Posted by Daniel Butler
Mon, 26 Jun 2006 09:54:00 GMT
Stefan Kaes, author of railsbench and blogger at RailsExpress.blog, has written an article at InfoQ, a site that tracks "change and innovation in the enterprise software development community", addressing common performance problems in Ruby on Rails.
Stefan's well-written article provides advice in the following areas:
- Choosing a Session Container
- Caching Computations During Request Processing
- Perform Request Independent Computations at Startup or on First Access
- Optimizing Queries
- Avoiding Slow Helpers
His concludes with the following advice:
I'm convinced that Rails is an excellent web application development framework, usable for developing robust and also fast web applications, at increased productivity. Like all frameworks, it offers convenience methods, which can greatly improve your development speed and which are appropriate most of the time for most of your needs. But sometimes, when it's necessary to squeeze out some extra requests per second, or when you are restricted to limited hardware resources, it's good to know how performance can be improved.
Article: Common Performance Problems in Rails
Posted in Ruby on Rails | no comments
Posted by Daniel Butler
Sun, 25 Jun 2006 11:25:00 GMT
The Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane Australia has announced a Ruby .NET compiler for the .NET CLR. Their aim is to "support 100% of Ruby language semantics, including all dynamic constructs such as closures and continuations. We plan to generate 100% managed and verifiable CIL code."
Announcing Preliminary Beta Release!
We are pleased to announce the preliminary Beta release of the Gardens Point Ruby.NET compiler. Note: this is not just a Ruby/.NET bridge, nor a Ruby Interpreter implemented on .NET, but a true .NET compiler. The compiler can be used to statically compile a Ruby source file into a verifiable .NET v2.0 assembly or it can be used to directly execute a Ruby source file (compile, load and execute). Our implementation is not yet fully complete, but it is the only Ruby compiler that we know of for either the .NET or JVM platforms that is able to pass all 871 tests in the samples/test.rb installation test suite of Ruby 1.8.2.
They are actively seeking "keen Ruby and .NET programmers" to help with further testing and development.
Announcement Page at QUT
Source Code Download
Posted in Ruby | no comments
Posted by Daniel Butler
Sat, 24 Jun 2006 14:18:00 GMT
Ezra Zygmuntowicz and Brian Ketelsen have produced a bootable LiveCD based on PCLinuxOS. They write:
Many people are curious about Ruby on Rails but don't want to go through the pain of installing it locally. The Rails Live CD solves this problem by allowing you to have a fully operating Ruby on Rails development environment without even touching your hard drive! Others are interested in developing Ruby on Rails applications in Linux but don't have the skills or the patience to do the installation and compiling required to get Ruby on Rails running on a typical Linux installation. Rails Live CD allows you to install directly to your hard drive and walks you through the process. No compiling or ./configure ./make ./make install dancing required.
Continue reading for more details, and a list of packages included.
Read more...
Posted in Ruby on Rails | Tags livecd | 2 comments
Posted by Daniel Butler
Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:28:00 GMT
This Windows virtual machine, i.e., an installation of Windows that runs cluelessly within the operation system of your choice, is running 98% of full speed on an Intel-based iMac. Check this out:
c|net Writes:
Duff-McCracken compared applications in Parallels with the same ones running directly in Windows via Boot Camp. The performance in Parallels was within 1 to 2 percent of the other, he said. And both Mac-based options were faster than some recently acquired Dell machines the school had.
"It's running this sophisticated software at native speeds," he said.
While Boot Camp is essentially a tool for letting a Mac run either Windows or the Mac OS, Parallels makes both operating systems available at the same time. To do this, Windows runs as what is known as a virtual machine--essentially acting as if it was a separate PC.
This single application may spell trouble for the OS powers that be, because OS X is and will be better architected than Microsoft Vista, and Apple hardware, while more expensive, is designed and built well. And now that OS X contains the ability to run all Mac Power PC Binaries, Mac Intel Binaries, Unix, and Windows software, what's next for Apple?
Read More about it at c|net News.com
Posted in News | Tags mac, osx, virtualization | no comments
Posted by Daniel Butler
Tue, 13 Jun 2006 19:42:00 GMT
Kevin Olbrich has announced a series of articles about the "dark art" of testing in Ruby on Rails. He writes,
Since the existing literature on the topic
is a bit sparse, I have written up a couple of brief articles on testing strategies for Rails.
The first one is on the usefulness of Positive and Negative Controls, and the other is a simple way to make sure you are working with valid or invalid objects in your tests.
SciWerks Blog
Article: Valid and Invalid Data
Article: Positive and Negative Controls
Posted in Ruby on Rails | Tags testing | no comments
Posted by Daniel Butler
Sat, 03 Jun 2006 10:12:00 GMT
Scott Fleckenstein of Rubyred Labs has announced the release of RailMail, a Ruby on Rails plugin that, "traps any mail sent through ActionMailer (when the delivery_method is set to :railmail), stores it in a database, and provides an interface to view those messages."
Once installed into your app using script/plugin install http://hg.nullstyle.com/raw/railmail, enable it in your environment.rb file:
config.actionmailer.deliverymethod = :railmail
To log messages and pass them through a SMTP mailer, add the following code
config.after_initialize do
Railmail::ActionMailer::InstanceMethods.\
railmail_settings[:passthrough] = :smtp
end
Simple concept, easy implementation, big results.
RailMail Home Page
Blog Post about RailMail
RailMail at the Rails Plugins Directory
Posted in Ruby on Rails | Tags mail | no comments
Posted by Daniel Butler
Fri, 02 Jun 2006 02:26:00 GMT
Nominated for its mystery and hubris, I present you:
Ironically, this week's error message was brought to you by Hamachi's creators, our fine northern neighbors at Applied Networking, Inc., in Vancouver, Canada, eh?
Posted in Programming | Tags humor, irony | no comments
Canoeists on Suwannee River, Florida (December 2001)
