today i started working on a programming project. i’m using Ruby on Rails to create a web application for my dissertation. i had this bright idea that it would make data collection and analysis much easier if my participants did the document and folder labeling and organization online rather than using hard copies. also, i might be able to argue that there’s a bit more external validity to doing these tasks using a computer rather than paper printouts.
it has been a really long time since i’ve done anything more than munge data with simple perl scripts, or run statistical analyses in R. so this will be an adventure! i decided to go with Rails because i want to learn something new, and because building functional web applications quickly is the whole point of the Rails framework. it is actually pretty important that i get this thing up and running quickly, since i can’t submit my IRB application until i can show the review board the interface participants will be interacting with. i’m using a book called Agile Web Development with Rails to get me up to speed.
so far, i’ve been able to successfully install everything i need, and get a demo project up and running. yeah!! the installation was made much easier by this very helpful web page.
