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London Geek Nights:Don't get tied to the Rails
Don't get tied to the Rails
Ruby is a very accessible object-oriented language whose lightweight syntax lends itself well to embedded domain-specific languages (DSLs). This makes it a good candidate for expressing application-level concerns like page flow and object-relational mapping (which are usually done with XML in our more verbose, statically-typed curly-bracket languages). So naturally, when Rails emerged as a framework that provided this, it became an overnight hit, and at the same time it positioned Ruby as a credible web technology. However, that doesn't necessarily make Rails the best web framework for Ruby, or even a particularly good one outside of its sweet spot.
In this talk Dan provides a brief introduction to Ruby and Rails and highlights some of the drawbacks of the Rails and ActiveRecord model for web applications. Then he demonstrates an alternative web stack called Ramaze that he believes addresses many of these drawbacks, particularly around the areas of evolutionary design and testability.
Review:
Rails really accelerated the adoption of Ruby for web applications but Rails has grown so much that it can often be caught trying to do too many things for too many people. Dan presents Ruby and Rails, how they can be used in web applications and some good habits for real world programmers. The talk is structured so that everyone - even if you have never used Ruby - can really learn about its strengths and take something from the talk.
Dan introduces Ruby and Rails giving the advantages and disadvantages of each. Dan then moves onto a really useful section on good habits for programmers, explaining the general real world process of software development and how we’ve got there. This section is very useful for anyone involved in software development.
Dan then explains all of the problems he sees with Rails and how it is no longer the best way forward. He sees Rails as trying to solve too many problems. The issue that Dan has heard a lot is that Rails can accelerate development in the beginning but then you begin to reach problems whereby you are forced to recreate a lot of the functionality Rails initially provided.
Dan finishes off with a quick introduction to Ramaze, a much more lightweight web framework for Ruby that provides some useful tools without the bloat of Rails. It was a very informative talk in a laid-back atmosphere.
Review by David Mulholland
ABOUT DAN NORTH
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Dan writes software and coaches teams in agile and lean methods. He believes in putting people first and writing simple, pragmatic software. He believes that most problems that teams face are about communication, which is why he puts so much emphasis
More about Dan North
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ABOUT THE LONDON GEEK NIGHTS
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PODCAST DON'T GET TIED TO THE RAILS
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