Ruby on Rails - Fad or Here to Stay?

Ruby on Rails, or Rails for short, is a web-application framework for the Ruby programming language. Since it's introduction in 2005, it has become extremely popular due to its ease of use and rapid development principles. 

The info-graphic shown above illustrates the growth in popularity of Ruby On Rails. Most notable on the info-graphicis the increase in usage over the past year as well as the increasing demand for developers with Ruby on Rails skills. 

While these statistics can't tell the whole story, it appears as though Ruby on Rails has become very largely used and adapted. At this time, there are over 230 thousand websites that have been built using Ruby on Rails including sites such as GitHub, Living Social, as well as Hulu.

The increase in demand for the Ruby on Rails skill-set implies the increasing popularity of the framework in the corporate environment. It appears, at least for now, that Ruby on Rails has gained a strong foothold in the marketplace. It's ease of use as well as the capability of producing products at a rapid pace makes a strong case for organizations to adopt this technology.

CSS Awesomeness!!

Admittedly, up until taking a class focusing on web software, I have never had much of an interest in any web development. I've maintained and assisted in the development of several web applications, but I have never truly immersed myself in "web development". For work, I maintain several simple websites that display various query results from a database I maintain. While they are functional, noting that I put very little effort into the presentation of this material, they are also very unsightly ugly. Why, you ask? It's because I never moved beyond the simple HTML language to incorporate CSS.

CSS is a simple mechanism that allows a developer to add a style and theme to a webpage or web document. It separates itself content from design which allows HTML to focus solely on processing the markup of the content and not layout and design. CSS allows a developer to utilize a standardized layout and design across multiple webpages without the fuss of formatting each page to mimic the theme and look of another. Simply put, it makes it much easier to make your sites more presentable and uniform.

I'm definitely interested in learning more about CSS. After looking over many of my favorite sites, I realize that mastering CSS is one key to building some outstanding websites. Here are some beginner links for anyone who may be interested in this as well:

http://www.w3schools.com/css/
http://www.csstutorial.net
http://www.echoecho.com/css.htm
http://sixrevisions.com/css/20_websites_learn_master_css/

Enjoy!

SaaS - How it's changed our lives

Software as a service (SaaS) is a revolution in computing that has significantly affected our daily lives. Everyone one of us use some type of SaaS software whether it be facebook, twitter, yelp, or webmail. SaaS has changed the game in terms of how users view and interact with software. Gone are the days where we need to buy the software, install it on our machines, keep our hardware compatible in order to run it, and continually patch it to ensure the security of our machines. With SaaS, most of the time all we need is a web browser and an internet connection.

So no more manually installing software everytime I get a new machine, no more having to carry around an external hard drive with your saved files, and no more worrying about licensing fees. So how does this all work and how is it phasing out the old "locally installed" software approach? 

1. Compatibility and accessibility - SaaS applications are available on any device, any platform, and at any time you need it (provided you have an internet connection). Because it's on the internet, it's easy to find and the learning curve for usage is low. 

2. Lower cost - Most SaaS applications are subscription based, there is a lower investment needed to adopt the application due to  lower hardware, software, and personnel costs. 

3. No upgrade or installation - All SaaS applications are web based and require no patches or upgrades on the customers end. 

This all means that I can access all my social networking sites and information from any computer in the world. In addition, I can store all my files on the cloud and read and edit documents from my phone or on any terminal in the world. I can collaborate with co-workers and peers around the world at any time. In most cases, the only thing I have to worry about it having a platform (any platform) to access the internet. It's all 

In the end, it means lower costs, no compatibility issues, and unlimited scalability. All in all, it seems that SaaS is the way forward for software in the future. I, personally, am more than willing to pay a small subscription fee to have access to a well developed and maintained product that is accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. With the money I save on having to constantly upgrade hardware, I will have the money to pay for the subscriptions and probably have a lot left over. Good deal all around!

Is designing bug free software possible? A look into "Design By Contract" (DBC)

Design by Contract (DbC) is an approach for designing software. According to Eiffel Software, the originators of this method, DbC can be explained as follows:

"DbC is a metaphor on how elements of a software system collaborate with each other, on the basis of mutual obligations andbenefits. The metaphor comes from business life, where a "client" and a "supplier" agree on a "contract" which documents that:

• The supplier must provide a certain product (obligation) and is entitled to expect that the client has paid its fee (benefit).
• The client must pay the fee (obligation) and is entitled to get the product (benefit).
• Both parties must satisfy certain obligations, such as laws and regulations, applying to all contracts."

