Rails on the Orient Express: Detour - Down Under 2

While we're already exploring Australia, I'd like to present to you another good chap who has agreed to participate in our mini- Rails survey. He is Tim Lucas. Not only does he do coding in Rails but he says he is a bit of a celebrity, too as he hosts a TV game show there. So on with the show ...

1. Personally, what makes Rails special?

For me firstly it's that it does things the right way whilst still keeping the architecture simple and clean, and secondly the community.

Every experience I'd had with best-practice web app architectures pre-Rails involved a lot of repetition for adding simple things like database fields and a lot of scaffolding for problems which I'd yet to need to solve. I work with small teams who need to hand-craft everything from the URL structure, user interface and the data models, and Rails provided a nice balance of best-practice, flexibility and productivity without forcing too much of a particular structure on the final result. I've found with Rails (that) it's quite often easier to do things the right way than to do things the quick or hacky way.

The community was probably what I saw as being most special about Rails. Here was a bunch of people rethinking assumptions by building tools to demonstrate how they thought web apps could and possibly should be built. No doubt we will and are rethinking all the assumptions used to build Rails applications and Rails itself, but for now it still seems to be the boiling pot of innovative tools, techniques and ideas.

2. Are there barriers towards a broader Rails adoption? If so, how (can they be overcome)?

I think one of the biggest barriers is gaining the critical mass to form a development community. Once a community is formed you get local champions who blog, organise events, share knowledge and speak at conferences which would no doubt encourages take up through marketing and education. Online activity no doubt has a great effect, and the large number of Rails bloggers in the US, and the feedback effect of blogging encouraging blogging, has no doubt helped their growth.

3. Any other things you would like to see happening as a member of the Rails community in Australia?

I'd love to see the other cities ramp up their communities. Sydney and Melbourne have quite large communities but the other cities are still gaining critical mass. Events such as Railscamp[2] attract people from all over Australia and are probably key to building a wider community.

Rails sure sounds easy, while community is difficult. Online activity? I promise to do my share even whilst I begin to bust my wits to learn some RoR fundamentals. Any patient Ruby developer out there willing to take me on, as a student that is? Please.

Rails on the Orient Express: Detour - Down Under

If we are going to push for more Ruby on Rails adoption in the East, it might be good to look for models to help us achieve our goals. We can look to Japan, home of the great Matz and where sensibly RoR would invariably be in greater use. But that is easier said than done owing to barriers in language. (But worth trying as soon as I exhaust my contributors).

Which leaves us with Australia. They have a vibrant Rails group over there and has even organized a Rails Camp last year. One of those who are quite active in the group is Pat Allan - (Definitely no bad ego. Positive). Following is his take about Rails adoption (emphasis were mine).

1. Personally, what makes Rails special?

It provides a structure which pushes you towards good practices for web development (particularly MVC), and it's written in Ruby, which is such a nice language to work with.

The community is also a massive influence - having a great bunch of people to bounce ideas off and get support from really helps.

2. Are there barriers towards a broader Rails adoption? If so, how (can they be overcome)?

Some people may argue that getting Rails into the enterprise market is something important - personally, I'm not so fussed. Also, my (admittedly small) amount of experience with large corporations makes me think they won't appreciate Rails to the full extent, nor will they use it appropriately (ie: in an agile workflow, instead of one filled with bureaucracy).

Some people are suspicious of Rails - perhaps because of the hype that has accompanied it, and the fanatical approach some advocates have. I'm not sure how we can get around that, beyond keeping an open and considerate mindset.

3. Any other things you would like to see happening as a member of the Rails community in Australia?

I feel that, at least in the Melbourne and Sydney groups, things are progressing well - there's a growing sense of community, and increasing interaction with groups in the other states. The RailsCamps have been fantastic, and the relaxed atmosphere at monthly meetings is great.

So I've no big targets that we should aim for - but we do need to make sure we don't lose the vibe we currently have, and ensure that the groups are welcoming to new people. It shouldn't seem like an exclusive club to outsiders.

An open and considerate mindset, a community that has to shed perceived image of exclusivity. Makes sense, not just for RoR but any endeavor. Asians can do that. Or can we?

Ruby on Rails: On the Asia Pacific Express. First Stop.

There is no doubt that Ruby on Rails or Rails has become such a popular web application framework. The buzz about it has taken a life of its own making icons of Mr. DHH and even leading others to proclaiming that it is the best.

But what about this part of the world. Quick surveys of Rails communities using G00gle in Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, India & Philippines) suggest that it is growing but apart from Australia, it seems that group activities have been few or at worse, lifeless. I'd like to think that the Rails developers are relatively quite busy with jobs and projects but my gut feel says that for something that is "open source", Rails communities in Asia, ironically, don't feel close knit.

Hope I'm wrong though.

Next: Building the Rails Orient Express