Tech Ravings

I’m going way out on a limb here but I feel the need to point out several different view on Ruby On Rails. If you’ve never heard of it Ruby On Rails is a framework programming language built off of the Ruby programming language. Ruby On Rails creates Model-View-Controller (MVC) applications so each distinct part has it’s responsibility. You can even use this along with n-tier business logic as well.

Truly my first experience with MVC was with a Fortune 500 financial company and that was written in C#. Being that I have years of experience with PHP I started writing my applicaitons in that form along with n-tier logic as well. That was of course until I found cakePHP.

Django is a new framework built off of the well established language Python. Being that the Django framework is young means it’s still under heavy development (version .96 is quite different from development at this moment). So I hesitated re-writing one of my apps until Django hits 1.0. Although I find that I like Python because it somehow makes sense to me in the form of JavaScript. Ya, I’m funny like that.

So I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing many different languages and their applications. I’ve also had the pleasure of finding those vertical programmers that truly believe their language of choice is the only correct one for all situations. I’m a horizontal programmer that looks at all languages equally and objectively and try to use the correct one for the job at hand so gingerly stepping on the branch I’m posting several links to the use of Ruby On Rails from a couple of different camps that tried RoR.

PHP: Derek Silvers
7 Reasions I Switched Back to PHP After 2 Years on Rails

ASP.NET: Rob Conery
Imploding Rails, Jesus DHH, and The Uncle Ben Principle

Ruby On Rails: RailsEnvy
Ruby on Rails vs. Every other language

So there you have just a few examples of different frameworks and languages. Please read the comments below each of the above references to give yourself a better picture of the whole. Is RoR just a “flavor of the day” or is it the new “Mecca” of frameworks? You decide.

Previous to working at PayPerPost I never experienced Ruby or Ruby on Rails, more of a PHP, C# guy myself. So I bought the books and read them. As usual they were the technical explanations with examples and each chapter introducing other concepts. All well and good.

I was gaining an insight to Ruby on Rails (RoR) with the fundamentals of the books and actually working on the codebase of PayPerPost, but then Argus hit. From the start of spiking what we could do with Argus I was involved with Java, ActionScript, and extreme JavaScript. Not to mention looking at Django and a few other frameworks. Now two and a half months later I find myself beginning to work with RoR again. It also means I need to re-acquaint myself with it.

If you’re new or interested in learning more about Ruby let me pass along this link to you Why’s Poignant Guide To Ruby . I found that it really helped me understand how Ruby operates as a whole and more than the few books I read. This is because the ebook is actually fun to read. Along with teaching the uses of Ruby there are story lines about foxes, an organ instructor, a mad professor, even a dragon slaying rabbit. So you’re learning Ruby through story examples.

Albeit, the stories eventually become greater than the Ruby learning. I did find myself skipping many paragraphs/pages because they had every aspect to the story and none to Ruby. However when the story lended credence to Ruby I completely understand what was being presented. Meta-programming is a prime example of this; creating a creature class and then deriving different creatures for the rabbit to slay. Very good programming concepts and well taught.

I certainly recommend this as a reading.

As a code ninja here at PayPerPost things are really busy at the moment until we actually release Argus live to the public. Even as busy as we are we ninja’s need to add humor to our lives. We do that in at least two ways. Part of our ninja skill set means we need to be able to find funny pictures in seconds and our video finding skills aren’t so bad either.

So I figured that I would share with you all the videos that we find (and can post here). Enjoy!

Today’s video is a parody on those so called energy drinks.