Pragmatic Studio

Next Advanced Ruby Studio

Registration is now open for our next Advanced Ruby Studio on October 19-21, 2009 in Denver, CO.

Learn to master the Ruby programming language in this 3-day training course with both Dave Thomas and Chad Fowler.

You'll come away from this Studio feeling like a Ruby Master. You'll have moved beyond the basic toolbox of the average Ruby and Rails developer: you'll be able to exploit the libraries and constructs the true pros use to make their code powerful, compact, and fun to work with. You'll also learn what's new in Ruby 1.9, and how to make the most of it.

Make plans to join us and save $300 by taking advantage of early registration through August 19th.

P.S. Only two seats remain for our Advanced Ruby Studio next month on July 15 -17 in Reston, VA so register today!

iPhone 3.0 Studios This Summer

With this week's release of the iPhone SDK 3.0, now is a great time to learn how to create iPhone applications! We're offering two iPhone courses this summer covering the latest and greatest iPhone SDK:

August 4-7 in Reston, VA
August 25-28 in Denver, CO

Bill Dudney and Daniel Steinberg will help you learn how to create dynamic, visually-appealing iPhone applications from scratch. You'll come away from this Studio knowing Xcode, Interface Builder, Objective-C, Cocoa Touch programming, and the APIs included in the iPhone SDK 3.0. You'll be ready to create your first iPhone application, or improve upon your existing application.

Registration is now open for both Studios this summer. Make plans to join us and save $300 by taking advantage of early registration or your alumni discount!

Advanced Ruby Studio Discount Ends Next Monday

Just a quick reminder that the early-bird discount (save $300) for the next Advanced Ruby Studio ends next Monday, June 15th.

Haven't made up your mind yet? Here are a few reasons to join us this summer:

• Both Dave Thomas and Chad Fowler will be there to help you write Ruby programs and Rails applications with the confidence and efficiency that comes from deep knowledge of how things really work.
• Learn what makes Ruby 1.9 faster, cleaner, and much improved.
• Take your Ruby and Rails skills to the next level. One of our recent attendees had this to say, "Dave and Chad brought us backstage and demystified some of the Ruby magic...I now have a clearer understanding of the Ruby language and its surrounding idioms.”

Register this week to save a few bucks! If we can help answer any questions you might have, don't hesitate to contact us.

Next Rails Studio in Denver, CO

Registration is now open for our next Ruby on Rails Studio on August 19-21, 2009 in Denver, CO.

Learn how to build high-quality web applications fast from Dave Thomas and Chad Fowler in this 3-day, hands-on training course. You'll learn all the major features of the latest version of Rails, and how to put them together to build dynamic web applications like the pros. You'll come away from this Studio with the confidence and skills to build your own Rails applications: from idea to deployment. If you're just getting into Rails, or need to get your team members up to speed quickly, this course is for you.

Register by June 30th to save $300 on early registration and reserve your seat for this popular course!

Next Advanced Ruby Studio in Reston, VA

Registration is now open for our next Advanced Ruby Studio on July 15-17 in Reston, VA.

Master the Ruby programming language—to write more powerful libraries or improve your Rails applications—by learning advanced techniques from Dave Thomas and Chad Fowler in this 3-day, hands-on training course.

You'll come away from this Studio feeling like a Ruby Master. You'll have moved beyond the basic toolbox of the average Ruby and Rails developer: you'll be able to exploit the libraries and constructs the true pros use to make their code powerful, compact, and fun to work with. You'll also learn what's new in Ruby 1.9, and how to make the most of it.

Register by June 5th to save $300 on early registration and reserve your seat for this popular course!

Next iPhone Studio in Reston, VA

Registration is now open for our next iPhone Development Studio on August 4-7 in Reston, VA.

As if iPhone development wasn't exciting enough, iPhone OS 3.0 promises to take things to a new level. We're really excited about it! We're hoping that by delaying this course until a while after WWDC, the iPhone 3.0 SDK will have been released so we can teach you what's new. That said, from a developer's perspective iPhone OS 3.0 is a superset of iPhone OS 2.0. So attending this course is a great way to learn how to use the iPhone SDK, regardless of the version.

iPhone is a popular topic, and these Studios tend to sell out fairly quickly. But if you reserve your seat early, you'll also save $300. Check out the outline for a list of topics and the training venue for more details.

