Ruby Weekly News 14th - 20th March 2005

http://www.rubyweeklynews.org/20050320.html

Note: I may have accidently posted this twice - my usenet connection is
playing up. Please send any feedback to [e-mail] rather than
the gmail address this post is sent from.

   Ruby Weekly News 14th - 20th March 2005
   ---------------------------------------

   Ruby Weekly News is a summary of the week's activity on the
ruby-talk
   mailing list / the comp.lang.ruby newsgroup, brought to you by Tim
   Sutherland.

Articles and Announcements
--------------------------

     * RubyGems Documentation Site

       Jim Weirich announced the RubyGems Documentation Site, replacing
the
       previous Wiki-based documentation. It now uses the Hieraki
application
       (which is also used for the official Ruby on Rails
documentation).

     * 2005 International Obfuscated Ruby Code Contest

       Todd Nathan announced the "final stretch" of the 2005
International
       Obfuscated Ruby Code Contest (IORCC). "In addition to a covented
right
       of claiming you are most obscure Ruby coder for 12 months time,
you
       also have a shot at over 750 USD worth of prizes", from a number
of
       sponsors.

       The deadline for submissions is midnight on March 31, 2005.
(It's not
       clear what timezone.)

Quote of the Week
-----------------

   Paul Duncan enthusiastically announced Raggle.

     "After a more than a year of near-death rescue missions,
high-speed car
     chases, and hair-splitting battles with evil masterminds, the
mysterious
     Raggle Task Force (Codename: R4) has emerged once again to release
     Raggle 0.4.0, the most powerful Ruby-based console RSS aggregator
     humanity has ever seen!"

Threads
-------

   Interesting threads this week included:

  nonblock extension for win32?
  -----------------------------

   We covered this thread last week, but there were some significant
   additions this time around. Bill Kelly asked if it was likely that
some of
   the libraries in Win32 Utils would become part of standard Ruby.
Daniel
   Berger replied "No. At best some of the Win32 Utils packages might
be
   included with the one-click Installer."

   Curt Hibbs responded positively, saying "I would really like to
include
   some/many/all of the win32 utils in the one-click installer. But I
am way
   over extended. I'll get to it eventually, but if someone wants to
help out
   it would speed things up."

   Later on, Shashank Date announced a One-click installer for
win32utils
   that makes it much easier to install the win32utils packages.

  Advice on PDF::Writer
  ---------------------

   Austin Ziegler is "in the middle of a major overhaul to
PDF::Writer",
   including many API changes. He's almost ready to make a release, but
the
   API for tables is still being worked on. Should he release now, and
then
   make another API-incompatible change later, or wait?

   Several people thought he should release it now. vruz:

     "Having the thing out will help to improve things faster and
relieve
     Austin from the pressure of packing everything in a short period
of
     time.

     Another good reason for releasing now is not all generated
documents
     will make use of tables."

  One Click Installer
  -------------------

   DaZoner asked if there would be a new release of the Ruby One-Click
   Windows Installer beyond 1.8.2-14 anytime soon?

   Wolfgang N疆asi-Donner said he'd had problems with using irb with a
German
   keyboard in the latest release. Stephan K舂per posted a link to the
   solution.

   Curt Hibbs attempted to reply, but didn't actually write anything.
Perhaps
   we'll find out his answer next week!

  Ruby UTF-8
  ----------

   Peter C was writing a Ruby program which included Japanese strings
   (encoded in UTF-8).

   He was getting errors like

 c:\> ruby -Ku myFile.rb
 jpn.rb:1: undefined method `' for main:Object
 (NoMethodError)

   The file was created in Windows notepad.

   Wolfgang N疆asi-Donner explained that notepad writes a "Byte Order
Mark"
   (BOM) at the beginning of UTF-8 encoded files.

   Florian Gross suggested a workaround:

     "Another one is to have an assignment to a scratch variable at the
     beginning of the script. Ruby will parse the BOM as the part of
the
     variable name and thus not complain about it."

   Florian had posted a comment about this issue on ruby-core some
months ago
   and thought Ruby should be able to accept files with a BOM.

  Naming tips for popen4-style library?
  -------------------------------------

   Jonathan Paisley wrote a new popen library featuring an OO
interface,
   independent access to stdin, stdout, stderr, plus the ability to
send
   signals to a child process and get its exit status. It is also
   thread-safe.

   He has initially called it Popen4 (the name of the Python library it
was
   modelled after), but is looking for a better name. (He later
suggested
   "ChildProcess".)

   Daniel Berger recalled an Open4 class written by Ara Howard a year
ago.
   This returned the pid of the child process as well as the streams.
The
   win32-open3 package has an Open4 module that uses the same API as
Ara's.

   Daniel felt that the Ruby community should try to reach consensus on
the
   API for this feature.

   Jonathan had previously discussed this issue with Ara and agreed
that it
   would be good to decide on an API and behaviour.

  Opening for an entry level position in SLC Utah
  -----------------------------------------------

   A job to develop a Ruby on Rails application was posted. Jeremy
Kemper
   said that people looking for Rails work should list themselves on
the
   AvailableForHire page on the Rails wiki.

   There is also a job postings page.

  async http request
  ------------------

   Bob Aman was writing a Rails application (a common theme these
days). He
   has a page which needs to query a web service, retrieve some RSS
feeds and
   do SQL queries. Currently he was executing these one after the
after. How
   could he do them all at the same time?

   James Britt said he should use threads.

  Codefest Grant - RubyGems cleanup and enhancement
  -------------------------------------------------

   Continuing this thread from last week, Mauricio Fern疣dez responded
to a
   question about the status of RPA (Ruby Production Archive).

     "The port/package manager (rpa-base) and the incipient
infrastructure
     (repository, VCS, wiki) are unsatisfactory under our (admittedly
severe)
     criteria. They will undergo major restructuring. Had they been
deemed
     adequate, RPA would have been proposed for widespread public
consumption
     long ago, but it was in a testing phase for a reason."

   As far as the idea of combining RubyGems and RPA, Mauricio argued
that
   they have fundamentally different goals. For example, RPA aims to
work
   with existing tools (like rpm, FreeBSD ports etc.) and provide
packages
   created by a dedicated team. In comparison, RubyGems is intended to
be
   used instead of rpm etc. and packages are usually created by whoever
   developed the application or library.

   Mauricio also said he would appreciate it if RubyGems developers
would
   describe their goals in a similar way to the RPA Manifesto.

   Chad Fowler said he did not want RubyGems to have a manifesto, but
gave
   his take on the purposes of RubyGems:

     "1. A package format for Ruby libraries and applications.
      2. A system for managing installation of such packages from both
local
      and remote sources.
      3. A "master source"/repository for such packages.
      4. Intended to be Ruby's standard for package creation and
distribution."

   Austin Ziegler disagreed with Mauricio's comments, saying

     "Nothing about RubyGems *prevents* any of the above. Nothing. The
gemspec
     can be translated into "native" tools, and the RPA-base layer
could be
     implemented on top of RubyGems as a platform (e.g., making the
     sitelibdir and DATADIR support work), and since Matz seems to have
     indicated that RubyGems will become part of the core when it's
ready,
     then it will work transparently."

   There was some push-back on that last part - Matz had previously
said he
   wanted the RubyGems and RPA teams to agree on a common system. Matz
   clarified,

     "I just don't want to discourage one side by merging another. If
RPA camp
     say "OK, we go our way, nevertheless Gems merged in the
distribution",
     that's fine for me. Did they?"

   There was no answer at the time this edition "went to press".

  RubyURL.com
  -----------

   Robby Russell created the site http://rubyurl.com/ to get his feet
wet
   with Rails. It takes a long URL and returns a link like
   http://rubyurl.com/Hcq7h that forwards you to the real site.

   There was some discussion of the approach taken. Thomas Hurst
pointed out
   qurl.net, a Ruby-based link-forwarding server he'd written.

   Hal Fulton asked

     "Had you considered a scheme in which the original domain name is
part of
     the shortened URL?
     http://rubyurl.com/www.yahoo.com:ajZkXDls
     That way we could at least confirm what domain we were directed
to."

  eval/binding question
  ---------------------

   Stefan Kaes discovered that

  def test1
     eval "x=25"
     eval 'print "x=#{x}\n"'
   end

   test1

   def test2
     eval "x=25"
     print "x=#{x}\n"
   end

   test2

   produces

 x=25
 test.rb:189:in `test2': undefined local variable or method `x' for
 main:Object ( NameError)
         from test.rb:192

   So test1 finds the variable, but test2 doesn't.

   Matz explained

     "local variables should be determined at compile time, thus local
     variables defined first in the eval'ed string, can only be
accessed from
     other eval'ed strings. In addition, they will be more ephemeral in
     Ruby2, so that these variables will not be accessed from outside.

     In summary, I recommend you not to use local variables for your
purpose.
     They are wrong tool for it."

