Linux Text Editor for Ruby and Rails

I’ve been struggling to find a text editor for developing in Linux. I went through jEdit, gedit, emacs, vi, and even NetBeans (I know, it’s an IDE). None of them really could really help me with my addiction to TextMate on Mac. I even modified gedit to look like TextMate, but that really didn’t help much. I would always go back to vi/vim.

This time around, I finally settled on geany. You can get this wonderful editor at http://geany.uvena.de and if you’re using Ubuntu, get the latest at the link provided the site. With its file browser plugin, it gives me somewhat similar experience as TextMate.

I highly recommend this editor if you’re frustrated with current text editor.

August 12, 2008 | Filed Under Rant

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iPhone App + Rails App

I think I mentioned that I was seriously thought about becoming the independent app developer on Cocoa several years ago… Well, I’ve been busy catching up on Obj-C 2.0 and iPhone SDK now that Apple got my money. You must be thinking, “hey, this blog is about Ruby and Rails, isn’t it?”

I’m actually developing an app for iPhone to support the web app I’m currently working on. I saw that writing an iPhone companion app actually promotes the main web app. For example, I had no idea what Evernote and Jotter was. I found these sites after I looked at their iPhone app. What a great way to promote a site!

July 16, 2008 | Filed Under Rant

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Rails Job 09July2008

Please contact Steve. He’s one of the good ones. Of course, there’s always my buddy Brian at www.mirrorplacement.com.

I am an IT recruiter looking for a Ruby on Rails Project lead
working with a fortune 50 Co in NYC on the Avenue of the Americas
Job pays $90K +
Please call me if you are interested
973-739-1900

Steve Conti
Associated Global Services
900 Lanidex Plaza Parsippany, NJ
(973) 739-1900 office, (201) 873-7461 cell.

http://www.agsinternational.biz

July 9, 2008 | Filed Under Rant

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Mac OS 10.5.4 Update Breaks My App!

It appears that Mac OS 10.5.4 update I did on my machines breaks a Rails app that I’m working on. Granted, it’s still on Rails 1.2.3 and uses all kinds of experiments (I didn’t do it, not most of it anyways), this shouldn’t be happening. I isolated the problem to XML (ReXML) and should be resolved once I move to libxml. I know, what was I thinking, I should’ve done that months ago. It’s the price of laziness I guess.

July 1, 2008 | Filed Under Rant

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Ruby’s Big Flaw - Security Vulnerability

Now that everyone’s freaking out about the vulnerability in Ruby, I had to investigate what the deal was. Here are the list of links:

Personally, I’m not too concerned as I’ve been doing “Paranoid Programming” for long long time, and I won’t lose sleep over this (read Zed’s rant before jumping all over me). HOWEVER, it doesn’t mean I’m going to sit here and do nothing. I’m upgrading to the latest patch to avoid any unseen mishaps.

I just wonder what this will do to the future of Ruby. This seems to be a major setback for those promoting Ruby in the Enterprise, since it’s the perception that matters, not the facts. Although I love Ruby as the language, I was always put off by those promoting Ruby as the “perfect” solution to everything. Let’s face it, there’s no such thing as perfectly secure language/platform/OS.

June 24, 2008 | Filed Under Rant

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Dumb People Looking for Even Dumber People

I keep finding job postings asking for code samples. I originally thought it was a joke, but I think these people are serious.

First of all, I don’t know any company that allows such action as it violates common security policy. Anyone revealing any code to outsider is putting himself/herself in a bad situation. Besides, what does this really accomplish? Are these people that incompetent as an interviewer to weed out bad candidates?

The companies shouldn’t ask for it because it’s ILLEGAL! It’s a violation of copyright law and you’re setting up yourself for a potential lawsuit. If you don’t believe me, just do a quick research on all the successful tech companies fighting law suits everyday. You’ll also find out why Microsoft had to write Windows NT for Alpha processor.

I understand that the Rails community is made up mostly of young and inexperienced people, but I didn’t think the people hiring them would be too.

June 17, 2008 | Filed Under Rant

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Things I Hate…

As a CTO and an architect, I reviewed more codes than anyone can take in a lifetime. It’s a real kick in the ass now that I actually have to work on the code I find irritating. Here’s a short list of Rails code that I just can’t stand.

1. One controller apps - the entire app is in one controller with thousands of lines of code.
2. Embedding functions in views rather than putting them in helpers. It’s a modern day spaghetti code.
3. Overly partialed views - putting everything in partials when it really doesn’t need to be that way.
4. Fat controllers - everything’s in controllers, including the business logics.
5. Uncommented code - no, not everything’s obvious

It’s clear that even with a very opinionated framework, you can still write extremely ugly code.

June 17, 2008 | Filed Under Rant

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