copy this in a foo.task file in your project/lib/tasks directory and use rake -T to see the description and usage. I have placed these tasks in the db:version namespace.