Only Ruby?

Hello there!

Just bought your book, placed the order a few days earlier. hope to receive it soon here on the ol’ continent…

Truth be told, I immediately bought the book without even reading through the TOC or the excerpts… I was so excited on finding a book on PType & SLous I immediately flipped out my credit card…

Im sure I won’t regret my purchase, but I was just wondering… after having downloaded the code I found out that it’s (mostly?) only rhtml files and rb. files So we’re dealing with only RUBY code snippets here?

Bye,

Nikolaas

Hey Nikolaas, thanks for chiming in.

You should get your copy delivered within 10 days, if mine are any indication. Oh btw, the usual abbreviations are “Proto” and “Scripty.” :-)

Yes, all the server-side example code is in Ruby. The reasons are many-fold, but mostly it’s because Ruby offers the path of least resistence, setup-wise and fiddle-wise, for these examples to run. There’s no need to setup a Python/PHP/whatever environment, even something seemingly as simple (although technically bloated) as EasyPHP (which is Windows-only anyway, IIRC).

The examples can be totally self-contained and portable across machines and OSes.

And despite Ruby’s certainly not being a language most web devs are familiar with, the learning curve to “get” the examples is so low and small that I feel it’s really worth it.

However, in the upcoming examples, solutions and snippets on the book’s blog, I intend to play with many server-side technologies, depending on the situation: Ruby, PHP, JavaEE, Rails… Just to show we’re truly backend-agnostic.

I hope you enjoy the book no matter what.

Hello Christophe,

Thanks for the swift reply.
Yeah i’m really crappy at abbreviations… ;)

Haven’t really looked into the Ruby story … yet.
The path of least resistance, it intrigues me that you say that.
If i receive the book (my status on shipping now says: fully) i’ll think about installing a copy (it’s free right?), just to fiddle with it.

The path of least resistance… hmm ;)

BTW, after visiting your profile, it struck me that I live only 300km’s north of you…
It’s a bit idiotic to pay for OVERSEAS shipping, come to think of it… hehe :)

Bien à toi

Hey,

Yeah, where do you live? Belgium, or Netherlands? And where in there?

Ruby is open-source, yes; check out appendix A for the easiest ways to install it depending on your platform.

Quite frankly, there are only two reasons for Europe-based customers to buy the paper book at Prag’s online shop:

• They want the PDF too, at combo rate (way to go!)
• They want me to get way more royalties on the sale (cough!)

Otherwise, indeed, they may find a better financial deal-for their part-on their closest Amazon site or something equivalent, or just their local bookstore’s IT section.

Hey Christophe,

I live in Ghent (about 40 km west of Brussels)
Where do you live exactly?

It’s good that you get the royalties you deserve, i’m really looking forward to the book, checking my mail
frantically every evening when i get home from work. As of yet, my mailbox is empty :)

Any other projects involving JS you’re working on?

Cheers,

Nikolaas

Hey,

Is Ghent the same as Gent? If so, I was there for a weekend with my beloved and we had the best time, we’ll probably get there again (pretty quick a trip thanks to Thalys). Lovely town, felt like Brugge with less tourists (which was awesome).

Hey Christophe,

Yes Ghent is the same as Gent. Glad you liked it! Should you be in need of some good resto’s, hotels, shops, cafés etc… drop me a line, i’ll be more than glad to help.
Can you answer my previous questions, if you don’t mind? :)

PS.: received your book today! Happy times!!!

Previous question… Ah, where I live? In Paris, France.

Man, this thread looks like IRC now.