I’m pleased to announce that the Software Freedom School (SFS), supported in partnership by the PARSEC Group (full disclosure: my employer), has asked me to lead another full-day Introduction to Ruby seminar, this one on Saturday, December 6th 2014. To avoid a boring rehash of the details, go here (www.sofree.us/?p=163228) to see the full description and to register.

Of note is SFS’s “PWYC” (pay what you can/choose) policy for its training events — if your funds are limited, you’ll be welcome at no charge… yup, you can attend for free.

This is the second Ruby session I’ve conducted for SFS, and they’re a lot of fun to do… I recall the first one we did, a summer or so ago, at DenHac on a hot, hot July day. There were over 20 of us stuffed into DenHac’s classroom, and we were all dripping, um, perspiration… but having a great time with a great programming language.

This time, we’re meeting in PARSEC’s corporate training center in a hi-rise office building in downtown Denver — won’t need air conditioning (it’s December!), but the classroom will be warm.

In a very real sense, this Saturday Ruby intro session is sort of a run-up, a free “taste of,” PARSEC’s forthcoming “Ruby Immersion” bootcamp, a 4-week deep-dive training class which will focus exclusively on the Ruby programming language. That’s right: Ruby only, no Rails.

There are dozens of Ruby on Rails code-school/bootcamps around the US and the world, and many of them are first class education opportunities. Rather than trying to be another “me too”, PARSEC has invested in the development of a training program which emphasizes Ruby, and its role in general purpose software development, with the intention of graduating cohorts of “World Class Beginners” in the craft and profession. Yes, Ruby Immersion is a great precursor program, a feeder school, to one of the Rails code schools, but some of our graduates may elect for other options and directions besides full-stack web development, and Ruby Immersion will prepare them for those opportunities too.

I plan to write more about the full bootcamp course and experience, but for now, please consider joining us for the Saturday “Intro to Ruby” seminar as a sort of “free sample at the candy store!”