Montreal.rb

This event is planned without a speaker. You can volunteer to present this topic. If no volunteers come forward before the event date, it will be presented by the Montreal.rb group organizers.

(Note: This event costs about $10 due to being hosted at a coworking space. To find the room in which the event will take place, please follow the directions provided in the event timeline below the event description. Click "Read more" to view them.)

Hacknight Part 2: Build a Social Network with Rails Hotwire/Turbo [1h]

Continue learning Rails Hotwire/Turbo by finishing the very basic social network web app (similar to X) that was built in Hacknight Part 1 in November 2025. You can get help in building the web app from other developers at the event. Participating in the exercise matters more than meeting all the requirements as it enables practicing Ruby programming skills with Rails and Hotwire/Turbo while potentially collaborating with other developers for learning and information exchange.

The following GitHub repository contains partial work for the Use Cases that were implemented in Hacknight Part 1. It could be used as a starting point in Hacknight Part 2 by attendees who missed Hacknight Part 1.

https://github.com/AndyObtiva/montreal_social_network

Use Cases:

We finished the following in Hacknight Part 1:

• Register as a user (could use Devise or just email session login without needing a password)
• Login as a user (could use Devise or just email session login without needing a password)
• See my feed (start as a simple webpage, and then incrementally enhance with Turbo Frames)
• Post a message on my feed
• See listing of users (start as a simple webpage)
• See a user's feed (start as a simple webpage, and then incrementally enhance with Turbo Frames)

In Hacknight Part 2, we will implement the following:

• Follow a user
• See my following's feed (includes latest messages by all users I follow; start as a simple webpage, and then incrementally enhance with Turbo Frames and Turbo Streams)
• See listing of users (enhance with Turbo Frames and Turbo Streams)
• See a user's feed (enhance with Turbo Streams)

Website Structure:

• Registration page
• Login page
• Following feed aside is part of the general layout (shows up on every page after logging in)
• User feed page (includes Follow button)
• My feed page (home page)

Event Timeline:

• 6:30pm - Pre-talk Networking Time - Anticafe Place Des Arts (294 Saint-Catherine St W, 3rd floor, Montreal, QC): this is a coworking space, so the event costs about $13 that covers drinks like coffee/tea and snacks like chips/pretzels/cookies; sign in on Anticafe's computer when you enter and pay Anticafe for your stay when you leave; after signing in, go to the 3rd floor*, turn left, and then walk to the presentation room with the projector screen*. The venue is a coworking space, so its employees might not know about the event. Contact the organizer, Andy Maleh, via DM if you get lost or have questions.
• 7pm - Talk - Anticafe Place Des Arts
• 9pm - Networking Time - NYKS Bar (1250 Rue de Bleury, Montréal, QC): Networking time continues at 9:00pm (if we don't find seats at NYKS Bar, we could meet at Benelux at 245 Sherbrooke St W instead).

This event is planned without a speaker. You can volunteer to present this topic. If no volunteers come forward before the event date, it will be presented by the Montreal.rb group organizers.

(Note: This event costs about $10 due to being hosted at a coworking space. To find the room in which the event will take place, please follow the directions provided in the event timeline below the event description. Click "Read more" to view them.)

Crystal: Ruby with Static Typing [1h] - ***Speaker(s) To Be Decided***

Crystal is a relatively new programming language that aims to emulate Ruby's syntax as much as possible while supporting Static Typing.

Although Ruby remains the most convenient and productive programming language for business app development due to handling types automatically with Dynamic Typing, in about 1% of Business Software Development cases, Crystal can help out when there is a need for much higher performance in response-time-sensitive and performance-intensive computations.

In a recent RubyConf keynote speech, Matz (the creator of Ruby) compared using a Dynamically Typed language like Ruby to driving a car with an automatic stickshift and using a Statically Typed language like C to driving a car with a manual stickshift. Most of the time, the convenience and productivity benefits of automatic stickshift are more desirable to deliver value in a timely fashion to customers. But, every once in a while, driving manual could be a very useful alternative for the few cases that need it. As such, it is valuable to learn Crystal for the sake of augmenting Ruby with a language that trades off some programmer friendliness for performance whenever needed.

This talk will provide a general overview of the Crystal programming language and show some Crystal code examples.

Event Timeline:

• 6:30pm - Pre-talk Networking Time - Anticafe Place Des Arts (294 Saint-Catherine St W, 3rd floor, Montreal, QC): this is a coworking space, so the event costs about $13 that covers drinks like coffee/tea and snacks like chips/pretzels/cookies; sign in on Anticafe's computer when you enter and pay Anticafe for your stay when you leave; after signing in, go to the 3rd floor*, turn left, and then walk to the presentation room with the projector screen*. The venue is a coworking space, so its employees might not know about the event. Contact the organizer, Andy Maleh, via DM if you get lost or have questions.
• 7pm - Talk - Anticafe Place Des Arts
• 8pm - Networking Time - NYKS Bar (1250 Rue de Bleury, Montréal, QC): Networking time continues at 9:00pm (if we don't find seats at NYKS Bar, we could meet at Benelux at 245 Sherbrooke St W instead).

This event is planned without a speaker. You can volunteer to present this topic. If no volunteers come forward before the event date, it will be presented by the Montreal.rb group organizers.

(Note: This event costs about $10 due to being hosted at a coworking space. To find the room in which the event will take place, please follow the directions provided in the event timeline below the event description. Click "Read more" to view them.)

Ruby Version Managers in 2025 [1h] - ***Speaker(s) To Be Decided***

It is often useful to install more than one Ruby version on one's machine, whether to explore newer Ruby versions before committing to them on a Rails project, or to support multiple Rails projects running on multiple Rubies. Additionally, being able to scope gems by a Ruby project can be very helpful in ensuring the safety of running a Ruby app in complete isolation from other Ruby apps. The Ruby ecosystem contains multiple Ruby Version Managers that help with installing Ruby and scoping Ruby gems by project. This talk will cover the common Ruby Version Manager options in 2025, such as RVM, RBENV, CHRUBY, and ASDF.

Event Timeline:

• 6:30pm - Pre-talk Networking Time - Anticafe Place Des Arts (294 Saint-Catherine St W, 3rd floor, Montreal, QC): this is a coworking space, so the event costs about $10 that covers drinks like coffee/tea and snacks like chips/pretzels/cookies; sign in on Anticafe's computer when you enter and pay Anticafe for your stay when you leave; after signing in, go to the 3rd floor*, turn left, and then walk to the presentation room with the projector screen*. The venue is a coworking space, so its employees might not know about the event. Contact the organizer, Andy Maleh, via DM if you get lost or have questions.
• 7pm - Talk - Anticafe Place Des Arts
• 8pm - Networking Time - NYKS Bar (1250 Rue de Bleury, Montréal, QC): Networking time continues at 8:00pm (if we don't find seats at NYKS Bar, we could meet at Benelux at 245 Sherbrooke St W instead).