From: James Britt <james.britt@...>
Date: 2007-07-27T08:01:48+09:00
Subject: Re: Usage patterns and trusted libraries

David Rush wrote:
> Hi y'all,

Hi!

> So eventually I rewrote the program using a different language (which
> I don't mention to avoid starting a flame-war - I could have used Ruby
> on top of the MySQL interfaces) with a cache strategy that is better
> suited to the DB access pattern.
> 
> The new process takes 55 *seconds*.

So, the question is, why did you pick ActiveRecrd in the first place, 
and could there have been a better vetting process to select the most 
appropriate DB tool?


> 
> The moral of the story: there isn't one really. If I was 100% sure
> that I wouldn't need to re-run the data (either because of
> undiscovered bugs or b0rk3n data from the vendor) the  12 hour run
> would have been an efficient use of my time, probably. But performance
> does matter when it has an impact on the amount of time I have to
> spend waiting for critical-path processes. If there is a moral, it is
> simply: know your tools. And that community excitement doesn't
> substitute for good documentation.


Second moral:  There are many ways to build apps in Ruby; Rails is but 
one.  A few hours of research can save many more hours later on.


-- 
James Britt

"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is 
not worth knowing."
   - A. Perlis