Back in the horse-and-buggy days when I was cutting my OO eye teeth on Smalltalk, we had a LOT of conversations about the biggest problem dealing with a large and growing set of classes and methods in the Smalltalk image. It became clear that most, if not all, successful Smalltalk coders spent a lot of their time code-shopping, i.e., looking for a class or method that did something they needed to do. It was bad enough when that "something" lived in the mongo image file that accmpanied each Smalltalk install. If what you wanted wasn''t even in the image but was "out there somewhere," finding it could be a real challenge. I note with some pleasure that there has been an attempt to deal with this problem at least partially in Ruby and Rails, especially with the existence of rubyforge and what appears to be a standard and organized way of publishing and installing gems. So my question is, what are the best ways people have found to determine whether a particular needed capability has already been created by someone and, if so, how and where to get it? (By way of example, I ran across acts_as_paranoid on this list a while ago and was delighted both at the naming of the method and at the fact that it exists as a gem. But let''s say I was looking for some way to give myself better protection against inadvertent or ill- advised deletion of stuff;; how would you have advised me to go find this little...er...gem?) -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- Dan Shafer Technology Visionary - Technology Assessment - Documentation "Looking at technology from every angle" http://www.eclecticity.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://wrath.rubyonrails.org/pipermail/rails/attachments/20060111/31cfc03d/attachment.html
On Jan 11, 2006, at 3:13 PM, Dan Shafer wrote:> Back in the horse-and-buggy days when I was cutting my OO eye teeth > on Smalltalk, we had a LOT of conversations about the biggest > problem dealing with a large and growing set of classes and methods > in the Smalltalk image. It became clear that most, if not all, > successful Smalltalk coders spent a lot of their time code- > shopping, i.e., looking for a class or method that did something > they needed to do. It was bad enough when that "something" lived in > the mongo image file that accmpanied each Smalltalk install. If > what you wanted wasn''t even in the image but was "out there > somewhere," finding it could be a real challenge. > > I note with some pleasure that there has been an attempt to deal > with this problem at least partially in Ruby and Rails, especially > with the existence of rubyforge and what appears to be a standard > and organized way of publishing and installing gems. So my question > is, what are the best ways people have found to determine whether a > particular needed capability has already been created by someone > and, if so, how and where to get it? > > (By way of example, I ran across acts_as_paranoid on this list a > while ago and was delighted both at the naming of the method and at > the fact that it exists as a gem. But let''s say I was looking for > some way to give myself better protection against inadvertent or > ill-advised deletion of stuff;; how would you have advised me to go > find this little...er...gem?) >I agree. A Ruby/Rails version of Perl''s CPAN would be a terrific asset. And yes, I think that rubyforge and gems are moving in that direction. In the meantime....who knows... Speaking of acts_as_paranoid, I seem to remember something on the Rails podcast a while back about acts_as_paranoid. If memory serves me, the author was not recommending it. But then again, that was awhile ago, and it may have been cleaned up since then. Someone more in the know can comment as to its current status. -Derrick
I have nearly the same problem and have been searching for different ways to "get" existing well-written tools for my projects. So far I found a nice resource using plugins through this Plugin Manager: http://lesscode.org/2005/10/27/rails-simplest-plugin-manager/ A large note, its not exactly the easiest and most direct way(ie: a browser with a search box), but at least it has a simple approach to maintaining your plugins external and internal. My two cents for the day, take care. Dan Shafer wrote:> Back in the horse-and-buggy days when I was cutting my OO eye teeth on > Smalltalk, we had a LOT of conversations about the biggest problem > dealing with a large and growing set of classes and methods in the > Smalltalk image. It became clear that most, if not all, successful > Smalltalk coders spent a lot of their time code-shopping, i.e., > looking for a class or method that did something they needed to do. It > was bad enough when that "something" lived in the mongo image file > that accmpanied each Smalltalk install. If what you wanted wasn''t even > in the image but was "out there somewhere," finding it could be a real > challenge. > > I note with some pleasure that there has been an attempt to deal with > this problem at least partially in Ruby and Rails, especially with the > existence of rubyforge and what appears to be a standard and organized > way of publishing and installing gems. So my question is, what are the > best ways people have found to determine whether a particular needed > capability has already been created by someone and, if so, how and > where to get it? > > (By way of example, I ran across acts_as_paranoid on this list a while > ago and was delighted both at the naming of the method and at the fact > that it exists as a gem. But let''s say I was looking for some way to > give myself better protection against inadvertent or ill-advised > deletion of stuff;; how would you have advised me to go find this > little...er...gem?) > > -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- > > Dan Shafer > > Technology Visionary - Technology Assessment - Documentation > > "Looking at technology from every angle" > > http://www.eclecticity.com > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails >-- -- Adam Ballai <adam.ballai@integrumtech.com> Integrum Technologies, LLC Phone: +1 602 792 1270 Mobile: +1 480 580 7091
Dan Shafer wrote:> So my question is, what are the > best ways people have found to determine whether a particular needed > capability has already been created by someone and, if so, how and where > to get it?Ask here :-) -- Alex
Alex..... Yeah, that works much of the time. It''s the New World equivalent to opening your door and shouting down the hallway, "Hey! Anyone have a method that does this?" I was looking for something a bit less...er...disruptive? :-) Dan On Jan 12, 2006, at 1:56 AM, Alex Young wrote:> Dan Shafer wrote: >> So my question is, what are the best ways people have found to >> determine whether a particular needed capability has already been >> created by someone and, if so, how and where to get it? > Ask here :-) > > -- > Alex > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails