beTech :: Evolve Already

This Wednesday, February 20th, Eric Pugh will present on OpenID (using RoR specifically), a decentralized single-sign-on system now used by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and the rest of the world. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID for all the juicy tidbits/history/etc.

Fascinated by the “craft” of software development, Eric Pugh is the owner of OpenSource Connections, a member of the Apache Software Foundation, and a committer on many projects including DBUnit, Maven, and Jakarta Commons.

When/Where:
* Wednesday, February 20th
* 2:00pm-3:30pm
* electronic classroom in the Science and Engineering
Library, Clark Hall. (http://www.virginia.edu/webmap/ACentralGrounds.html)

Also, Eric would like to get the beTech community involved with the planning and organization of the next beCamp and bring us up to speed with the progress that has been made on beCamp Squared…, beCamp Redux…, beCamp Part Deux…

Hope to see you there!
–Doug

NOTE: For Post Meeting Notes, Read The Follow-up Meeting Post and Any Comments to This Post

To celebrate today’s release of Ruby on Rails 1.0, here’s a good Rails introduction from OnLAMP and a selection of the Top 12 Ruby on Rails Tutorials from Digital Media Minute. Of course, be sure to check out the revamped Ruby on Rails site—it’s looking better than ever.

Hot on the heels of the year-old Ruby on Rails framework is a Python project called Django. But is Django just Python on Rails? Sam Newman has an excellent comparison of Django and Rails.

…the two frameworks were developed as a result of two very different applications - and most of the differences between the two are a result of this. If you are developing a simple (in a domain model sense) application where you want to use Ajax to deliver a great UI, Rails is probably for you. If however you want to develop an entire site with different types of applications within it - then Django?s plugable applications and general approach might be what you?re after…

Our inaugural beTech presentation is from 2:00-3:30 this afternoon in Newcomb Hall room 389. Witness Jamie Orchard-Hays demonstrate, from start-to-finish, the creation of a Web application with Ruby on Railsâ??CRUD and all! If you’ve ever created a dynamic site with a database and ASP, PHP, or ColdFusion you’ll be amazed at how much RoR cuts your development time.

So come on out, bring a colleague, and enjoy the show (no RSVPs required at this time)!

To provide a bit more background prior to tomorrow’s beTech presentation, Ruby on Rails Live!, here are a couple of articles to put the Ruby programming language into context:

• Ruby on Rails and J2EE: Is there room for both?
• Could Rails Have Been Built without Ruby?
• Computer Languages in History

Special guest speaker Jamie Orchard-Hays will present Ruby on Rails Live! tomorrow (Wednesday, July 20) at 2:00PM. Please RSVP Anna Tubbs to give us an idea of the headcount.