From: Dave@...
Date: 2002-09-30T22:03:15+09:00
Subject: Ruby Weekly News


   Ruby Weekly News: 09/30/2002

   A summary of activity on the ruby-talk mailing list, brought to you
   this week by Holden Glova.

   ANNOUNCEMENTS
   =============

   REXML 2.4.2 and 2.5.2
          Sean Russel has completed his cross country move and released a
          new version of REXML. Get REXML([1]).

   Ruby/CorporateTime 0.1.0
          Ian Macdonald has announced an initial released a Ruby language
          extension that serves as an interface to the CorporateTime
          Calendar API. CorporateTime is a proprietary calendar server
          system produced by Steltor/Oracle. Get Ruby/CorporateTime([2]).

   Russian Ruby mailing list
          There is now a Russian mailing list to discuss all things
          related to Ruby. Join up here([3]).

   dbdbd 0.2
          David Black's DataBase Definer is released. dbdbd is a tool for
          creating and maintaining simple flat text data files. You use
          scanf format strings to specify what your "rows" contain. dbdbd
          then gives you a kind of semi-automated interface to files
          whose rows conform to that string. Get dbdbd([4]).

   SuperHash
          Joel VanderWerf released SuperHash. SuperHash is a hash-like
          object which can inherit key-value pairs from aprent hashes. It
          can also have its own key-value pairs, which override inherited
          pairs. Get SuperHash([5]).

   Net::GeoIP 0.01
          Sean Chittenden has released Net::GeoIP. This module allows you
          to find out the country a given IP or domain is in. Get
          Net::GeoIP([6]).

   XMLscan 0.1.0 RC1
          UENO Katsuhiro has released a new version of XMLScan. XMLScan
          is a 100% pure Ruby non-validating XML parser. Get
          XMLscan([7]).

   ZenWeb 1.14.0
          Ryan Davis has released a new version of ZenWeb.ZenWeb is a
          system for building entire websites, not just pages. It allows
          you to focus on the content and the structure of the website,
          while leaving page construction, markup, layout, navigation as
          secondary concerns. Get ZenWeb([8]).

   ZenTest 1.0.1
          Ryan Davis has also released ZenTest. ZenTest scans your target
          and unit-test code and writes your missing code based on simple
          naming rules, enabling XP at a much quicker pace. ZenTest only
          works with Ruby and Test::Unit. Get ZenTest([9]).

   Blogtari 0.0.2
          James Britt has released Blogtari. Blogtari is blogging
          software. It is meant to allow people interested in setting up
          a blog site to get going quickly, while leaving open options
          for developers looking to add new tricks. Get Blogtari([10]).

   INTERESTING THREADS
   ===================

   "and" and "or" vs. && and ||
          Some discussion was centered around why && has a higher
          precedence then ||, but "and" and "or" have the same
          precedence. Matz responded that this is becuase the english
          words "and" and "or" do not have a precedence order.

   Ruby - common pitfalls?
          Some general discussion started about creating a list of
          gotchas for newcomers to Ruby. William Djaja Tjokroaminata has
          voluntered his services. To see an initial list of what he has
          put together go here([11]).

   Announcement only list
          A new list just catering to announcements of Ruby packages and
          modules. This is intended to be a low traffic list for people
          who want to listen to new announcements for Ruby software.
          Worth subscribing too for keeping up to date.

References

   1. http://www.germane-software.com/software/rexml
   2. http://www.caliban.org/ruby/ruby-ctime.shtml
   3. http://altlinux.ru/mailman/listinfo/ruby/
   4. http://knossos.shu.edu/dblack/dbdbd
   5. http://redshift.sourceforge.net/superhash
   6. http://www.rubynet.org/modules/net/geoip/ruby-net-geoip-0.01.tar.gz
   7. http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/raa-list.rhtml?name=xmlscan
   8. http://sourceforge.net/projects/zenweb/
   9. http://sf.net/projects/zentest/
  10. http://www.jamesbritt.com/articles/blogatari.html
  11. http://www.ruby-talk.org/51514