In this case, it's why I want a Ruby version of Drupal. There are some good reasons that apply in the general case...

I put several pieces of information together and experimented to fill in the missing bits. When I was done, I had a program that implemented Java interfaces and accessed external classes, as well as core classes.

A collection of interesting tidbits from the show.

When the information you need already exists, but it's scattered here and there around the web, you have an option. You can create a small, super-lightweight web app to put it together--a mashup. It's not quite as easy as falling off a log, but it's gotten to the point that end users can create their own applications.

Today, JavaOne 2007 showcased a complete open source technology stack that lets you develop and deploy web applications quickly and easily, including JRuby, Rails, NetBeans, and Glassfish.

Creating client-side Java applications just got a whole lot easier.

Weblogs let individuals publish their thoughts. Wiki pages let people edit each others writing. But there is as yet nothing that really helps to carry on a far-reaching design discussion in cyberspace. We need such a tool for collaborative design and decision making.

My head was stuffed with things Ruby, and it exploded... All over the web. Bits everywhere. I just couldn't stop writing until I got it all out of my system.

Refactoring is a wonderful thing. It lets elegance evolve, instead of making you live with faulty initial design decisions for the life of the project. Unit testing makes it possible to refactor safely, for sure. That's an important reason for unit tests. But the need for unit tests goes well beyond that...

Weblogs are terrific for fast authoring. But aggregators are missing some very important features to make them useful--and the RSS standard needs to support those features.

In his recent post, Bill Venners included a terrific quote from Ken Arnold. It crystallized my thinking on subjects as diverse as API design, interface design, and documentation (which many developers don't realize, is almost purely a design activity).

Reviews of books on Ruby that I've either read or wish I could find.

Ruby and Groovy are contrasted. Despite high hopes and best wishes for the Groovy project, in this author's eyes Ruby turns out to be the winner for most scripting tasks.

When I found Martin Fowler's article on the benefits of Rake (the Ruby version of Make), I immediately became committed to learning Ruby. I needed to write a mailing list program, too. Ruby turns out to be ideal for both.

As far as I can tell, there isn't a decent mailing list program to be found anywhere on the planet. I don't want a lot a really, just a basic tool to keep a list of addresses and post a message once in a while. You'd think I could find one...