Articles

Dynamic Language VMs – Inside Ruby

I had the opportunity to present at SAPO Codebits this weekend, covering Ruby and scripting VMs in general.

See the session abstract for further details before digging into the slides below.

Clarity in log files.

Log files are one of the most important aspects of any web service. A webapp with a well designed logging strategy will allow you to essentially go back in time to track down even the most obscure bug. Unit tests have diminished the importance of log files somewhat but how do you write a unit test for a bug that only happens on server 2 around 2am in the morning when user fred is logged in?

vote_fu to work in Heroku (Postgres)

In order to make vote_fu work in Heroku’s PostgreSQL you need to make a slight modification in the tally method, to follow a classical SQL notation:

Add this method in acts_as_voteable.rb just after options_for_tally method:

	def column_names_for_tally
	   column_names.map { |column| "#{table_name}.#{column}" }.join(", ")
	end

In options_for_tally method find line that starts with “group_by =” and replace it with:

Fun with Sinatra, Heroku and MongoDB

I’ve been toying around with the idea for a small website lately, but never actually got around to do it. In an attempt to clear out my personal to do list I finally motivated myself to start yesterday, and I have to say the following combination of tools is not only insanely efficient, but also really fun to work with:

Rails 2.3.5

Rails 2.3.5 is out. It provides a better Ruby 1.9 compatibility, you will now not need to escape everything with h() if you install a RailsXss plugin – I think this is great, and now the Nokogiri XML parser can be used.

Hosting your Rails app – first look at Heroku

Introduction: You should really get professional help

I am building an app and needed to show an unfinished version to some guy. As I am building on a local (windows!) box, I decided that it’s time to invest some time in finding out what options there are to host a Rails app.

gem bundle with capistrano

Ok, so now you've converted your existing rails project to using gem bundle, and it runs fine on your development box, how do you update your capistrano recipes to do it automatically?

Current wisdom is varied.

Pancake: How To Stack and Loosely Couple Rack-Based Webapps Together

stack-o-pancakesMuch of Merb's momentum has been merged into Rails 3, but one-time Engine Yard developer Daniel Neighman has found himself moving in a new direction, inspired by what they had once achieved with Merb Slices. Since then, he's taken fully-mountable Rack applications to the extreme in

Introducing FasterScripts.com! Share Your Performance Experiences

FasterScripts.com home page

December Events

December is a short holiday month, and things tend to quiet down a bit. Still, we’ve got three upcoming events to let you know about, to be sure you can get your periodic dose of Ruby and Rails love between parties and vacations.

SD Ruby

December 3 | San Diego, CA

Yehuda Katz will be in San Diego talking about Rails 3; he’s been all over the map this year, so if you haven’t had a chance to catch a Rails 3 talk yet and are in the San Diego area, be sure to stop in!

Rails Geek | Rails Fire

Rails Geek