Let's Standardize Rails!: An experiment in direct RuboCop democracy

{{< transcript >}} [00:01] - [Justin] So order, order. [00:05] I was trying to think of what would be a fun thing to do, [00:10] now that we are all back in person again [00:14] and able to spend time in close quarters. [00:18] And I thought one thing I fell out of love with [00:21] during the pandemic was traditional conference talks [00:24] where I have a whole lot of slides [00:26] and it's just me blasting at you [00:28] because those don't perform well on YouTube. [00:32] And so this time, I thought it would be a lot of fun [00:35] if we had a more interactive session. [00:38] And so this is going to really, [00:40] if this goes really, really well, then I had a great idea [00:43] and Meagan did an amazing job helping me. [00:46] And if this goes really poorly, you all didn't show up. [00:49] (all laughing) [00:51] And if anything, you let me down. [00:54] So without further ado, let's get rolling, [00:59] a couple people are still trickling in. [01:03] Everyone should have a paddle [01:04] 'cause we're going to be doing some voting. [01:07] Green means you vote for a measure [01:10] and red means you vote against a measure. [01:12] And if you're red green colorblind, [01:14] just ask the person next to you how you're voting. [01:20] All right, let's begin. [01:24] So you may be familiar with a tool called RuboCop. [01:28] It is a linter and a formatter for Ruby. [01:32] One of the things that I first noticed about RuboCop [01:36] was it has default configurations of how it wants you [01:40] to use your Ruby that a lot of teams disagree with. [01:43] And whenever a tool has defaults [01:46] that people generally disagree with, [01:47] it means everyone goes and configures them. [01:50] Whenever programmers spend a lot of time [01:52] on a low priority argument or debate [01:56] about something that doesn't really matter very much [01:58] or is certainly lower priority than building the thing [02:00] that they've been tasked with doing, [02:02] we tend to call that bike shedding, [02:04] like arguing over the color of the bike shed [02:08] at a nuclear power plant is like really low on the list [02:10] and yet it really works us up [02:11] and you get in fights about it. [02:14] And at Test Double, we're consultants, [02:16] so we see a lot of teams [02:17] and we just saw this pattern repeat over and over again, [02:19] where you go to a team and then you see them pull [02:22] in RuboCop and then they get in a big fight about it. [02:24] And what ends up is they have their own kind of custom, [02:26] bespoke RuboCop preference. [02:29] Then I go to another team, same thing happens, [02:31] I go to another team, same thing happens. [02:32] And what's actually emerging from each of these teams [02:34] isn't that they use RuboCop, [02:36] it's that they're using RuboCop as a framework [02:38] for having stupid arguments. [02:41] And I got really frustrated with this [02:44] because I firmly believe that tools should reduce friction [02:47] and make it easier to do our jobs and focus on what matters. [02:49] That's why we use Rails after all. [02:51] That's what that was all about. [02:53] And so back in 2018, [02:54] I created a gem called Standard Ruby. [02:57] You can go and gem install it. [02:59] And what Standard is, [03:01] is it simply depends on RuboCop, [03:03] as well as RuboCop performance, [03:05] some additional performance related rules. [03:07] And it's got a configuration in it, [03:10] it just preconfigures everything in one way. [03:13] But the special thing about Standard [03:14] is that it locks it down. [03:16] So if you use Standard, [03:17] you cannot go and futz with and change and bike shed [03:19] these configuration options, you're just stuck with it. [03:23] And so now a whole lot of teams just started using Standard [03:25] and hopefully they're arguing about more important nonsense. [03:30] And I've been really happy with just seeing [03:32] how the community has shown up to pull all those bike sheds [03:36] into the standard repo and so we can have [03:38] one last bike shed to rule them all. [03:42] Today, 2023, here's what we're going to do. [03:45] We're going to create a new gem called Standard Rails. [03:47] And it's going to look a lot like the first go around, [03:50] where we're depending here on a RuboCop extension [03:53] called RuboCop Rails, a lot of Rails specific rules. [03:56] We're going to establish a configuration for it [03:59] here on stage, and then we're going to lock it down [04:01] so that we can all adopt Standard Rails [04:03] and have more consistency [04:04] between our different Rails projects. [04:06] There's just going to be one difference [04:07] where with the Standard, [04:09] I came in, made my own configuration, [04:11] and then the whole internet got mad at me [04:14] and they argued with me. [04:15] So, I was benevolent dictator for life and I don't, [04:20] that role doesn't suit me as well as some people [04:22] in our community. [04:24] So this time around, (audience laughing) [04:27] we're going to give democracy one last chance [04:31] and put everything to a vote. [04:33] And so here's Standard Rails, [04:35] you'll vote on everything and then that's you right there. [04:37] And then, so everyone can get mad at you. [04:39] (audience laughing) [04:41] So, what I'm doing here is I'm optimizing [04:45] for developer happiness, where I'm the developer [04:48] and it's my happiness that I'm optimizing for. [04:52] And so now you know the basic goal of the day, [04:57] I'm going to hand it over now to my wonderful co-presenter, [04:59] Meagan Waller, and she's going to discuss the ground rules. [05:03] - [Meagan] All right. [05:05] Let's sort of like just set the scene here. [05:07] It's all of us against him. [05:09] The rules that we don't get to, [05:10] he's going to get to decide on. [05:12] So