Stephen, this is great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to articulate it for the SAIL-Dev list.
I'm really excited that we'll soon be able to run all the SAIL Ruby code in JRuby and have it all work over Java Web Start. That's what we've wanted all along right, a simple turnkey deployment system for innovative education technologies. I'm also excited by the possibility that we can put the Java vs Ruby dichotomy to rest, or at least on a sedative. Once all the Ruby/Rails code is running in JRuby, we can mix and match components in both languages as fit the dynamics of the distributed development process. We should have something really powerful to deliver to the larger edtech research community at ICLS this year! -Turadg On Feb 17, 1:28 am, Stephen Bannasch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am very excited about the coming 1.1 release of JRuby. > > Here's the announcement of RC2 of the 1.1 release: > > http://www.bloglines.com/blog/ThomasEEnebo?id=42 > > And here's the description from the lead developer: > > http://headius.blogspot.com/2008/02/jruby-rc2-released-whats-next.html > > I've been quite involved in this release making sure that JRuby works > well with Java Web Start and have the SDS working in JRuby and expect > to get the DIY and other authoring systems working in JRuby also. > > I am using JRuby and web start to simplify and knit together the > complete set of services that make up the environment we deliver so > that ALL the aspects needed to run a SAIL-OTrunk project (Portal, > Authoring, Reporting, Learner Sessions, JNLP services) can be > delivered via Web Start to a teachers computer in any school. This > will allow our projects to run effectively in many more schools than > they do now. In fact this is such an absolute requirement for CC > projects that we've hacked together a temporary linux system on a > hard drive we call the local UDL server. This has got to be much > easier if we are going to end up having a positive impact on more > than just a few schools. > > Integrating MozSwing and Jmdns/Bonjour networking into the mix will > extend our ability to provide http jar proxies, ad-hoc peer-to-peer > collaboration and immediate feedback for the extended Teacher > Dashboard functionalities being imagined for LOOPS and then rolloed > out into all our projects. > > Most of the people on the sail-dev and cc-developer email lists do > not have experience with Ruby and have no idea how productive it can > be. > > From many of your responses however I think the conceptual gulf is > deeper than that -- I think you can't even imagine how productive the > language can be -- in other words it's so far out of your realm of > what is reasonable that you just completely ignore it. Jim reports > "Stephen, people roll their eyes when I bring up Ruby." > > Speaking to the developers: I can't encourage you strongly enough to > seriously think about leaning more about Ruby and finding something, > somewhere to try it. I think the combination of Ruby and Java > together in JRuby is a huge opportunity for accelerated innovation. > > The language has profound differences from languages like C++ or Java > however and unless you find a way to take a path into it that > explores Ruby meta-programming capabilities you will miss essential > areas of it's capacity. Ruby is much closer to SmallTalk than Java. > > Using Ruby at CC has allowed us to do so much more in the area of > innovative and timely integration of systems than anything else would > have. > > For example using JRuby, Hpricot, Java, and OTrunk together would be > a very easy way to jumpstart partial conversion of WISE Wobnits to > OTrunk versions of SAIL units (initially with a UDL facade). I'm > planning on doing this just to get some content to play with for > LOOPS brainstorming -- I don't expect it to take more than a couple > of hours. Which means I can decide to do this with very little risk > -- a couple of hours of work so I can see TELS materials in a new > form is worth it just for the brainstorming -- if the code isn't ever > used again that's just fine. > > I recommend scanning this thread from late January that started with > the question: > > Real-life JRuby projects: why JRuby? > > http://www.nabble.com/Real-life-JRuby-projects%3A-why-JRuby--td150274... > > JRuby is quickly becoming faster than the standard Ruby 1.8.6 release > and in a number of situations is faster than the development releases > of Ruby 1.9. > > If you just want to get a quick taste of Ruby programming in a fun > graphical way I recommend checking out Shoes: > > http://code.whytheluckystiff.net/shoes/ > > And here's the same person's free book for learning Ruby: > > http://poignantguide.net/ruby/ > > Don't assume that because some of the ways to learn Ruby have a > light-hearted and somewhat absurdist bent that Ruby isn't a 'serious' > language. > > I am very impressed with the core JRuby developers and the extended > JRuby community. It's the healthiest and most productive open-source > project by far that I've ever been part of. > > The JRuby 1.1 RC1 was released just about 40 days ago -- in this time > 260 bugs and improvements were resolved in the JRuby Jira. > > One aspect that I've always known we have needed to do more with all > our projects is integrating automatic testing into the development > cycle. The PAS Portal project includes testing but JRuby takes this > to a whole other level. What I've realized is that the productivity > the JRuby team and community have shown is inextricably linked to > deeply integrating testing at many levels. > > Testing has always been a strong suit of Ruby and this is > particularly important with a dynamically-typed language. In the last > year however Ruby testing frameworks appear to be leaping ahead of > what is available in other languages. > > For an example take a look at David Chelimsky's blog article introducing > rspec: > > http://blog.davidchelimsky.net/articles/2007/05/14/an-introduction-to... > > Ola Bini (one of the JRuby core team) has integrated rspec and jruby > to provide a similar level of functionality for testing Java with his > jtestr project: > > http://jtestr.codehaus.org/ > > The language Ruby itself however doesn't have a complete set of > specifications and the standard implementation developed and led by > Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz) does not have a complete set of tests. > > JRuby and the Rubinius project (an effort to re-write most of Ruby in > Ruby itself) however have led the way in developing and sharing a > large set of both specifications and tests. > > I'm a believer in testing now and the reason is not because it's good > (it is) but because done well it lets you innovate much more quickly > and push development forward in ways that would be too risky without > deeply integrated testing. > > Here's some useful links if you want to investigate further: > > The main JRuby wiki: > > http://wiki.jruby.org/wiki/Main_Page > > A Nabble view of the jruby-user and jruby-dev mailing lists: > > http://www.nabble.com/JRuby-f14106.html > > These are some of the blogs of the JRuby core developers: > > http://headius.blogspot.com/ > http://www.bloglines.com/blog/ThomasEEnebo > http://ola-bini.blogspot.com/ > http://blog.nicksieger.com/ > > Many people in the JRuby community are connected to the JRuby IRC > chat at irc://irc.freenode.net/jruby. I've found this kind of shared > and logged IRC chat channel very productive and think we should > consider using something like it for our collaboration. Logs of the > JRuby IRC session are located here: > > http://kessel.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/jruby/logs/ > > To get started with JRuby: > > svn cohttp://svn.codehaus.org/jruby/trunk/jruby > ant; ant jar-complete > > See:http://jira.codehaus.org/browse/JRUBY-2040for how to run JRuby > applications with Java Web Start. > > See:http://dev.day.com/microsling/content/blogs/main/jrubyjcr.html > for how to integrate Apache's JackRabbit Content Repository with > JRuby. Perhaps this could be a richer base to build a SAIL-OTRUNK SDS > on than ActiveRecord? > > Experimenting with and knitting together interesting Java > technologies into useful hybrids is easier and quicker with JRuby. > > -- > - Stephen Bannasch > Concord Consortium,http://www.concord.org --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SAIL-Dev" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SAIL-Dev?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