   Stefan felt that it would be better to allow the variables to be
accessed
   from outside, and Matz responded

     "But it's not good strategy to persuade me to use "your
expectation" or
     "your surprise". This "limitation" has a lot of good aspects, such
as
     better performance, better error detection, etc. I'd love to pay
the
     cost of small restriction for these benefits as a language
designer."

  Stable sort?
  ------------

   Hal Fulton wanted a "stable" sort algorithm, i.e. one where if two
   elements are judged to be equal in the ordering (where <=> returns
0) they
   end up in the same order relative to one another in the output as
they
   were in the input.

   Ruby's Enumerable#sort uses the Quicksort algorithm, which is not
   "stable".

   Matz thought that the following would be a slightly inefficient
solution,
   but not too bad:

 n = 0
 ary.sort_by {|x| n+= 1; [x, n]}

  MS Windows automation - howto use it?
  -------------------------------------

   Axel wanted to automate an application using the WIN32OLE library.
How to
   you get from the following code to something that works for a
different
   application? What should the argument to WIN32OLE.new be, and how do
you
   find out what methods are available on the resulting object?

 ie = WIN32OLE.new('InternetExplorer.Application')
 ie.visible = true
 ie.gohome

   Thomas pointed out the #ole_methods method. This tells you what
methods
   the underlying COM interface supports, but not what arguments they
expect.
   Adelle Hartley pointed to an OLE Object Browser written in Ruby that
   provides more information.

   Dave Burt decided to write his own OLE browser.

  Ruby mentions at Microsofts Competitive Influentials Summit
  -----------------------------------------------------------

   Gordon Hartley noticed some references to Ruby in a blog.

     `Richard Monson-Haefel asks "Is there a place for AOP in .NET or
is it
     too sophisticated for your developers." Don's take is "My
development
     platform should allow me to write code w/ a couple of beers in
me." He
     ragged a bit on Java developers and said their main problem is
they
     think they're smarter than they are. He also said that if he could
     change one thing at MSFT, it would be that Ruby becomes the
language of
     choice.'

  Examples for racc?
  ------------------

   Ben Giddings wanted some examples of code that use the Racc parser.

   Charles Comstock suggested looking in the sample or test directories
of
   the Racc source tarball, and Luke Graham mentioned LittleLexer as an
   alternative parser.

  Using C++ libraries in Ruby
  ---------------------------

   T E wanted to know if it was possible to use C++ libraries from
Ruby.

   Nikolai Weibull referred to the ruby embedded into c++ page by Simon
   Strandgaard. It shows how to access C++ classes from Ruby, as well
as Ruby
   classes from C++.

   Ruby works well with C, so an alternative is to simply access the
library
   via a C interface.

  Texas Hold'Em
  -------------

   Matthew D Moss came up with this week's Ruby Quiz,

   Interpret sets of hands in the "Texas Hold'Em" card game (a
variation of
   Poker), to report "Full House", "Two Pair", "Flush" etc.

   There was some fun discussion about poker.

  Wanted: A nice clean ruby app to disect
  ---------------------------------------

   Curt Hibbs was part of a new Ruby User's Group in Saint Louis,
Missouri in
   the U.S. "About 90% of our members are new to Ruby, and we decided
that a
   good way to get started would be to dissect the code of a Ruby app
to
   learn Ruby and its idioms first-hand from *real* code."

   What applications would the community recommend?

   James Edward Gray II suggested the Ruby Quiz solutions. Mike Clark
thought
   RubLog would be worth looking at.

  Paul Graham recommends Ruby
  ---------------------------

   Joe Van Dyk read an article by Paul Graham on his recommendations
for
   undergraduate computer science students and noticed that it
recommends
   Ruby.

     If you want to work at a cool little company or research lab,
you'll do
     better to learn Ruby on Linux.

  how do you duck-type something to String, so String believes you?
  -----------------------------------------------------------------

   Sam Roberts had implemented a class which defined #to_str (which
indicates
   that the class should be considered a String, as opposed to merely
   defining #to_s). "That's all fine, but that doesn't mean that String
will
   allow itself to be compared to my class." (Via String#==.)

   Navindra Umanee warned that

     "String is also strongly-typed in C as T_STRING, so Ruby
duck-typing is
     not going to save you here. Ruby is riddled with that sort of
thing,
     probably for efficiency and implementation reasons."

   ES said that the String#== method turns str==other into other==str
if
   other is not T_STRING. This means that Sam simply needs to define an
#==
   method in his class that compares against a String.

New Releases
------------

     * PageTemplate 1.2.0

       Brian Wisti improved PageTemplate, a library for using text
templates
       in web projects. Additions include comment syntax and unless.

