RubyonRails

Web Applications Programmer

Reply to: employment@ewg.org

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a national, non-partisan organization that uses the power of information to protect the environment and human health. EWG seeks a detail-oriented, creative, deadline-driven applications programmer to assist with development of ewg.org and our other web sites. This full-time position is based in our Washington, D.C. headquarters.

RESPONSIBILITIES

A lot of people just don't get it. So let us straighten out some confusing matters. So to avoid more FUD.

Don't confuse Ruby with Drupal. Don't think that Ruby on Rails and Drupal can be compared, they cannot. On top of that, they are complementary.

There is Ruby. Ruby is just another programming-language, like Perl, PHP, C or Java. Ruby is one of the newest languages (~14 years old), which -in practice- means it has learned a lot from bad parts of older languages.

There is Ruby on Rails (RoR). This is a system (program) written in the language Ruby. Just like Drupal is written in PHP. But RoR is a framework, not a CMS; With RoR you will have to write your own CMS all by yourself. Drupal already IS a CMS. Ruby on Rails's power (and hype) lies in the fact that writing that complete CMS takes you only a few days, or even just hours. Drupal's power lies in the fact that you don't have to write anything at all.

I've been using Ruby on Rails for at least 18 months, and it is an amazing application framework. However, it's not suitable for all projects. For one thing, hosting is much more demanding and less mature. If you don't have at least $50/month for a VPS or equivalent you are not going to get the reliability you can get with PHP relatively cheaply.

The other thing is that Rails is geared primarily towards applications. In terms of arbitrary functionality, Rails is really the best thing going. It gives the web app developer tools to create raw web interfaces very very efficiently. Probably more efficiently than is even possible in PHP due to Ruby's dynamic language features like method_missing? and dynamic class modification.

I am currently involved in a new CMS on Rails, called Rail Frog. This CMS aims to become a so called "engine" for Ruby on Rails, meaning, that you use it as a start for your project.

This post is here, to introduce the conceptual engine, called brickslate, and to explain the reasoning behind it, by explaining the architecture of rail frog and its theme engines.

For Railfrog, we needed a theme system that is clean, well integrated, flexible and all that. Im developing this, a pdf is found on my site, and the project pages are in the Railfrog Wiki.