5 ms·

Merb 1.0 released

35 points by nickb 18y ago

markbao 18y ago
Any former Ruby on Rails developers want to share their experience switching to Merb?
- Locke 18y ago
  I made one small demo app in Merb about a month ago -- so, slightly pre-1.0. Overall, it was a good experience and I intend to continue exploring Merb. A few points: * Not as much documentation... sometimes it takes a while to find the Merb equivalent of some Railsism. The interfaces for Merb are very similar to Rails, though, so usually just trying the equivalent is enough. The differences I encountered were usually improvements over the Rails approach, IMHO. * Smaller community. So, fewer plugins, fewer examples, fewer HOWTOs, etc. Hopefully this will change. But if you're uncomfortable developing something without a ton of resources to leverage... * More flexible. I used Datamapper instead of ActiveRecord, and was very happy to have a choice. I was also very happy with Datamapper itself. I'm not sure Datamapper is mature enough, yet, for large scale projects, but the future is bright. Overall, I think Merb benefits strongly from the "hindsight is 20/20" adage. It takes the best of Rails and rethinks its shortcomings. Where Rails was more revolutionarly, Merb is evolutionary. I think the improvements are worth the trouble of learning another web framework. I intend to use Merb for any new projects I start. My demo app is http://ifrotz.org http://ifrotz.org -- not that it's at all enlightening in a Merb vs Rails debate.
  - davidw 18y ago
    Thanks for the answer, but you only cite one advantage, that of flexibility. Surely there must be others?
    - Locke 18y ago
      In short, yes there are other advantages. If you just want a list, the release announcement is full of goodies. I was really just listing the things I noticed when working on one small app. As to features I haven't used, yet... I'm probably most excited about Merb's slices. Slices are potentially a huge win for code organization and re-use across webapps.
kuniklo 18y ago
I don't get it. One of the best things about Rails is that I don't have to pick and choose my components. I use what everybody else is using and I know that means it's likely to work and be reasonably well documented. Any small gains I might achieve by swapping out one layer of Rails are going to be more than offset by the extra complexity of my unique Merb environment. DHH's arguments about "opinionated" software seem to have been lost on the Merb crowd.
- Locke 18y ago
  This is great if you happen to love every design decision the Rails crew has made for you. If not... I don't think Merb will replace Rails. I think, ultimately, the two appeal to different crowds. Too some extent, I hope people who are happy with Rails stay with Rails. Merb feels like it's more aligned with the Ruby community than the Rails community. If that makes any sense.
  - kuniklo 18y ago
    You're never going to love every decision made by the designers of any platform. The thing is, you're likely to make just as many missteps on your own. Every once in a while it's worth it to start with a clean slate but I don't think Rails is even close to that point yet.
- gommm 18y ago
  Actually, merb manages to still keep it rather simple even with the added choice... The different parts integrate well and you can still use the default merb stack if you want security... I found rails to be really great for developing small applications but I find that any non trivial rails application start to have quite a few hack to get rails to play the way I want
  - kuniklo 18y ago
    I'd be interested to hear you elaborate on this a bit. I've build quite a few Rails apps so far and haven't found that to be the case myself.
jamongkad 18y ago
A little off-topic but whatever happened to Ramaze? It seemed to have so much potential....

Merb 1.0 released

35 points by nickb 18y ago

markbao 18y ago

Any former Ruby on Rails developers want to share their experience switching to Merb?

Locke 18y ago
I made one small demo app in Merb about a month ago -- so, slightly pre-1.0. Overall, it was a good experience and I intend to continue exploring Merb. A few points: * Not as much documentation... sometimes it takes a while to find the Merb equivalent of some Railsism. The interfaces for Merb are very similar to Rails, though, so usually just trying the equivalent is enough. The differences I encountered were usually improvements over the Rails approach, IMHO. * Smaller community. So, fewer plugins, fewer examples, fewer HOWTOs, etc. Hopefully this will change. But if you're uncomfortable developing something without a ton of resources to leverage... * More flexible. I used Datamapper instead of ActiveRecord, and was very happy to have a choice. I was also very happy with Datamapper itself. I'm not sure Datamapper is mature enough, yet, for large scale projects, but the future is bright. Overall, I think Merb benefits strongly from the "hindsight is 20/20" adage. It takes the best of Rails and rethinks its shortcomings. Where Rails was more revolutionarly, Merb is evolutionary. I think the improvements are worth the trouble of learning another web framework. I intend to use Merb for any new projects I start. My demo app is http://ifrotz.org http://ifrotz.org -- not that it's at all enlightening in a Merb vs Rails debate.
- davidw 18y ago
  Thanks for the answer, but you only cite one advantage, that of flexibility. Surely there must be others?
  - Locke 18y ago
    In short, yes there are other advantages. If you just want a list, the release announcement is full of goodies. I was really just listing the things I noticed when working on one small app. As to features I haven't used, yet... I'm probably most excited about Merb's slices. Slices are potentially a huge win for code organization and re-use across webapps.

kuniklo 18y ago

I don't get it. One of the best things about Rails is that I don't have to pick and choose my components. I use what everybody else is using and I know that means it's likely to work and be reasonably well documented. Any small gains I might achieve by swapping out one layer of Rails are going to be more than offset by the extra complexity of my unique Merb environment. DHH's arguments about "opinionated" software seem to have been lost on the Merb crowd.

Locke 18y ago
This is great if you happen to love every design decision the Rails crew has made for you. If not... I don't think Merb will replace Rails. I think, ultimately, the two appeal to different crowds. Too some extent, I hope people who are happy with Rails stay with Rails. Merb feels like it's more aligned with the Ruby community than the Rails community. If that makes any sense.
- kuniklo 18y ago
  You're never going to love every decision made by the designers of any platform. The thing is, you're likely to make just as many missteps on your own. Every once in a while it's worth it to start with a clean slate but I don't think Rails is even close to that point yet.
gommm 18y ago
Actually, merb manages to still keep it rather simple even with the added choice... The different parts integrate well and you can still use the default merb stack if you want security... I found rails to be really great for developing small applications but I find that any non trivial rails application start to have quite a few hack to get rails to play the way I want
- kuniklo 18y ago
  I'd be interested to hear you elaborate on this a bit. I've build quite a few Rails apps so far and haven't found that to be the case myself.

jamongkad 18y ago

A little off-topic but whatever happened to Ramaze? It seemed to have so much potential....