From: Dave Thomas <dave@...>
Date: 2003-02-05T00:24:46+09:00
Subject: Re: submission to moderators


Ruby Weekly News: 02/03/2003

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

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

FXRuby-1.0.1
     Lyle Johnson has once again released a new version of the
     popular Ruby interface to the FOX toolkit, FXRuby. In addition
     to the usual assortment of bug fixes and other changes, this
     release includes the "preview" API documentation in RDoc style.
    Check out FXRuby-1.0.18([1]).

cLabs IEController
     Chris Morris released cLabs IEController, a helper library for
     doing acceptance testing by driving Internet Explorer. The
     library also includes the beginnings of support for .Net
     Windows Forms. Get cLabs IEController([2]).

Borges
     Eric Hodel has released Borges 0.1.0, a web application
     framework based on Seaside 2.0 by Avi Bryant (of IOWA fame).
     Borges is a web application framework that allows linear
     programming of web applications and runs on Webrick (Apache+DRb
     will be supported in the near future) and features a simple
     rendering interface.

     Some of you may recognize this project from RubyConf 2002...
     well, Eric has taken over as maintainer of the Ruby port and
     has already done some fantastic work. Check out Borges([3]).

Webplayer
     In another release, Eric Hodel brings us Webplayer 0.1.0, is a
     Web-based MP3 player featuring the ability to load a playlist
     (.m3u), a directory of .mp3 files (non-recursively), or a
     single .mp3 file. Take a look at Webplayer([4]).

RAA.succ!
     The Ruby Application Archive has now reached version 2.3.0
     thanks to the efforts of U. Nakamura, the RAA development team,
     and many comments and suggestions from the Ruby community.
     Changes include a move to a new location, improved
     categorization, and numerous layout and design modifications
     for improved navigation. Visit the new and improved Ruby
     Application Archive([5])

The Ruby Way in Japanese
     Hal Fulton, author of The Ruby Way, recently announced that as
     of December 2002, the book has been translated into Japanese
     and has started distribution in Japan via a publisher,
     Shoeisha. Hal gave thanks to a number of people within the
     community that helped this effort take place, and would like
     any feedback the community may have on any "interesting" or
     "unusual" issues in translation. Get your copy at Amazon([6])
     or directly from the publisher([7]).

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

OSCON Presentations
     A post submitted by Chad Fowler seeking information on
     proposals for Ruby talks and tutorials at OSCON resulted in a
     response outlining several submissions by Phil Thomson. An
     interesting sub-thread bringing to light the issue of
     conference costs and what we can do as a community to aid Matz
     in making use of opportunities like this, perhaps through the
     umbrella non-profit organization for the conference, Ruby
     Central, Inc.

Ruby Books
     A question by Mark Probert about the book market for
     Ruby-related books quickly became a popular thread centered
     around the general decrease in [technical] book sales and the
     challenges that exist for Ruby in this important market. Matz
     made in especially interesting post([8]) detailing the number
     of Ruby books currently available in print.

Test::Unit order of tests
     An interesting topic of concern to many this week centered
     around the ability to order unit tests, the methods in which
     this can be accomplished, and balancing good testing practices
     with practical needs. Many good ideas and novel approaches can
     be found in this thread for the XP enthusiast.

Local variables and blocks
     Once again the topic of variable scope comes to the forefront.
     This lengthy and informative thread contains a large amount of
     suggestions and comments by various members of the community as
     how to best approach the issue of variable scoping, and
     numerous explanations of how it will behave in the future.

References

     1.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=20243;release_id=136352
     2. http://clabs.org/scrpware.htm
     3. http://segment7.net/ruby-code/borges/borges.html
     4. http://segment7.net/ruby-code/webplayer/webplayer.html
     5. http://raa.ruby-lang.org/
     6.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/4798102288/ref=sr_aps_b_/249-505150
     7. http://www.shoeisha.com/book/Detail.asp?bid=1475;tk=ruby
     8. http://www.ruby-talk.org/63126