What are the 5 most innovative ruby projects/libraries?

[Ryan Davis]

Heckle is a pretty good idea that I've not seen elsewhere.
Haml is a nice rethinking of html templating
Halcyon is an interesting take on web service frameworks

and since I seem to have fallen into an alliterative pattern, check
out Hpricot and Hoe too

I like your list, tho I should claim a little bias.

I'd recommend looking at tagz over hpricot, even tho it breaks your
alliteration. It does an amazing job in as little code as it is, and
is really quite fast compared to similarly architected libraries.

I did steal the idea for heckle from java-land, so it can't be that
innovative

 

[s.ross]

Could you explain what is Heckle and where is the innovation?

Heckle injects permutations into code for the purpose of testing the
code's behavior when supplied unexpected inputs. This is done
automatically, and in conjunction with a set of tests that you write
to ascertain that the code is working right. See: http://glu.ttono.us/articles/2006/12/19/tormenting-your-tests-with-heckle
for a discussion of Heckle and http://blog.zenspider.com/rubysadism/heckle/
for heckle itself.

 

[Phlip]

That's like saying that the maglev trains can't be innovative because
they link preexisting train stations. What's innovative about maglev
is that it allows trains to achieve higher velocity through the use of
innovative technology. That argument could be made for Rails. The
trains ran before ... they just run faster now (or maybe they get
built faster, or fail less often, or ...).

You snipped the comparison to Shoes, whereas Rails to Shoes goes like maglev to
teleportation...

 

[s.ross]

You snipped the comparison to Shoes, whereas Rails to Shoes goes
like maglev to teleportation...

While I did snip the comparison the Shoes, I didn't snip the phrase
"Rails can't possibly innovate..." which is what I responded to.
Please tell me you don't believe that Rails is constrained like that.

 

[Phlip]

While I did snip the comparison the Shoes, I didn't snip the phrase
"Rails can't possibly innovate..." which is what I responded to.
Please tell me you don't believe that Rails is constrained like that.

Okay, try this:

Rails is incredible because it takes a completely broken architecture - HTML,
CGI, HTTP, XML, & JS - and polishes them beyond recognition with
state-of-the-art DSLs and architecture. That is both a major achievement and
true innovation, considering the pitiful state of other web platforms.

But a Ruby platform could have innovated even more if HTML didn't so totally suck...

 

[s.ross]

Okay, try this:

Rails is incredible because it takes a completely broken
architecture - HTML, CGI, HTTP, XML, & JS - and polishes them beyond
recognition with state-of-the-art DSLs and architecture. That is
both a major achievement and true innovation, considering the
pitiful state of other web platforms.

But a Ruby platform could have innovated even more if HTML didn't so
totally suck...

Right, but HTML is kind of an immovable object. CGI is so sucky people
were dreaming up workarounds in the mid-90s. XML, meh, hard to get
excited about yet another markup language. Javascript wants to be C
and it wants to be Erlang (not really, but it kinda turned out that
way) and it wants to hide bugs so nobody can see. But it's everywhere.
I'd say, "like oxygen" but Javascript seems to suck the life out of me
rather than breathing life into me.

So you're right. The innovation of Rails is that it makes the Web
approachable for lousy programmers (most people can eventually write
the obligatory blog) and leverages good programmers' time and skill
nicely.

Steve