> Interesting video: Mac using TextMate and the Apache server built > into the standard releases. I'm wondering if the Ruby community is a > bit more Mac-y than others might be.
very much so -- the entire Rails core team is on Macs with TextMate. very strong Mac preference at work in that community. > As cool as Ruby is, and as well as they've chosen the sweet-spot, I'm > wondering if Rails is almost language-agnostic. I'm hearing other > language folks are catching up: Grails for Groovy, TurboGears for > Python, Sails for Java. That's really the question. I know Rails uses Ruby-specific features in terms of reflection and the flexibility of Ruby's object system, but whether those features are really necessary, I don't know. I do know Django existed in Python before Rails did, and the same might be true of Turbogears, although I'm not sure. There's a Perl one called Catalyst, too, I went into a project on the assumption that years and years of Perl experience, plus in-depth familiarity with Rails, would make working in Catalyst very easy. In fact I found it massively counterintuitive, so much so that I had to give up on the project. (There's another one in Perl called Jifty, which was inspired by the general attenion on frameworks Rails has inspired, but which also takes continuations and halos from Seaside. That one looks really interesting, although Perl today has a stigma so bad you'd almost be better off coding in Fortran. I got an e-mail once from a recruiter who had failed to delete stuff forwarded from their manager, which said "the client wants a senior programmer who's willing to work at a junior rate because he uses Perl.") Anyway, I think you're right -- Rails is a definite winner, but Ruby's role in that success is a good question. -- Giles Bowkett http://www.gilesgoatboy.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
