mental / rydia.net wrote:
> Quoting Dave Thomas <Dave / PragProg.com>:
>
>   
>> It's that these copies miss the point: Rails works because it is
>> integrated so well into Ruby. If you want to create frameworks for
>> other languages, don't start by copying Rails. Instead, understand
>> _why_ Rails works, then see what your target language has to offer
>> and innovate with that.
>>     
>
> Perhaps that is true, but imitation is often a prerequisite for new
> understanding.
>
> It's the reason why any serious art curriculum will have its
> students copying masterworks at some point.
>
> Imitation is scaffolding.
>
> -mental
>   
Interesting thoughts ... I'm attempting to create a Rails-like framework 
in Perl and the scientific/statistical language R, for use in a computer 
performance data management and analysis application. The constraints 
are that we have to use PostgreSQL, although SQL Server compatibility is 
highly desirable, and the platform must be Windows. I don't have a web 
server constraint, although the volume is low enough that almost any web 
server would work.

The architecture will be patterned after Rails in that it will be 
model-view-controller and the model piece will look a lot like Active 
Record. There are many gigabytes of compressed high-frequency 
performance data that need to be decompressed, recompressed, backed up, 
restored, inserted into and deleted from a working database.

Once a dataset is in the working database, the view piece is the 
interesting part. The full power of R will be available to the user. My 
original plan was to do the whole thing in Rails, with a "shell-out" to 
R for the analysis. But the time constraints are such that I won't be up 
to speed enough on either Ruby or Rails to do this myself, there are no 
other Ruby/Rails programmers around and there is no budget to hire one. 
So what I have to work with is Perl, R, and possibly CygWin.

I've attempted to learn from the Rails code, but quite frankly, the book 
(Agile  Web Development With Rails) is really the only thing worth 
looking at. Unless you fully understand the intricacies of the Ruby 
language -- its dynamic nature, its syntax, its semantics and all the 
conventions and idioms -- "imitation" of Rails is quite difficult. And I 
say this as someone who has programmed in dozens of other environments 
for over 40 years.

-- 
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

http://linuxcapacityplanning.com