From: james@...
Date: 2002-07-08T03:24:11+09:00
Subject: RE: Pre-RCR... nil.empty?


> But Dave - CGI? I'm disappointed. ;-)

As opposed to what? mod_ruby?

I have a web site at www.jamesbritt.com.  It's built with Ruby.  The
hosting service provides various tools, such as Perl, PHP, MySql, at a
decent price, but they don't have Ruby.   I asked them to install Ruby &
mod_ruby, but they were reluctant, and said I could install my own copy of
Ruby and run CGI scripts if I liked.  (I had already been doing that, and I
wonder if they knew that.)

My adventures installing Ruby and running CGI scripts in a machine where I
could never be root, nor alter the httpd.conf file, were interesting.
Given the current dearth of Ruby-friendly hosting services, it made me
wonder how best to construct web stuff that were easy to install and
maintain when the user had restricted control over the host server.

What I would like to see are more "Even a parrot can install it" web tools
for blogging, wikis, content management, and so on.  I recently tried to
set up a Ruby-based Wiki, but the two I am aware of are, for me, either too
confusing or feature-rich for my needs.  I wound up installing the
'usedmod' Wiki, written in Perl, because you literally untar the archive,
edit two lines, and it works. Now, it's about 4K lines of Perl code, with
logic and presentation horribly mashed together, but the ease of
installation and use can't be beat.

So, for many folks, CGI is the only Ruby option, and more "parrot-friendly,
untar and go" CGI apps would be a Good Thing to promote Ruby.



James


>
> Avi
>