This presentation (pdf) explains the underlying philosophy and technologies that make Ruby on Rails so compelling (at least IMHO). It includes a tutorial for Rails 1.1.2 that covers: ? creating SQLite databases using migrations ? generating models and scaffolds ? writing controllers by hand (w/o generators) ? rjs and rhtml templates for dynamic HTML (aka... Continue Reading →

For those who find Rails' plethora of files overkill for simple applications, there's always Camping. While still built on Ruby and ActiveRecord, Camping is optimized for the "small-app-in-a-single-file" approach.[Read more] for some links, from a friend who will remain anonymous... It's called "Camping":http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/camping/wiki/http://camping.rubyforge.org/files/README.htmlHere's a wiki implemented in Camping:http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/camping/browser/trunk/examples/tepee/tepee.rbHere's the latest post about Camping developments:http://redhanded.hobix.com/inspect/mosquitoAndDecamp.htmlThe original... Continue Reading →

Understanding Ruby on Rails:"X" Things You Need To KnowRuby on Rails is perhaps the most innovative web application framework since WebObjects , with developers claiming 10x boosts in productivity over J2EE. But, what is it "really"? And why should I care? These notes and sample code complement the enormous number of Ruby and Rails tutorials... Continue Reading →

Somewhat off-topic, but I've recently been doing some research on DNSSEC (aka Secure DNS). I was quite surprised to discover that the current RFCs about this were only published last March, so it is a relatively recent development (not counting the earlier, un-implementable versions :-).[Read more] for a list of interesting resources I've discovered about... Continue Reading →

Based on the encouraging responses to my original post on rails-core, I've put together a plan of action. [Read more] for the details, and stay tuned for the implementation. [Update: Hat tip to Rubert Barrow for suggesting ActiveSalesforce as a possible starting point]Just to summarize, the best plan appears to be:a) Create a plugin ("activedata")http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/rails/pages/HowTosPluginsb)... Continue Reading →

The heart of Ruby on Rails is arguably ActiveRecord (AR), which implements their version of Object-Relational Mapping. For greater generality (and locking across apps) it would be nice to have Rails on Mac OS X talk directly to CoreData. In particular, that would allow it to a) utilize the model file, and b) access data... Continue Reading →

As part of my DARC strategy, I'm working on creating a Rails Adaptor for CoreData. The first step is simply getting CoreData to talk to Ruby. Fortunately, RubyCocoa 0.4.2 adds CoreData support, so this should be doable.I have created a file -- cdcli.rb -- which implements Apple's "Low-Level Core Data Tutorial" in Ruby, resulting in... Continue Reading →

Updated Oct 28: bug fixes, simpler implementation (compatible with 1.1)I've finally finished (I hope 🙂 a long-running project to use DarwinPorts itself to build the DarwinPorts installer. Yeah! The goal is to enable us to use all our existing tools to automate and collaborate on this process.I've uploaded an archive containing all the files: ?... Continue Reading →

To give equal time to my Python friends, here is the source code for a demo TurboGears web application that publishes a Mac OS X Address Book. In addition to TurboGears, this requires pre-installing PyObjc. There is also an Automator action demonstrating XOXO extraction, which requires Tiger. Click [Read More] for information about how it... Continue Reading →

So, after telling a few of my Python friends about DARC, they all told me I should check out TurboGears as an alternative to Ruby on Rails. I don't really care one way or the other -- the "R" in DARC could stand for "REST" as well as "Rails" -- but here's my take:"There's more... Continue Reading →