let's get through these quickly. [05:15] All right, so ground rules that we have here are. [05:20] - [Justin] Okay, we thought she'd be able [05:24] to see the screen a little bit. [05:26] - [Meagan] All right, so you're going to use your paddle to vote. [05:27] I want everyone to be able to raise their paddle high [05:29] so I can see it. [05:32] Green means you agree. [05:33] So if you are putting up red, [05:35] you're saying you're not voting. [05:37] Let's see everyone's green paddles. [05:41] Okay, it's looking pretty good. That looks great. [05:46] So the way that we're sort of thinking about Standard Rails [05:50] and when we're thinking about the things that we do want [05:52] to turn on, these rules should make sense [05:55] when they're applied to pretty much any type of application. [05:58] And so, if someone is using Standard Rails for one project [06:01] and they're not able to use it for another, [06:03] then like we all have failed. [06:05] So we also are going to look out for rules [06:09] that tell people what they should do with their apps [06:12] or what they shouldn't do with their apps. [06:13] So like restricting aliases, things like that, [06:17] instead of like just mandating specific APIs. [06:19] So keep that in mind as we're voting. [06:21] It's not just, [06:23] I guess it's not just like the things [06:24] that are like your little pets, [06:27] favorite rules that you want to have enabled. [06:29] Let's keep the whole community in mind [06:31] as we vote on these rules. [06:33] And we really would like to try [06:37] and optimize for portability. [06:39] So if there's a built-in that would prefer that you use, [06:44] Active Support alias versus a Ruby core method, [06:47] be more portable for us to be able [06:48] to use the Ruby core method. [06:51] So if a vote is too close to call, [06:53] that's telling us that there's probably [06:55] too much tension between it, it's kind of divisive, [06:59] so we're just going to disable it. [07:01] That will be the default option there, [07:05] when it's like a photo finish kind of vote. [07:09] And any rule that gets enabled by you all [07:13] that we disagree with, [07:16] you will have a little sponsor read from us [07:19] now that the bird app's not really a place where we can go [07:21] to air our grievances. [07:22] So that's what's in store for you all. [07:27] So we have 40 minutes, [07:28] we have tons of people here [07:31] and we have four of these flip charts [07:37] with 30 pages each full of rules. [07:38] It's 120 rules for those of you keeping score at home. [07:42] So let's keep the tempo up. [07:43] In order to maximize the amount of time, [07:47] I also have these 30 second sand timers. Wow, okay. [07:55] We'll be using these when we hand the mic to anyone [07:58] who might have a thing to say about a rule, [08:01] you'll have 30 seconds to say what you want to say. [08:05] Alright, so let's do another practice vote, [08:08] now that we have all the ground rules established. [08:11] If you agree and you want to vote [08:13] and you want to be a part of this process, [08:15] let's raise your paddles up to the green side. [08:20] All right, looking good, let's go. [08:22] - [Justin] The yeas have it. [08:24] All right, so now on to the main event. [08:27] So, it's the end of the conference. [08:29] I know that everyone's really, really excited [08:31] and the energy's really super high. [08:32] But I'm going to ask you all just to chill a little bit [08:35] and we're going to do this politely. [08:38] And because there's 120 rules, [08:40] we have presorted it for you in spiciness descending. [08:44] So we've picked out some of our favorites [08:48] that we think are going to lead to some interesting discussion. [08:51] Here's the first on the list, Active Support aliases. [08:55] So what this rule does is it checks [08:57] that Active Support aliases to core Ruby methods [09:00] are not used. [09:02] Meaning like, don't use append and prepend on array [09:06] when those are Active Support methods, [09:09] instead use the shovel operator and unshift. [09:13] Now one of the funny things if you've been doing Rails [09:15] for a long time is lots of built-in Standard Ruby methods [09:19] started off as Active Support custom aliases [09:23] and then found their way into Ruby. [09:26] So to just turn them off is kind of cutting off that path. [09:32] So I've just shared my bias. [09:34] In terms of like how we're going to conduct each of these, [09:38] we'd love to give somebody from the audience [09:41] a chance to make a case for or against [09:43] enabling a particular rule. [09:46] And then if somebody has something else [09:48] to say that's a rebuttal, [09:49] we'll give somebody else 30 seconds, their equal time, [09:51] to make a counter case. [09:53] Does anyone here want to make a case [09:55] for or against enabling Active Support aliases? [10:05] Somebody's got a hand up. [10:07] We're going to bring a microphone to you, so everyone can hear. [10:17] - [Audience Member] I always get confused with unshift [10:20] and I always have to look it up, [10:21] like what the crap is this doing again? [10:24] But append prepend just clicks in my brain. [10:27] - [Justin] All right, so this is a vote in favor [10:29] of not enabling the rule, disabling the rule. [10:33] Okay, anyone want to raise a counter argument? [10:38] No. All right, let's go vote. [10:39] - [Meagan] All right, let's vote. [10:41] All right, raise your paddles to green [10:45] if you want it enabled. [10:46] Raise it to red if you want it disabled. [10:49] (indistinct from audience) [10:49] Yes. [10:50] (indistinct from audience) [10:52] - [Justin] Enabling prevents the use. [10:54] (audience speaking) This is where they get you! [10:56] - [Meagan] Yes. [10:57] - [Justin] A lot of rules are written this way [11:01] and this is why we we're here to put in the