User Comments

“web log bookmark” => “blogmark”? Stop making words up! Or at least, I’d rather we have less geeky ones.

Regarding unit testing (with the Apache framework you’ve mentioned), I’m not so sure it’s worth the trouble. First of all, you need to come up with a faily large set of tests, and secondly you need to be editing all over the place for unit testing to make sense. I don’t buy into this whole agile fad… well, considering that I’ve been unemployed and not programming for more than 2 months now.

Regarding Rails/Ruby… why not go for the original and use Spring/Java or anotherMVCframework/Java. There are tons of them, and J2EE is a very marketable skill, unlike Ruby.

As for Dunstan Orchard, he does rock, doesn’t he?! I’m curious what he’ll be doing there… teaching Apple employees to cut their own hair so they’ll have to go out of the office less? 8^)

Stop making words up!

Hey, I didn’t invent the word.

Regarding unit testing (with the Apache framework you’ve mentioned), I’m not so sure it’s worth the trouble.

I disagree Gabriel. The CMS I’m using for the Urban Mainframe is the only major software project I’ve ever built without a comprehensive test suite, and I’m suffering in many ways as a result.

When I started writing the CMS I made a conscious decision not to build a test suite. I was convinced that this would save me an awful lot of time, making me more productive along the way.

The reality is that I now spend more time debugging than I do writing new code. So I am forced to waste valuable time setting up variables and a test environment for step-through debugging.

Many bugs have lain dormant for months, until they are triggered by data that I didn’t anticipate in my original design. Worse still, I can make changes to one module that have an adverse effect on another, an effect that often isn’t apparent for many months.

Unit testing would would have highlighted these bugs immediately. My code would have been tighter and I’d be writing more code because I’d be able to test at every step of development.

There’s no doubt in my mind that omitting a test suite was a major error on my part and it’s one that I intend to rectify.

why not go for the original and use Spring/Java or anotherMVCframework/Java

I don’t know Java and have no desire to learn it.

J2EE is a very marketable skill, unlike Ruby

I’m not interested in Ruby as a “marketable skill” Gabriel. I’m interested in Ruby because I’m interest in Rails. I’m interested in Rails because it’s so damn sexy. Just watch some of the videos in the Rails Academy and tell me that I’m wrong.

I’m interested in Rails because, from a purely geeky perspective, it looks fun and exciting.

I’m curious what [Dunstan Orchard] be doing [at Apple Computer, Inc.]… teaching Apple employees to cut their own hair so they’ll have to go out of the office less?

LMAO :-)

Geeks! What can you do about it, right?!

In fact, I’ve been hearing a lot about this Rails/Ruby combo lately. Maybe it’s turning into the next LAMP. Maybe Rails will be the killer all Ruby needs to break-through into programming mainstream. (Ruby.NET anyone? — Cygwin is a bit of a turn-off for me, except for its PostgresQL port)

On a related note: you see, you’re always a bad influence to me. First, you get me hooked on Scorched3D and now I started writting generic, summary type of entries like this one. ;-)

I don’t think Rails/Ruby will be the next LAMP (MAMP might be!), but it definitely has potential. I do agree that Rails looks like it could end up being Ruby’s “killer app”. What’s really turning me on to Rails is that it appears to work how I think. Do you know what I mean?

By the way, I just read your “summary entry”. I have to talk to you some more about “The Meaning of Life FAQ” and the transhumanist view…

Glad to see that The Weekender is back (the concept, anyway; regardless of the name: The Friday Post, etc)! I’d concur with Gabriel’s “blogmark” comment. I thought they were called quicklinks. Oh well - whatever. I’ll have a similar “The Yearly” coming up sometime this month. That’s about as often as I can pull a bunch of good stuff together for my blog in an organized fashion!