A silly little preview

Thank you for hanging in there during the lack of actual content. I know the bunch of small posts I've made lately are nothing useful or interesting (and I know I hate it when otherwise focused blogs go that way). It's temporary, while my after-work hours are crazy book book book book did I mention book?

I'm working on a couple things for you guys, though, as I mentioned in my last useless post.

Here's a taste:

Yes, it's a little too bright this first time... but oh, it's a CAKE for cryin' out loud!

And a little something else that hasn't been done before, which I think you'll find intriguing at least. (Not sure if it will be useful, too, but we'll see.)

Donation Shout-Out

Big thanks to Todd Sayre for clicking Share the Love and contributing to the Slash7 kitty. I just emptied that Slash7 kitty a day or two ago to buy some rockin illustrations for some upcoming articles (that cute little cake included). So, technically speaking, Todd bought that cake (and some other goodies). Just wanted to let you know I was rollin' it back in.

Thanks, guys!

CSS & JavaScript Help Shout-Out

A number of people have pitched in to help solve the IE issue and also a number have pointed out that there's a JavaScript error as well. I will nuke that JavaScript just as soon as I can ensure that code's not used (I think it belonged to the old theme). And I'll try the IE fixes RSN, I promise. It's not that I am incapable, just sapped for time... and I guess when push comes to shove, I'd rather spend time working on new content. Which is why I particularly appreciate everyone who stepped up to help: Chris Patterson, Isaac, Stephan, Mauvis & Chris Kilmer (in no particular order).

Thanks to you too, guys!

posted in: metablog | 5 comments

Jeff Coleman said on 12 Feb 21:56:

Amy,

That little cake pic came at just the right moment for me! I was setting up some associations in my model and was planning to create a bunch of business in my controllers to help organize them. Thinking about it now, that's all business logic that's much better suited to my models, as per your cake. Thanks,

Jeff
Thomas Aylott said on 13 Feb 02:27:

It's more like, the views are the sprinkles the controllers are the frosting and the models are the cake
Amy said on 13 Feb 04:13:

Thomas, the way I see it is:

The model is the first slice (obviously), which could in theory be eaten alone but it'd be lonely.

With the controllers and views you get 3 layers of delicious cake. After all, there have to be controllers and views somewhere -- regardless of whether you're putting out HTML, XML, JSON, or whatever. Somebody, somewhere wants that data. In some format.

The icing is helpers and mixins. They help glue the pieces together in addition to being lip-smackin good. :)
Paul Campbell said on 13 Feb 12:55:

I like cake.
Paul Campbell said on 13 Feb 12:59:

Had to get that in there! Old school joke of mine...

I used to get really frustrated with all the logic I used to fill my views with when I was ignorant of how much could go in the model.

Here's a juicy tidbit that I love for formatting created_on dates within the model:
```
def date
  return (self.created_on).strftime('@ %H:%I on %b %d, %Y')
end
```