We hope to meet you there!

iPhone Apps Built by Alumni

One of the most gratifying things about teaching iPhone Studio is hearing about the iPhone apps that attendees end up building. That's what it's all about. Check out these three new apps built by Studio Alumni, now available in the App Store:

Will Ronco of Awesome Software built and released Altidude, a conversion calculator for running at high altitude. It's perfect for those of us at high altitude (we're based in Denver) who want know how much faster we could run at sea level.

Dane Falker of Surgeworks built and released Divine Office, an audio version of the Liturgy of the Hours that reads an RSS feed and loads audio files onto the device. Look for them to release their OpenGL convenience library in a few weeks. (It will be released as JellyTouch on Github.)

Steven Farley released dotcom for quickly and easily querying the availability of a domain name. It's a freebie!

Judging by the activity on our alumni mailing list, there are many more applications in the works. If you're an alumni of this course and you've released an app, we'd love to hear about it!

Studio Bonus Tracks

We almost always watch the bonus tracks included with movies on DVD. It's fun to see the scenes that didn't make it into the final movie, for one reason or another. We especially enjoy getting a behind-the-scenes look at the tricks and techniques the crew used to shoot a particular scene. Want to know how they pulled off that amazing car chase in the city? It's in the bonus track. It's all extra stuff you can skip, but the bonus tracks often contain real gems of information. Watching them usually gives us a greater appreciation for the movie.

Since last summer we've been running iPhone training courses and producing iPhone-related screencast video tutorials. Unfortunately, even in a 4-day course or a 1-hour screencast, you have to leave some stuff on the cutting room floor. Though we're learning new iPhone development tips and tricks every day, they don't all get brought up during a course or warrant a full-length video tutorial. But it's good stuff we don't want you to miss!

So, this week we're rolling out our own series of bonus tracks. These are free, short screencasts focused on a single iPhone tip, trick, or technique that you can quickly apply. We're kicking it off with three tracks. We plan to release a new bonus track every week or so to keep you on top of your game.

Whether you've attended one of our courses or not, we hope you enjoy these bonus tracks all the same. All we ask is that you'd leave a comment once in a while to let us know how we're doing, and spread the word. :-)

Thanks, and enjoy!

iPhone Studio Discount Ends Friday

Just a quick reminder that the early-bird discount (save $300!) for the next iPhone Development Studio ends this Friday, April 10th.

Haven't made up your mind yet? Here are a few common questions and answers that might help:

• What are people saying about it? One of our recent attendees said, "The iPhone Development Studio is simply awesome and I believe the best way to get you started with iPhone development.” (Read more reviews.)

What's the Studio experience like? Watch this short video to see the hands-on, interactive environment of a Studio. Oh, and you'll eat well, too. :-)

• Are there really two instructors? Yes. That's two big brains for the price of one. It's a great opportunity to learn from two iPhone development pros and get all your questions answered.

• How do I get prepared? Check out our recently-released iPhone Deverloper's Roadmap. It has pointers to help you find a suitable place to begin your journey, and resources along the way to help you dig deeper.

Register this week to save a few bucks! If we can help answer any questions you might have, don't hesitate to contact us.

iPhone Developer's Roadmap

Becoming an iPhone developer is a lot of fun and a valuable skill in today's market. But there's a catch: It isn't as easy as it looks. Even experienced programmers are challenged by developing applications for a mobile device. And when you're just starting out, you're faced with learning a bunch of new things: Xcode, Interface Builder, the Objective-C programming language, Cocoa libraries, and the iPhone SDK. If you try to learn them all at once, it can be quite frustrating.

We hear from a number of folks asking where they should start, how they should prepare for our iPhone course, and which resources we recommend. Good questions, all of them. Based on our experience, we've put together an iPhone Developer's Roadmap with pointers to help you get started and resources to help along the way. If you have a specific question or thoughts on the roadmap, we would love to hear from you.

We hope you'll find it useful on your journey!