work. [11:04] (audience laughing) [11:08] So, okay, ballots up. [11:12] The nays have it. [11:13] - [Meagan] The nays have it. [11:15] (audience laughing) [11:20] - [Justin] Disable. [11:21] All right, so next up. [11:24] We've got create table with timestamps. [11:26] So here it's saying if we enable this rule, [11:29] all tables that you define in your migrations [11:32] must have the t.timestamps, [11:34] so the create at and updated at columns must be defined, [11:37] unless it looks like a joiner table [11:39] of just these different IDs. [11:42] Anyone want to make an argument in favor or opposed? [11:48] (indistinct from audience) [11:50] Okay, we're going to get the microphone to you so you can. [11:57] One more time for the video. [11:59] - [Audience Member] There are sometimes append only tables, [12:01] so we don't want to have updated at on them. [12:03] - [Justin] Append only tables, so you don't want to have updated at [12:06] 'cause they're never updated. [12:06] Got it. Okay. [12:08] Anyone want to, so that's an argument then in favor [12:10] of enabling it or wait no, of not enabling it. [12:13] (audience laughing) [12:15] See, you got my back. [12:17] Okay. Aaron. [12:24] Cathy's getting her steps in. [12:25] - [Aaron] I think like nearly all tables [12:27] would want to have timestamps. [12:28] So if you want to disable it on a, [12:31] if you have append only, you could just do it for that one. [12:34] - [Justin] Yes, there's a real special case. [12:36] There is a standard disabled comment directive, [12:40] so that's okay. [12:41] Doesn't mean a thousand percent of the time just, [12:44] you know, it's the golden half. [12:45] All right. [12:46] - [Meagan] All right. We heard our argument. [12:51] - [Justin] Again, should have seen this coming. [12:54] - [Meagan] Really, we should've. [12:55] - [Justin] Green means you want to enable this rule, [12:58] and what this rule will do is force you to use t.timestamps. [13:03] Ballots up. [13:05] - [Justin And Meagan] All right. [13:06] - All right. The yeas have it. Enabled. [13:10] (audience applauding) [13:12] - [Justin] See, just four or five more hours and we're going to be. [13:18] (audience laughing) [13:21] Through this thing. All right? [13:22] I hope you don't have any flights tonight. [13:24] All right, so Rails freeze time. [13:27] This identifies usage of travel to, [13:30] which time travels not the system clock, [13:33] but Ruby's idea of what the system clock is [13:36] with an argument of the current time. [13:39] And then if enabled, [13:41] this cop forces you to use freeze time instead. [13:46] Anyone want to chime in? [13:48] - [Meagan] We had a very emphatic raise back here. [13:53] Did you have a comment in the red back here? [14:02] - [Audience Member] I don't see a good reason [14:04] not to enable it, freeze time makes sense. [14:09] Traveling time, there's a variety of different arguments. [14:11] Takes more brain cycles. [14:14] - [Justin] Okay, so freeze time's better. [14:16] Anyone have an opposing? [14:18] Behind you, somebody's got a disagreement. [14:21] - [Audience Member] Having built a time and labor system, [14:24] you got to use travel time. [14:29] - [Justin] Okay, because freeze time actually stops the clock, [14:33] travel_to will move the clock to a time [14:36] and then keep the clock running. [14:39] (audience groaning) [14:41] Yeah, okay, I get it. [14:45] Okay, let's take those words and put 'em in our ballots. [14:49] Let's, yeah, so red, okay, you all get it. [14:57] The nays have it. [15:00] All right, moving right along, Http Status. [15:03] This will, by default if enabled, [15:05] it'll enforce the use of the symbolic shortcuts or names [15:11] for any sort of head status code [15:14] that you want to send in your controller. [15:16] Meaning like, symbol not found as opposed to 404. [15:20] Or we could enable it and then enforce the exact opposite [15:23] and say, no, you have to type 404, [15:25] you may not put the symbol not found. [15:27] So for rules like these that have options, [15:30] we have a two-tiered voting system. [15:33] (audience laughing) [15:35] Because it was too expensive to make triangular cut outs. [15:40] So first up, if you think this should be enabled at all, [15:45] either way, green. [15:49] Let's try that first. [15:50] So everyone vote, either enable or disable right now, [15:54] regardless of what the setting is, [15:56] then we'll vote on the setting second. [16:00] So green, so people are voting in favor of consistency. [16:03] So the yeas have it, we're going to enable it. [16:05] Now some of you're going to get mad though. [16:07] (audience laughing) [16:08] If you don't get your way. [16:10] You see now, like if nothing else, [16:12] I hope I'm building empathy for how much this job sucks. [16:16] Okay, so now we're going to do a second vote [16:19] for enforced style, right? [16:20] - [Meagan] Yep. [16:21] So we have symbol or numeric, right? [16:24] Those are the two styles? [16:25] - [Justin] Okay? So which color should be which? [16:27] - [Meagan] Okay, let's do green for symbol, red for numeric. [16:31] - [Justin] All right, ballots up. [16:35] Oh wait, do we want to have an argument? [16:37] We didn't have an argument. [16:40] I didn't give a chance to give the argument. Hold on. [16:42] Eileen wants to speak. Let's give her the microphone. [16:52] - [Eileen] Do people actually use this? [16:54] This is bonkers. It's the same number of characters. [16:57] It doesn't make your code better. [16:59] I hate both. [17:00] There shouldn't be a choice. [17:02] This should be disabled. [17:03] (audience laughing) [17:08] - [Justin] Eileen missed the boat. [17:12] Okay, anyone have a comment about, [17:16] we'll take one comment on symbolic versus numeric. [17:21] And Cathy keeps picking the people furthest away from her. [17:24] - [Cathy] I'm not picking, they're doing it. [17:29] - [Audience