This Week in Ruby: Rails 3.2, Rails Tutorial, and Why You Should Learn Smalltalk
It's the latest Web-based syndication of Ruby Weekly, the weekly Ruby and Rails e-mail newsletter (which just tipped 11K subscribers). Ruby Weekly now has a 'tips' page where you can submit links for potential inclusion so if you're releasing something or have written a cool post, fill out the form and you may be in Ruby Weekly next week :-)
Headlines
Rails 3.2 Released
DHH has unveiled Rails 3.2! Not quite as big a deal as 3.1 but has a faster development mode, faster route recognition, a tagged logger, and more. With Rails master now aiming at 4.0.0, it seems 3.2 may be the last version of Rails to support Ruby 1.8.
Ruby on Rails Tutorial, 2nd Edition (Updated for Rails 3.2)
Michael Hartl's "Rails Tutorial" site has been incredibly popular over the last year and he's now finishing up a 2nd edition that's fully updated to Rails 3.2 standards. The first 5 chapters are already good to go and can be read no-cost, as always, at railstutorial.org.
Articles and Tutorials
Backing Up with Backup: A Neat DSL for Backup Operations
Pat Allan loves Michael van Rooijen's 'backup' gem so much that he wants to to convince you to use it, by showing you two examples of why he finds it so useful. It does seem pretty handy..
Why Every Ruby Developer Should Learn Smalltalk
Smalltalk was the first purely object oriented language (though Simula included objects before it) and it heavily inspired Ruby's initial development. Victor Savkin thinks that Rubyists could learn a lot from playing with Smalltalk.
The Right Way to Code DCI in Ruby
DCI (Data, Context and Interaction) is an interesting object oriented pattern that's been discussed in the Ruby community lately, but Mike Pack thinks most articles oversimplify its use. In this post, he digs into the idea.
The 'Rails and Spine.JS' Series
Ken Collins is working on a series of posts about using the Spine.js JavaScript MVC framework alongside a Rails app. This is the first of three posts so far.
systemd Socket Activation and Ruby
systemd is a system and service manager for Linux (and replacement for the System V init daemon). Here, Marcin Kulik looks at how a socket-based Ruby server can take advantage of systemd's socket activation feature.
RVM Stable (and More)
Michal Papis of Engine Yard looks at the 'stable' release of RVM (Ruby Version Manager) and how to install and use it. Some handy RVM tips here.
Media
RailsCasts: Upgrading to Rails 3.2
In the latest RailsCasts episode, Ryan Bates looks at the newly released Rails 3.2 and shows off some of its new features. Short and sweet in just 9 minutes.
Web Programming and Updating Frameworks with Yehuda Katz
The Ruby Rogues sit down with Yehuda Katz to discuss Web frameworks, JavaScript, Rails, Merb, Sinatra, Rack, and more. And just why is to_json a problem? If you have a spare hour, find out :-)
Libraries and code
SitemapGenerator: Generate XML Sitemaps from Ruby
Originally a Google idea, XML sitemaps are now used by several search engines and SitemapGenerator will generate Sitemap 0.9 compliant sitemaps for you from Ruby. Includes Rails integration too but is otherwise framework agnostic.
tconsole: A MiniTest Testing Console for Rails
tconsole is a testing console for Rails based around MiniTest (also supporting Test::Unit). It allows you to issue commands concerning what tests to run, and see their test output.
Lisp in 32 Lines of Ruby
Implementing a small Lisp interpreter is the super geeky equivalent of 'hello world' and Michael Fogus (author of The Joy of Clojure) deftly pulls it off in 32 lines of Ruby here.
Ruby Jobs of the Week
Rubyist (or Pythonista) Required at RackSpace [San Antonio, Texas]
Hosting company Rackspace is looking for a developer with Ruby or Python experience (and maybe even Erlang!) to work in its foundation software development team. If Git, Capistrano, MongoDB, and Rails are all interesting to you, check it out.
February 13, 2012 at 3:17 pm
As a Ruby developer introduction to Smalltalk was interesting to see.