Robert Evans

It has been a bit since I have posted last and many things have been going on. I’ll do some quick updates first.

Happy Birthday Rails

First off, Happy Birthday to Rails! Rails is now 2 years old and moving into its third year of being just a hyped framework that has no potential to do anything – or so the critics say. Let me prepare you, there is a rant that is about to begin…

There are several Java developers who’ve put up a bit of a ruckus about Ruby and Rails. I’m not interested in providing them links or fueling the fire for the feud with them. I do, however, find it quite funny, that some developers are quite upset because another language, that they don’t use, is getting a lot of publicity.

My opinion on this is that some developers are stuck in their ways are not about change, even if their path is filled with numerous obsticles that makes their journey shear torment. When they see that other developers are enjoying what they are doing, they become jealous, so much so that they lash out at those who (gasp!) like what they do.

It is rather comical that some people really do get upset because others are enjoying their work. They also could easily stop going on their path, turn around, and start doing something about their unhappiness. That would take work, so why bother….

Upcoming Rails 1.2

The simply_restful plugin has now been added to the core, taking advantage of some of the HTTP verbs. This is big news, especially for web services.

It seems that by Rails 1.3 all Ajax macros will be taken out of the core and moved to plugins. This makes a lot of sense because Ajax isn’t a core functionality, it is a user interface enhancement.

Future Projects

Ryan Heneise and myself were approached by a book publishing company to author a book on either Ruby or Rails, or both. As much as both Ryan and myself would love to take on such a project, we find ourselves with numerous other projects coming in, as well as some collaberative projects we are going to be working on together.

Within the next couple of weeks, we’ll be announcing one of the larger projects we are working on. It is quite an exciting project that we feel there is a definate need for in the community, so keep an eye out for an upcoming post giving you the details.

There are several other really cool things going on, that again, I can’t quite mention yet. I don’t mean to be teasing, but I am really excited about several projects that I am involved in with a few of the Godbit authors and a few others.

Mark Priestap and myself have been working a whole new web site for Calvary Chapel of Cypress. So far, this is has been a blast! Let me just say that Mark is one of the most talented designers I have ever worked with. Go on over to his site and take a look at this portfolio – you’ll see the soon to be new design for this Church. I’ll be doing a backend system with Radiant CMS with some tweaks here and plugins there.

I’ve been slowly working on a new design for this site. Yes, another new design. This time a bit cleaner and more refined. I’m also finishing up work for a Furniture Repair shop who works specifically for Ethan Allen. It is an Appointment Scheduling application to be used by Ethan Allen. This has been a very fun project to work on.

Well that gives you an update of what has been keeping me busy as of late. Again, keep checking back because in a few weeks, Ryan and myself will be unveiling our newest project!