Ruby needs no special introduction in the world of object oriented programming. With the slow decline of Java over the years, Ruby has caught the eyes with its  dynamic and reflective programming paradigms.

Ruby on Rails is an extension based on Ruby itself. It is an open source web application framework based on Ruby programming language which is often utilized by web developers for its suitability.

Grails, previously known as Groovy on Rails is an open source web application framework which leverages the Groovy programming language (based on the Java platform).

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vi / vim as well as nano are the most popular editors on Unix / Linux / Solaris and for hardcode Mac OSX users too. For developing / debugging we need line numbers. A way to get them to display line numbers doesn't jump out easily from their big documentation, so here are my simple tips on how you can display line numbers in vi / vim and nano editors. Full article (148 words) »

I tried delving into Ruby couple of times in the past. Every time I had this weird feeling of what am I doing here when I am already very well conversant with a simpler language - Java, which gives me everything I need. Ruby just felt very syntax rich, may ways and interesting tricks to do stuff and so on.While these may be appealing to a script-kiddie, nice syntactical sugars do not help much in the long run or help you create robust code (unless you love flying whales and a service which fails every other day).

I am not afraid of developing CRUD interfaces nor do I find it time consuming. What value can I get from RoR? Every time I delve into Ruby & RoR, I come back feeling unsatisfied. What am I missing here?

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The tutorials are an intensive one-day overview of the fundamental concepts of the Ruby on Rails Web programming framework, presented by the UC Berkeley RAD Lab. The tutorials consists of six sections of approximately one hour each. Full article (216 words) »

A short survey on your programming language preferences, shouldn't take more than 1 minute of your time. Please participate and let others know too.

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A nice video on Java showing the ubiquitousness of Java. Now read on to deflate your ego before it bursts.

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Recently Andrea Tringo posted in Sun Alumni mailing list asking questions in every executive's mind who wants to adopt agile development methodology (like XP) but do not know how to proceed safely.

Andrea asked:

I know a lot of tech companies are enthusiastically adopting Agile, as many of us embrace(d) Six Sigma, among other practices. Other than regular stand-up meetings, I haven't been in group that works this way. I am interested in your opinions as (developers, managers, or other professionals) about:

1. Any forms of Agile (Scrum, Crystal, etc.) you are or were practicing and how you feel it makes the working environment, positive and/or negative. For example, have you experienced a transition to Agile, say, after an acquisition or change in management? Do team members have different responses to the increased face-to-face interaction?

2. What resources for learning basic concepts of Agile would you suggest for an individual? I am not currently working in a group that's pursuing this; I would like to find some online courses on my own, without involving an employer.

Let's look at the experiences and insights from agile practitioners below:
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All these three languages are generating a lot of buzz in the blogosphere. It appears Java is currently having an upswing while Ruby is having a downward trend. I hope it is just normal fluctuations for Ruby and not the expected shit-hits-the-fan reaction when Ruby starts getting adopted in the enterprise ( sorry couldn't resist ). If blogsphere is any indication PHP is still a rising star and getting lots of traction in the industry.

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Two good articles on coding standards and traits of good software developer which I think you will enjoy:
1. Top 10 Reasons Not To Use Coding Conventions / Standards
2. 5 Habits Of Best Software Developers

This is a rejoinder to Frank's article on the same topic. He discusses 13 scenarios. I would like to point to one simple way to spot a bad architect and also how you can spot a good architect.

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