We have a special pre-RubyConf meeting at the end of October. Starting at 6:30 we’ll serve food and beverages allowing folks to come on in, mingle with those here until it’s time to start. At 7pm Mike Gehard will lead a session on pairing. Pair programming, two developers working on one computer, is one of the central tenants of agile programming. At Pivotal Labs, engineers pair program 8 hours a day. Come find out why Pivotal pair programs and how it can make you a better developer. This will be great for those interested in the beginner’s track.
Following that Nick Sieger of JRuby fame will be in town for RubyConf and will present (Re-)Discover JRuby and Why It’s a Big Deal. After more than 2 years in the making, JRuby 1.7 is finally going to be released. It’s jam-packed with tons of new functionality and sets the stage for even more upgrades in the future. Nick will get us caught up on the current state of JRuby, re-introduce you to JRuby if you haven’t checked out before (or in a while), and talk a bit about why the future of JRuby means great things for the future of Ruby in general.