Member] If I'm searching the code base, [17:31] it's easier to search for the numeric codes than words [17:34] that also are used all over the place. [17:36] And I have to look up all of these anyway, [17:38] so numbers. [17:40] (audience applauding) [17:41] - [Justin] All right, okay, let's not get carried away [17:44] in this sort of populist law fervor. [17:49] Call a vote? [17:50] - [Meagan] Yeah, let's vote. [17:51] Alright, green for symbols, red for numeric. [18:00] - [Justin] Wow. [18:00] All right, so the left side of the room is mostly green [18:03] and the right is most. [18:04] I don't like this. [18:06] - [Meagan] Does that mean we get to disable it? [18:07] Do we get to disable it? [18:09] - [Justin] This is too close to call [18:11] and therefore the rule is disabled. [18:13] (audience cheering) [18:18] (audience indistinctly talking and laughing) [18:24] Yeah, not unrelated, [18:27] Eileen has my phone number and can text me anytime [18:29] when she's not happy. [18:33] All right, next one we got here [18:34] is the three state boolean column. [18:39] What this refers to is, [18:41] when enabled, it enforces that any new boolean column [18:44] that you add in the migration [18:46] must have a default setting and must be not nullable. [18:49] Meaning that the column's value is either always false [18:52] or true, but never null. [18:56] Steven would like to chime in. [19:03] - [Steven] This is terrible in any code base [19:05] with a very large table or a number of very large tables [19:08] because you can't like, safely doing this is hard. [19:11] - [Justin] So more clearly you want to not enable this. [19:14] - [Steven] I want this disabled, yes. [19:15] - [Justin] You want this disabled [19:16] because if you have a large table, it's bad. [19:19] - [Steven] I can't, yes. [19:21] Wait, what does disabled mean again in this case? [19:23] (audience laughing) [19:28] - [Justin] Okay, so here's a way to look at it everyone. [19:30] If we disable all the rules, [19:33] then it's like this just homeopathic thing [19:35] that prevents us from having any constraints [19:38] on how we write our code. [19:40] So disabling everything means like we're allowed [19:42] to do whatever we want. [19:44] Enabling things disallows us from doing something. [19:46] And in this case that something is nullable boolean columns. [19:51] So if you enable it, [19:53] you can't make a nullable boolean column. [19:57] And he wants nullable boolean columns, [19:59] which means he does not want to enable it [20:04] because defaults are expensive on large tables. [20:06] There we go. [20:08] Any counterarguments? [20:10] Hey Aaron. Oh, here we go, Landon. [20:12] - [Landon] I think it's frustrating the other way [20:14] because it's like like developers are lazy [20:17] and like they won't set a true or false [20:19] and you have a null and you don't know what it is [20:21] or something will happen [20:22] and you're looking at the database later to debug something [20:24] and you're confused. [20:28] - [Justin] Okay, so. [20:31] - [Meagan] Are we feeling like we're ready to vote [20:33] with all this information? [20:35] All right, enabled is green, disabled is red. [20:41] Let's vote. [20:43] - [Justin] Oh wow, this is close. [20:45] There's some late breaking nays. [20:48] - [Meagan] I don't know, I think the yeas have it. [20:49] - [Justin] The yeas have it. [20:51] (audience applauding) [20:54] And Steven accidentally voted yes. [20:58] (all laughing) [20:59] He's just catching that now. [21:04] No one to blame but yourself. [21:06] All right, Rails Blank. [21:12] This rule checks for code that can be written [21:14] with simpler conditionals using object blank [21:16] defined by Active Support [21:18] as opposed to like nil or empty or present. [21:23] So, let's get some comments. [21:26] - [Meagan] Yeah. Anyone have anything to say about this one? [21:33] - [Justin] I think everyone's still working out the algebra. [21:35] - [Meagan] Yeah, yeah. [21:38] - [Justin] If enabled it will force you to use blank [21:40] whenever blank would be terser. [21:43] Blank is defined in Active Support. [21:46] Nil and empty are defined in Ruby. [21:51] Noel's got a comment, point of order. [21:55] (audience member indistinctly speaking) [22:00] Blank is defined inactive report in terms of empty [22:02] on whatever the Ruby object is. [22:04] - [Noel] Yeah, so just blank [22:05] is so you can get some unexpected behavior from blank. [22:10] Not a pro or a con, just a point of order here [22:13] that blank is defined in terms of empty on its object. [22:17] - [Justin] Noel, author of many books, says that it's not a pro [22:20] or a con to have unexpected behavior from your computer. [22:23] (audience laughing) [22:27] - [Audience Member] I'm in favor of this one [22:32] 'cause I'm trying to be more present. [22:34] (audience laughing and applauding) [22:38] - [Justin] All right, so on one hand your Ruby code is less portable, [22:42] but on the other hand you made a pun. [22:43] - [Meagan] Yeah. [22:46] All right, let's vote. [22:49] Green, the yeas definitely have this. [22:51] - [Justin] Ah, the yeas definitely have it. [22:54] Oh, fun story. Meagan and I disagree with you all. [22:57] So now you get your first sponsor read. [23:01] - [Meagan] All right. Is this for the newsletter? [23:03] - [Justin] Yes. [23:04] - [Meagan] All right. [23:06] "You've Got Mail" isn't just a 1998 classic by Nora Ephron, [23:10] it's your reality when you sign up [23:12] for the Test Double newsletter. [23:14] (audience laughing) [23:16] Get updates, insights, expert tips, [23:18] and more from our Test Double double agents. [23:21] Sign up today at TestDouble.com/newsletter. [23:24] (audience applauding) [23:31] - [Justin] The panic on my face is that I realized that we split up [23:34] the sponsor reads, but she prepared way more for this. [23:37] (audience