Software Developer

RubyConf 2024 Recap

RubyConf 2024 🔗

RubyConf recently wrapped up in Chicago, Illinois. This post is meant to highlight the great work from all involved. I documented my updates from “on the ground” elsewhere. I hope you’ll seek out the full videos of all the sessions that interest you once they are available. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be everywhere, so this covers what I saw. I certainly did not come anywhere close to doing all the things I planned.

Day 1 🔗

Opening Keynote 🔗

Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto started the conference after the opening remarks. He reviewed some key features introduced in Ruby throughout the years. Ruby was originally created for a developer with the following interests:

  • Loves programming
  • Loves freedom
  • Wants to be productive
Matz at RubyConf 2024

Names from a hat 🔗

Murray Steele sampled different approaches to retrieving subsets of data. With the goal of fun and whimsy, you can be open to safely explore new tools or paradigms.

Murray Steele at RubyConf 2024

Compose Software Like Nature Would 🔗

Ahmed Omran used metaphors from the world around us to inform how we can design our software systems.

Ahmed Omran at RubyConf 2024

Coordinate Ruby Teams 🔗

Noel Rappin and Brandt Sheets from the I Heart Ruby team at Chime shared tooling they’ve built to share standards and progress across teams.

Noel Rappin at RubyConf 2024
Brandt Sheets at RubyConf 2024

The State of RubyGems 🔗

Samuel Giddins, Martin Emde, and Marty Haught addressed what improvements have been made to RubyGems and shared interests for the future.

Samuel Giddins at RubyConf 2024
Martin Emde at RubyConf 2024
Marty Haught at RubyConf 2024

Chaos Engineering on the Death Star 🔗

Sara Jackson calmly walked us through a chaotic environment. We were introduced to different tools and approaches to consider to harden and better understand our production systems at the application layer.

Sara Jackson at RubyConf 2024

Fast Forward: Speeding up Delegate Methods 🔗

Aaron Patterson skipped the jokes for more time to talk performance tuning. This time the focus was on delegating method arguments. The talk is a good demonstration or reminder of stack pointers, specifically presented in how it’s relevant in this area.

Aaron Patterson at RubyConf 2024

Closing Keynote 🔗

Nickolas Means presented a disastrous situation complicated by the reliance on automation and the level of abstraction that introduces.

Nickolas Means at RubyConf 2024

Day 2 - Hack Day and Workshops 🔗

Who Wants to be a Ruby Engineer? 🔗

Drew Bragg brought his game show to the RubyConf main stage. This picture is blurry because it’s impossible to get a clear one. Drew is never still on stage long enough.

Drew Bragg at RubyConf 2024

No Static Types? No Problem! 🔗

Noel Rappin delivered an even-handed summary of different type solutions available in Ruby. And included how we can achieve some of the benefits of types, or address some of the concerns that leads people to call for types, even in the absence of having them available to us.

Noel Rappin at RubyConf 2024

Day 3 🔗

Opening Keynote 🔗

Brandon Weaver brought Fantasyland to RubyConf. We went down the rabbit hole for story hour.

Brandon Weaver at RubyConf 2024

MVC Ruby in < 5k. The wonder of Camping 🔗

Karl Weber shared how the Camping web framework works. The knowledge and awareness of other frameworks, even if you aren’t going to use it, is important. It shows a vibrant and growing ecosystem. It provides insights and options to inform the code you write, even if you’re not working within the framework.

Karl Weber at RubyConf 2024

10 Years of Roda 🔗

Jeremy Evans followed to explore how Roda has changed from its first RubyConf presentation a decade ago.

Jeremy Evans at RubyConf 2024

Closing Keynote 🔗

Nadia Odunayo walked us through another mystery in her private detective series. This ended with a dramatic twist that’s not to be missed.

Nadia Odunayo at RubyConf 2024

Appreciation 🔗

Thank you to my employer, Pubmark, for supporting my attendance this year.

Thank you Ruby Central for your work to organize these events and supporting the Ruby community all year round.

Thank you to the Program Chairs: Kinsey Durham Grace and Jim Remsik.

Kinsey Durham Grace and Jim Remsik at RubyConf 2024

Thank you to the Program Committee, Scholarship Committee, volunteers, and venue staff for bringing this conference to life.

Thank you to Allison McMillan and Adarsh Pandit for your work on the Ruby Central board. I appreciate all your efforts throughout the years.

Adarsh Pandit at RubyConf 2024
Adarsh Pandit at RubyConf 2024

Thank you sponsors for supporting the Ruby community and making it possible for us to come together.

Thanks to all the #RubyFriends, old and new, that I met in Chicago.

Thank you for reading to the end. Maybe we met at RubyConf 2024. Maybe we didn’t. Maybe we were supposed to, but never saw each other. I hope to see you in 2025.