It is said that utilizing this method guarantees that bugs will be prevented by implementing a system of checks and balances. This method also promotes coding to exacting specifications, providing no more or no less that is necessary. This implies that developers should not try to add more features or functionality into their code than is necessary to accomplish it's original task. In this way, the behavior of all code can be guaranteed, predictable, and consistent. 

Here are the benefits of DbC in a nutshell:

• reliability
• maintainability
• well-documented
• simpler and consistent code

Some drawbacks of DbC:

• requires more diligence on the part of the programmer (= more work)
• may result in performance issues - due to checking conditions at runtime

This all sounds great to me! 

However, while the theory of DbC sounds like an incredible idea, how likely is it that people will adopt and adhere to these concepts. 

Learning Ruby

This week I've been reading through "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell. He discusses the importance of choosing the right programming language for the task at hand. Now, there are many languages available for use today. How do we choose which language to use? Do we just stick with what we know or do we branch out and try to learn a new language? Every language has its strengths and weaknesses, if you limit yourself to only a few languages you may possibly be limiting your knowledge and capabilities.

Working in the IT field over the past 10 years, I've learned many programming languages over the years ranging from C to SQL. However, Steve McConnell brings up the interesting topic of utilizing high-level languages that allow you to be more productive and allows you to produce higher quality results. A study shows that 1 line of C++ is as efficient as 2.5 lines of C code and 1 line of Perl or PYTHON is as efficient as 6 lines of C code. This means that you can do more with less when utilizing high level programming languages! 

One specific language brought up was Perl. I've heard all about this language and have several co-workers who go on and on about how great it is. However, I never really took to even look into it, much less learn it. A few weeks ago my boss suggested I learn Perl and I brushed it off not thinking much about it. This week, I learned what it is capable of through Steve McConnell's book.

On a daily basis, I utilize the Linux command line and write SQL queries to retrieve data from databases. I do most of this manually with some shell scripting for administrative tasks in Linux. Today I learned that I can make my job 10 times easier by learning and using Perl! If that's not incentive enough to learn it, I don't know what is.

First stop, Google and YouTube! Here is some good links that I found for anyone who may be interested in learning Perl as well. Click here for a free online book and here for some tutorials.

Have fun!

The Pragmatic Programmer - Chapter 2: Here's What I Thought Was Good

In chapter 2 of The Pragmatic Programmer, we read about "tips and tricks that apply at all levels of software development". According to the text, these are virtually universal methods. Here is my opinion on what was good and informative about this chapter:

• Tracer Bullets
• Aside from the awesome analogy between software development and guns, this method of development makes a lot of sense to me. Why spend valuable time calculating all the variables before taking a shot at the target when you can fire off "tracer rounds" along side your "real ammunition" in a live environment? When operating in an unknown environment with the high likely-hood of changes occurring, rather than spending lots of time specifying and calculating in order to create something we hope will work we, instead, code a basic structure with minimal functionality to establish a starting point for further improvements. 
• I, especially, like this because it's a technique which you can use to take that first step in coding a project. Sometimes when you take a high-level view of your project, it can seem like a daunting task. By starting with basic functionality first, then making incremental improvements to increase it's functionality, it allows you to get to work quicker and to make progress. For someone like me who likes to get into a project quickly and make immediate progress, this seems like a great technique. This all assumes that you have planned the project well in advance.
• Orthogonality
• The concept of Orthogonality resonated strongly with me. This describes the concept where two or more things are said to be orthogonal when changes in one do not affect any of the others. 
• I've been a part of many projects where software modules are highly dependent upon others. Having been only a part of the "rebuilding" team, making changes to  one part of the non-orthogonal code required me to make changes in several other modules as well. Understandably, some code may need to be dependent upon other modules for functionality. However, if you can isolate modules so that they are not dependent upon others it makes changing and updating the code much easier and development time is reduced dramatically. In addition, changes to the code reduces risk.
• I like this concept and will try to apply it in all future projects. While I have always had it in my mind that your code should incorporate independent modules, I have never been able to pen those thoughts as well as it was written in the text.