laughing) [23:39] Lower your expectations for when it's my turn. [23:42] Next up, environment variable access. [23:47] Wait a second, we enabled the last one, right? [23:50] There's a whole bunch of options inside of this one. [23:54] I don't care. [23:55] We're just going to enable it all. [23:56] You were that enthusiastic. [23:57] (audience laughing) [23:59] We'll fix it in 0.1. [24:03] Environment variable access, [24:05] what this would do is prevent you [24:06] from using the environment, all caps ENV cache, [24:14] to hash like thing to reference [24:16] and write environment variables. [24:18] Instead, you'd have to use Rails application secrets [24:21] or config to read and write them. [24:24] Any comment? [24:27] Anyone want to chime in? Don't be shy. [24:35] Voting yes means you can't do it, yes. [24:38] That's the theme of the. [24:42] This is why RuboCop is so popular. [24:46] No comment? [24:47] Oh, we got one over here. [24:53] - [Audience Member] Yeah. What about if we don't. [24:55] So I'd vote against, not enabling this. [25:00] I think I got that right. [25:01] If we don't use secrets [25:02] or if we don't want to store anything sensitive in config. [25:06] - [Justin] Then you would want to disable this rule. [25:08] If if you want to be able to use ENV, [25:10] then you'd just vote to disable it. [25:12] - [Audience Member] Okay, so I think that might be, but. [25:16] - [Justin] The person behind you, may have a follow up. [25:20] - [Audience Member] Actually I'm just unclear [25:21] what we're gaining by this [25:22] since they can just do Rails.application.secrets [25:25] and then write or read. [25:28] Are we just making them think more about it [25:30] since they have to write more code? [25:32] I don't know. [25:34] - [Justin] Kevin, you want to, looks like Kevin's got a comment. [25:39] - [Kevin] So I believe the advantage of this [25:41] is that you discover an error [25:43] due to a missing environment variable at boot time [25:46] instead of while the application is running. [25:48] So if you're missing this environment variable, [25:51] you're forcing it to be in Rails application secrets, [25:53] which gets populated at boot time. [25:55] That will cause an error immediately [25:57] instead of waiting for some point [25:58] when the application is running. [25:59] - [Justin] Oh. Knowing murmurs. [26:05] - [Meagan] All right, with that in mind, let's vote. [26:12] - [Justin] Oh, I'd say this is 60-40 green red. [26:15] - [Meagan] Yeah. [26:17] - [Justin] Yeas have it. [26:18] - [Meagan] Yeah. [26:19] (audience laughing) [26:22] Very tepid response. [26:23] - [Justin] Well, we disagree again, so I don't like that one. [26:27] So I'm going to go to the next sponsor read. [26:29] All right, so we're doing, [26:32] well, I'm doing something funny. [26:33] I'm going to Japan next month [26:36] for what was going to be a vacation, [26:37] but then RubyKaigi got scheduled at the same time. [26:39] So now I'm going to RubyKaigi and I'm not speaking, [26:41] I'm just going to go there [26:42] and I'm going to do kind of like a travel blog [26:44] of like ramen pictures and travel tips [26:47] and also see Ruby internals. [26:51] And so I'm going to be live blogging at Test Double's blog. [26:55] We'll set something up and if you're interested [26:57] in kind of getting an inside scoop of what's coming [27:01] in Ruby 3.3 and what are the 3.2 enhancements [27:04] that we're already benefiting from and how they work, [27:06] there's going to be a lot of really cool technical talks there [27:08] and I'm going to try to do a better job of covering those [27:10] for our Western audience. [27:11] 'Cause normally the stuff that goes on at Kaigi [27:13] doesn't get talked about very much, [27:14] even though it's like literally the future of our language. [27:17] So if you're interested, just check out TestDouble.com/field [27:22] and you can sign up and you'll get notified [27:24] when the live blog goes up in the middle of May. [27:28] Thanks, Thomas. [27:31] He's the real hero. [27:32] That was nowhere near as good as her reads. [27:36] Next up, application controller. [27:38] This one requires that all of your controllers [27:42] subclass the application local application controller [27:46] that's generated for you when you start with. [27:49] Comments. [27:53] And I've bundled up like five of these. [27:55] There's like five rules just like this. [27:56] So after we do this one, [27:57] we're going to do a speed round on the subsequent ones. [28:00] - [Audience Member] Just learned today [28:01] from the Rails engines talk [28:03] that if you want to decouple your application logic [28:06] from your engine, you can do action controller base [28:10] instead of doing application controller, [28:12] so that would be an argument for disabling this. [28:15] - [Justin] Thank you. [28:15] You see, now there was a comment where somebody said [28:18] to disable or enable as part of their argument [28:20] and it was much clearer. [28:21] (audience laughing) [28:23] - [Audience Member] Just a point of order. [28:25] The explanation given on the previous one on what gain [28:28] this is giving us is helpful in general, [28:30] so if we could have someone provide a, [28:33] Hey, this is why it'd be a good idea as a part of going in, [28:35] that might help the dialogue. [28:37] - [Justin] Yes, feel free to offer those whenever you'd like. [28:40] (audience laughing) Aaron. [28:44] - [Aaron] So I like this particular rule [28:46] because we can put application specific stuff [28:49] in our application controller. [28:51] That application controller constant is controlled [28:53] by your application versus action controller base, [28:57] which is owned by Rails. [28:58] So you would want put any common methods [29:01] in the application controller [29:03] versus monkey patching Rails, which we all know is bad. [29:12] - [Justin] Let's have