I've been working with Merb for a little while now. It's a great little framework and I actually prefer it over rails. The performance is up 300% faster than rails and if you use datamapper, it is easy enough to have concurrent connections to various databases.
I'll be releasing a merb app here shortly that will catalog merb resources for people who want to find more information about merb, tutorials, blog posts etc. Also, on that note, the guys in irb #merb are welcoming and easy to talk to. The core guys hang out there and are happy answer questions. I think Merb is gonna hit big towards the middle to end of this year. If anything, merb could be a rails killer. On Jan 30, 1:10 am, "Jordan Fowler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Merb: A Memo > > You may or may not have heard about the lightweight Ruby web framework Merb > (http://merbivore.com/). Merb stands for Mongrel + Erb, but it's a whole lot > more than the name might imply. I've been using it over the past few weeks > to build a file upload app which will coincide with the main application > built in Rails. > > It's worth asking what the main distinctions are between the frameworks and > why you might want to use one over the other. Whereas Rails is the framework > that has lowered the barrier to entry for many people, Merb brings > performance and purity to a clever but sometimes obfuscated world. If you're > an MVC buff like me, you'll appreciate the attention given in making each of > the parts (Model, View, and Controller) independent and therefore > replaceable. A great example of this can be found in the choices of > supported ORM (Object Relational Mapping) libraries; something Rails doesn't > offer out of the box. Merb also provides you with a straightforward way to > use any template engine you'd like, very similar to Rails' implementation. > > Unlike Rails, Merb is thread-safe. To illustrate the difference, imagine a > one-way road with a single lane (a process). In a non thread-safe > environment, cars can only travel down the road single-file, one after the > other (each car being a thread). Having a thread-safe environment simply > means that our road can handle more than one lane and allow cars to travel > alongside one another (share process resources simultaneously). In practical > terms, this means a single Mongrel instance can handle multiple file uploads > simultaneously. > > Merb is truer to Ruby than it is to making sure web development doesn't > hurt. I'm not saying building an application with Merb is painful, but you > will need a bit more Ruby prowess than Rails demands. Tradeoffs are a fact > of life, so in many cases learning more Ruby and using Merb can mean far > better performance. > > Using the right tool for the right job is important. I highly recommend > checking out Merb and using it when applicable. > > Jordan Fowler > > P.S. > I'm planning an in depth talk on Merb for our next meeting. Let's get a > conversation going about your experiences with Merb and what you might like > to know more about. > > -- > Jordan A. Fowler > 2621 First Ave Apt 5 > San Diego, CA 92103 > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Website:http://www.jordanfowler.com > Phone: 406.546.8055 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ SD Ruby mailing list [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
