Show up @ 5:30 to meet and chat. Presentations should start around 6.

This month Jon Maddox will be presenting and introduction to Git.

Also, Matt Overstreet will be discussing the prototype.js library “Ruby on Javascript”.

Presentation will be follow by an Open mic and Jam time.

Head out to upcoming to let us know you’ll be there

Join us on Tuesday for a code jam! Bring your projects or questions. Let us know your showing up: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/428759

I would like to, again, thank James Robertson for coming down to Richmond to talk about Smalltalk. I was very happy with the talk - everyone seemed really interested - questions were even asked!

James covered some basic Smalltalk stuff: syntax, reserved words, operators, image-based environment, browsers. He then pulled out a Seaside demo, complete with some in-web-browser debugging. [I'm thinking I should have taken some notes during the talk so that I can write a better review.]

It was nice seeing Smalltalk in action, one of the Grand daddies of dynamic languages. Remember, though Smalltalk is roughly 30 years old, from it came: Refactoring support, SUnit - which spawned JUnit, Edit & Continue - the ability to work with live code in a debugger, and, of course, MVC. I'm sure there are more items.

James brought and left a few CDs with VisualWorks 7.5, non-commercial version, preloaded. Contact either Mel Riffe or Matt Overstreet for information on obtaining a copy; he also sent a few with the visiting Charlottesville crew (thanks for coming out guys - excellent questions)

Feel free to add your review in the comments. Cheers!

Our January 8th Meeting will be Smalltalk Night.

James Robertson has been involved with Smalltalk, in one role or another, for quite some time. He's coming down to show off Cincom's VisualWorks Smalltalk offering, including a little bit of Seaside.

On the Cincom Smalltalk site you will also find links to Podcasts and daily Smalltalk screencasts; there's a wealth of information ready for consumption. Helpful Links:

• One Page Syntax Primer
• Cincom Smalltalk
• Cincom Smalltalk Downloads
• Getting started in Seaside and Visual Works
• Squeak
• Avi Bryant on TWiT; creator of Seaside
• Google Search on Smalltalk

Smalltalk has influenced many programming languages, Ruby in particular. In my opinion it is the premier language for Dynamic languages. Many of the ideas and concepts in Ruby were first implemented in Smalltalk. Come join us for what hopes to be a fantastic trip down memory lane and a glimpse into the future.

Head on over to the Upcoming.org Event and let us know you'll be joining us: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/379603.

February 12th Meeting Preview...

To be announced.

Our December 11th Meeting will be 'Open Mic' Night.

Take 10-15 minutes to talk about any topic you desire. In the vein of the Lightning talks held at Conferences come share your stories.

Need some ideas:

• Working with a new tool (i.e. git)?
• Starting a new project?
• Solved a tricky problem?
• Reflect on the year
• Working with another technology/language?
• Got a Stand-up Routine

Head on over to the Upcoming.org Event and let us know you'll be joining us: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/335310/.

January 8th Meeting Preview...

Come join us January 8th where James Robertson, Product Evangelist, former Product Manager, from Cincom will give a talk about VisualWorks Smalltalk.

This codejam will feature a special project: Bookmarker.

If you are an experienced Rubyist, come help us develop content for helping people learn Ruby and Rails! If you are new to Ruby and Rails, EVEN BETTER! Come and get involved in the project we’re starting to help you learn at your own pace. Your feedback is invaluable!

The Richmond JUG and CVREG are partnering to present our May meeting on May 10 at Dominion Resources Technical Center in Innsbrook.

Stu will be giving a talk from his Rails For Java Developers book on May 10, provided that I complete my review for Amazon. (Only two chapters left!) This is a unique opportunity to hear a very accomplished technology advocate speak about two fields with which he is very familiar to ensure that we have the information we need as developers to select the “right tool for the job.” For those of you who have heard Stu speak, I know that you won’t miss this chance to hear him again, and for those of you who have never had the pleasure, I strongly encourage you to come.

For those of you who missed March’s meeting, it was the most successful one that we’ve had thus far.

Ryan Daigle spoke to us about REST and ActiveResource. This is an up-and-coming element of Rails development, and it was plain to see from his presentation that the concept has tremendous power. We saw that using ActiveResource to consume web services created by your own or others’ Rails applications is straightforward, and it allows an independent applications to communicate with each other with unprecedented ease. I know that I personally will need some practice with these techniques before I can fully internalize them, but his content gave me a tremendous head-start on a starting place. Ryan also had an interactive session with ARes objects themselves and pointed us to the beginning of some documentation work at ContactsAPI.

The crowd was eager to ask questions and share their experiences about this new technology, partly because it’s not as widely covered as ActiveRecord or RJS. Ryan did an excellent job making sure that no one left with any questions.

We had more than a dozen attendees, our best showing for a meeting where beer wasn’t involved. Thanks to the Charlottesville folks that came out; you helped the group live up to its name. Dominion Digital provided the pizza and sodas, and you’ll now find them in our sidebar as a sponsor! Leave a comment if you are interested in providing corporate sponsorship for one of our meetings.

When I can find the USB cable to hook up my camera, I’ll post some pictures.

Please stay tuned to the Google Group and to this website for more information about upcoming meetings and events. We look forward to having you!!!