The Viamentis Blog

Maybe you already know what I’m going to talk about. Yes, it’s the infamous blog post by Bruck Eckel about why all the “hyper-enthusiasts” are leaving Java for Ruby. And he wonders what makes Ruby so special. And, DHH inevitably quotes this and doubts Bruce Eckel’s motivations behind posting such a vitriolic post. There was quite a long discussion about this on ruby-talk today, with some really funny comments.

Though I might not agree with Bruce Eckel on his opinions about Ruby, I do respect him a lot. His book “Thinking in Java” is simply awesome. I taught myself Java almost entirely from this book. I even thought of learning Python quite some times because someone like Bruce likes it. But I don’t know why, Python and me just never clicked. I also suspect that’s because Python never had a really good/popular web framework until Rails came along. I was interested in web programming, so I naturally went to J2EE. But I have to admit, I always felt about writing such verbose code in Java. I simply couldn’t escape it. So I guess the readers would understand why Rails is a breath of fresh air. And Ruby, such a good fit because I can do web programming, with all the doo-dahs of a fully OO, open source, dynamic language.

I’ve thought about my affliction for the latest shiniest bauble around, and wondered quite a few times if I’m not a framework whore. But, I should say I always picked the winners – Struts, iBatis, Spring Framework, now Rails. Actually I do quite a bit of research before I switch frameworks. As we all know, it means a steep learning curve and going through some frustrations doing things slower than before. All in the hope that it will make you much more productive than before. Not a bad motive, I should say. There is a good side to hyper-enthusiasts and framework whores: we like to learn new stuff. We don’t want to settle for what’s already there. If there’s a better way to do it, we’ll know about it. We are the change agents. I’m quite proud of that.

I was reading this article on Wired, and I felt really sad. And worried. Though I know this problem of excessive policing by music companies existed for quite some time, this is too much. The day has come where creativity is being stifled by these big companies. Instead of taking innovations in their stride and looking at them as an opportunity, they are shutting them down.

I’m really concerned as to how a free country like America (you may or may not agree) allowed something as ridiculous as DMCA come into being. Are the geeks remaining silent? So far, I see only EFF fighting this kind of policing. Where are the others?

Anyways, looking at the extremes to which the music companies are going, something tells me it’s time for innovation. Something so radical and innovative that makes the music companies redundant overnight. It’s certainly possible with technology. Like Skype made ISD call services redundant overnight.

Ah. How can I not blog about this. My favorite web framework, nay, of thousands, has gone One Point Oh. Wow, what an achievement! What an year! It’s not just achievement in technology terms, but also human capability. I have never even imagined one can change the world so much in an year. But oh, RoR did. And it changed my life too. I think KISS now. I question authority now. I am throwing away all the safety ropes now. RoR, has taught me about agility, honesty and love. Yes, love. You can’t achieve something like RoR without loving what you do. Here’s to DHH and the RoR core team. You made my life easier. Thank you.

Ah. Though I’m low on dough and certainly can’t afford a party, what the hell. This occasion demands one. So, Chennai.rb (Chennai Ruby Brigade) will be partying this Saturday (17th) to celebrate the 1.0 release of our favorite web framework. If you haven’t subscribed already, believe me, you should!

If you guys are blog junkies like me, you couldn’t have missed the HumaneInterface argument that’s happening in the blogosphere. It all started with Martin Fowler’s bliki article referred to in that link, where he argues in favor of APIs which make “making common things easy to do” with an example in Ruby and comparing with, you guessed it, Java. Well, it inevitably kicked up a Monkey Knife Fight between Java and Ruby folks.

Personally, the ‘Humane Interface’ is what I liked in Ruby, so I guess you know which camp I belong to. Anyways, subscribe to the “The Farm” where the Tucows developers blog. They’re doing a “Ruby Advent Calendar”, something like charting the rise of Ruby. They talk about some very interesting things.