     * Alexandria 0.5.0

       Laurent Sansonetti released Alexandria 0.5.0. It is a GNOME
       application for managing book collections. Export-to-XHTML
support has
       been added, as has support for loaning, books without ISBN
numbers,
       and many bug fixes.

     * FastCST 3.0, FastCST 0.4: SMTP+POP3 Distribution, FastCST 0.4
       Packaging Fix

       Zed A. Shaw put up another release of FastCST, an experimental
       changeset tool. Version 0.3 added YAML meta-data support for
       changesets, plus get and put commands. Version 0.4 added send,
recv
       and read commands to integrate the tool with email.

       A tutorial was also written.

     * Orbjson 0.0.4 released

       James Britt added support for asynchronous requests to Ruby
Orbjson.
       This library provides Ruby-Javascript integration for JSON-RPC
       requests, making it easier to write web applications which use
Ruby on
       the server and Javascript on the client. He later announced a
tutorial
       he'd written for the library.

     * MuraveyWeb-Ruby CMS

       Dmitry V. Sabanin announced the first public release of
MuraveyWeb, a
       CMS built with Ruby on Rails. It features separation of content
and
       views. "With MW you can create and manage your content and then
using
       MW API and Ruby On Rails you can build views to display it the
way you
       like."

     * RubyGems 0.8.7, RubyGems 0.8.8

       Jim Weirich announced RubyGems 0.8.7, a popular tool for
packaging and
       installing Ruby programs and libraries. This was quickly
followed by
       RubyGems 0.8.8 to fix an important bug for developers who create
..gem
       packages.

       "First the numbers, 220 different gems available, over 25,000
       downloads of RubyGems, and nearly 190,000 gems downloads."

       New features include a cleanup command to delete old versions of
a gem
       and dependency to show dependencies. A library called
gemconfigure has
       been written to allow a Ruby program to be version sensitive
without
       depending on RubyGems where that capability is not needed.
Another
       addition is gemwhich, a program to help users to locate
       RubyGems-managed files.

     * Ruby/LDAP 0.9.1: LDAP API (RFC1823) library

       Ian Macdonald recently took over maintenance of Ruby/LDAP from
Takaaki
       Tateishi. The latest release includes some API tweaks.
Connections can
       now be rebound with new credentials and an LDIF module has been
added.

     * RbTET a Ruby TET API binding

       Neil Moses announced the first release of a Ruby binding to TET
(Test
       Environment Toolkit).

     * webgen 0.3.1

       Thomas Leitner released a new version of webgen, a tool for
creating
       web pages from page description and template files. Major
changes
       include improved picture gallery support, automatic validation
of HTML
       files and configurable page file output names.

     * Nitro + Og 0.13.0

       George Moschovitis improved Nitro (a web application framework)
and Og
       (an object-relational mapper). Nitro now has a Mailer subsystem,
an
       AJAX example (which shows how to develop a Google Suggest-style
UI),
       and a Rails compatible directory structure. Og is better
separated
       from Nitro, has database-related validations and many bugfixes.

     * Pimki 1.6

       Assaph Mehr released Pimki 1.6, a PIM based on the Instiki Wiki.

     * Ruby/ZOOM 0.1.0

       Laurent Sansonetti was "happy to announce the first release of
       Ruby/ZOOM!"

       "Ruby/ZOOM provides a Ruby binding to the Z39.50
Object-Orientation
       Model (ZOOM), an abstract object-oriented programming interface
to a
       subset of the services specified by the Z39.50 standard, also
known as
       the international standard ISO 23950." (Used mainly for book
       information retrieval.) It will be integrated into the next
release of
       the Alexandria book collection manager.

     * One-click installer for win32utils

       On behalf of the win32utils team, Shashank Date announced
version
       0.0.3 of the "one-click installer for win32utils".

       "This installer will install win32utils modules which are
compatible
       with the latest one-click installer for Ruby on the Windows
platform."

     * Kashmir/Elusion 0.2

       Christian Neukirchen set out the first public release of
       Kashmir/Elusion, a templating engine that "tries to walk on the
small
       path between the mess of raw evaluated Ruby like ERB and the
clinical
       sterileness of data-driven templating like Amrita."

     * RhizMail 0.1.0

       Francis Hwang release RhizMail 0.1.0, a "test-friendly" library
for
       sending out emails that are customised to the destination user.

     * Raggle 0.4.0

       Paul Duncan warned "It's SHOCKING... It's DARING! It's
INCREDIBLE!!"
       It was in fact Raggle 0.4.0, a web and console based RSS
aggregator.