[dba-Tech] Ruby on Rails

So which version of RoR are you working on Mandarin or Cantonese? Keep up
the good work Arthur... you are obviously not fit for retirement. ;-) 

Jim
 

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur Fuller
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 8:55 AM
To: Peter Brawley
Cc: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues; Clare Fuller
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Ruby on Rails

I wouldn't have any clue about this sort of mix-and-match approach. I did
notice something within the NetBeans IDE (Ruby Project) that suggests that
you can mix-and-match but I haven't made it far enough up the learning curve
to be confident of trying this.
Back in our old days (Artful.Lib), as you recall, we had opinionated ideas
about directory structures etc. We didn't go nearly as far as RoR does in
embracing the convention-over-configuration premise, but we were on the
right track -- lazy is best: obey some conventions to reap maximum benefit.

I've just finished installing the Ruby/JRuby plugin for NetBeans and am
going to spend half this weekend experimenting. (The other half will be
devoted to designing Version 2 of an inherited app that is sorely in need of
a normalization redesign.)

For a semi-retired hobbyist, I sure seem busy (at least to me). "I tried to
get out, but they kept dragging me back in." c.f. Godfather LOL. Every step
of the way, it gets more complex. When you and I started with computing,
learning CP/M and dBASE II and WordStar, I thought then that careers in this
business were done -- it was already simple enough that anyone could be her
own MayTag repairPerson. Turns out I was woefully wrong. Which, if I still
wanted a career in this business, might be regarded as a godsend. However, I
am not really that interested any more in a career in this business, and am
increasingly happy with my semi-retired status. Now I can concentrate on
such things as Genetic Algorithms, learning Mandarin, completing my
tabla-solo-generator, and taking the teleological approach to the chess
problem (as opposed to the brute-force Deep Blue approach -- in this case I
have a feeling that I'm right, and that Deep Blue is all wrong, but I'm one
old guy competing with a huge corporation with pockets deeper than the Grand
Canyon).

I have a current arrangement with a married couple in this complex: a
one-hour lesson per day in language skills. The couple of interest consists
of a husband who speaks Cantonese and a wife who speaks Mandarin, both of
whom want to improve their English skills. We have decided that it's best
for me to learn Mandarin first, and once I have the four tones down pat,
then we can expand to the seven Cantonese tones. So far I cannot say very
much: I can say Good Morning and Good Afternoon; I can count, I can list the
days of the week and the months of the year and I can pretty quickly
determine whether one of the dwellers in my complex speaks Cantonese or
Mandarin. Inch by inch. It helps to have a lesson per day -- it really
helps!

There are fundamental differences between Chinese (meaning
Cantonese+Mandarin) and English. One huge difference is that in Chinese
there is no "cast" of a verb. Whether you mean past, present or future, the
verb remains the same, and whether you mean Person (singular, single-plural,
etc.) the verb itself doesn't change, only its prefix. Similarly for tense.
It's all implied by context and a prefix or suffix here or there.

Half of my last lesson (this is a two-way street) I devoted to the concept
of tense. I know my way around English fairly well, but I decided that given
the differences I would stop at Past, Present, Future and Conditional. Later
for Conditional Past PluPerfect and so on. (Back when I was a kid, we
studied Latin and French as well as English, and had word-games with tense,
making up sentences  in the most complex tenses, such as "He would have been
being ..." I guess that's why I never became a soccer star.

The complex I'm living in now is occupied by approximately 80% people of
Chinese origin, the majority of whom can speak English barely if at all. But
I can pretty quickly detect whether they speak Cantonese (the majority) or
Mandarin (maybe 20% max), and in the halls or the elevators I listen for a
moment and then say either Nihau or JoSan, assuming it's morning, or other
variants for later in the day (equivalent to the Spanish Buenas Diaz, Buenas
Tardes, Buenas Noches).

A really interesting thing happened recently. My Chinese tutor-couple and I
meet daily in the rooftop greenhouse, which has tables and chairs and a
sunroof and loads of plants, and we were doing our lessons, when another
elderly Mandarin-speaking woman entered to water her plants, and saw us
learning our lessons. At the time she said nothing, not wanting to
interrupt; she watered her plants and left. Next morning I entered the
elevator and there she was, and seeing me she positively beamed with
pleasure, and said "Your Mandarin is Very Good!" (clearly a flattering lie,
but one delivered with encouragement and even a thumbs-up).

I think that this is more a statement about the English-speaking
Torontonians in this neighbourhood than it is about me. I can't yet speak
anything significant, much less deliver a comment about what I recently
thought or dreamt or experienced. But it would appear that my meager
attempts to learn Chinese are met with pleasure and resounding
encouragement. I am guessing that these people are used to being excluded
and therefore tend to be insular, and that my attempts to enter their world
are surprising -- judging by the look on that woman's face when we shared an
elevator and she gave me the Two Thumbs Up.

So I guess this can be considered an experiment to discover whether you can
teach an old dog a new trick. At the rate we're progressing, I think that
within a year of daily lessons, I will be able to bargain in Chinatown LOL.

Arthur
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