From: Mike Clark <mike@...>
Date: 2004-08-27T23:40:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Controlling an Ambient Orb with Ruby

Hi Kirk,

> Mike, what kind of things are you interested in with regard to Ruby
> automation?  I use some Ruby scripts to automate regenerating sendmail
> database tables, to monitor/stop/start Iowa application processes, to  
> act as a
> smart(ish) FTP proxy to fetch data files from one site and transfer  
> them to
> another, to automatically load data feed files to database tables, and  
> stuff
> like that.  It's all pretty mundane, but easy to setup stuff with Ruby.

Yes, I'm definitely interested in the mundane stuff!  :-)

Readers of that site are pretty much interested in anything related to  
project automation.  Basically, how can I put my computer to work doing  
mundane, repetitive tasks so I have more time to write good code?

Dave's piece on generating RSS from CVS loginfo using Ruby was very  
well received, for example:

http://www.pragmaticautomation.com/cgi-bin/pragauto.cgi/Monitor/ 
Loginfo2Rss.rdoc

It's a cool and effective technique, and the fact that it uses Ruby  
gets folks thinking about using Ruby to automate other project tasks.   
Tasks like monitoring processes, transferring files, priming databases,  
and such are all fair game.  Readers in general aren't Ruby  
programmers, but I think they appreciate solutions that use different  
tools.

I hope that helps.  I'm open to ideas, so feel free to send me a  
paragraph or two describing how an automation technique makes your life  
better and a snippet of Ruby code.

Regards,

Mike