Martin Fowler at RailsConf 2006

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You can watch the entire keynote here, many a good thought. Some interesting thoughts:

1. Ruby on Rails, as an opinionated framework with limited focus is good.
2. Fast development cycles are good, better than Big Design Up Front.
3. People think in the mistaken trade off of quick & dirty (VB, PHP) and "enterprise." Just because something was done quickly doesn't mean it's dirty.
4. Keep programmers and customers in close quarters, combine with quick release cycles and allow for observation of how software is used. (I love this idea, I learn *so* much when I watch people use the software I've written for them).
5. Disdain for libraries (and I read along with that unnecessary abstraction) with several jokes about java.util.Calendar
6. Ruby the language is essential for Rails.
7. Postmodern Programming: embrace inconsistencies, cobbled together world and realize software is the same way giving the example of Unix.

I found myself agreeing with Martin, blow for blow most of the time.

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