one last from Brittany. [29:14] - [Brittany] I just want to clarify that in the off chance [29:16] that you want to do that thing that he said before, [29:19] you can just comment out this rule, right? [29:22] In the one random case that you want to. [29:25] - [Justin] Yes you can. [29:25] - [Brittany] Okay, cool. [29:26] Yeah, just just so you know, you don't have to vote no [29:29] just so you can do some crazy shit. [29:30] (audience laughing) [29:35] - [Meagan] All right, let's vote. [29:40] All right. Yeas have it. [29:45] - [Justin] All right, well, congratulations [29:47] 'cause this is another sponsor read [29:49] 'cause I don't like this one. [29:55] Too many ads. Yeah, right. [29:57] Dynamic ad insertion. All right, this one's on Meagan. [30:02] - [Meagan] All right. [30:03] So, we officially have a GitHub organization [30:07] for standardrb. [30:08] All of our officially sanctioned standard plugins [30:11] are going to live here. [30:13] If you're excited about bringing Standard to a new library, [30:16] we're excited as well [30:18] but please don't use names like Standard-Rspec [30:22] without talking with us first, [30:23] and we can work together to get those things going. [30:27] So just check out our GitHub.org [30:29] to get involved in any new standard plugins [30:32] that are coming out in the future. [30:34] - [Justin] All right, thank you very much for that. [30:36] Okay, so like I said, this is going to be a lightning round. [30:38] We're just going to vote on the next four or five. [30:41] I vote for chaos. [30:43] I think we should just alternate whether we support. [30:46] So application job, [30:48] should they extend from application job or from. [30:52] - [Meagan] All right. The yeas have it. [30:56] - [Justin] Does that mean another sponsor read? [30:57] - [Meagan] Yeah. [30:58] - [Justin] Then no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. [31:00] Okay. Application mailer. [31:03] All right. [31:04] Yeas have it. [31:05] Application record. [31:07] Yep. Yep. [31:08] You don't have to raise your arms higher every time. [31:11] (audience laughing) [31:12] - [Meagan] We get it. [31:13] - [Justin] I get it. I don't know how multi database support works, [31:20] but Eileen wrote that, so she knows. [31:24] If you inherit from active record base, [31:26] you will break multi database support. [31:29] So that's probably a vote in favor of the rule. [31:35] Next up, belongs to. [31:38] Look for belongs to associations where we control [31:42] whether the association is required [31:44] via the deprecated required option [31:47] instead of apparently some cutoff text, [31:50] instead of optional true. [31:51] So like before Rails 6.1 or whatever, [31:55] when you did belongs to association definition, [31:59] it was optional by default. [32:01] And it has since become required by default. [32:03] So you can say belongs to blog required. [32:10] Good grief. [32:11] - [Meagan] Optional true. (audience laughing) [32:16] - [Justin] Look at the good and the bad code example. [32:18] (audience laughing) [32:19] And you kind of get it. [32:20] - [Meagan] It's the last day. [32:21] - [Justin] All right. [32:23] Ali's got a comment. [32:24] We're not voting yet. [32:26] Let's see. [32:28] Ali, save me. [32:32] - [Ali] Well, I just have a question. [32:33] What happens if you're on an old version of Rails [32:35] that doesn't do the optional thing? [32:36] - [Justin] Right? [32:37] So the RuboCop Rails will detect the Rails version [32:43] by looking at the gem file, or there's also, [32:46] you can specify it in an option [32:48] and if the rule is not relevant to that option [32:51] or that version of Rails yet, it will disable itself. [32:58] - [Meagan] Someone back here. [33:01] - [Justin] All right. [33:05] - [Audience Member] Okay, would it be good practice [33:06] to just have belongs to blog [33:08] and leave out required or optional [33:11] since it's defaulted to be required. [33:14] - [Justin] It would've been a good idea to maybe make this one rule [33:16] with four configuration settings, [33:18] but there's like four scattered throughout RuboCop Rails, [33:20] so here we are. [33:22] All right. [33:23] I think we should probably just put it to a vote. [33:25] - [Meagan] Yeah, let's vote. [33:29] - [Justin] Okay. Sure. - [Meagan] All right. [33:31] The yeas have it. [33:31] - [Justin] You see, so I don't know how about you, [33:34] but decision fatigue tends to build up towards the end [33:37] of the day and you started just like anything [33:40] to get out of here. [33:41] Okay, sure, I'll. [33:42] (audience laughing) [33:45] Redundant presence validations on belongs to, [33:48] so this one's similar [33:50] because now the valid. [33:55] Because by default belongs tos are required. [33:59] Like there's a validation that happens automatically [34:02] by a default, that they be set. [34:04] If you also say, I validate the presence of that thing, [34:07] if enabled this rule will be violated. [34:11] And you'll have to delete the validates user presence [34:13] 'cause it'll be redundant. [34:16] People are to vote. [34:17] - [Meagan] We're voting. We're voting. All right. [34:19] Very decisive bunch here. [34:21] - [Justin] See. You guys are taking over. [34:23] I feel better about you all taking the blame [34:26] for however this goes. [34:28] - [Meagan] Ready and eager. [34:30] - [Justin] Next up, action controller test case. [34:34] This one, you may recall that in Rails 5, [34:37] controller tests were deprecated [34:40] and instead integration tests [34:45] were the preferred alternative. [34:47] We're now at Rails 7, which is two Rails' later [34:50] and if enabled, this rule would say, [34:53] Hey, no more controller test. [34:54] It'll actually trigger a violation [34:55] for every controller test. [34:59] Anyone have a comment about whether or not? [35:01] - [Meagan] Who feels strongly