From: steve ross <cwdinfo@...>
Date: 2010-07-19T01:16:16+09:00
Subject: Re: client-side Ruby on iPad/iPhone?

Hello--

On Jul 17, 2010, at 5:21 PM, Jeff Pritchard wrote:

> Just to clarify…I was hoping there might be a universal replacement, not 
> a special case for some specific mobile platform.
> 
> Today I can make a web 2.0 rails app with gobs of yucky un-testable 
> javascript/jquery/prototype/ajax that will run anywhere/everywhere.  It 
> will run on any desktop machine; any apple device; android; WP7; etc.
> 
> The problem with that approach is that a modern web 2.0 app has very 
> little rails.  The rails part of it is quick and easy but amounts to 
> little more than a web service or the app's "back end".  There are good 
> ways to do TDD for that part.  Good tools, good plugins, lots of creamy 
> goodness all around.
> 
> Most of the development time though, is in getting a polished web 2.0 
> ajaxy UI stuck on the front of that.  For this part (which, as I said, 
> is the long slow part) there is no universal ruby solution; there is no 
> good way to do TDD. jQuery and prototype are better than cranking all 
> your own javascript libraries, but they are not a GUI framework that 
> leads to a clean and standardized app (like rails does).
> 
> Sorry for whining.  Just amazes me that so many years have gone by with 
> GOBS of stuff happening on the server side and NOTHING happening on the 
> client side to make web app development smooth and easy like server side 
> is.
> 
> thanks,
> jp
> 
> 
> Jeff Pritchard wrote:
>> I've seen jRuby and IronRuby, and really want to use them since i really
>> really hate javascript and since so much of a modern web app winds up on
>> the client side…but none of the client-side ruby solutions I've found
>> will work on mobile devices.
>> 
>> Are there any?  (even something that is much less complete or
>> performant?)
>> 
>> thanks,
>> jp

There are numerous js test frameworks. One that is similar to Test::Unit is jsTest. You can read about it here. 

http://thinkpond.org/articles/2008/jstest-intro.shtml

If you are more of an rSpec kind of person, then look into jsSpec or ScrewUnit:

http://jania.pe.kr/aw/moin.cgi/JSSpec

http://github.com/nkallen/screw-unit

Rubyists are likely to use TDD or BDD, but it is more how they think about development than about available tools. There are tools available for testing other languages.

Hope this helps.

Steve