This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Ruby Buzz
by Adam Green.
Original Post: Changing the focus of this blog
Feed Title: ruby.darwinianweb.com
Feed URL: http://www.nemesis-one.com/rss.xml
Feed Description: Adam Green's Ruby development site
I've decided to change this blog from focusing purely on Ruby programming to Web programming in general. This accompanies an effort on my part to experiment with some of the other common languages, such as Perl, Python and PHP. I'm not giving up on Ruby, but I am running into some of its limitations. I still think Ruby has the cleanest syntax of any programming language I've learned in the last 15 years or so, but I am finding weaknesses in the available libraries and documentation.
It looks like most of my coding over the next few years will be done with varieties of XML, including RSS, OPML and the results of API calls. I've looked at most of the XML tools available for Ruby, and have done a fair amount of work with REXML, and none of them have really met my needs. I like REXML's style of parsing XML, but I've consistently found it to be impossible for me to figure out how to do the things I need from the available documentation. I'm sure this is something unique to me, since other Ruby programmers have assured me they don't have these problems. It may have something to do with my age, but a long list of method names with virtually no explanation of common techniques using these methods just isn't enough. I tried contacting the author of REXML for several weeks, and when I finally did get through, his explanations of how to perform the tasks I had questions on proved to me that I would never have reached the answers from the available docs. I know there are great forums and Ruby programmers have been among the most helpful I've ever dealt with, but I like to learn how to code by reading about it.
So I plan on experimenting with other languages and recreating the work I've done with RSS in creating my RubyRiver aggregator and go further in the area of OPML and APIs. This site will serve as the publication vehicle for all of my source code in any language I try. I hope to move beyond the most familiar languages, and try some new ones. In the early Nineties Borland had a really interesting version of Prolog, and I have a book on Snobol that I've always wanted to read. XSLT is also another obvious language for me to try, but I guess I need to drive that with a procedural language like Python. There are probably a dozen or more free languages that I can try. I've always been a language junkie and this sounds like a lot of fun.
I won't give up on Ruby, but I will wait until I can either find a better way of dealing with XML or until REXML offers better documentation before doing anything more with it. The new domain name of code.darwinianweb.com will be the preferred way to access this site, but the earlier URL of ruby.darwinianweb.com will always remain in effect. I don't believe in ever breaking website links.
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