about this? [35:06] - [Justin] Okay, so somebody shouted impolitely, [35:10] but audibly, that it's going to be a huge. [35:15] - [Audience Member] In favor of disabling. [35:18] This is just going to make a huge amount of noise [35:20] if you run it on, try to adopt this in a code base [35:23] that wasn't already using this rule. [35:26] - [Justin] That's true. [35:29] - [Audience Member] And not easy and quick to change either, [35:31] it's not just like switch some syntax, [35:33] it's rewrite your tests. [35:36] - [Justin] Any strong counter arguments? [35:38] - [Audience Member] RSpec. [35:39] (audience laughing) [35:41] - [Justin] I've got lots of counter-arguments against RSpec, too. [35:46] - [Audience Member] I just want to say you don't have [35:47] to include standard Rails, [35:51] this gem in your old code base [35:54] if it's going to cause a bunch of issues like that. [35:56] - [Justin] That's true. [35:57] (audience laughing) [36:02] I mean, he's not wrong. [36:10] - [Meagan] All right, shall we vote? [36:14] In favor is green. [36:16] - [Justin] Oh, this is too close to call. [36:18] - [Meagan] Is it? Oh, it might be. [36:21] - [Justin] I think this session's turning me colorblind. [36:23] - [Meagan] Yeah. All right. Too close to call. [36:25] - [Justin] Too close to call. I think we got to disable. [36:27] - [Meagan] We're going to have to disable. [36:31] - [Justin] Oh this is a fun one. [36:33] So this action order cop [36:37] mandates the order of your public methods [36:39] in your controllers to be first you define index [36:43] and then show and then new and then edit and then create [36:46] and then update and then destroy. [36:47] And if it's out of order, you're in violation. [36:50] Anyone have any comments? [36:53] (audience laughing) - [Meagan] I kind of like it. [36:55] - [Eileen] I guess Aaron said it better, [36:56] but I was going to say this is ridiculously pedantic [36:59] and really annoying, like who cares? [37:01] Like is this what keeps you up at night? [37:03] - [Justin] So that's an argument. [37:05] - [Eileen] It's an argument against turning this on [37:07] 'cause it shouldn't matter what the order is, it doesn't. [37:10] - [Justin] Quadruple negative, it's a vote to disable. [37:12] (audience laughing) [37:15] One more counterargument? [37:16] - [Noel] Everyone knows that if you're being pedantic, [37:17] the proper order is alphabetical. [37:19] (audience laughing) [37:28] - [Meagan] All right, let's vote. [37:33] Oh. [37:35] - [Justin] This is too close. [37:37] No. Okay. No, not too close to call. I'm going to. [37:39] - [Meagan] I mean it's too close for my comfort. [37:41] - [Justin] That's right. [37:42] I don't like that we have this many greens up. [37:46] But it was like 60-40 red, right? [37:47] - [Meagan] Yeah. [37:49] - [Justin] Alright, so the nays have it. [37:51] Here's another rule. [37:54] I got plenty. [37:55] Active record override, [37:57] this checks for overriding built-in methods [37:59] and active record, like save [38:01] instead of using callbacks to augment the behavior [38:05] of these built-in methods. [38:06] So if enabled, you can no longer define save again [38:10] inside of your custom model. [38:13] Comments, thoughts, murmurs? [38:20] - [Cathy] Share that? [38:21] - [Audience Member] Do I want to share it? [38:23] I like using callback, so sure. [38:25] (audience laughing) [38:34] - [Audience Member] I could still have exception [38:35] on a case-by-case basis, right? [38:37] - [Justin & Meagan] Yes. [38:42] - [Justin] One last comment. [38:44] - [Audience Member] Much as I dislike callbacks, [38:47] some of the biggest holes in my feet [38:49] were caused by places where we overrode [38:51] one of the standard methods like save or update attributes. [38:56] - [Justin] So the first comment elicited a lot of curious murmuring [39:01] and the last comment [39:02] elicited a lot of very aggressive head nodding. [39:05] (audience laughing) [39:07] - [Meagan] We'll see how that translates to votes. [39:10] Let's vote on this one. [39:14] - [Justin] Easy. 90 10, the yeas have it, yeah. [39:16] - [Meagan] Enabled. [39:18] - [Justin] All right, prepare to get confused again. [39:21] So Rails date, if you say date.today, [39:25] it doesn't take into account the time zone, [39:28] it's just the system time, free of time zone. [39:32] Which means that if your offset is like five hours [39:37] and it's the last five hours of the day basically [39:39] and you say date.today, [39:40] it'll actually give you the wrong day, [39:43] that you probably don't mean. [39:44] So if you enable this rule, [39:46] it basically steers you towards using like time.zone.today [39:50] instead of date.today. [39:52] And if you put it in strict mode, [39:54] it also doesn't let you use date.current or date.yesterday, [39:57] even though I'm pretty sure those do call through [39:58] to the time zone, maybe 'cause they look like today. [40:04] Andy. [40:06] - [Andy] I'm British and I don't see why this is a problem. [40:08] (audience laughing) [40:10] - All right, so Andy is a Greenwich supremacist, [40:16] who lives in the UTC and his CI always passes. [40:21] (audience lauging) [40:27] - [Audience Member] I have a code base [40:28] that has many devs in it and is riddled with these bugs, [40:33] these time zone related bugs [40:34] and where our test suite doesn't pass at the end [40:36] of the month for reasons. [40:38] (audience laughing) So I don't care if you put it in Standard or not, [40:43] I'm turning it on as soon as I get home. [40:45] (audience laughing) [40:46] - [Justin] All right. [40:48] - [Meagan] All right, let's vote. [40:52] - [Justin] The yeas have it. [40:53] - [Meagan] Yes, they do. [40:54] - [Justin] Sorry that this isn't that bright in Ruby, but. [40:59] - [Meagan] What's our enforced style for date? [41:01] - [Justin] Enforced style? [41:03] We're going to keep