All blog posts from July 2009
Grails First Impressions – GORM vs. ActiveRecord
This blog entry is about my thoughts and observations while I'm starting to learn Grails. At the onset, the primary thing I've concerned myself with is the domain layer (what Ruby on Rails calls “models”). For the purposes of my impressions, I'm going to compare Grails' GORM with Ruby on Rails' Acti…
A Few Reasons Why I Dislike RESTful Services
It seems all the rage lately to offer services using the "RESTful" design. I've tried it, and don't like it. Here's my reasons:
- It's too linked to HTTP - while HTTP is the current accepted standard as transport layer, tying in your systems so intrinsically to it removes any possibility of using som…
Morons
Sooo, here's a fun post. I can't decide if this idiot is delusional or simply a moron on a scale that I never thought possible. Every single one of his argument are so ridiculous.
And really ... his assertion of "we won"??? Really? Have you ever actually looked at real language usage statistics, or …
Data is Sacrosanct
I've often voiced my distaste for how older versions of MySQL didn't support referential integrity and how many database frameworks fail to accommodate it in the database layer, either. I know that some try to handle it within the framework itself (such as Ruby on Rails' ActiveRecord) but they all m…
Understanding by Doing
Considering my fondness for language bashing (particularly, when it comes to such little programming gems as Perl, Python, Ruby, Objective-C, Modula-2, Ada, Haskel, CAML to name a few that I think are terrible) I decided that if I'm going to have an opinion of a language, I'd better be able to back …
If Microsoft Got In Trouble, So Should Apple
Before I begin this blog entry, let me say categorically that I have no love for Palm. They squandered their market lead in the PDA field, and wasted the talent they bought then they purchased Be.
I read this article today, and it brought me back to when companies started claiming that Microsoft use…
Productive vs. Effective
Many years ago, when I still lived in South Africa, I worked for a manager who once tried to explain to us programmer folk the difference between being productive and being effective. At the time I thought he was blowing wind out his rear, but after a few more years of maturing, and being exposed to…
Speed: Ruby vs. Groovy
I'd like to set the record straight on an issue I've seen mentioned on the Internet. I've seen the Ruby fan-boys parading about (again) claiming that Ruby is faster than Groovy, and therefore RoR is better than Grails.
I've written a simple suite of benchmarks pitting many languages against each oth…
Why Apple Will Never Drop Java
I've been reading a fair amount of the purported demise of Java on Mac OS X given Mr. Jobs' stance on it with regards to the iPhone, and Apple dropping the Cocoa-Java binding.
Well, yes, Steve Jobs might very well be such a gargantuan moron as to drop Java support - but then that would immediately e…
Ruby Enumerations
It's no secret that Ruby's lack of an enumeration type is a real pain in the ass. I needed better control over parameters than simply value-checking (so much for "less code", eh fan-boys?)
Using Ruby's peculiar OO model, I was able to create a class which acts similar to Java's enum type.
# # This i…
Writing an RSpec for XML-RPC
In conjunction with my previous post on writing an XML-RPC webservice under Ruby on Rails using Ruby's built-in XML-RPC library, I obviously had to be able to write some tests (in my case RSpecs) against my controllers. Having scoured forums and Google, the only samples given were for Action Web Ser…
Why "Mixins" are MORONIC
I am sick and bloody tired of Ruby fanboys throwing "mixins" as the be-all and end-all of productivity, and the single greatest weapon that Ruby has over Java.
Here's a thought - one of the bragging points of Ruby is that it's a "true OO" language compared to Java in that EEEEVERYTHING is an object …
Why I Admire PHP
I finally decided today that even if I may not like PHP, I certainly admire it. It's etched out a very good business for itself, and continues to flourish, despite calls of it's demise at the hands of Ruby (much like the calls of demise of Java).
One of the things I admire about it is that it doesn'…
XML-RPC under Ruby on Rails
On a current project, I needed to develop a series of web services for a custom single-signon (unified login) for a bunch of different websites to share. The project needed to be in Ruby on Rails, since that is what is available to the servers, and needed to use a protocol which PHP, Java and Ruby c…
Ruby Strongtyping
Just had to share this one - Ruby fan-boys brag about how "productive" dynamic typing is (completely ignoring the level of unpredictability it raises in your code's usage). Well, it seems I'm not the only one who saw this as a problem instead of benefit. Enter the Ruby Strongtyping package.
Maybe wi…
Why Does Everyone Think Java Is Dead?
One of my biggest pet peeves is when self-proclaimed geniuses (I'm looking at you Guido van Rossum and Yukihiro Matsumoto) bash Java for what they perceive as shortcomings (whilst boasting about how wonderful their own languages are). As if that wasn't bad enough, this invariably leads to claims of …
Visit my Friends and Family
If you've enjoyed my site, please take a moment to visit my friends and family, many of whom have some interesting insights, and entertaining thoughts and ideas.
- Crause Family - the family website
- Peter Crause - my father
- Justin Crause - my brother
- Cencina Photomagic - great photographer
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