it flexible [41:06] because Matthew Draper reacted really negatively [41:09] when I explained what the strict mode does [41:12] and he's smarter than a lot of us, at least me. [41:15] All right, so we actually just, [41:17] we're coming up on time, we only have a few minutes left, [41:19] which means we're going to go to the lightning round [41:22] where we're going to go by spicy order ascending [41:27] and we're going to try to get through [41:28] just some of these extra rules while we can. [41:31] So we're going to go as fast as possible, [41:33] not really explain what the hell is going on [41:35] and allow votes. [41:37] No more arguments, just votes. [41:40] And we'll see how many we get through. [41:42] - [Meagan] we'll see what happens. Fun. [41:43] - [Justin] Okay, so where not, you know, [41:45] so you can't write not equals and not inside of your queries [41:49] instead of, coaches you to use where.not. [41:52] - [Meagan] All right, let's vote. [41:52] - [Justin] Hands up. Turn it on. [41:55] Where missing. [41:56] So instead of doing that janky left joins thing [42:00] where you're like, Hey, is that association not there [42:01] or there, use the very cool dot missing method, [42:04] which I forgot existed, [42:06] which somebody just learned, I'm sure. [42:07] Yeah, it's pretty cool. [42:09] All right, the yeas have it. [42:11] Unused ignore columns. [42:14] So if you ignore a column and it doesn't exist, [42:18] it'll tell you to stop ignoring the non-existent column. [42:24] - [Meagan] Cool. [42:30] - [Justin] Okay, Uniq before pluck. [42:32] So if you call pluck and then Uniq, [42:34] it will fetch from the database unnecessarily. [42:37] But if you call distinct or uniq and then pluck, [42:40] you're getting the idea that this is a very agreeable one. [42:43] Hands up, everyone's yes. Alright, cool. [42:46] Top level hash with indifferent access. [42:50] This one requires you, [42:51] if you want to instantiate a hash within different access, [42:53] meaning that the keys can either be strings or symbols, [42:57] you have to actually reference it [42:59] via the Active Support constant. [43:02] All right. [43:03] - [Meagan] Everyone get that? [43:04] - [Justin] See, there are a few reds. [43:05] - [Meagan] Oh. [43:06] - [Justin] We got a lot of abstainers. [43:08] All right, I think this too close? [43:09] - [Meagan] That's too close. [43:11] - [Justin] What's that? [43:12] (audience member speaking indistinctly) [43:14] I don't know. Yes. [43:16] All right, so we're going to disable that one, I guess. [43:18] Time zone assignment. [43:19] So if you see code like this, [43:21] the bad time zone thing, [43:22] I think what that's doing is it's setting it [43:24] for the whole process. [43:27] And the good time zone is wrapped in a block. [43:32] So if enabled, it requires the block usage. [43:35] People are saying that's good. [43:38] Trust the wisdom of the crowds. [43:40] Strip Here doc. [43:41] So this will require you to use, [43:47] instead of calling strip here doc, the squiggly, [43:50] Ruby 2.3, end up squiggle gear docs. [43:55] All right, cool. [43:55] - [Meagan] All right. [43:57] - [Justin] Scope arguments. [43:58] So this, instead of passing an argument [44:02] that is like relation made right away, [44:04] it's a block to that relation so that it's, [44:08] yes, run at the time of use [44:11] and everyone sees that this is a good idea. [44:13] All right, cool. [44:13] See, not very spicy. This is very bland. [44:17] Safe navigation with blank. [44:19] Can anyone tell me why the bad one is bad? [44:24] Right. [44:25] So it doesn't check anything [44:26] because nil responds true to blank. [44:29] And if the ampersand, [44:34] what's the right name for this operator? [44:37] - [Audience Member] The lonely operator. [44:38] - [Justin] The lonely operator, right? [44:40] So the lonely operator. Basically just bad, useless. [44:42] So everyone just vote now. [44:44] All right, cool. [44:45] - [Meagan] All right. [44:46] - [Justin] Now, Safe Navigation. [44:47] Now this is try bang [44:50] does exactly what the lonely operator does now, [44:52] it just predates it. [44:53] So this says any try bangs should be converted [44:56] to lonely operators. [44:58] So let's vote on that first. [45:01] Okay, now there's a second mode here called convert try. [45:05] So try non bang, which will not, [45:11] wait, it will not raise an error if it's not defined? [45:13] The behavior is not identical is the point [45:16] between try and the existential operator. [45:21] - [Meagan] You all get that? [45:22] - [Justin] Something about what response to. [45:24] Does anyone want to take a flyer? [45:27] Yeah, so try does what with respond to? [45:30] (audience member speaking indistinctly) [45:34] We don't know for sure how this works. [45:36] - [Meagan] Right? [45:37] (audience laughing) [45:37] - [Justin] So turn it on, see what happens. [45:39] - [Meagan] Yeah. [45:40] - [Justin] All right. [45:44] Let's not turn that on. [45:46] Let's keep it at default. [45:48] Okay, so we're right at time. [45:52] This was an experiment and it had a result. [45:58] (audience laughing) [46:00] - [Meagan] It definitely had a result. [46:01] - [Justin] Like my most of my favorite experiments. [46:04] (audience applauding and cheering) [46:14] I appreciate all of your patience, all of your votes, [46:18] you can keep the paddle. [46:21] - [Meagan] Feel free to bring it to your stand ups [46:23] or your PM meetings. [46:25] - [Justin] Yeah, wave it at your boss next time. [46:28] But thank you so much for hanging out. [46:30] You can run gem install standard-rails [46:32] and you'll get a sneak preview edition [46:34] that doesn't work quite right [46:36] and then we'll update it with these rules [46:38] and some more later on this week. [46:41] So thanks again. [46:42] - [Meagan] Thank you. [46:43] (audience applauding) {{< /transcript >}}